Don't Let the Dayyys POLL By: Bush Singles

huh, "glycerine," "machinehead" or "swallowed"

what are those songs at the end even

interchangeable words

voted for "Swallowed." At least once a week I'll sing the dumb chorus. Nice chord change too.

for funny time and making of people mad, try singing the lyrics to the chorus of comedown over the chorus to everlong.

ALL TERRIBLE

one of: swallowed, glycerine, greedy fly, inflatable

i liked this song, 'alien', when i was 12. the end.

glycerine

way back when i heard it on the radio and thought it was quite moving. just listened again, still pretty good. should be about half as long though. swallowed is a close runner-up. sounds like a combination of the pixes and web in front by archers of loaf. and as much as i hate to admit it, i do like everything's zen. most of the others i don't know.

i need to be constantly reminded that this band:

1. is not from america
2. recorded their big album in 1994 and not after 1997
3. shares a bassist with transvision vamp

Really struggling with this myself. Lorax and fauxmarc got me to give "Comedown" another chance back on the other thread, but still eh. These guys get sludgy fast as the BPM drops, so I sort of want to vote for "Machinehead" just for having a little more energy than the others. That being said, I'm weirdly fond of "Letting the Cables Sleep," and somehow the sprawling angst of "Cold Contagious" and "Greedy Fly" works for me. Hrmmmm.

what are those songs at the end even

feel like any alt-rock band that survived past 1998 has a big pile of songs at the bottom of their singles poll like this - it would be like 2/3 of the poll for everclear and foo fighters

disagree re: foo fighters there

also was mostly making fun of gavin rossdale's song titles

"Headful of Ghosts" is incredible

j/k I only remember like 2-3 of these songs

u sonofabitch i am now listening to that song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL9sfKRYbmw

it's ok but it's no Mouth

for funny time and making of people mad, try singing the lyrics to the chorus of comedown over the chorus to everlong.

― Philip Nunez, Monday, July 23, 2012 5:43 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

one time when the foo fighters were playing their cover of "down in the park" dave grohl started mockingly singing "comedown" over it

anyway "Everything Zen" was aight when it first dropped and everything since that was insufferable, so that

re: Foo, you're right, they did have like a billion modern rock hits in those LimbsKing polls - - I just never heard any of them because I sort of stopped listening to rock radio right after There Is Nothing Left To Lose came out, so they're sort of frozen in time for me.

Glycerine.

I know I've mentioned it before but this particular performance at MTV spring break was, uh, very formative in my development as a young woman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfatUZ5RDG0

And I'll still turn that shit up if it comes on the radio in the car. I have no idea what any of it means but it's powerful. lol.

don't let the days go by....lysterine

Just reminded me i always think of it when buying Mister Clean.

Am I finally at that age where I understand why people around 10 years older than me cringe when, I dunno, A Flock of Seagulls is mentioned?

no, because A Flock of Seagulls is awesome

I mean, *I* think they are... And I suppose I really always thought Bush were just pseudy turd merchants.

^ this! i'm not the biggest flock of seagulls fan in the world, but "space age love song" and "wishing" forever. afaict, bush don't have anything near that level in their catalog.

The Alarm or The Call or something like that might be more analogous

1st 2 seagulls albums are great

My love of "Wishing" and "The More You Live, The More You Love" has something to do with my affinity for their kind of aural landscape than Bush's, it's true.

these are all awful awful songs but 'glycerine' nearly manages a weiland like charm so i voted that

Huh - honestly would've thought you'd go for one of the Albini ones! "Weiland like charm" aside...

This thread has made me weirdly nostalgic for this band.

Cracking up at "Weiland like charm"!

Anyway, at the time, "Swallowed" was my favorite. Still kinda like "Everything Zen" and "Little Things". The rest of the songs that I recognize I pretty much can't stand, but there was a live 120 Minutes version of "Comedown" that I was all about back in the day.

Also, is it just my local radio stations, or did both "Machinehead" and "Greedy Fly" become modern rock playlist staples YEARS after they were released, after being relatively ignored when they were new?

chemicals vs cables imo

i enjoy glycerine when i hear it but it just makes me want to hear this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS8HDCXirrg

was it blur or bush who were listening to nothing but fugazi in order to prep for their followup album?

