Bands that are better 'in theory' than in reality

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

escape from noise is pretty listenable...

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.

animal collective.

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

marissa marchant

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

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..

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.

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.

DJ Spooky thirded. Also Third Eye Foundation.

every band ever

Bloc Party

Animal Collective would be great if their records weren't hideously produced.

Naked City. On paper they were going to become one of my teenage self's favourite bands but they're only half great, most of their covers are terrible, they're too slick and you can tell they're reading the sheet music esp. on the slower tracks. Needed more drama, more Spillane style atmosphere and some Mike Patton crooning.

Television. Great sound of guitar and voice but especially the album "Marquee Moon" somehow seems dull to me. Too repetitive, not enough variation, too long.

Yea I think that album is very stale, very boring. But I read about them and they sound great in print.

i burned out on marquee moon a few years back but listening to those eno demos and especially the live stuff kinda revived it for me. also, people pay too much attention to the guitars and not enough to the bass/drums - that's one killer rhythm section!

I was wrong about most of the ones I listed except Zappa. Although I'm not sure the theory's so great there.

Naked City OTM. Teenage me really tried with them too. "Too slick" sums it up, pretty much.

Funkadelic... sometimes.

It's funny how many of the groups listed here are this way for me, and how hard it is to admit. Yes, Naked City is definitely one of them. Fuck it - Lightning Bolt, too!

The entire genre of ambient drum'n'bass. How come nobody got this right?

OTM.

A few others: Jeru the Damaja, Suicidal Tendencies, Queen, Bob Dylan (not trolling, not saying he isn't good, just never been able to get into him at all), Red Hot Chili Peppers - wait scratch that I don't like them in theory either.

A few groups getting a lot of hype here recently that I really want to like more than I do: Watain, Deathspell Omega, Jesu, and Battles.

TV On the Radio (I still think they might live up to that theory, though...they're getting closer)

this thread is another great read.

i live in Los Angeles and three bands that are worshiped here but don't like are the Red Hot Chili Peppers, No Doubt and fucking Sublime.

don't even like those bands in theory so back to the ilm universe, will have to go with Animal Collective. i have tried and tried and tried, i just don't get it.

What do you dislike about AC? Is it the melodies or the way they present those melodies?

Negativland OTM x 1000

I really liked Feels, and kinda liked Sung Tongs, but the rest of their discography falls under this category for me. Just didn't live up to my expectations. I also tried to get into Black Dice, and failed.

Yeah - another vote for Negativland OTM

i agree w/ blueski, "every band ever"

but i agree with Bee OK too -- sublime is especially worthless...

and john cage is a good example of this too. his concepts were incredible but i almost feel like his music suffered from his open mindedness

ratatat.

Animal Collective would be great if their records weren't hideously produced.

-- Scik Mouthy, Wednesday, 15 August 2007 10:22 (Yesterday) Link

This one confuses me as all of their albums seem to have radically different production style.

I can see saying Animal Collective though. I love their use of technology, the tribalism, the mystery, the fact that for the longest time you couldn't make out what they were saying, the unconventional melodies, their approach of the halfway point between noise and music. But I wish they didn't have to be so cutesy or cloying about it sometimes. I think they occasionally suffer from that indie rock "childhood wondermint" fixation that I hate to much.

I like Naked City all right, though it's nowhere near my favourite Zorn project. I'm not sure they'd be better if they were more brutal or 'rougher.' I think the aesthetic is more one of cartoonish mania (rather than brutal chaos or something) and the 'slickness' (to the extent that I can see it) works with this. The production is a little dated though, if that's all you guys are referring to.

I really disagree about Cage but I generally like him more for his relatively 'conventionally' written pieces than for the most extreme conceptual chance music. (In some of those cases, I'm not really sure the concepts are as interesting as some people make them out to be.)

Manic Street Preachers

x-post

The slickness about Naked City that gets me is on tracks like Inside Straight which is all one eyebrow cocked sleepy arsehole lounge and completely at odds with all the intensity of the cartoon stuff like "Thrash Jazz Assassin", "Kaoru", "Punk China Doll" with the F-Zero X guitar and Taz in Tazmania vocals. I like Grand Guignol much more than the others I've heard.

The contrast is what makes it work for me! Like a WB character whistling and sauntering just before getting pounced or having an anvil fall on his or her head.

The contrast works within tracks where it rampages through styles at pace, but esp on the first album there are whole tracks of this languid politeness that are awful. What made me think of Mike Patton upthread was that tracks like Sweet Charity from California are an invigorated take on a sound similar to some of the terrible Naked City tracks where it feels really by-numbers.

sundar -- could you recommend some good 'conventional' cage? thanks

Stars

Band of Susans may be the ultimate example of this for me. By all rights, I should like them: 80s noise/drone guitar rock with a post-minimal pedigree (Chatham proteges no less), pop hooks in the classic Amerindie style. Somehow, nothing seems to come together right on the records, though: The cheesy 80s production with giant gated drums might work if this were spare new wave/postpunk but it seems to work so strongly against what they were going for. The rhythm section is plodding and uninspired, just a constant predictable backbeat. I find Poss's voice completely unappealing. The guitars drone but never quite seem to deliver much in terms of rich textures or innovative sounds. They never seem to really nail a pop hook like REM or Husker Du or, say, the Mary Chain or MBV could. ("Hard Light" comes closest.)

sund4r -- could you recommend some good 'conventional' cage? thanks

I never answered this! I don't know if this person is still reading this board but:
In a Landscape
Dream
Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano

are a good place to start.

their general positivity, jazz samples, and low-key style

OK, so this artist, right. He's like a mix of Run-D.M.C. and Johnny Cash....
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http://cdn.channel.aol.com/red_galleries/kid-rock-400a052307.jpg

Ha, I actually mentioned Band of Susans earlier on this thread.