Don't Let the Dayyys POLL By: Bush Singles

Glycerine is fucking awful, what the fuck fam

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

so "Swallowed" is their international hit? what the hell

i know! you'd think one of the other massively different and distinguishable singles wd've set the world on fire

now i wish i had thrown a vote to inflatable

JUSTICE

Razorblade is definitely a fairweather johnson - sixteen went 6x platinum during a window from jan '95 to april '97, Razorblade went 3x platinum from Nov '96 to July '97. People were just in the Bush-purchasing mood, razorblade really never achieved a life of its own.

which is why the Razorblade singles getting a respectable 15 votes vs. Sixteen Stone's 22 votes surprised me

you forget we are people who know who steve albini is

america may not care, but future rock critics and nerds took note

48 votes for a Bush poll? Huh

"that indie guy in chem class says the new one sounds like 'surfer' music but I don't hear it"

but even kids like me at the time, as well as adult critics, saw the Albini hiring as a pretty transparent grab for cred and/or even more Nirvana comparisons! it's not like that album won skeptics over to the extent of The Bends or even Purple. (xpost)

glycerine is so bad

the string bit at the end is pretty cool tho

yeah, could be salvaged as a loop for some "Bittersweet Symphony" type thing, but song itself is the biggest turd.

i cannot believe this many people voted in this poll. these songs are terrible.

but even kids like me at the time, as well as adult critics, saw the Albini hiring as a pretty transparent grab for cred and/or even more Nirvana comparisons! it's not like that album won skeptics over to the extent of The Bends or even Purple.

"swallowed" did, though. in a sense it's their "lakini's juice"

Yeah, "Machinehead" was like Top 10 for the year '96 airplay-wise.

― Jeremy Spencer Slid in Class Today (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:04 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i guess people felt it was better than the rest

― nakhchi little van (some dude), Tuesday, July 24, 2012 11:11 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this made me laugh, then mad at myself for remembering lyrics to "machinehead"

lol

honestly i had no real sense anyone especially liked "Swallowed" for 16 years before this poll

jesus christ, sixteen years

jesus christ, sixteen stone

jesus christ.

re "Swallowed" at the time I thought, "Oh, well, Albini did improve them" but then a girl who liked Mazzy Star brought Razorblade Suitcase into the newsroom and we all cleared our throats and played The Saint soundtrack for the nth time.

"swallowed" did, though. in a sense it's their "lakini's juice"

since when did lakinis juice win people over

"Lakini's Juice" C or D?

"their finest track" - miccio
"my favorite Live single" - Herbert Herbert
"the only Live song that doesn't make me vomit and/or laugh" - VegemiteGrrl

tbf me and herb are friends from high school but both "lakini" and "swallowed" are TA-DAAAAA first singles from follow-ups that boldly announced the band's desire to take corporate rock in bold directions so no shock 10+ ilxors dig 'em in polls

did i mention them shits were bold cuz brother they were bold

I think we've touched on this before as a general pattern of the way alt-rock records got marketed (commercially disappointing major label rock/alternative albums of 1996 , Stylus's Top Ten Momentum Killing Follow-Up Singles to Breakthrough Post-Grunge Albums) - actually, it was you and billstevejim that really made me notice this pattern of the grating, noisy, BOLD first single with the intended mainstream rock/pop hit waiting in the wings. In hindsight a really weird strategy, very specific to that moment in time.

One stone unturned: who started that trend? Within alt-rock it probably traces really easily to Nevermind but does it have deeper roots?

earlier example: "welcome to the jungle" followed by "sweet child o' mine"

it was you and billstevejim that really made me notice this pattern of the grating, noisy, BOLD first single with the intended mainstream rock/pop hit waiting in the wings.

U2 POP poll

was JUST thinking of appetite, couldn't remember offhand what the sequence was there! nice.

also, that's funny b/c as with Lakini's Juice, Discotheque is my favorite single from that record by a mile.

Maybe Razorblade Suitcase just screwed up by not actually having the crossover pop smash waiting up its sleeve. I think I voted for "Greedy Fly" in the poll, ultimately.

i think there's a difference (but still a notable relationship) between "hard rock band does aggressive 'this is us' first single and then power ballad second single" and "alt-rock band does weird abrasive first single and then 'this is us' accessible second single"

basically it's been conventional wisdom ever since the industry started thinking about singles campaigns that the best place to put your surefire hit is second

Dunno if it's exactly what you're going for but part of it has to be about symbolism and what these gestures are supposed to convey - - presumably the hard rock band's first single conveys that they are still HARD and tough and that their male fans should still buy the record even though the last one had that power ballad on it which was like, for girls or whatever, nevermind the upcoming power ballad.

The alt band's abrasive single is also about authenticity but it's less gendered and more tribal - more about making the audience feel like they and the band are still inside the avant garde club of the 'underground,' where dissonant scary stuff is shot in high-contrast, smeary, herky-jerky video, despite the major label marketing campaign and gigantic crossover hit waiting around the corner.

yeah i think the "abrasive" vs "hard rock" thing is just a matter of degrees - I saw live on the secret sodomy tour and "turn my head" was definitely a sop to the market rather than a "this is us" song.

so, because US spotify is missing like half of Pop, i am now listening to secret samadhi while sorting my laundry

it's a crazy, crazy, mixed-up music streaming service

is anyone really missing half of Pop?

be sure to queue Speed of Sound and Dirty Work.

oh, dude, i am one of ilx's resident macca fans, i OWN speed of sound

sadly wings is not on spotify so i'll just have to live my life assuming they were consistently the worst

if you had spotify you would find that they were in fact consistently the BEST

er, if they were on spotify. y'know.

Wings was made for excerpting

made it three songs into secret samadhi, switching to razorblade suitcase

when I saw i@n c0h3n a few weeks ago I specifically asked him about "Lakini's Juice" and he still loves the thing