One-trick ponies.

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Who do you think are the greatest one-trick ponies of popular music? AC/DC is an obvious answer, what others?

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:11 (twenty-two years ago)

The Strokes.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Chuck Berry (fucking marvellous trick, mind you).

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Neu!

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Again, fucking good trick.

Oasis. Only they forgot it.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Oasis a good choice!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Scooter

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:30 (twenty-two years ago)

morrissey perhaps - although again it is a fucking good trick, and no one can ever do it quite like him

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Siegbran, I originally thought you said "Spooner" and laughed harder than I've laughed in days.

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Krisiun - first track: "Fuck he sure can drum fast! Are you sure that's not a drum machine? You're kidding?!". second track: "Ummm, it's not a drum machine right? Right. Hmmm.". third track: "Look man that's a drum machine! It never changes tempo or anything!"

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 08:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereolab - again, its a very good trick tho

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Neptunes possibly, although they have gradually evolved. A bit like stereolab, I guess, who have added stuff - mostly funkiness, I reckon

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Who is a one-trick pony (with a great trick) but tries to be a jack-of-all-trades and ends up fucking it up?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Stereolab - again, its a very good trick tho

Yes, but it's Neu's trick. Still, a very good trick, as you say, even if that one trick expands to two ponies.

― kate (kate), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Who is a one-trick pony (with a great trick) but tries to be a jack-of-all-trades and ends up fucking it up?
david bowie, lou reed...

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Billy and I always say that Miles Davis seems to have essentially played the same kind of open-ended, melancholic trumpet lines throughout his entire career, just over radically different styles and backings.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Low

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Mogwai. Possibly a two-trick pony if being generous. Firstly, the songs that build up slowly toward a great crescendo of noise and secondly, the songs that build up slowly toward a great crescendo of noise, but surprise, it doesn't happen.

High Llamas. Every song exactly the same speed, and oop, on cue, here comes that banjo.

― Kim Tortoise, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

What about the quiet ones that burst into a great crescendo of noise then back to the quiet bit and then a louder crescendo of noise?

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

We are being generous!!!!!! Three it is then.

― Kim Tortoise, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:28 (twenty-two years ago)

low have plenty of tricks

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:32 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm, I don't really agree to that, as he went from all those melodic, cozy solos, then in the 70s started sounding like a serious stoner.
He'd have his awesome band jamming like mad, then every fifth minute come in with a "THHHHHHHPPPPPPPPPPPBLATT!" that'd get run through a bunch of effects and echo back and forth for a while, then he'd return to smell his mirror.
Sadly, I love those solos as well.

As for the thread in general:
Devil Doll
Melt-Banana

― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:33 (twenty-two years ago)

i worship low, but they don't have too many "tricks" to be honest. the new grandaddy is a nice one-trick record.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:48 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah im a worshipper too. true they dont have a lot of tricks, but their scope is fairly wide these days, they certainly got more than one trick, and they're great tricks. i still gotta pick up that grandaddy record...

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 09:54 (twenty-two years ago)

T Rex, REM

― Jez (Jez), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

>Who do you think are the greatest one-trick ponies of popular music?

The Ramones

>Who is a one-trick pony (with a great trick) but tries to be a jack-of-all-trades and ends up fucking it up?

Kiss

― Chris Clark (Chris Clark), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a slight risk of Radiohead going down the one trick pony route:

play very soft, build to loud crescendo, play soft again - add whiney lyrics according to taste.

(This has been a devil's advocate production)

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:11 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh - and Polyphonic Spree

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Sugababes - great singles. shite albums. soundclashed great singles. shite albums.

― doom-e, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

mountain goats? *ducks* not that i dont like the trick though

― Bob Shaw (Bob Shaw), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd have to register an objection to the mention of Melt Banana. Their two most recent albums, Teeny Shiny and Cell-Scape, slow down the tempo and lengthen the song times on some songs and introduce more electronics and production tricks. I think they've gotten more melodic too. So there.

― NA. (Nick A.), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Cell-scape?
Damn, I have missed out on this.

