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

oh man I love green’s voice and lyrics so much. Total hero. Took a while for me, though.

oh man I love green’s voice and lyrics so much. Total hero. Took a while for me, though.

cupid & psyche is just a staggering achievement to me, exciting and blinding every time i listen to it, was a huge 420 unlock for me last year.

lol OK OK I'll try again

there might be something to the 420 idea

wait a second, i didn't try that last bit. i feel like an unattempted unlock is warranted before giving up

xp haha, exactly

it's a new option in the toolbelt

The track 'PAs' was my way into early Scritti stuff, such a lovely vocal melody welded to itchy, badly recorded craziness.

derrida is a much more salient reference point re the borderline-religious subterfuge in his lyrics than marxism imo.

c&p made me very afraid there for a while with the synth sound and all but my god the programming is just so idiosyncratic yet perfectly pop it can bring me to tears.

Cupid and Psyche is more of a champagne album

“the sweetest girl” otoh...

oh didn’t see your post map, didn’t mean to neg your 420 unlock!

xp actually I have that 12" as well and am keeping it, forgot abt that one but it's great

it's kind of this essay on why and how commercial pop can be transformative. it's brainy but also surprisingly funny and humble. also the ranking ann version of "flesh and blood" is like super dope and positive. lol.

xp no worries haha

lol, I don't do 420 listens b/c I mostly have a bad paranoid time rather than a fun chill time, but I could definitely see it working.

What's the 420 thing?

w33d

420-enhanced listening can definitely be key in “getting” this or that band. For instance, Grafeful Dead whilst high I was able to find a way in by focusing on Lesh’s basslines. Also, never was able to get into reggae before I started partaking of the herb.

Aha, of course. Getting st0ned and listening to music should be available on prescription.

the 420 unlock is a new discovery in the growing field of pseudopharmamusicology. early evidence indicates that there are certain recordings that, to a degree that surpasses even the expected enhancement while smoking, can be "420 unlocked"

pretty much the entirety of reelin' in the years is like that for me. suddenly i felt "dirty work" more intensely and personally than ever before

lol, I don't do 420 listens b/c I mostly have a bad paranoid time rather than a fun chill time, but I could definitely see it working.
― emil.y, Tuesday, October 6, 2020 12:52 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Glad it’s not just me. Surely there’s an ILX support group thread for people who like the idea of weed but are incapable of not going from zero to dark whenever they smoke it. I do love how music sounds on weed and I seriously envy people who can be blazed all the time while avoiding gazing into the dark abyss of their soul but I inevitably start hearing weird shit in the music (even instrumental music) and having bad thoughts, no matter what strain I smoke. I keep trying indica dominants because I seek couch lock without the accompanying psychedelic nightmare, but after even one normal hit I almost always freak out.

I don't get Scritti Politti either fwiw

I’m 100% with you and emil.y. Every single one of my attempts at enjoying weed was an anxiety-ridden disaster, like downing a dozen ristrettos in 30 seconds.

Also, I’ve never heard Scritti Politti and I’m not sure I want to.

Surely there’s an ILX support group thread for people who like the idea of weed but are incapable of not going from zero to dark whenever they smoke it.

it depends on where you live and the legal status, but i would strongly recommend trying out the many varieties of tablets that are available. you can get them in little 2.5g doses of THC. personally i don't even detect a difference, due to my vast experience in trying to unlock things. but my partner will take one and feel fantastic. it's basically a way to get a reliable measured dose so you know how much feels good for you. you can also get a version of the same tablet that has 2.5g cbd as well. again, i don't notice cbd because i have leveled up too far, but many people love it

Here’s some that I find make mostly unpleasant music to my ears no matter how much I try to get them:

Run the Jewels
Neutral Milk Hotel // Jeff Mangum
Flume
James Blake
Arca
Death Grips
Tyler, the creator

Big Thief. I don't see the appeal at all. In fact I think they are astoundingly awful. Yet I still try to listen to them every six months to see if my taste has changed.

I’d be a fan if it weren’t for her amateurish singing. Faith in one’s abilities helps, but doesn’t quite cut it.

In a similar vein (is it acceptable for me to say it?), Prince’s Sign of the Times: the sounds that he uses and that digital bass motif, they all just sound real displeasing to my ears. Also, his vocal performance fails to convince me that he truly cares about the things described in the lyrics. In fact, I’ve tried 3 times to listen to that supposedly universally loved stone cold classic but I’ve never made it all the way through. For the record, I own Parade and think it’s great, a lot of fun, his best album by far in my own unpopular opinion.

― rattle, Tuesday, October 6, 2020 9:33 AM

i don't think i've ever disagreed (wtf? sign o the times is awesome!) and agreed (parade kicks fucking ass and is also probably my favorite p album) with a single post so vehemently and completely all at once.

i don't know you rattle, but i'm keeping an eye on you.

also, xp re: scritti politti
there's a very strong cupid and psyche fanbase here and that prompted me to go and try to reassess that one and. . . yeah, nah. i guess i still don't get it because it sounds like extremely overproduced schlock.

as for my contribution to this revive, i'm going to mention something timely —and i may have talked about this on here in the past— the replacements. never understood the appeal whatsoever and when i read glowing reviews of them in the past, it seemed like the reviewer was listening to something completely different than what i was hearing on the record. i think what's most puzzling is that the music isn't really what i would consider "bad"; it's just so. . . bland. there's nothing remarkable about it at all. idgi.

