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

afghan whigs

― |citation needed| (will), Friday, November 8, 2013 8:56 AM (2 minutes ago)

for me, too. weird cuz i seriously dug (and still enjoy) a couple early tracks: "hey cuz" and "white trash party". several close friends of mine are huge fans, so i try when subjected to find something appreciable. i can't. they sound like a sweaty blanket.

Is Nilmar the pidgeon or is Poliopolice the pidgeon?xp

Maybe they are both pidgeons, playing chess against one another without making moves.

treesh do you think that if you were to spend some time attempting to understand and/or like classical music that it would yield any results? if so then i would suggest doing so because there is a lot of amazing music there

I agree with reckless. Never play chess with a pigeon. They're scared of the rooks and they just shit on the bishop's head..

some things just don't hit you right away. and sometimes you actually have to work at something. figure it out. try and hear what other people are hearing. i go back to stuff all the time time just to check my reaction RIGHT NOW. as opposed to last year. or the year before that.

there is so much music you need to take your time with. and what you don't love at 20 might save your life when you are 30.

something like the clash, i totally get why people love them. i liked the jam when i was a kid for a lot of the same reasons that clash fans love the clash. and i LOVE the clash hits. i've said that on ilm a bunch. i love hearing should i stay or should i go or whatever on the car radio. but that's as far as my interest goes and i've heard them plenty.

i put on a Grin album about an hour ago. probably 20+ years of me trying to like Grin and Nils solo. never happens. so boring. i think that might be my last try.

yeah to be abundantly clear i approve of that very strongly but it requires a large degree of negative capability and a certain humility which isn't suggested by expulsive ranting in block capitals

the only thing that interests me about these discussions is thinking about why we'd make ourselves "work at" appreciating particular pieces of art. we take a leap of faith that some art others have promoted is worth our efforts; and this is really an act of trust in others over ourselves. and why make that act of trust? I think it's that we admire those others and want to be like them; because we're not going to get anything out of them for trying and failing. and anyway there's no need to work at it if you're just going to lie about appreciating it anyway.

guys, guys, no need to pick one post to death, we should appreciate Poliopolice's body of posts as a oh fuck it FP

What's especially weird is when you grow to love something for the same reason you were initially repelled by it. The latest example I can think of is Poliça whose heavy autotune sound I kind of miss on their latest album.

http://i.imgur.com/v0w0Uck.jpg

i am a huge fan of opera now. you don't think i had to work at that?

x-post

man i think opera is the one thing i'll never get, just instinctively drives me up the fuckin wall, like nails on chalkboard....

have you been to an opera performance or just listened to the music?

something like the clash, i totally get why people love them. i liked the jam when i was a kid for a lot of the same reasons that clash fans love the clash. and i LOVE the clash hits. i've said that on ilm a bunch. i love hearing should i stay or should i go or whatever on the car radio. but that's as far as my interest goes and i've heard them plenty.

― scott seward, Friday, November 8, 2013 12:28 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Had you heard the Jam before the Clash? Like, years before? I'm curious only because friends (actually, our dreadlocked pal) tried to get me into the Dead Boys and the Rezillos because I love the Clash (and the Jam). But they only struck me as "sure, that's fine." They didn't knock me for a loop, but maybe they couldn't have because I'd already spent decades absorbing the Clash, so the Rezillos weren't going to be revelatory.

have you been to an opera performance or just listened to the music?

― Tip from Tae Kwon Do: (crüt), Friday, November 8, 2013 11:46 AM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

just listened sometimes to whatever randomly comes up on our local public radio classical station

and i bought a mozart opera once by mistake because it was an super audio CD at a garage sale & my CD player plays those and i never had one before so i just wanted to see what it would sound like (but i thought it was just a regular mozart jawn when i bought it)

Mozart was my jam when I was 9 (probs Amadeus related) along w/ Michael Jackson and Lionel richie and billy Joel. Moved away from all that music for a time, me re-entry gateway drug into classical were various soundtracks and more modern classical. Been kinda working my way back from the 20th century.

see that's the funny thing about something like opera or even classical or jazz. people who don't like it will have to listen to a lot of it to end up liking it! i mean you just kinda have to in order to educate yourself and find different styles/periods that you enjoy more than others, etc. you aren't really going to hear the music any other way. really hear it. its like learning a language. you gotta dive in.

The Jam is a good example, actually. I remember a WFMU show from long ago where the idea was "Make Me Like The Jam" and I totally sympathized. I like the theory of the band, but the albums have never done much. It's weird when you "should" like a band but don't.

FTGI, this kind of surprises me.

What do you think of These New Puritans?

