The most cursed bands

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Which was the most cursed, damned and unfortunate band of rock history? Was it Badfinger? Or the Beach Boys? Maybe Joy Division? Discuss!

― zeus, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Sadly, The Exploding Hearts

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Birdland, probably.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Is it possible that i saw the Exploding Hearts playing in New York, supporting Richard Lloyd, November 2001? The name rings a bell

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Def Lepard

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I thought of the Exploding Hearts as soon as I saw the thread title :(

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:37 (twenty-one years ago)

N.W.A

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Pardon my ignorance, but what happened to the Exploding Hearts?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:39 (twenty-one years ago)

... I was wondering that myself

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

3/4 of the band perished when their van overturned on the interstate. Not too long after they released a smoker of a debut album a couple years ago.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm beginning to think that this is the band I saw supporting Richard Lloyd - pre or post accident I don't know tho

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the record came out before the accident...

Great record.

― cdwill, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, the record had been out 5 or 6 months. That was just enough time for people to realize how good they were and to wait for the band to make a stop in their town.

And then they couldn't.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Johnny, can you recommend anything similar to Exploding Hearts? Off topic, I know, but...

― cdwill, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Heard any of the Flamin' Groovies late '70s albums? Shake Some Action, granted, is much more polished than the EH's, but it's fantastic. The Shoes albums on Elektra are good too.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 14:56 (twenty-one years ago)

The Pretenders?

― wtin, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Did somebody say cursed? My feet are killing me and I hate everyone in the entire world. You too can will a sex change!

― Grace McKenzie, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 16:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Lynyrd Skynyrd. Close thread.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Patto deserves a mention.

― Ken L (Ken L), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Battalion of Saints

― DJ Mencap0))), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 17:44 (twenty-one years ago)

otis redding?

― ihope (ihope), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Fuck the Beach Boys. Hm, guess it's the Beach Boys.

― brianiac (briania), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Poor bastards in Spinal Tap can never seem to keep a drummer...

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

The Beach Boys? What exactly are they cursed by? Other than reckless and self-indulgent stupidity?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, Carl was a good guy and look where it got him.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:05 (twenty-one years ago)

OK I'll give you that Carl Wilson dying was unfortunate - tho if he'd laid off the cigs he might still be here. Dennis = this is the guy who thought it'd be a good idea to let Charles Manson + The Family live at his house for months on end and then the drunken ass decides to have a swim to look for some knick-knack he'd tossed off his yacht = STUPID. Brian = addled his brain with maximum strength LSD, wow, well done Brian, genius.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, Pretenders and Lynyrd Skynyrd are on my list too.
The Beach Boys: I think stupidity could be a curse, too. And they were really unfortunate after 1965: all their albums were flops commercially, but a lot of them is thought to be a classic now.

― zeus, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:11 (twenty-one years ago)

If stupidity is a curse where does that leave Motley Crue?

― Dadaismus (Dada), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps stupidity was the only strength of Mötley Crüe, so was it a curse?

― zeus, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the Jody Grind

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Cursed, yes. But the Jody Grind birthed other great things.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Brian Jonestown Massacre cursed themselves pretty bad.
The Carpenters, Sublime, Spinal Tap...

― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

What about bands that have been cursed to mediocrity?

― ... And suddenly Ian Riese-Moraine is a naked man saying, 'Volvo! Volvo!' (Easte, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

By the way, Dadaismus, it may have been them. The accident occurred in 2003.

― ... And suddenly Ian Riese-Moraine is a naked man saying, 'Volvo! Volvo!' (Easte, Tuesday, 17 May 2005 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Swervedriver were a great band that had quite a hard time of it: Getting ditched by some labels; ignored by others; never adequately promoted; brilliant records which were either indefinitely shelved or never released at all (in the US at least), etc...

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

By the way, Dadaismus, it may have been them. The accident occurred in 2003.

I don't believe it was. I think the one show they played at the Harvard Lampoon basement in Cambridge (!) in May 2003 was the first (and, AFAIK, only) time they played outside of the Northwest, cf. www.pitchforkmedia.com/interviews/e/exploding-hearts-03/

When I was at the Luna Lounge a few months ago, I saw "Exploding Hearts" on the calendar, so it's possible that there's another NYC-local band with the same moniker.

― Daniel Cohen (dayan), Tuesday, 17 May 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

If poor post-success decision-making is a curse then the Bay City Rollers are up there.

Can we include Spinal Tap?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 00:15 (twenty-one years ago)

For Squirrels.

― rat, Wednesday, 18 May 2005 08:45 (twenty-one years ago)

But I guess Patto is not so cursed that they cannot appear on the MOJO Mod Club Party CD, at least in their earlier incarnation as Timebox.

― Ken L (Ken L), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 14:28 (twenty-one years ago)

the doors were cursed by fucking lucifer himself, guys. I think they win.

― theta z, Wednesday, 18 May 2005 16:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Skrewdriver were a great band that had quite a hard time of it: Getting ditched by some labels; ignored by others; never adequately promoted; brilliant records which were either indefinitely shelved or never released at all (in the US at least), etc...

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 16:41 (twenty-one years ago)

...and becoming neo-Nazis which, lets face it, is a complete bummer which should never happen to anyone, even morons in shite punk bands.

― Ben Dot (1977), Wednesday, 18 May 2005 16:44 (twenty-one years ago)

twenty-one years pass...

https://stereogum.com/2500222/thom-yorke-flea-cover-marvin-gaye-in-london/news

― . (jamiesummerz), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 14:55 (three weeks ago)

― fauxhemian (fauxhemian), Wednesday, May 18, 2005 12:41 PM (twenty-one years ago) bookmarkflaglink

The past is a foreign country

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:21 (three weeks ago)

two of the three members of the 2000s pop band LFO died of cancer, one in his thirties and the other in his forties.

― treeship., Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:24 (three weeks ago)

also, there was one other original member who left the band before they hit it big. *he* died too at age 47.

― treeship., Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:26 (three weeks ago)

Billy Shakespeare? Also dead.

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:27 (three weeks ago)

after reading their bio, I think the 13th Floor Elevators belong here, just a brutal story esp. Stacy Sutherland's trajectory, even more bleak than Roky.

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:28 (three weeks ago)

also the fact that their records have never been properly reissued in their original sound/form

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:29 (three weeks ago)

Hot 8 Brass Band had three members murdered, one by the police. Another member died young from disease, and another lost his legs (hit by a car while changing a tire on the side of the highway).

― Jordan s/t (Jordan), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:53 (three weeks ago)

The past is a foreign country

i think that was a joke post, copying a previous post about swervedriver.

― visiting, Wednesday, 27 May 2026 15:58 (three weeks ago)

cancelled anyway

― The Quaker Gurvitz Army (President Keyes), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 16:15 (three weeks ago)

Exploding Hearts story at the top of the thread was sadly repeated by Viola Beach, only this time all four members and their manager died.

― sonic catterdales (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 16:18 (three weeks ago)

of exploding hearts?

― The Immortal Bird of Avon (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 16:21 (three weeks ago)

Then there's these lads who used to rehearse in the studio I worked in: https://www.discogs.com/artist/3800678-Kicks-Joy-Darkness. Three out of four members died in a car crash in Italy in 2001, not a great thing to get the news about at the time. Main guy was related to Jane Birkin! I thought he was a bit posh.

― where's ken morse when you need him (Matt #2), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 16:39 (three weeks ago)

The Jody Grind as well, two members dead in a crash

― Serfin' USA (sleeve), Wednesday, 27 May 2026 16:44 (three weeks ago)

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