Anyways, yeah, I know Melt-Banana aren't 100% one-trick, I mean, just from Speak Squeak to Charlie you hear a noticable difference.
But still, even in the Ramones you can hear differences here and there, heh.

I guess the most obvious answer would be any number of generic clonebands though. But let's ignore those, like we always do (yeah, right)

― Øystein Holm-Olsen (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Hank Williams - "Oh, woe is me" + pedal steel solo + fiddle solo

― Johnney B (Johnney B), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Das EFX

It was a diggity-shittity trickitty though...

― Jacob (Jacob), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 13:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Lightning Bolt...but that trick roolz

― ddb, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Godspeed You Black Emperor!

― Ben Boyer, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 15:14 (twenty-two years ago)

i don't think stereolab is a one trick pony... they've changed a lot over the years....

where's the dividing line between "one trick pony" and having an aesthetic and working within a certain distance of that aesthetic? if a band changed it up too much, they would be criticized for not having their own sound.

???
m.

― msp, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

High Llamas. Every song exactly the same speed, and oop, on cue, here comes that banjo.

I don't think so. A lot of their songs vary a lot, especially considering he also does re-mixes.

― David Allen, Wednesday, 25 June 2003 15:22 (twenty-two years ago)

"Who is a one-trick pony (with a great trick) but tries to be a jack-of-all-trades and ends up fucking it up?"

Ryan Adams. Great Trick:Retro retreads of 70s music. Jack-of-All-Trades Fuck Up-When he tries a "homage" to another artist BY COPYING EVER SINGLE THING, TIC To TRICK about said artist ("Answering Bell":Van Morrison::"Jesus (Don't Touch My Baby)":Leonard Cohen) and falling on his ass big time, every time.

― Charles McCain (Charles McCain), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 15:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Déjà woe is me, or wot?!
...I seem to recall a similarly themed thread, from awhile ago, whereon there also was reason to mention Bo Diddley!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Bo's trick's way cool too, 'fcourse

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 16:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Quasi -- catchy tune, depressing lyrics

― Aaron A., Wednesday, 25 June 2003 16:16 (twenty-two years ago)

One good trick, failed diversification: Photek

― Paul in Santa Cruz (Paul in Santa Cruz), Wednesday, 25 June 2003 16:29 (twenty-two years ago)

one trick pony - nick hornby. someone stop him from "writing" about music, please.

― mint condition, Thursday, 26 June 2003 03:04 (twenty-two years ago)

interpol. "edgy" meaningless lyrics + vaguely monotone delivery + hip late 70s/early 80s song to rip off. having said that i still like them.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 26 June 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

any band that doesnt break up after the first album= booored of music today

― kephm, Thursday, 26 June 2003 14:54 (twenty-two years ago)

the cramps. jesus and mary chain

― lolita corpus (lolitacorpus), Friday, 27 June 2003 10:35 (twenty-two years ago)

jesus and mary chain

We've done this to death. The JAMC are a THREE trick pony.

― kate (kate), Friday, 27 June 2003 10:37 (twenty-two years ago)

Frank Zappa, Mike Patton. If your trick is doing 'everything' then what do you do next?

― dave q, Friday, 27 June 2003 10:40 (twenty-two years ago)

mike patton is a good call but what about the guitarist from mike's old band? My top vote is fine young canabals "johnny"

― kelly denison-cole (dustjacket), Friday, 27 June 2003 18:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Eiffel 65

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Friday, 27 June 2003 18:34 (twenty-two years ago)

slowdive, Tatu (maybe we should give them some more time to prove themselves), the new pornographers (the catchiest trick in the land), minor threat, don caballero

― Felcher (Felcher), Friday, 27 June 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

51 answers and nobody's mentioned Cheap Trick?

― zaxxon25 (zaxxon25), Friday, 27 June 2003 19:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Exhibit 1: "The Flame" (a #1 ballad).
Exhibit A: "The Ballad of TV Violence" (Plastic Ono Foghat).

― Chris Clark (Chris Clark), Friday, 27 June 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

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