The Tea Party: Why do they suck?

i also want to add the disney movie aladin to my list from the last message.

I don't know much about either band, but in a weird way they seem like similar bands. Neither one seems to be known by many in the US, which may or may not be a good thing. I've read about both, but heard neither.

he always goes on in interviews how he's making 'important' music and talks about the tea party alongside the likes of radiohead and jeff buckley, and even does a boring arse cover of 'the last goodbye'.

This explains most of why they suck. The second is their posturing, they started as The Doors, second album the became a Zepplin cover band. Both of those albums were just classic rock takes on what the Strokes have been doing as of late with trendier bands. If you hate the Strokes, chances are your feeling the same for the Tea Party.

The last couple of albums I've heard though, all the songs sound the same to me (with a couple of exceptions). It's a big wash of overblown SERIOUS ROCK MUSIC with a string section. You can almost feel Jeff Martin writhing against the indignity of only being a rock star in CANADA.

I'm still more than happy to listen to 'Turn the Lamp Down Low', 'Save Me', 'Inanna', or 'Temptation' though.

crapitude

What's weird though is that they are HUGE in Australia. I've actually gotten into a heated disagreement with some Aussies who insist that they are indeed great.

I guess Australia is how far they had to go from home before they could fool enough people into liking them.

Getting back to the original question, I don't know. It could be the shameless aping of all the worst elements of classic rock or the way that Jeff Martin pretends to get upset whenever someone mentions the resemblance to Jim Morrison but seems to go out of his way to play it up.

They just suck.

I still like their first 3.5 records a lot (each of which showed a true progression/expansion of its predecessor), but gotta say that I TOTALLY agree with most of the negative accusations and empathize with the haters on this thread. Jeff Martin is indeed a colossal dick. But I've never let any performer's particular assholery interfere with whatever enjoyment of their music I get - that would surely eliminate a huge percentage of my collection. So I stand by my assessment: A band of infinite height and width to more than make up for the complete absence of depth. (At least, for 3.5 albums.)

Former Tea Party singer Jeff Martin returns with new record, new friends Sextape with Buck 65 and four Lower Sackville exotic dancers to follow
By Angela Pacienza
TORONTO (CP) — After dumping his Tea Party bandmates and fleeing to the Irish countryside, Jeff Martin returned to the Canadian music scene this week armed with a solo album and some new friends.
Citing creative differences, Martin parted ways with the rock band last fall after nine albums and 15 years together.
“We were a band of brothers,” Martin said in an interview at a downtown coffee shop. “After 15 years we just naturally started to drift apart. The three of us wanted different things.”
Martin returned to Toronto for Canadian Music Week to launch his new solo career to industry executives, music journalists and fans.
He formed the Tea Party with bassist Stuart Chatwood and drummer Jeff Burrows in 1990. They were best known for their eastern-influenced rock songs, which included Sister Awake and Heaven Coming Down.
“It wasn’t an amiable breakup whatsoever, but time heals all and eventually I look forward to maybe someday us being friends again. As far as a music future is concerned, it’s right there,” he said, pointing to Page & Plant drummer Michael Lee seated across the table.
Lee said he was thrilled to work with Martin, saying they share the same opinions on music, religion and politics.
“This is the new (Led) Zeppelin. I don’t mind saying it,” gushed Lee, an Englishman who’s currently based in Dubai.
“I don’t have to sell this as the next best thing ’cuz I know it is.”
Martin knew Lee from his Tea Party days when the band opened for Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.
Recorded over eight days last December in Ireland, Exile and the Kingdom has Martin returning to his early days when he was belting out blues-rock at bars in Windsor, Ont.
But the music won’t be too startling for Martin loyalists, as his deep tenor is intact, and he’s kept the exotic influences using percussionist Ritesh Das of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble.
“With the last two Tea Party records . . . the pressure from the record companies for the band to be more commercial, we started to lose our soul. This record is packed full of soul,” said the still-brawny Martin, who was set to perform the new material for the first time at a concert Friday night.
“If you’re truly a lover of music and not one of these people who listen to music because of fashion, this is the real deal.”
The album will be released April 11 in Canada. It includes The World Is Calling — essentially an open letter to U.S. President George W. Bush — and Daystar, a tender love song dedicated to his year-old son Django.
Martin says he was keen to explore the human soul in this album and leave the brooding behind.
“This whole combination of family, friends . . . what it’s done for me is reborn me. I got off the drugs. My mind is focused on family, friends, music — that’s it,” said Martin, now a permanent resident of Ireland.
“As opposed to the Tea Party’s music which was really dark and introspective, this record is just packed full of joy and love. You actually hear sunlight.”
But he’s eager to add that he hasn’t completely softened.
“I haven’t lost my edge,” he said.
Martin plans to tour the new album this summer. He’s also starting another project with Lee. He’s been asked to write lyrics to about 16 songs that Lee wrote with Jimmy Page a couple of years ago.

ALERT GEORGE BUSH!

http://www.hogwild.net/images/Misc/brawny-towels.jpg

Now he's a self-righteous uber-pretentious fucktard.

My thoughts exactly!

1: S/T
2: Splendour Solis
3: The Edges Of Twilight
4: Alhambra (a live CD EP)
5: Transmission
6: Triptych
7: Tangents (a best of)
8: The Interzone Mantras
9: Seven Circles

I still hear "Heaven's Coming Down" at the YMCA.

are you a fan, owen?

The Tea Party, on the other hand, were mostly worthless.

In comparison to all the other Canrock bands of the time, they were definitely the most experimental. Right up until "The Edges Of Twilight", they were an eclectic, sonically interesting band. The songs were unfortunately marred by trite attempts at "mystic lyrics", not to mention poor performance practise on the exotic instruments they used so often.

I would honestly commend two or three songs off of "Edges Of Twilight" to be as good as Dead Can Dance at their peak. Perhaps a dubious honour, but the sound was refreshing on The Edge in 1995 when sandwiched between I Mother Earth and Hole.

Then, with Transmission, Jeff Martin took the reins as producer, and the sound became overtracked and lost any of the small charms it once retained.

The last (only?) Tea Party song I remember liking is "Sister Awake". I was not a very goth kid but that video and the death's head vocals made me very happy.

The album also includes a hidden song which features a spoken word performance by folk legend Roy Harper, who is a personal friend of the band.

Seriously!? That is doubly weird!

I think I saw the band muddle through one of those Ottawa tulip fest/canada day gigs and it was awful. nothing like the really surprisingly awesome performance by (good god) Big Sugar.

(Sundar u rule)

these guys are total dicks imo

One of the worst bands I ever heard.

I was recommended their song "Psychopomp" and am really digging it. shame the singer's big-headed in every sense of the word.

There are a bunch of jams on that album.

I like “Correspondences”

I wrote upthread kind of nastily about this band but I actually still put on Edges Of Twilight sometimes

There is a kind of hipster bar in Toronto and in 2008 or thereabouts, my friend Duncan was hosting this recurring night there. Management went to Duncan as he was onstage with the band and told him that Jeff Martin was there and wanted to get onstage and play a song. Duncan iirc was somewhat hesitant but decided to just go for it. Jeff Martin came onstage and began playing “Jammin’”. And a certain point Duncan repressed his giggling enough to lean over to a live mic and say “listen to what the wise man is saying”

Sounds about right.