Necessary Evils

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You can't stand them, or at least think they're nothing special, but for some reason almost all the bands that followed in their aesthetic wake somehow manage to entertain the bejesus out of you. (Yes, this is the inverse of this thread.)

I have no idea who I'd pick for this. Yet.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 16 March 2003 00:27 (twenty-three years ago)

So, in other words, artists who YOUR FAVORITE artists cite as a primary influence, but whom you yourself cannot see the merit in?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 16 March 2003 00:31 (twenty-three years ago)

it depends on whether the question is really about 'seeing merit in' or 'enjoying' because I could probably name quite a few early early acid house tracks and electro/old skool rap tunes that I can't stand to listen to that nonetheless are for all other purposes excellent and have inspired some of the best music ever made - but I have quite a hard time thinking of any acts which I think suck dead eggs and yet have inspired good music.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 16 March 2003 00:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Alex: Yes. Exactly.
Millar: not necessarily "suck dead eggs", but are at best nothing particularly special yet have inspired stuff that really is. I'm not huge into Kiss, for instance, but apparently they were one of Van Halen's inspirations, and blah blah one of the best debuts ever blah blah "Jump" is the greatest arena rock song of the early-mid '80s etc.

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 16 March 2003 00:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The Beatles.

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 16 March 2003 01:29 (twenty-three years ago)

I was actually going to add, above, that the first person to say 'The Beatles' should get slapped. Oh well.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 16 March 2003 01:35 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean that's such a hipster bullshit pose to me. How can you say that what the Beatles did is meritless/shitty compared to so much of the knockoff crap that's happened since? The Beatles belong on this thread, sure, but I challenge you to seriously defend that position. For fuck's sake, can ILM let up for once?

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 16 March 2003 01:38 (twenty-three years ago)

did i say the beatles were crap? no. but they aren't anything special to me. this is not an ILM pose -- this is just me. nothing special does not equal meritless or shitty.

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 16 March 2003 01:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Aha, see my quandary above. Sorry then.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 16 March 2003 01:56 (twenty-three years ago)

i should also add, millar, that listening to bands that have been influenced in some way by the beatles has morced me to re-evaluate the beatles to a degree, though i still don't really like most of their stuff, but I now can appreciate some of their ideas, if not whole songs.

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I hate it when people try to act cool by not liking the Beatles. Come on, admit it...you like the Beatles, dude.

― William R Henderson (Cabin Essence), Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:05 (twenty-three years ago)

I hear ya, jack. CUHS in Beatles-Are-Just-Okay Scandal!

― Neudonym, Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:06 (twenty-three years ago)

ha ha ha ha -- if like=thoroughly enjoy, then, no. my cougar pride (or lack there of) cannot let me say anything less. besides, neudonym might beat me up if i changed my story. ;)

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:27 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmm. Plastikman & Jeff Mills' early output probably hits the nail on the head for me since they kind of brought minimalism in dance music/chain reaction + maurizio/even Speedy J's work kind of depends on them being there to lay the groundwork. Not just in the sense of the success they had and the 'influence' (more like 'permission') that their music carries with it, but the labels they founded and hauled to success with their prolific output are vastly important to the rest of the electronic music world as we know it. My older stuff was even compared to Jeff Mills in a review or two once! All that and I still think that PM/JM stuffs circa 90-97 is practically unlistenable outside of a club setting on drugs.

― Millar (Millar), Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:44 (twenty-three years ago)

i can't stand 90% of the early 90s euro acid/minimal-tech/minimal-house stuff that gave birth to the kompatk/micro/dub aesthetic halfway through the decade.

― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 16 March 2003 02:47 (twenty-three years ago)

Worship David Bowie cant fathom Anthony Newly (or whatever his name is).

― girl scout heroin (iamamonkey), Sunday, 16 March 2003 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Hate the Rolling Stones but I kind of have to admit that they must have influenced something I love.

― mei (mei), Sunday, 16 March 2003 14:32 (twenty-three years ago)

If someone, including seemingly every single guitar band in my collection, could explain to me the appeal of Nick bloody Drake, that'd be much appreciated.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 16 March 2003 14:51 (twenty-three years ago)

i don't think he has any appeal.

