Bands you keep trying to like but can't get into

mussorgsky

― the maybe of bâcon (clouds), Thursday, January 24, 2013 5:39 AM

Just go and watch Boris Godunov, or get a good dvd. Original version if possible, not the Rimsky remix. If that doesn't sway you, nothing will.

Beefheart. Mad respect for what he did and all the artists he influenced, and I do like a song or three, but my attention span for his brand of weirdness is just not very great.

But persistence pays off sometimes - with Beefheart, it took aclimating to things similar to him as well as people he influenced to finally make the jump into his world. It's hard to approach music that doesn't fit the core of what we like, but it can happen.

Not a band exactly but I have been introducing myself to Joni Mitchell, and uggggh Heijera is killing me. That fretless bass takes me right out of whatever I could possibly get out of her singing. I've tried a couple of times now, but I think I'm going to have to shelve it and maybe circle back in a few years. Or burn it.

I don't fuck with Heijera, and I like both Mitchell and Jaco. It should work for me. It totally doesn't.

RE: Beefheart: he takes time to get into, but is ultimately pretty rewarding.

Between first hearing Trout Mask in high school, owning and selling Shimy Beast, and just giving Lick My Decals another spin in the last month, I've spent decades with Beeheart. Ten minutes into any album I want to hear something else.

Shimy. Beeheart. Learn to type, me.

Scott Walker takes himself so seriously when he sings?

"it is dark and gothic, like coming straight from the graveyard. as if he got buried alive and is now speaking from inside his coffin."

yah, he's awesome!

Not a band exactly but I have been introducing myself to Joni Mitchell, and uggggh Heijera is killing me. That fretless bass takes me right out of whatever I could possibly get out of her singing. I've tried a couple of times now, but I think I'm going to have to shelve it and maybe circle back in a few years. Or burn it.

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, January 24, 2013 1:50 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I went through something similar, though it was with her Mingus album. There's fretless spilled all over that thing, and I barely made it through one listen. When I tried Hejira (on the basis that it's supposedly Prince's all-time favorite record), I recoiled at first, but subsequent listens put the fretless into perspective, if that makes any sense. So it might not happen soon, but it'll happen.

xp Seward OTM. I read that as praise for Walker's singing.

yeah I haven't gotten into Scott Walker a ton but what I've heard I like, maybe because there's an echo of Nick Cave to the tone of his voice that's v familiar to me. The showiness is appealing, sets him apart in a way that I enjoy.

swans

Scott Walker, idgi

― sleeve, Wednesday, January 23, 2013 4:25 PM (Yesterday)

TBH I think his recent popularity comes from the rationale of "This art is over my head, so I should probably respect it" which I feel like is how most people kid themselves and each other in respect to most avant-garde art.

i like the last scott walker albums cuz they are so freaky! i love freaky sounds. the new one is just, man, ain't nobody doing that shit like that. i freaked maria out a bit when i put the new one on one night. i think they hold their own in the tradition of art songs/avant garde. they are more like francis bacon paintings then anything else.

dan: maybe try some more "fun" beefheart - safe as milk or clear spot.

plus if you smoke pot and play them they will make you feel like you are on acid. that might be good or not depends on who you are.

i think what disturbs me most about scott walker is that his voice is so unmusical. he doesn't make the slightest effort to sing. he always seems to recite some weird, modern poem. my life left is too short to get spoiled by scott walker's personal exorcisms. i don't think it would be a good idea listening to his music on pot. i never tried acid but i think you are right scott. it would be a nightmare. like if you have smoked weed in a place where you do not want to be and you want to go home but can't.

Scott Walker, idgi

― sleeve, Wednesday, January 23, 2013 4:25 PM (Yesterday)

TBH I think his recent popularity comes from the rationale of "This art is over my head, so I should probably respect it" which I feel like is how most people kid themselves and each other in respect to most avant-garde art.

There's no more truth to this than there is to the idea that most people (with your take on avant garde art) don't understand it or are embarrassed to give credence to something that seems pretentious, finding it easier to laugh at it rather than try and comprehend it.

