The Darkness

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I mean if you find novelty music played dead straight so awful why aren't you starting threads slating the White Stripes?

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 09:44 (twenty years ago) link

But Tom, if we accept that Spinal Tap's music is rubbish and the only reason to keep going back to them is to watch them because they're funny; what would induce anyone to want to keep listening to similar music without those accompanying visuals?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 09:46 (twenty years ago) link

I didn't start this thread Tom.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 09:48 (twenty years ago) link

Spinal Tap's music is OK - it was the attitude of the people making it I'm talking about. But the reason it was only OK was that they obviously didn't think it could be good (except on a comic level).

From first principles then - what is bad about the kind of music The Darkness play?

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 09:50 (twenty years ago) link

Based on what I'd read, I too expected the Darkness to be a comedy rock band like Gay Dad or the Manic Street Preachers. Turns out that their lp is probably my favourite of the year - it makes me think of a rock 'Lexicon of Love', it's knowing about the clichés of genre but nevertheless it's in love with the hysterical melodrama of it all.

If 'I believe in a thing called love' doesn't go to #1 when it's re-released in a couple of weeks I will sulk.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 7 August 2003 09:58 (twenty years ago) link

First Tom, now JtN!

― David. (Cozen), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:01 (twenty years ago) link

I liked it alot!

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:02 (twenty years ago) link

Tom, I don't think there's anything intrinsically dreadful about the kind of music per se within it's historical context; it's just that it's very old and very tired by now and if someone genuinely wants to revive it they really need to try to add something a little bit new to the mix rather than just exaggerating it like a caricature (unless they're deliberately exploiting those caricature qualities for comedic effect).

Do you seriously think The Darkness stand / would have stood up to comparison with the original bands whose style they're aping or; given a historically level playing field; would they (as I believe) have ended up at best as 4th Division no-hopers playing for beer money on the local pub circuit?

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:02 (twenty years ago) link

True, they are not the Scorpions yet. What they need is a) minor-key vocal harmonies b) a gtr god. Since Uli Roth and Michael Schenker are probably unavailable, maybe I should join them.

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:06 (twenty years ago) link

Stewart I have no idea, because I didn't listen to the original bands. From what I do know then yes, I think they would have done alright, maybe there'd have been suspicion because they don't take the genre completely seriously (JtN's point is excellent I think), maybe they'd have been a bit too pop and crowd-pleasing. (I think the pop aspects (both 'hookiness' and 'attention to the total package') is a new thing they bring to their genre, btw.)

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:06 (twenty years ago) link

"comedy rock band like Gay Dad or the Manic Street Preachers"

hee hee!

― person#0 (person#0), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:10 (twenty years ago) link

Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

Unfortunately they keep dragging the rest of us with them!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:11 (twenty years ago) link

In my experience the 'original bands' for a sound are sometimes better, sometimes worse than the originals.

Those who know too much history are also doomed to repeat it at the rest of us.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:15 (twenty years ago) link

sometimes worse than the 'copyists' I was going to say.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:18 (twenty years ago) link

Going back to equations, if I extrapolate Dave Q's theorem I obtain:

Scorpions - minor-key vocal harmonies - a gtr god = Darkness.

Talk about damning with faint praise!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:18 (twenty years ago) link

"Those who know too much history are also doomed to repeat it at the rest of us."

Ignorance is bliss.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:19 (twenty years ago) link

What albums should a naive Darkness fan be listening to then, Grandad?

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:21 (twenty years ago) link

I think they're *very* New Wave OF British Heavy Metal circa early 80's (Tygers of Pan Tang et al). I kinda like them. The single's ace. I'm not in the least bit interested in whether they're *serious* or not.

JtN on the money.

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

I think it's your Great Grandad you really need to ask about that!

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:25 (twenty years ago) link

(Scorpions - gtr god) = Abba "Eagle"

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 10:26 (twenty years ago) link

In my experience the 'original bands' for a sound are sometimes better, sometimes worse than the originals.
Those who know too much history are also doomed to repeat it at the rest of us.

I never heard the original bands much either, and am certainly not familiar with them, but the whole poodle-haired cock-rock thing is tired anyway. I always took the 'joke' to be that The Darkness were so bad and so overblown with it that it was mildly funny, and that it was such a caricature that it had to be tongue-in-cheek. Even if it was tongue-in-cheek it would have palled after two songs anyway, because the thing with so-bad-it's-good is that it swiftly just becomes bad.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:08 (twenty years ago) link

Hair-metal bands as a rule did NOT have 'castrato' singers tho. Bret Michaels and Stephen Pearcy sounded a bit Cooper-like, Vince Neil and Jani Lane sounded like Brian Connolly.

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:23 (twenty years ago) link

Once the joke wears thin they will go away.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:24 (twenty years ago) link

It doesn't always work like that though. Wishful thinking.

― David. (Cozen), Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:26 (twenty years ago) link

It will with the Darkness. The songs are not there. Once the 'shock' of seeing them fades, they will as well, and the English Pop Culture machine will turn, and they will fall out of favour.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:29 (twenty years ago) link

Once the joke wears thin they will go away.

The joke has long worn thin. They are still here. Bah.

― The Lex (The Lex), Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:31 (twenty years ago) link

wait until all the bored critics' hard-ons fade for the chance to write about something 'different'. seriously, it's a shtick. this always fades in rock'n'roll. it burns bright and then it's gone. knebworth/mercury/number two ... no substance and all ugly style. it will be forgotten about next year. who remembers teh bluetones?

