Bands that are better 'in theory' than in reality

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I entirely disagree about Glenn Branca and 23 Skidoo (well, some of their later stuff's better in theory, but in their prime). Saint Etienne I do second, though, and Joy Division I used to listen to relentlessly, and now they bore me for the most part.

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 24 June 2004 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Aren't GWAR white supremacists?

No, but their idiotic garb might suggest low intelligence in some form.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Thursday, 24 June 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

St Etienne are godz, you are all pots for rags. JUNIOR BOYS though 100%, every single reference point implies that they will be the most glorious thing and "winter disco" is so the neatest idea ever and yet I only quite like them a bit not lots.

― Alex in Doncaster (Alex in Doncaster), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

You realize, of course, that now somebody will have to create a companion thread to this one, its antithesis: "Bands You SHOULD Hate But Find Yourself Liking"

Meantime, as for THIS thread:

Birthday Party
Big Star

I'm tempted to say MBV, and would have, if not for the fact that a handful of their songs I found truly thrilling. But all of 'em predate Loveless. (Nothing can top that '88 "You Made Me Realise" EP on Mercury.)

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I really want to like listening to 23 Skidoo, and I have listened to all of their records many times over (and was impressed the first few round), but in the end their music is so redundant that it almost qualifies them as "shoegazers".

The thing I find most interesting about 23 Skidoo is how Crash Worship later ripped off both their sound (replacing the "funk" part of the equation with "extra hollering and weird growling noises") and their whole aesthetic (i.e. actual 23 Skidoo album cover art/concepts were lifted and used by CW: martial arts poses, hand symbols, etc.).

― jsoulja (jsoulja), Thursday, 24 June 2004 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

The Birthday Party were best live, methinks... As for 23 Skidoo, they did end up using a lot of the same themes, but I think what makes them having staying power is how fresh the production is on most of their records, particularly the singles for "Last Words" and "The Gospel Comes to New Guinea" as well as Seven Songs. It sounds like they sat down for teatime just now.

Big Star...I can't even decide whether I enjoy them or not, just like PiL's first album...

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 24 June 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I still think it's weird that Crash Worship's drummer joined The And/Ors. It confounds me still, and I actually saw The And/Ors live (playing to about eleven people, admittedly) yet it still makes no sense.

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 24 June 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Grateful Dead- absolutely. I desperately want them to sound like they do in my head and they're nowhere near. I still find myself looking longingly at that box set of theirs from a year or two back, even though I know that i'd hate it.

Oh and Black Flag for me. Love the idea of them, the actual listening experience is kinda meh...

― Officer Pupp, Friday, 25 June 2004 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Big Star...I can't even decide whether I enjoy them or not

I agree with Big Star, but only if we're talking about Sister Lovers. The first two albums are great. I have never been able to appreciate the third.

― King Kobra (King Kobra), Friday, 25 June 2004 05:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Disco Inferno
The Streets
Bark Psychosis

And I like all of those bands.

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 25 June 2004 06:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, Big Star definitely. Their songs aren't as catchy or poppy, or... anything as people claim they are.

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 25 June 2004 06:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm tempted to say MBV, and would have, if not for the fact that a handful of their songs I found truly thrilling. But all of 'em predate Loveless. (Nothing can top that '88 "You Made Me Realise" EP on Mercury.)

Truest words on this thread. Elsewhere, I can share things with the Beefheart, JD and Pixies sub-hatas.

Alex is wrong about GWAR though. Live only, yes, but what a show...

― aldo_cowpat (aldo_cowpat), Friday, 25 June 2004 06:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Cabaret Voltaire

― Bob Six (bobbysix), Friday, 25 June 2004 06:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmmm...I do feel that way about the Cabs sometimes, and yet they are amongst my favourite groups...

― Ian Moraine (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 25 June 2004 16:06 (twenty-one years ago)

in addition to Big and Rich, I will agree with the Grateful Dead. Also, Bruce Springsteen, way better in theory than in practice.

― Gear! (Gear!), Friday, 25 June 2004 16:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The Sex Pistols, The Streets, Eminem, Marilyn Manson. I really want to like their music to justify how much I like them and the "theory" of what they do/did, but just can't.

― ailsa (ailsa), Friday, 25 June 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

CLINIC.

really excellent idea for a sound, but a lot of the songs start off sounding great and then don't really go anywhere. They'd be great if they messed around with song structure and different noises more, had other people sing, or at least if Ade Blackburn didn't sing in the same style all the time.

― Serya (Z_Ayres), Friday, 25 June 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

wow, Serya is totally otm about Clinic. I wanted to like "Walking With Thee" so badly: stripped-down, metronome rock with wierd noises, echoes, precision guitar lines. Kind of the Strokes if they had been huge Joy Division and Feelies fans.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 25 June 2004 17:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd have to say Sonic Youth. Like "art" they are endured.

― Orbit (Orbit), Saturday, 26 June 2004 07:33 (twenty-one years ago)

phoenix

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

(except for the 2 songs i like)

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 26 June 2004 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

i think some people's problem is that they think TMR is all the beefheart they need to listen to.

