I don't even understand how this is even a poll. That said JD no question. I hate PF - a lot.
― Too Into Dancing to Argue (ENBB), Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:31 (fifteen years ago) link
Thank you, ENBB!
― Horror of Prog Rock (Bimble), Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:32 (fifteen years ago) link
these were both my favorite bands at different points in my life (points not very far removed from each other, come to think of it). the angst of floyd is more adolescent, the angst of joy division more intellectual, both are pretentious in their own way.
― akm, Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I like everything by Floyd from Meddle through The Final Cut, to varying degrees (I hate the Syd Barrett stuff - in fact, I hate that whole school of whimsical Brit psych-pop). But the only JD song I can get through is "Transmission." So yeah, Floyd for me.
― unperson, Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:41 (fifteen years ago) link
syd barrett floyd >> joy division >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> post-barrett floyd
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:50 (fifteen years ago) link
The sound of a kitten being fucked to death by a horse>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Syd Barrett Floyd
― unperson, Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:56 (fifteen years ago) link
it's kind of a mystery to me that anyone can still stomach "classic" floyd; i'd rather throw my car radio out the window than ever be subjected to "money" or "wish you were here" or "brick in the wall" again.
x-post: whatever dude, i'll take sweetly melancholy edward lear-derived nursery rhymes over self-righteous, cloddy, plodding, dreary arena-friendly shit like later floyd any day.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Saturday, 17 January 2009 23:58 (fifteen years ago) link
They are both depressing.
That said, Floyd rules. With our without Syd. Without Waters, very bad.
― thirdalternative, Sunday, 18 January 2009 00:33 (fifteen years ago) link
Joy Division.
I'm surprised Pink Floyd gets praised as much as they do on ILM - in theory at least, they should be the *worst* *band* *ever*. Gods of classic rock + annoying fans + slow guitar music that you could never dance to.
Pink Floyd were probably the biggest wtf moment when I was a stereotypical teenager discovering classic rock. Their image: striking album covers, trippy drug music, millions of fans...doesn't match with reality: elevator music. It made me not want to do drugs.
― iatee, Sunday, 18 January 2009 00:39 (fifteen years ago) link
that whole school of whimsical Brit psych-pop
This is like some of my favorite shit ever though I wish I knew more of it- been totally immersed in the Move lately- anyway, I don't know why I'm posting this here...
― ColinO, Sunday, 18 January 2009 00:56 (fifteen years ago) link
This does seem like a good place to post about The Move. Echo & The Bunnymen vs. Electric Light Orchestra?
― james k polk, Sunday, 18 January 2009 01:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Phil you are not my homey no more until you take back any bad shit you have ever thought about Barrett who is not "whimsical"
― J0hn D., Sunday, 18 January 2009 03:51 (fifteen years ago) link
I mean I dig what you think it's about but it is not about that OK
― J0hn D., Sunday, 18 January 2009 03:58 (fifteen years ago) link
I don't know, man - if there's darkness of the spirit there, that's swell, but it's darkness of the spirit in ruffly shirts, and I just can't hang. I will freely admit that some of the melodies to those songs are good ones, because I enjoyed the avant-metallers-cover-Barrett compilation Like Black Holes In The Sky quite a bit, but the originals just do nothing for me.
― unperson, Sunday, 18 January 2009 04:08 (fifteen years ago) link
I like them both. I'll pick Floyd because they made more. I still put on meddle, animals, dark side, and wish...
― nicky lo-fi, Sunday, 18 January 2009 04:51 (fifteen years ago) link
Pink Floyd The Grateful Dead were probably the biggest wtf moment when I was a stereotypical teenager discovering classic rock. Their image: striking album covers, trippy drug music, millions of fans...doesn't match with reality: elevator music. It made me not want to do drugs.
FTFY
― Hideous Lump, Sunday, 18 January 2009 04:55 (fifteen years ago) link
Joy Divison, c'mon. I like Pink Floyd and all, but Joy Division was a singular force. There aren't dozens of joy division cover bands criss-crossing the country playing 2 night sets at drug festivals, because they could never be imitated. There was nothing like Joy Division, before or since.
