I like everything Whiskeytown ever did, including the couple dozen unreleased tracks.
(Ryan Adam's solo gets patchy pretty quickly thereafter.)
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 18 March 2024 04:56 (two months ago) link
Sergio Mendes could def be considered uncool from a bossa nova purist perspective, he's the dude who went off to become a big star in the US and do covers of Anglo songs. but then from a 90's and beyond lounge revivalist pov he becomes very cool indeed.
alright if no one's gonna name anything TRULY uncool I'll just mention that I think both Moxy Fruvous and the Barenaked Ladies have written some excellent songs
quite like Barenaked Ladies, I get that they're an early incarnation of epic bacon/reddit style humour but that stuff wasn't as omnipresent then, or perhaps I was younger and less discerning, anyway they strike me as fundamentally benign. got Brian Wilson to sing "Brian Wilson" on that live album, too.
I certainly despised Michael Bolton in my youth but "How Can We Be Lovers" works as well as the next AOR/power ballad banger.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:26 (two months ago) link
I like that Bonzo Dog Band album Camaraderie posted
I also have a Blow Monkeys LP but tbh I don't like very much on it so maybe that doesn't count
I own the first Asia LP
I like lots of post-1980 punk stuff that was definitely not cool in the UK when I was growing up but appears to have been cool in the USA to some degree, and a lot of it seems to have been reappraised a bit in more recent times
main uncool music for me is probably lots of pre-Britpop UK indie music that is still roundly detested
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:32 (two months ago) link
The ABBA fan club includes Lester Bangs, John Lydon, Elvis Costello and Pete Townshend - they were always cool to ppl in the know, it's just they look very uncool to the squares.
Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle ca. 1980.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZKk0vXesqmA/X9zspXItOZI/AAAAAAAAKCU/j_lEhCqq2RAjhwNF12352KGx2mLFH6WZACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/abbachris.jpg
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:45 (two months ago) link
I saw the Abba Voyage show in London last year and I was the only cool person there.
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:47 (two months ago) link
Oh yes ABBA Voyage is not cool.
The CBGBs store they had at that New York airport also wasn't cool.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:51 (two months ago) link
That uncool couple you sat next to? Used to be in Throbbing Gristle.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:51 (two months ago) link
"main uncool music for me is probably lots of pre-Britpop UK indie music that is still roundly detested"
names please.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:20 (two months ago) link
only one post on the revived steve harley thread. ouch.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:21 (two months ago) link
xp reminds me that I've had an "in defense of Kingmaker" blog planned for quite a while now, must get it finished.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 18 March 2024 11:22 (two months ago) link
I unapologetically love “Cracked Rear View” by Hootie and the Blowfish. As a Brit, do I get bonus uncool points for embracing the sound of mid-90s middle America.
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:27 (two months ago) link
yes. yes you do. i can't imagine listening to the whole thing. but there must be a reason why it sold a zillion copies.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:31 (two months ago) link
only one post on the revived steve harley thread. ouch
More on the obit thread. For the record, I don't think Steve Harley was ever considered particularly uncool - except when he did The Phantom of the Opera.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 11:34 (two months ago) link
some of these bands I only like a few songs by and a lot of it is more for nostalgic reasons than thinking these bands were actually brilliant, but yes the late 80s/early 90s era bands like Carter USM/Ned's Atomic Dustbin/Senseless Things/Mega City 4/Pop Will Eat Itself/Inspiral Carpets/yes even Kingmaker had a couple of songs I could still listen to
I went to see Sultans of Ping last year (not UK obviously but same kind of thing)
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:37 (two months ago) link
I think Ocean Colour Scene might be the band with the biggest disconnect between how irredeemably uncool I find them (everything about their aesthetic and general vibe is so corny and off-putting) and how much I actually like all their big singles. There were all these britpop bands who were terrible but had one (1) quite good song and OCS were like that except they had five or six. Also, The Riverboat Song is better than Four Sticks.
― soref, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:56 (two months ago) link
I like a lot of Britpop stuff that most people would call uncool, I guess.There's some hippy/festival crossover type stuff I enjoy like The SkintsMost of all, I'm pretty cool though
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Monday, 18 March 2024 12:36 (two months ago) link
xp In my "introduce yourself" post 20 years ago, I said BNL was one of my favorite bands. They've fallen quite a bit in my band ranking but there's a good handful of songs I'll still stick up for. And their live album Rock Spectacle is one of the only live albums I love
I feel like a ton of music I loved in high school was uncool at the time (Enya, They Might Be Giants, Enigma, various synthpop groups), but nearly all those artists have been reevaluated and given some dues over the years. Hard to think of anything that has just stayed uncool
― Vinnie, Monday, 18 March 2024 12:42 (two months ago) link
Has anyone said traditional Irish fiddling yet? Cuz fellas I love a reel.