Also, is it just my local radio stations, or did both "Machinehead" and "Greedy Fly" become modern rock playlist staples YEARS after they were released, after being relatively ignored when they were new?

― cwkiii, Tuesday, July 24, 2012 8:49 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

i think it's just you because ime "Machinehead" was inescapable right away and "Greedy Fly" disappeared after it ceased to be new

Yeah, "Machinehead" was like Top 10 for the year '96 airplay-wise.

i guess people felt it was better than the rest

Yeah some time around 5 years ago they started playing "Greedy Fly" on a regular basis around here...weird...

it's between comedown and swallowed on memory but tempted to revisit the whole kaboodle

after that 90's poll i've been playing sixteen stone again

can't stand glycerine

little things was my favorite back then but now i can't really decide between that and comedown and machinehead, maybe even everything zen. i was going to drop zen and little things for the excessive screamy parts at the end but then realized comedown has it too, and maybe machinehead

I actually still like Comedown/Glycerine/Machinehead alright, but there's no way these guys ever had a song better than Mouth

"Greedy Fly" -- extra points for that insanely over-the-top video where Gavin is birthed from a monster egg.

Yeah, "Machinehead" was like Top 10 for the year '96 airplay-wise.

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess people felt it was better than the rest

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:11 PM Bookmark

ha!

The "Mouth" remix being a hit was always hilarious to me because my high school buddy and I had a running thing going about how the original was the worst song on Razorblade Suitcase and one of the worst songs ever made. I'm not sure how we determined this - it was just one of those songs you love to heap with abuse, do mocking impressions of, etc. It is pretty dreary and shapeless. So then when a few months later or whenever they did the remix album it was a "hit" it was like, god, the whole world really is surreal and absurd amirite?

I am touched that anybody else likes "Letting the Cables Sleep." That is straight up guilty pleasure for me and I rarely use that term.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR2W50_V2DA

original "Mouth" - it really does suck, first two minutes sound like he's making the song up as he goes along.

you forget we are people who know who steve albini is

america may not care, but future rock critics and nerds took note

48 votes for a Bush poll? Huh

"that indie guy in chem class says the new one sounds like 'surfer' music but I don't hear it"

but even kids like me at the time, as well as adult critics, saw the Albini hiring as a pretty transparent grab for cred and/or even more Nirvana comparisons! it's not like that album won skeptics over to the extent of The Bends or even Purple. (xpost)

glycerine is so bad

the string bit at the end is pretty cool tho

yeah, could be salvaged as a loop for some "Bittersweet Symphony" type thing, but song itself is the biggest turd.

i cannot believe this many people voted in this poll. these songs are terrible.

but even kids like me at the time, as well as adult critics, saw the Albini hiring as a pretty transparent grab for cred and/or even more Nirvana comparisons! it's not like that album won skeptics over to the extent of The Bends or even Purple.

"swallowed" did, though. in a sense it's their "lakini's juice"

Yeah, "Machinehead" was like Top 10 for the year '96 airplay-wise.

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:04 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess people felt it was better than the rest

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:11 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this made me laugh, then mad at myself for remembering lyrics to "machinehead"

lol

honestly i had no real sense anyone especially liked "Swallowed" for 16 years before this poll

jesus christ, sixteen years

jesus christ, sixteen stone

jesus christ.

re "Swallowed" at the time I thought, "Oh, well, Albini did improve them" but then a girl who liked Mazzy Star brought Razorblade Suitcase into the newsroom and we all cleared our throats and played The Saint soundtrack for the nth time.

"swallowed" did, though. in a sense it's their "lakini's juice"

since when did lakinis juice win people over

"Lakini's Juice" C or D?

"their finest track" - miccio
"my favorite Live single" - Herbert Herbert
"the only Live song that doesn't make me vomit and/or laugh" - VegemiteGrrl

tbf me and herb are friends from high school but both "lakini" and "swallowed" are TA-DAAAAA first singles from follow-ups that boldly announced the band's desire to take corporate rock in bold directions so no shock 10+ ilxors dig 'em in polls

did i mention them shits were bold cuz brother they were bold

I think we've touched on this before as a general pattern of the way alt-rock records got marketed (commercially disappointing major label rock/alternative albums of 1996 , Stylus's Top Ten Momentum Killing Follow-Up Singles to Breakthrough Post-Grunge Albums) - actually, it was you and billstevejim that really made me notice this pattern of the grating, noisy, BOLD first single with the intended mainstream rock/pop hit waiting in the wings. In hindsight a really weird strategy, very specific to that moment in time.