― tom cleveland (tom cleveland), Saturday, 26 June 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

asian dub foundation

― ryan kuo (ryan kuo), Saturday, 26 June 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Four Tet

Nu jazz

― I am not a mandible (Barima), Saturday, 26 June 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

How about Mecca Normal.

And any band of mine would of course be brilliant in theory, but...um...oh well

― Thea (Thea), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 00:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Count me as another person who doesn't get Big Star. The Box Tops f***ing ruled, and so many people who I respect love Big Star, but it just doesn;t do anything for me.

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 03:25 (twenty-one years ago)

To those who said Big & Rich: What exactly is it that they do 'in theory' that they don't do in practice?

― frankE (frankE), Wednesday, 30 June 2004 03:42 (twenty-one years ago)

nine months pass...

Negativland-- my new winner.

― Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (King Kobra), Friday, 22 April 2005 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Butthole Surfers (esp. now)

― mike a, Friday, 22 April 2005 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

orthrelm. though they're pretty crap in theory, too.

― el sabor de gene (yournullfame), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

annie

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 22 April 2005 22:41 (twenty-one years ago)

hella, antony and the johnsons, joanna newsom, sonic youth, gang gang dance

― breezy, Friday, 22 April 2005 23:56 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe it's these yank ears but my answer would be The Jam. I mean, all the elements are there... but for some reason it just hasn't clicked for me. To be fair, I wasn't that familiar with their catalogue prior to a couple of years ago. And I do find myself enjoying it more as of late. A grower, perhaps?

― Will(iam), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, Sonic Youth's a good one. Albums, anyways. Live is the only way it really works for me. I've always been way more into who influenced them and who they've influenced.

― Will(iam), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd say the entire new generation of postpunk bands. Bringing back the spirit of postpunk is a good idea, but the new bands' songs just don't hold up the way Wire, The Cure or Magazine did back then.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Forgive me if they've been mentioned already, but I'm going to cite THROBBING GRISTLE here in as much as it's the ideas put forth by the band that were so significant rather than the actual execution. I was paging through "The Secret History of Rock" by Roni Sarig this week, and there was a great quote from Lou Barlow about TG about how they inspired him more to go out and make his own music more than they inspired him to listen to theirs, and that's pretty accurate, I'd say. I love that TG existed, and I so totally admire what they did and stood for and the manner in which they executed the idea, but to listen to their stuff? Not always that great an experience. Like I mentioned on another thread today, I saw a copy of their unweildly box set this week (containing twenty-four hours worth of recorded live material) at a 'reduced price' (though not reduced enough for my taste). I was tempted, but then I thought....would I ever actually listen to all of it? Or even enough of it to make it worth it?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 00:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Negativland-- my new winner.

-- Vestigial Appendages, Esq. (doctorduc...), April 22nd, 2005.

escape from noise is pretty listenable...

― latebloomer: But when the monkey die, people gonna cry. (latebloomer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 11:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Guitar Wolf

― Earl Nash (earlnash), Saturday, 23 April 2005 11:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I have now come round to liking Eminem rather a lot, but I still think he's even better in theory.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 23 April 2005 12:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Philip Glass, and to a lesser extent, Steve Reich - I really love what Reich has done if the works are reduced to individual ideas, but I don't listen to my Reich albums much. Then again, I don't suppose Come Out is something anyone's meant to listen to often.

― Deluxe (Damian), Saturday, 23 April 2005 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

HA HA LET'S LIST EVERY BAND THAT TRIED

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

For the most part Cheap Trick. Although they have some really great moments that would make a very good 60 minute compilation, even their best albums are littered with filler and mediocrity. Yet, I am compelled to think of them as being better than they usually deliver, because of their sense of melody, aesthetics, and esp. their sense of humor.

― Richard Wood Johnson, Monday, 13 August 2007 15:23 (eighteen years ago)

animal collective.

― CharlieNo4, Monday, 13 August 2007 16:57 (eighteen years ago)

The Wilburys. I mean, they were great. But not as great as one might expect from such a league of stars.

― Geir Hongro, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:28 (eighteen years ago)

marissa marchant

― gershy, Monday, 13 August 2007 19:31 (eighteen years ago)

Experimental Audio Research; never actually liked any of their music at all.

― mehlt, Monday, 13 August 2007 20:34 (eighteen years ago)

Animal Collective
Bowie
Deerhoof

I have an amazingly high number of listens recorded on my last.fm for these groups/artists. I'm drawn to their music, yet don't actually enjoy listening to it.

I'll bet there're a hundred more..

― bassace, Monday, 13 August 2007 23:21 (eighteen years ago)

The guys that said GWAR a couple years ago were totally on.

And Manowar is the inverse, they are better in reality than they are in theory. They come across as ridiculous, but their stuff's pretty good.

― Bill Magill, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 21:45 (eighteen years ago)

lightning bolt

-- 6335, Thursday, 24 June 2004 04:50 (3 years ago) Bookmark Link

I came here to post just this. Also, Comets On Fire.

― Just got offed, Tuesday, 14 August 2007 21:49 (eighteen years ago)

DJ Spooky thirded. Also Third Eye Foundation.

― Tuomas, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 10:19 (eighteen years ago)

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