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:33 (twenty years ago) link

basically, they are going through the cycle of hype too quickly. bands that do, always fade.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:36 (twenty years ago) link

nothing ever 'fades' in the eternal present

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:38 (twenty years ago) link

i'm not talking 'eternal present' - do the equation:

strokes, garage rock (the hives), ac/dc inspired rock (datsuns etc) and then the darkness (comedy robbie williams metal, full on eighties rock), where does it go from there? the pop cycle. and with the present hype, after awhile, the darkness will die.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:42 (twenty years ago) link

I think what we need to be most fearful of Doom-e is that these bored rock critics don't go out and find a bunch of other vaguely similar bands and create a whole New New Wave Of Sad Second Rate Unoriginal Heavy Metal Copyists movement that they can build up and create a little feeding frenzy over for 6 months prior to spending the following 6 months destroying them again.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Thursday, 7 August 2003 11:43 (twenty years ago) link

Can't I just listen to Queen instead? In fact I think I will.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 August 2003 12:29 (twenty years ago) link

Turns out that their lp is probably my favourite of the year - it makes me think of a rock 'Lexicon of Love', it's knowing about the clichés of genre but nevertheless it's in love with the hysterical melodrama of it all.

This might be the most upsetting thing JtN has ever written *if* what I heard in Probe in Liverpool the other week was The Darkness.

I heard who someone who sounded like a not-quite-into-it Bruce Dickinson bawl their way through a set of pancake-thin pub-band demos. It was ugly and forgettable like a subsiding Maryport semi. If this isn't The Darkness, I apologise.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 7 August 2003 12:58 (twenty years ago) link

It was the Darkness.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:03 (twenty years ago) link

it's not very funny, I don't think they're crap, they were mildly amusing at glasto but can't imagine really loving them either way. novelty schmovelty, i laughed more at tiga's hot in herre, *hides*.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:10 (twenty years ago) link

''Old trad punker doesn't like the 'Ness - BIG THUMBS UP!''

just bcz a punk rock fan doesn't like 'em does not mean they are classic or dud. must try harder.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:19 (twenty years ago) link

''Old trad punker doesn't like the 'Ness - BIG THUMBS UP!''

And isnt Tom, like thirty two or something? Not really down with the kids unless you are a paed.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:23 (twenty years ago) link

If "the kids" like The Darkness then it's a bonus. But all the people I know who like them are in the glorious 25-34 demographic.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:30 (twenty years ago) link

Apart from Sarah and Lixi of course.

― Give me a D! Give me an ARKNESS! (RickyT), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:32 (twenty years ago) link

Yes very true - sorry Sarah and Lixi - it's your maturity that does it.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:33 (twenty years ago) link

not really down with the kids unless you are a paed

this line is funny on many levels. not perhaps the ones it was intended to be funny on.

ps: Tom, if that's the case then I am happy to have 5 years of listening to great music before it all goes pear.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:34 (twenty years ago) link

at which point I can write "dance is dead" articles.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:34 (twenty years ago) link

I think it's funny that Doomy doesn't like the Darkness because they are a nostalgic invention of the London media pack. And we thought Alan McGhee had a monopoly on that kind of thing!

(Actually one of the reasons I like the 'Ness is that they are the brilliant return of everything that was left out of the Creation "international guardians of rock and roll" canon.)

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:43 (twenty years ago) link

Now I remember why I used to hang around! hooray!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:47 (twenty years ago) link

It's funny you should say that JtN. According to my sources, Mr McGee has recently been sighted djing rather a lot of the heavier sort of rock .

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:51 (twenty years ago) link

(Actually one of the reasons I like the 'Ness is that they are the brilliant return of everything that was left out of the Creation "international guardians of rock and roll" canon.)

explain??

ps. yer sources must be really old - mcgee has been djing the crue and ratt since 2000.

― doom-e cool kid of death, Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:52 (twenty years ago) link

Well, he's still doing it then!

― RickyT (RickyT), Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:55 (twenty years ago) link

he loves the crue? what is yer point?

― doom-e, Thursday, 7 August 2003 13:57 (twenty years ago) link

Depends if he's a 'Shout' or 'Feelgood' man

― dave q, Thursday, 7 August 2003 14:02 (twenty years ago) link

Oh, never mind.

― Ricardo (RickyT), Thursday, 7 August 2003 14:03 (twenty years ago) link

Skipping 225 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

i kind of love how their new single rips off 'sex type thing'

― maura, Thursday, 2 April 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link

at least in terms of riff

― maura, Thursday, 2 April 2015 15:30 (nine years ago) link

eleven months pass...

OH THE STATE OF ELATION THAT THIS UNISON OF HEARTS HAS ACHIVEVED

― calstars, Friday, 25 March 2016 17:21 (eight years ago) link

two months pass...

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/cpsprodpb/80EE/production/_89960033_2b161983-d852-4afd-b3d0-ee112f38435b.jpg

― Mark G, Tuesday, 14 June 2016 14:15 (seven years ago) link

one year passes...

“Growing on Me” is still in my head 15 years later or whatever
The best song about crabs ever written

― calstars, Friday, 1 December 2017 15:26 (six years ago) link

one year passes...

"Christmas Time" is one of the all-time great Christmas records, snow fucks given

― I Accept the Word of Santa (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 15 December 2018 12:55 (five years ago) link

it works

― gabbnebulous (darraghmac), Saturday, 15 December 2018 13:08 (five years ago) link

the lost b-side “out of my hands” is ace

― calstars, Saturday, 15 December 2018 17:41 (five years ago) link

I think 'Christmas Time' is the best Darkness song full stop!

― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 15 December 2018 22:34 (five years ago) link

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