One stone unturned: who started that trend? Within alt-rock it probably traces really easily to Nevermind but does it have deeper roots?

earlier example: "welcome to the jungle" followed by "sweet child o' mine"

it was you and billstevejim that really made me notice this pattern of the grating, noisy, BOLD first single with the intended mainstream rock/pop hit waiting in the wings.

U2 POP poll

was JUST thinking of appetite, couldn't remember offhand what the sequence was there! nice.

also, that's funny b/c as with Lakini's Juice, Discotheque is my favorite single from that record by a mile.

Maybe Razorblade Suitcase just screwed up by not actually having the crossover pop smash waiting up its sleeve. I think I voted for "Greedy Fly" in the poll, ultimately.

i think there's a difference (but still a notable relationship) between "hard rock band does aggressive 'this is us' first single and then power ballad second single" and "alt-rock band does weird abrasive first single and then 'this is us' accessible second single"

basically it's been conventional wisdom ever since the industry started thinking about singles campaigns that the best place to put your surefire hit is second

Dunno if it's exactly what you're going for but part of it has to be about symbolism and what these gestures are supposed to convey - - presumably the hard rock band's first single conveys that they are still HARD and tough and that their male fans should still buy the record even though the last one had that power ballad on it which was like, for girls or whatever, nevermind the upcoming power ballad.

The alt band's abrasive single is also about authenticity but it's less gendered and more tribal - more about making the audience feel like they and the band are still inside the avant garde club of the 'underground,' where dissonant scary stuff is shot in high-contrast, smeary, herky-jerky video, despite the major label marketing campaign and gigantic crossover hit waiting around the corner.

yeah i think the "abrasive" vs "hard rock" thing is just a matter of degrees - I saw live on the secret sodomy tour and "turn my head" was definitely a sop to the market rather than a "this is us" song.

so, because US spotify is missing like half of Pop, i am now listening to secret samadhi while sorting my laundry

it's a crazy, crazy, mixed-up music streaming service

is anyone really missing half of Pop?

be sure to queue Speed of Sound and Dirty Work.

oh, dude, i am one of ilx's resident macca fans, i OWN speed of sound

sadly wings is not on spotify so i'll just have to live my life assuming they were consistently the worst

if you had spotify you would find that they were in fact consistently the BEST

er, if they were on spotify. y'know.

Wings was made for excerpting

made it three songs into secret samadhi, switching to razorblade suitcase

when I saw i@n c0h3n a few weeks ago I specifically asked him about "Lakini's Juice" and he still loves the thing

The alt band's abrasive single is also about authenticity but it's less gendered and more tribal - more about making the audience feel like they and the band are still inside the avant garde club of the 'underground,' where dissonant scary stuff is shot in high-contrast, smeary, herky-jerky video, despite the major label marketing campaign and gigantic crossover hit waiting around the corner.

― Doctor Casino, Monday, August 13, 2012

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Y1YFH9A3Bw

Six tracks in and I feel I can confidently say that Razorblade Suitcase is a better album than Secret Samadhi although jeez, it would not kill these guys to smile once in a while. Bush have more energy but everything is so joyless.

Bush had a good sound and good tunes but Gavin is just an ugh of a vocalist

Best faux-Bush album: Rival Schools, United By Fate

Glycerine is so terrible and just encouraged more terrible alt rockers to release middling songs with strings to make them more 'poignant'

Bush were fucking terrible from start to finish. Faux Cobain crap that the Americans seemed to lap up whereas they meant absolutely jack here outside of their one hit.

now I'm reconsidering my opinion

They had one or two good songs. Gavin was hot.

Faux Cobain crap that the Americans seemed to lap up whereas they meant absolutely jack here outside of their one hit.

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, August 25, 2018

Do we really want to get into a pissing match over which anglophone nation is goofier for lapping up whichever crap band?

I mean...

https://i.imgur.com/KSkWD7s.png