― scourge of cords (Z S), Sunday, 18 January 2009 04:58 (fifteen years ago) link
<blockquote>If the Televison Personalities had done a song "I Know Where Ian Curtis Is Dead"</blockquote>This is funny to me.
― bookbookgoose, Sunday, 18 January 2009 06:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars.
On that score, Floyd, easy, no question. I love Joy Division and all, but I've spent more time with Pink Floyd, and they've offered more in return. I jump ship at (or maybe after?) The Wall, but everything up to Dark Side is brilliant. ''
― Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Sunday, 18 January 2009 08:03 (fifteen years ago) link
Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars. Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars. Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars. Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars. Seems like a fair comparison to me, not in that the bands are similar, but in that they're not. I mean, they're both hugely influential UK bands, and they each still represent an era and a musical/aesthetic point of view. But more to the point, they represent points of view that are often seen as being diametrically opposed to one another. So the poll asks us to take sides in yesterday's culture wars.
― Moka, Sunday, 18 January 2009 08:44 (fifteen years ago) link
Hahaha, I had this feeling someone was gonna say something like that. I was gonna mention how Johnny Rotten wore an "I Hate Pink Floyd" shirt back in the days of the Pistols, but ya know, later on he retracted it and said he liked them, so...the wind went out of my sails on that anecdote.
I always kinda liked Gilmour's response to Lydon's shirt... It was something like "well, at least we were an interesting target. It's not like he would have gotten as much mileage out of a 'I hate Yes' shirt"
Anyway... Floyd in a knockout.
― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Sunday, 18 January 2009 08:46 (fifteen years ago) link
Also: Atmosphere/Dead Souls 7" > New Order >>>>> Joy Division
It's not like I'm a Floyd superfan, but they win this for me 12 times out of 10.
― If Timi Yuro would be still alive, most other singers could shut up, Sunday, 18 January 2009 08:59 (fifteen years ago) link
This is like Sex Pistols vs. The Fall or something. The sheer quantity of material consider is so disproportionate.
― Dr X O'Skeleton, Sunday, 18 January 2009 21:46 (fifteen years ago) link
There aren't dozens of joy division cover bands criss-crossing the country playing 2 night sets at drug festivals, because they could never be imitated
no, but there sure are a bunch of forty-somethings pining for the days when REAL music that MEANT something, like Joy Division, was the order of the day
just like there's a bunch of tired fifty-somethings spouting the same crap about post-Barrett Floyd
I retract my criticism of the thread premise, it's OTM
― J0hn D., Sunday, 18 January 2009 21:51 (fifteen years ago) link
No but still we have Interpol, The Editors and a lot of sound alike indie obscure bands from a few years ago. Still... I'll go with Joy Division, can't stand Pink Floyd and/or their fans.
― elgolfo, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:13 (fifteen years ago) link
Joy Division folks on this poll are my heroes.
― I am a vampire, therefore I take garlic pills (Bimble), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:16 (fifteen years ago) link
I never understood the constant Interpol/JD comparisons. They both have singers with baritone voices. A Chameleons comparison seems a bit more apt. Are Magnetic Fields Joy Division rip-offs?
― scourge of cords (Z S), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
Great to see so many Pink Floyd band and fan haters in this thread. I used to think I was utterly alone.
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:19 (fifteen years ago) link
(I voted pf btw)
can't stand Pink Floyd and/or their fans.
― elgolfo, Sunday, January 18, 2009 10:13 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark
What constitutes a typical Floyd fan? They have a lot of fans, I've met people of all sorts who like them.
― thirdalternative, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
Elvis Telecom OTM
― I am a vampire, therefore I take garlic pills (Bimble), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:29 (fifteen years ago) link
PF fans in general seem a bit blinkered. I really like a lot of Floyd now, but I can still see what's shit about them, such as Waters's voice and Gilmour's horrible bloody wet-sounding guitar.