Stink is my fave Replacements fwiw, not so keen on everything afterwards

as for my contribution to this revive, i'm going to mention something timely —and i may have talked about this on here in the past— the replacements. never understood the appeal whatsoever and when i read glowing reviews of them in the past, it seemed like the reviewer was listening to something completely different than what i was hearing on the record. i think what's most puzzling is that the music isn't really what i would consider "bad"; it's just so. . . bland. there's nothing remarkable about it at all. idgi.

100%. You want a smart, witty "heartland" rock band that actually, you know, rocks? Try the Georgia Satellites.

pleased to meet meh rocks

PTTM has a couple of good songs, but overall the Replacements were (and remain, though it's a generational thing - as with REM, their influence, and profile among younger listeners, is effectively nil) one of the most bafflingly overpraised bands of their era.

I’ve never been able to get into them, but most ‘80s “college rock” leaves me cold (Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, etc.). R.E.M. are the big exception.

I don’t get most 80s ‘college rock’ either but I do like both R.E.M. and The Replacements. The latter I only discovered last year because I’d wrongly assumed I wouldn’t care for them at all.

The Replacements have that intimidating fan-related zealotry thing going on - an initiate's reverence and ardour that means the music can only really be disappointing at first reception. For suggestible me, anyway. I got into Let it Be a little over lockdown but I still have a residual 'why don't I feel like that?' response to them.

little 2.5g doses of THC. personally i don't even detect a difference

Not to sound like a lightweight but I suspect that should be mg :-)

The fact that the Replacements have an oral history book AND a documentary full of people talking about how they changed their life....yes, way to go in putting people off this band for life

The most “just listen to the albums and forget all the other bullshit” band ever

I would love for this topic to have its own thread, so I made one:

Hate The Drug / Love The Music

I’ve never been able to get into them, but most ‘80s “college rock” leaves me cold (Hüsker Dü, Minutemen, etc.). R.E.M. are the big exception.

― I Hate the Aedes (morrisp), Wednesday, 7 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

I separate SST to other US "college rock" in my head. Has its own (for better or worse) sound.

Chinaski, the reason you don’t feel *that way* now when listening to LIB is likely down to context. In a sense the ‘Mats were an antidote to a situation that was specific to alienated, disaffected youth of the mid-80’s, namely Reaganism. Hyper-success orientation, “cofee generation” propaganda and a lot of super-shiny, perfect music such as Madonna, “Material Girl” being imposed on you by corporate radio of the day. So in this way, it makes sense that the youth (or adults) of 2020 are not relating to LIB in the same way as the youth of the 80’s did.

The Replacements have that intimidating fan-related zealotry thing going on

All I know about them is that p4k included a couple of Mats albums in their best of the 80s lists and that they were lushes. My ignorance shields me.

OTM. I read this one Replacements book by one blowhard flannel-flying fanboy and couldn’t listen to them for a while after that. Then again after I read the excellent Trouble Boys I also ended up having, um, trouble listening to them for a bit.

little 2.5g doses of THC. personally i don't even detect a difference

Not to sound like a lightweight but I suspect that should be mg :-)

lol, whoops! right you are. please don't take 2.5g doses - you will turn into cheech or chong about 5 minutes before you turn into a plant

I separate SST to other US "college rock" in my head. Has its own (for better or worse) sound.

That's fair... I feel like the Minutemen tend to be grouped in with those others, as the decade's "big guns," but I agree they're stylistically different.

(When I think of the actual music listened to by college students I knew, when I was a kid in the '80s - camp counselors and such - it was the Dead Milkmen, Camper Van, Violent Femmes, the Cure... plus R.E.M., of course.)

I used to think of "college rock" as idk Violent Femmes or 10,000 Maniacs (REM def fits) and mentally categorized Husker Du and Sonic Youth as American "indie rock" or "postpunk", although all those terms have been defined so many ways that who really knows. xp yes exactly!

I distinctly remember hearing CVB's "Where the Hell Is Bill?" in summer camp, and being all..."??" I knew about punk, but had no context for this new kind of straight-faced / sarcastic music. (Sorry for the digression; but to the point of the thread, I never got into most of those bands, either.)

thanks everybody for your thoughts re: replacements. i guess i'm a semi-disaffected 80s kid, but i think maybe i was just a tad too young to truly "get it" (born in '81). funny that bands like husker du, minutemen, etc. were mentioned as i've never really been able to get into that stuff either. still like r.e.m. tho, so idk what my problem is.

2.5g of thc sounds awesome right about now. "i wanna be sedated" and whathaveyou.

2.5g is the next door you find after successfully completing a 2.5 mg 420 unlock

a thick plume of weed smoke seeps out from under the bedroom door

the neighborhood understands he keeps trying to like bands that he can't get into