― ian, Monday, 18 March 2024 12:58 (two months ago) link
Not uncool.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:09 (two months ago) link
Traditional music in general isn't uncool.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:10 (two months ago) link
reminds me that I've had an "in defense of Kingmaker" blog planned for quite a while
lol I love Kingmaker, definitely add them to my not-cool list. (They were very briefly cool when they first hit, NME lauded and all that, but they basically got middled out between Madchester and Britpop.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:10 (two months ago) link
I've even seen Kingmaker live, TWICE. (once an exceedingly rare U.S. performance)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:11 (two months ago) link
the two albums by The Lucy Show are two of my favorite 80s rock records. I haven't stopped listening to them since 1985/1986. but i don't know if they are uncool or if its just that i am the only person who still remembers or plays them. there must be a difference between those things.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 13:41 (two months ago) link
oh wait duh on the 80s thread i started or maybe the big music thread i just mentioned that i had been playing that first Easterhouse album. surely they aren't cool by anyone's standard. i still love that record though. U2 + Chameleons + Communism.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 13:43 (two months ago) link
I owned manai at one point but couldnt get into it
― brimstead, Monday, 18 March 2024 14:55 (two months ago) link
mania
I have defended 311 a bunch, not to say I *love* them but I think they are underrated. FWIW they just did a Tiny Desk concert, which I'm curious to check out.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, March 14, 2024 12:30 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink
you should, I enjoyed it a lot. Nick Hexum still has great hair
― frogbs, Monday, 18 March 2024 14:58 (two months ago) link
I think Billy Joel is still uncool at this point but I might be wrong, so him.Seconding the Al DiMeola reference upthread as I dig all his stuff and it's dollar bin status supports his undesired status. I also own and love a bunch of Herbie Mann records, including the ones that Sonny Sharrock isn't on.I feel like it is tricky to gauge the coolness factor of metal bands, but I do listen to a lot of slam metal, which a significant number of metalheads turn their nose up at. I am currently wearing a Waking the Cadaver t-shirt, who might be the most shitted on and mocked band in the slam/deathcore/brutal death metal axis.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:06 (two months ago) link
Keith Whitley is cool, right?Jimmy Scott? 90s/00s Dee Dee Bridgewater?
― brimstead, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:15 (two months ago) link
Re ABBA, like everyone else I like the best of their singles. But they are pretty uncool for this:
https://www.investorschronicle.co.uk/education/2021/01/21/lessons-from-history-on-abba-and-shareholder-capitalism/
Back in 1982, exports of Swedish pop (read: Abba) were booming, but the local economy was recovering from a recession. The leftwing Social Democratic Party, seeking to overturn a weak coalition government in the upcoming election, had a new pitch for downtrodden workers.
Its proposal, pioneered by Swedish economist Rudolf Meidner, was to force Sweden’s leading firms to give a fifth of their “excess profits” to trade unions. The unions would in turn use this money to buy company shares, effectively handing part-ownership of the private sector to workers. Big business would supposedly be run less in the interests of outside investors, and more in the interests of the little man.
Abba certainly did not find this proposition funny. “It is ridiculous to think [the unions] could take care of the money better than us professionals,” the group’s manager, Stig Anderson, told The Christian Science Monitor magazine at the time. If Sweden elected the Social Democrats, he suggested, it would be akin to voting to go behind the Iron Curtain. An outdoor concert was organised in Stockholm to help finance the campaign against the alleged communist takeover and Björn Ulvaeus, one of Abba’s members and lead composers, turned his writing talents to penning pamphlets about the perils of the policy.
Was this a selfless devotion to the liberal cause? Abba, as chance would have it, had been building something of a business empire themselves.
― glumdalclitch, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:20 (two months ago) link
ABBA are kind of a unique pick here I think, they're still very uncool (does anyone want to admit to liking Mama Mia!?) but they do often slot in as the one acceptable guilty pleasure
― frogbs, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:22 (two months ago) link
The movies or the song? I like the song.