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:31 (fifteen years ago) link
e.g. DSOTM is an all right album but no way is it even close to best evar.
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Agree on Waters's voice, but quite like Gilmour's guitar and his voice, especially when he sings with Wright.
― thirdalternative, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:35 (fifteen years ago) link
His playing's fine, it's the sound of the thing.
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:37 (fifteen years ago) link
I wonder which band would do the better version of "Louie Louie"?
― Yehudi Menudo (NickB), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:41 (fifteen years ago) link
barrett/curtis duet obv
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:42 (fifteen years ago) link
I hate Waters' voice. I really really really really hate Waters voice. Just saying. I have to get these things out of my system sometimes.
― I am a vampire, therefore I take garlic pills (Bimble), Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:45 (fifteen years ago) link
I hate Waters' voice. I really really really really hate Waters voice.
Fixed.
Count me in!
― ilxor, Sunday, 18 January 2009 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link
i won't be 50 for another quarter century but that doesn't keep me from seeing that post-barrett floyd are godawful played-into-the-dirt dirgerock that don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with, like, steely dan or led zeppelin or robert wyatt or any number of bands/artists of their era that were just as ambitious but didn't blow. or, yeah, joy division.
that said, i have a soft spot for "have a cigar," which is so flamboyantly oily and self-righteous and whiny (look how mean and nasty those records exects are!) that it's funny, like a randy newman parody of pink floyd or something.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:13 (fifteen years ago) link
TBH, I'm not sure I even know who's singing which Pink Floyd songs. Of all the things to dislike, their vocal parts seem pretty inoffensive, even a bit unremarkable.
― Sundar, Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:13 (fifteen years ago) link
That's sort of my point. It just sounds like some blokes.
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:16 (fifteen years ago) link
Ha, I can sort of understand that. It's Bimble's "I really really hate Waters' voice" that throws me.
― Sundar, Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:18 (fifteen years ago) link
The thread has made me listen to Wish You Were Here, I hope you're happy now etc etc
― open wide, come inside, it's apple butter (Autumn Almanac), Sunday, 18 January 2009 23:18 (fifteen years ago) link
this is about as good as stadium rock gets...dig the travesty of the lord's prayer sat down right in the middle...
― Test Tube Teens from the Year 1754 (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 19 January 2009 16:08 (fifteen years ago) link
PF fans in general seem a bit blinkered. I really like a lot of Floyd now, but I can still see what's shit about them...― Autumn Almanac
― Autumn Almanac
This is one of the things that makes the question interesting to me. By modernist standards, Pink Floyd's "failures of taste" are many and glaring. Barret so overplayed his cutie-pie teatime psyche tropes that they frequently became a grating, mincing sort of kitsch. Waters, on the other hand, emotes hideously, painfully, and his lyric reach for significance in a manner that's more embarassing than enlightening. Over the length of their career, the band seems to have indulged (and overindulged) every wayward idea that entered their heads, no matter how trivial or buffoonish. While they're all "tasteful" musicians, they rarely understate that which could be overstated, rarely choose concision or elegance over inflation and grandiosity. None of this makes them bad by any means, but it does make their taste extremely suspect, especially when evaluated relative to a coolly modern band like Joy Division.
Joy Division eschew decoration. Their music is stripped down, clean, reduced to mechanical functionality, never more than it needs to be. They emphasize the materiality and physicality of their instruments, rarely pushing them outside a narrow range of effects. As a result, their music is raw yet restrained, coldly monochromatic, even sterile. More than anything else, it is coherent. It is of a piece. In this, it is, perhaps, the purest pop embodiment of modernist ideals, and it rigidly obeys the dictates of its own, spartan aesthetic. The fact that they existed for such a short time only makes their artistic thumbprint that much sharper.
One thing you can say for modernism is that it simplifies the business of having good taste. When you make "less is more" your guiding principle, you make it much easier to keep all the elements of your art harmoniously aligned -- especially in comparison with an approach as messy and aesthetically risky as Pink Floyd's romantic maximalism.
