Dave Matthews Band : Name Your Reasons Why They Are So Bad & Hated.

This phrase makes me very happy and makes me laugh.

I'll even admit that my hometown was the one from which DMB came, so there are memories there. I didn't really get into DMB until I'd moved away, but I remember a time when no one knew them outside of that small town. I remember a bartender making me a tape of them, and I really thought it was pretty good. I don't think they had any records out then. I remember seeing them live once with a friend. But it just didn't make any sense to me until I moved away.

I dug up this quote for you guys that I thought you'd find funny. This was from a show I heard advertised on BBC radio, probably BBC 6. I wrote this down intending to share it with ILM, but didn't get around to it until now:

"Witty, Creative & Bright" they called him on BBC radio. Twas actually radio 2 on a Saturday, but I missed the show on DMB.

why?

because this thing's bigger than all of us, bigger than it's subject matter, bigger than Nick n' Buzz's photos, bigger than the ignorance of the DMB fanbase (who i'm now firmly convinced are NOT fans of music OTHER than DMB and DMB clones), and bigger than anything i can contemplate.

my friend now lives in Dave's hometown, says it's horrible how often he hears them now, and that he really wants to just shout how bad they are at people, but it's worthless to do so...

so, to all the DMB fans who think they're right and go to the Gorge or whatever mega-venue and get high on 'teh music' and whatnot, keep on tryin kids, don't you worry about that trustfund runnin out, or that yr really just tryin to hold on to a nostalgia that makes the Dead look like they were part of the Neo-Roman Classical Period of art.

keep yr DMB locked down and far away from me, and next time you play in a bar in PGH where i am, i'll kick the juke-box for ya, Arthur Fonzerellie style...

Hahahahaha

This guy is speaking my language. Name another band to borrow so beautifully from a trio of English folk, various American styles, and African music thrown in for good measure. I'm proud most of all of the DMB's multiculturalism. They seemed to mix a lot of cultures together. I'm talking of their first album of course "Remember Two Things".

All the ignorant college students in the whole world can't take that away from me.

I'm also eager to re-experience their first "proper" album Under The Table & Dreaming, produced by Steve Lillywhite, who I have had much good things to say about in the past.

Just know this, that my town, my hometown was so small, that I remember meeting the guy who designed the sleeve for Under The Table... I remember things about him. Because the town was so small. But one can't tell all.

I love jazz/funk too. But DMB never had the funk in enough quantity. That's okay because the first two albums are still classic records.

pleasepleasepleaseplease to tell.

Well, I'm stumped.

After spending three hours trying to get to the venue, getting into the venue, dealing with already drunk white hats from nearby UVa (he's one of US!!!! WAAAAHOOOOO!!!!), I finally got into the show and got a beer. Sat through the first set - not terrible, and the people watching was hilarious.

Then came the .1% of my appreciation - it was a few days after Johnny Cash had died, and Dave came out and did a solo, quarter time version of Ring of Fire. Sounds kind of lame, I know, but the audience automatically became split in two - those who knew IMMEDIATELY what song it was, and were at least appreciative of what he was trying to do (that would be me) or those who didn't know the song, didn't know who Johnny Cash was, and were screaming for the rest of the band to come back out.

So, for what its worth, I suspect that Dave actually gives two shits about some worthwhile things, but his band is not anywhere near my iTunes.

This guy is speaking my language. Name another band to borrow so beautifully from a trio of English folk, various American styles, and African music thrown in for good measure. I'm proud most of all of the DMB's multiculturalism. They seemed to mix a lot of cultures together. I'm talking of their first album of course "Remember Two Things".

Are you sure we're talking the same language, because I think I was talking about pickups, how despite overall lameness it was kind of cool that they embraced such a shitty pickup sound, and you're hearing multicultural blending. I don't even particularly hear the English folk influence, but I'll concede, no American band had ever been influenced by African music before. That was a real revelation, and no ignorant college student or well informed music critic can take that away from you.

This is possibly incorrect.

and just why not, pray tell? i most certainly can!!

that's also not 'possibly incorrect', it's absolutely incorrect.

hahahhahhaahahaaha

Oh, really?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

that's totally wrong of course. but name me a band of Americans, before or since, that has incorporated African pop styles into its music and sold on the mass scale of the Dave Matthews Band. sure, African music on Graceland and other Paul Simons is far more prominent, but is made by session players backing up an artist already well established in the pop firmament. And DMB has outsold Graceland twice.

and this matters why?

(and what shakey said, jeezes talking heads)

how many of DMB's followers would even go try to get into the backstory of his uber-bland "music" and find his 'roots', so to speak? i'd bet not many.

cultural impact

jeezes talking heads

who have sold nowhere near Paul Simon, let alone DMB.

real scientific

I'm not gonna take your word for that - show me some numbers.

of course Euros know African music. we're talking America here.

uh, what? yr spouting some serious ridiculousness here. America developed Afro-influenced music (gospel blues jazz ad infinitum) long before Euros had even acknowledged the legitimacy of African music.

yes, and we are speaking of contemporary music influenced by the African popular music that was itself influenced by American rock/r&b music. Britishes are more likely to be influenced by such for the same reason that you hear a lot more news about Africa on the BBC than you do on NPR.

I'm not gonna take your word for that - show me some numbers.

LOL. you can search for yourself here

Talking Heads have sold fewer than 8 million records over the course of their career. Paul Simon solo has sold fewer than 16 million. DMB has sold 30 million records, and many millions more in videos.

Didn't mention anything about sales.

Didn't mention anything about sales.

and obviously I'm not backing him up but making my own independent assertion

again, bullshit - Johnny Clegg and Savuka. He never sold as much as DMB, but you can put that down to timing and marketing.