Artist/Band you just "don't get"

emerson lake and palmer i have geiven them many chances but i do not like anything they did!

emerson lake and palmer i have given them many chances but i do not like anything they did!

The Frogs

real fuckin assholes that band

Anything vaguely post-punk recorded on the UK between 1978 and 1981 is like catnip to me but I’ve tried and tried and do not see the appeal of Swell Maps and Young Marble Giants.

Aw really? I think Nikki Sudden said the Swell Maps were best appreciated as a cross between T Rex and Can, but of course I disagree with him.

Never noticed much T Rex in there.

Nor Can, tbh.

There is def a stylized aloofness about Sudden's schtick that I could see as his take on Bolan, but...

No, Can's definitely in there. "Full Moon In My Pocket" uses the bassline from "Mother Sky" for a start.

emerson lake and palmer i have given them many chances but i do not like anything they did!

― xzanfar, Wednesday, February 24, 2021 3:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

perhaps try Emerson, Lake, and Powell instead

"Don't Throw Ashtrays At Me" etc.

I never noticed that about Full Moon/Mother Sky, seems obvious now that you mention it.

I get that Can are an inspiration for their background clatter but it's done to such a different effect.

Jowe Head's vocal on Full Moon is a charicature of Damo I guess?

It’s weird I love Nikki sudden/jacobites/epic’s solo material but can’t get into swell maps

What I love about them is mainly gonzo adolescent lunacy, the cliquish camraderie of their interplay, comic book-like onomatopeic clanging and clattering, an affectation of elegance in entirely the wrong context...

(xp) Well, they're not similar at all.

(xxp) No, I think he just can't sing very well.

"Big Empty Field" is the one Swell Maps song that has blown me away, and that one (and that one only, mind) really reminds me of This Heat--I admire their scrappier stuff but it hasn't stuck with me in the same way.

I think it's just that the Maps are best understood as part of a pre-punk/proto-punk context that includes said artists, Krautrock, the Velvets/Stooges, etc, and IMO that's an easier point of entry than the postpunk scene they were part of

Swell Maps fans - I've heard the two proper albums and liked about half of each. They have a bunch of compilation/outtake type records that I'm wary of. Are these on the level of the albums, or for completists only?

for completists, mostly, IMO, once you have Marineville and Jane and some of the singles in some form there are diminishing returns unless u are a true fan

this one is good:

https://www.discogs.com/Swell-Maps-Train-Out-Of-It/release/326625

I don’t care for the comps (stuff is remixed, etc.). I love the first album, can leave everything else — so maybe I’m not the fanniest “fan.”

The singles tracks don't seem to be collected together anywhere as far as I can tell, they're scattered on those compilations, which is an irritant.

The Peel Sessions are also hot sh!t. They’re on YouseTube.

^^ very true

and xp to Halfway yes and there's STILL one single that's not on CD afaik:

https://www.discogs.com/Swell-Maps-Real-Shocks-English-Verse-Monologues/master/246556

I think it's just that the Maps are best understood as part of a pre-punk/proto-punk context that includes said artists, Krautrock, the Velvets/Stooges, etc, and IMO that's an easier point of entry than the postpunk scene they were part of

xp Real Shocks is on both Train Out of it and International Rescue CD comps

Nm you mean english verse and monologues dont you