― Calling All Creeps! (contenderizer), Monday, 19 January 2009 16:35 (fifteen years ago) link
ian curtis' voice is so horrible
― Lingbert, Monday, 19 January 2009 16:40 (fifteen years ago) link
I love Joy Division but because
No results found for "joy division laser show".
I voted for Floyd.
― Euler, Monday, 19 January 2009 16:42 (fifteen years ago) link
xxp I knew this thread was going to turn into TS: Victor Hugo vs. Charles Baudelaire
― hey man dont look at me i dont vote (Drugs A. Money), Monday, 19 January 2009 17:09 (fifteen years ago) link
I like that he was like "this sucks...I'd better write something just like it!"
― akm, Friday, 21 January 2011 19:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Floyd was quite a different band post-Syd
"Post-Syd" encompasses the period from, basically, right after "Piper" hit the streets! He was barely useful during the recording of "Saucerful."
nd they BOTH discovered synths AND dance music ("another brick in the wall") AFTER ian/syd.
Uh, synths weren't really available when Syd was a contributing member of the band, so this is hardly an insight.
― you think you're cool, but you read ick (Phil D.), Friday, 21 January 2011 19:22 (thirteen years ago) link
"run like hell" gots some of the disco beats up in it too. always wanted a full-on dance mix of it tbh.
― normal_fantasy-unicorns (contenderizer), Friday, 21 January 2011 19:41 (thirteen years ago) link
oh anag I like you and enjoy your posts based on knowledge but in all honesty
not liking disco music = being a reactionary tool feels as close to a fact of nature as nature wanders
― Magic Our Maurice! (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 22 January 2011 00:20 (thirteen years ago) link
PS the subtext here is "don't argue u reactionary racist" [better chattin' about stuff u enjoy than the rest of the ingrasable onionverse]
― Magic Our Maurice! (Noodle Vague), Saturday, 22 January 2011 00:22 (thirteen years ago) link
wait are you saying I'm a reactionary racist
― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Dave Gilmour, then anybody who doesn't like disco, then anybody who wandered past when I was drunk.
― Y Kant Torres Red (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
dude I called AbitW & Run Like Hell disco-metal in some other thread and got heaps of scorn dumped on my noggin!
― ellj versus deej (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:31 (thirteen years ago) link
It's not scorn it's fear of rhythm
― Y Kant Torres Red (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:33 (thirteen years ago) link
reactionary tools!
― ellj versus deej (Drugs A. Money), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:39 (thirteen years ago) link
anyway, if I was calling you racist anagram it was very stupid of me and I'm very sorry. hard for me to decipher my own drunk posts, honestly. stand by my general assertion re. reactionariness of being anti-disco tho.
― Y Kant Torres Red (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:45 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6PHI-UiOPM
― Stockhausen's Ekranoplan Quartet (Elvis Telecom), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3RvAIJQh7g
no worries NV, peace
― ban this sick stunt (anagram), Thursday, 3 February 2011 18:50 (thirteen years ago) link
Probably the two bands I've spent the most time with in my life, maybe my two favorite bands, which isn't to say that I don't think Pink Floyd put out a lot of terrible stuff. I've always thought parts of Unknown Pleasures had eerie similarities to some of the darker/heavier tracks on The Wall, which for what it's worth, is exactly the kind of Pink Floyd stuff I don't rate too highly. Not sonically similar so much as some of those heavy foreboding minor chords.
In any case, Run Like Hell is definitely disco, and Pink Floyd have never been known for having taste. One of the most interesting things about them to me is just how insular they kept themselves. They say it in interviews, that they really didn't listen to any other bands and I think that helped them create a singular style and some innovate music, but also some dated/cheesy/silly stuff.
― dan selzer, Saturday, 5 February 2011 04:20 (thirteen years ago) link
dude if Syd still had his marbles in '79, he totes wouldve been digging disco...
― ellj versus deej (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, 5 February 2011 22:57 (thirteen years ago) link
He was bigging up Slade in his last interview proper.
― Mark G, Monday, 7 February 2011 09:48 (thirteen years ago) link