I mean, alex in mainhattan's view on SW is nothing like mine but I completely respect and understand it; it doesn't seem to be indulging in the snide pastime of, 'Christ, other people are so dumb.'

Anyway, Tronics. I just think it's awful. Don't know why this guy/band has become such a big cult thing over the last year or so.

Queensryche

It's so very easy to not like them

Prince

Scott on Scott is OTM upthread. Walker himself doesn't consider himself an avant-gardist, although it's clear he's not doing pop the same as anyone else. It is freaky, disturbing music. Even though my initial reaction is to be repulsed or frightened, I still find myself strangely fascinated by it. How do you get a string orchestra to sound like like a blooded face sliding down reinforced glass? What the heck are those machete noises? Feed WHAT to a shrunken face? What is he doing NOW??
It's not the kind of thing that you'd wanna listen to all the time (although I have been listening to Bish Bosch loads lately). Maybe you have to have a taste for the macabre, which not everyone does, in the way that a lot of people just don't enjoy horror movies.

people could always start here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjjN5VB6R3c

or you might try the bloodcurdling...DEVIL SURFER!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI2L0YI83rs

David Bowie

Actually I find Scott Walkers music fun usually, but at the same time kind of novelty. I was kind of using him as an example to vent a little about avant-garde art in general. Was unfair but I figured since he was brought up here...

Hejira hate makes me sad.

Another vote for Safe As Milk and against Scott Walker

you gotta at least admit that he wrote one of the best 70's pop songs about american torturers in latin america.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmRVU-MEXU0

as much i like and admire scott, gary might have actually made my fave post-walker bros. album...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNRHq2Qo4hM

post-tg stuff like uhh psychic tv i guess? heard a chris and cosey track once too *shrugs*
coil (although the last time i tried it kinda sunk in and i was pretty blown away, though i haven't felt the need to dive in again after this)
4ad in general, notably cocteau twins (notable exception: kristen hersh / throwing muses who i only discovered recently and love)
most shoegaze and britpop (been a long time since i tried, don't care anymore)
i tried ariel pink once or twice, that guy can lick my balls.

i guess the answer is 80s goth.

yeah, cocteau twins otm for me. i like the idea of them more than the execution.

einsturzende neubauten. blixa annoys me to no end, and i get the sense of this sorta european dissafection holding them back as a group even in their most radical moments. i just can't deal with that.

disaffection lol

I forgot one: Gojira. Yawnfest.

Hi,

I am currently 'trying again' with Mark Hollis' solo lp.

Cheers,

MG

afghan whigs. i like "turn on the water" and "debonair" but the rest is unlistenable.

you gotta at least admit that he wrote one of the best 70's pop songs about american torturers in latin america.

Indeed. Also, the best pro-socialist/anti-Stalinist song with scat singing ("The Old Man's Back Again").

wow. surprised no one has brought up dylan.
hejira hate not only makes me sad, i find it unfathomable.
tom waits has always been a love him or leave him thing -i get why others love him, but i still prefer to leave him.
i guess i don't have anyone to add...
i can totally dig the white stripes sometimes. lots of raw pain.
def agree that all bowie is not created equal...
ok, well -goth. refuse to even try.

I was just about to say Dylan

What's wrong with fretless bass?

There are a few canon bands/albums I've always kept trying and trying to love, or even like, like Van Morrison "Astral Weeks", or Slayer "Reign in Blood", and I look forward to the day those albums finally click for me

I always liked Black Sabbath and The Stones but I don't think I'll truly love either until I own a car with a tapedeck

Hejira was one of those albums I got into a song at a time, took quite a while. I still wouldn't put it on a par with Hissing or Court & Spark, which are both all-time favourites for me.

'astral weeks' took me like a decade to really love but it's totally worth it

While we're at it, I'll cop to not "getting" about 75% of the singles on ILM's best of 2012 list.

I'm going to try the Smiths again pretty soon. So far, all I've got for them is the title track from The Queen Is Dead.

While we're at it, I'll cop to not "getting" about 75% of the singles on ILM's best of 2012 list.