― JP Albin (John Paul Albin), Sunday, 16 March 2003 21:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Easy: Dylan. Any number of bands and acts I love clearly would have been different without him as some sort of touchstone, but beyond that...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 March 2003 21:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned I thought you luv "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" and had interesting things to say about Dylan generally!

― J0hn Darn1elle (J0hn Darn1elle), Sunday, 16 March 2003 21:57 (twenty-three years ago)

No, not me! I fear you've got me confused with someone else, sorry! Sure it's not Tom, maybe?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned, you've let me down. That's the first thing you've said here that I violently disagree with.

(taking bust of Ned down off pedestal)

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Bill Laswell - find him phenomenally irritating but plenty of other folks like him or say they do...

― Dave Stelfox, Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Pere Ubu

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:40 (twenty-three years ago)

Ned, you've let me down. That's the first thing you've said here that I violently disagree with.

I've said it for years! You idolized me too quickly, I fear. ;-) Dylan, in sum: bah. To hell with the 'legendary' bootlegs and all the hoohah over him and goddamn bastard Time Out of Mind and...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:56 (twenty-three years ago)

my dad's theory on why the beatles don't impress me a lot is that i've heard too MANY bands that were influenced by them before actually hearing them, so by the time i did hear them it was just like "yeah, that's all right" instead of "OH WOW!"

hey, it makes sense to me.

― Maria (Maria), Sunday, 16 March 2003 22:58 (twenty-three years ago)

pere ubu?!?!?!!!

― jess (dubplatestyle), Sunday, 16 March 2003 23:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Dylan and Air Supply respectively

― brg30 (brg30), Monday, 17 March 2003 02:32 (twenty-three years ago)

another misread ILM thread - as "Necessary Elvis". which, compared to the misread "Sting Cages" of some weeks ago, initially didn't quite attract my attention... then again, i'd say now that as far as my taste's concerned, Elvis could well be one of the Necessary Evils. for never i have loved EP's own music, i.e.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Monday, 17 March 2003 03:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I think the Beatles are okay. There are some songs I really like. I'm not actively a fan, though. I just really get turned off by the maddening din of Beatles worship.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 17 March 2003 03:18 (twenty-three years ago)

the doors, i suppose. because without them, we wouldn't have had Iggy and the Stooges, Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, or the Teardrop Explodes -- and a world without any of the foregoing would be a bad thing.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 17 March 2003 03:20 (twenty-three years ago)

re the Beatles: they were OK. but there were other bands from the Sixties who i like a lot more -- the Stones, the Kinks, the Velvet Underground, Zappa and the Mothers, Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, Soft Machine. and while the Beatles had some effect on all of them, i don't know if they wouldn't have existed had the Beatles not existed. who's to say that, i dunno, the Kinks or the Yardbirds wouldn't have been "the big British Invasion band" had the Beatles not existed?

and i don't for the life of me understand sixties music-worship, esp. since the seventies was much more interesting musically.

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 17 March 2003 03:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Cream. Completely don't fuckin' get it. I don't even think the 'playing' sounds all that good. I hate that boopity-doop all-over-the-fuckin'-shop bass playing (don't even mention his singing), and whatever RushVanHalenSabEvery70srawkgroupevah saw in Clapton, I'm sure happy they did if it inspired them, but it's a complete, total mystery to me.

― dave q, Monday, 17 March 2003 12:58 (twenty-three years ago)

The Beatles and Sonic Youth.
I don't hate either of them, I just think their desciples make more entertaining music than they do.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 17 March 2003 14:20 (twenty-three years ago)

millar, have you heard millsart ~ step to enchantment (axis)???

jess: >i can't stand 90% of the early 90s euro acid/minimal-tech/minimal-house stuff that gave birth to the kompatk/micro/dub aesthetic halfway through the decade.

explain please! what 90s euro?

― gareth (gareth), Monday, 17 March 2003 14:25 (twenty-three years ago)

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