I also feel like "superficially corny seeming thing is actually really great" is a well worn coolness trope (Sonic Youth on the Carpenters is an example) but frankly at this point ABBA doesn't even feel like that to me anymore, they're just a confirmed part of the canon.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:29 (two months ago) link
“Mamma Mia” is one of my top 50 favorite songs of all time.
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:31 (two months ago) link
Seconding the Al DiMeola reference upthread as I dig all his stuff and it's dollar bin status supports his undesired status...I feel like it is tricky to gauge the coolness factor of metal bands, but I do listen to a lot of slam metal, which a significant number of metalheads turn their nose up at. I am currently wearing a Waking the Cadaver t-shirt, who might be the most shitted on and mocked band in the slam/deathcore/brutal death metal axis.
Oh fuck — someone else on ILX who listens to Al Di Meola and slam metal? Come sit here by me. I buy so many brutal death metal records, almost entirely based on cover art. Waking The Cadaver are awesome.
― Tahuti Watches L&O:SVU Reruns Without His Ape (unperson), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:32 (two months ago) link
Once we pretend ABBA is still uncool we're a short ways away from claiming Burt Bacharach is uncool, ya know.
xposts
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:32 (two months ago) link
(xxp) I assume it was the film that was being referred to and, yes, I quite enjoyed it! In any case ABBA are definitely NOT very uncool!
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:32 (two months ago) link
Yeah I don't think Mamma Mia the movie or that ABBA vr thing impinge on their cool any more than that Richard Curtis film and the Cirque du Soleil show made the Beatles uncool (yes yes I know I'm leaving myself open to the obvious zing here).
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 15:37 (two months ago) link
ABBA aren't "uncool," I think the hang-up is whether they are or were ever actually "cool." I would say ABBA aren't cool themselves — in the way that, like, Debbie Harry is cool — but liking ABBA is cool, or cool enough to not qualify as uncool.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:38 (two months ago) link
I feel like ABBA are mocked for being the height of 70s bad taste by people that don't remember the general standard of Eurovision entries from back then.
― shave and a haircut, two brits (Matt #2), Monday, 18 March 2024 15:52 (two months ago) link
hell yeah, glad I'm not alone on bespectacled fusion wank/braindead breakdown island. I'd always dismissed WTC as a joke based off the old "Shredded Wheat" meme, but after moving to New Jersey a couple years ago, I was compelled to give the local boys a fair shake and now they're a legit fave of mine.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, 18 March 2024 16:23 (two months ago) link
saw a jazz guitarist last night, Stéphane Wrembel, and he talked about his early playing days being a big Al Di Meola fan and then played a ripping cover, all fast runs, was good.
― bulb after bulb, Monday, 18 March 2024 16:27 (two months ago) link
music I like that ain't cool
Kenny Loggins - "Meet Me Halfway"Boy Meets Girl - "Waiting on a Star to Fall"New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed TooMichael Buble - It's Time (ok, laugh it up)Josh Groban - CloserJack Wagner - "All I Need"the Mickey Thomas Starship power ballads
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Monday, 18 March 2024 16:28 (two months ago) link
Oh, Kenny Loggins — I had the 45 of "Don't Fight It" by him and Steve Perry, and I still like that song.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 16:44 (two months ago) link
i still like the first counting crows album, that's pretty fucking uncool
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 18 March 2024 16:48 (two months ago) link
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
is this considered uncool on ILX? feel like there might be a few people here who dig this album though I can see ILX absolutely hating it
― frogbs, Monday, 18 March 2024 17:04 (two months ago) link
Michael buble seems aight, tiers above Michael Bolton and that kind of ez thing. Buble goes for authentic Sinatra type vibes, yeah?
― brimstead, Monday, 18 March 2024 17:31 (two months ago) link
pretty much. the arrangements are lazy though. and he stole Nina Simone's version of "Feelin' Good"
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Monday, 18 March 2024 17:54 (two months ago) link
I would go so far as to say "You Get What You Give" is one of the best pop songs of all time
― Saxophone Of Futility (Michael B), Monday, 18 March 2024 17:55 (two months ago) link
I unapologetically love “Cracked Rear View” by Hootie and the Blowfish.
My son's new band does mostly originals, but one of the few covers they do is "Let her Cry," it's a fucking amazing song.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Monday, 18 March 2024 17:59 (two months ago) link
xpost amen!
― CEO Greedwagon (Neanderthal), Monday, 18 March 2024 18:00 (two months ago) link