I love them! except when they're cribbing from Talk Talk (which is 1/3rd of their new album) (I love 2/3rds of that album)

peter gabriel :(

just can't do his voice. Someday.

i used to not really be into queen. it took an incredible karaoke rendition of "don't stop me now" for it to really "click".

flaming lips

^ me too. Thought Soft Bulletin wasn't bad, kept hearing raves about the early stuff, but it struck me as almost aggressively unremarkable.

something like the clash, i totally get why people love them. i liked the jam when i was a kid for a lot of the same reasons that clash fans love the clash. and i LOVE the clash hits. i've said that on ilm a bunch. i love hearing should i stay or should i go or whatever on the car radio. but that's as far as my interest goes and i've heard them plenty.

i think the problem is that ppl have come to associate digging the clash exclusively with being an over-the-top 'clash fan' -- they're the only band that matters, blah blah. but the actual band are way more interesting than that imo. most of the clash's actual music -- especially past the first album -- is nothing like what you'd expect from their image.

I kept trying and failing to like Flaming Lips, then I finally succeeded with their 6-hour song from last year, yaaay

i think one thing ilm has taught me is that i have the capacity to get into any type of music, esp if it's for the sake of sweet sweet challops

treesh do you think that if you were to spend some time attempting to understand and/or like classical music that it would yield any results? if so then i would suggest doing so because there is a lot of amazing music there

i think i am capable of becoming obsessed with classical music, yes. it's a matter of never putting the time in.

u got time bro don't rush it, get into something cooler instead while you're still young IMO

nothing cooler than early xenakis

A band that I finally fell in love with after years of re-evaluation is Talking Heads. I never disliked them or anything, but just did not love them. (I still only really love the Eno-produced albums.)

I don't keep trying to listen to music that I immediately hate, but sometimes if there is a group I am luke warm on, I'll keep going back to them - hoping they'll stick. For me I'd say the music that I keep coming back to; hoping that it will finally click and make me fall in love with it, is Detroit techno as a whole. The closest I've come is older Richie Hawtin, and recent Robert Hood. It is something I am kind of ashamed of, being a huge fan of most of the music it influenced.

I kept trying to like The Band and I didn't get it for ages but now I do

i kinda liked this album when it came out i bought the tape and played it and was like yeah sonic youth live skull i like all that so i have to like this and then i forgot all about it and i was playing a vinyl copy today and was all BEST ALBUM EVER!!! cranked it way loud on the foghat speakers in the store and man oh man what a record. new favorite band. i think there are even posts by me on the CLASSICAL thread where i'm like yeah they were okay but no big deal....

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zuG0ti72Nz4/TxmT2CCthZI/AAAAAAAADVg/j7pGPohsfSo/s400/Band_of_Susans_Love_Agenda.jpg

i still don't really like The Band though. but i haven't tried that hard with The Band. never listen to their albums, just sell them.

this is my jam

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgOBUdzjN0

i keep trying with The Passage. old cherry red band. playing them now. have played them on and off for years and just can't grasp their weirdness. for some reason. i'm all for weirdness. i had this problem with eyeless in gaza.

yeah the guitar sound on that band of susans album is just wow. vinyl is the way to go that's all i know.

the residents have eluded me so far

have you tried meet the residents? have converted a few with that one, it's pre-electronics era so very organic sounding.

i like the residents in theory. i've owned their records, but i hardly ever played them. i think i just kinda admire them more than anything else. they were fun to see live though. saw them in philly on that icky flicks tour.

sun city girls another group i have owned multiple albums by and i hardly ever played them and i always sold them just like i sold any residents albums i had. because they are both really easy to sell. i even proclaimed sun city girls the best rock band on ilm once when i was drunk. must have been playing a good one. would probably keep a copy of horse cock phephner if i saw one cheap. always liked that one a lot.

yeah horse cock phepner is real good. I made a run at listening to their entire discog, never made it all the way thru but HCP, torch of the mystics, and funeral mariachi are the keepers. grotto of miracles is pretty damn good too iirc.

it took forever for post-mooney can to click for me

I still don't understand the jesus lizard apart from "here comes dudley"

thanks skott & edward for your boundless enthusiasm, I am getting hold of that Band of Susans record, they are indeed great

yeah they put out some good stuff for sure! but again i think i like them more in theory. and they are definitely a band you are supposed to love and adore and all that. if you run with certain smelly crowds. residents and SCG both give me the curdled zappa vibe sometimes though. that snide thing. and i don't dig that sometimes. i prefer straight-up anger. and the "comedy" doesn't thrill me like zappa's "comedy" doesn't thrill me. weird dudes all though. that's for sure.

Ha! I was just listening to Band of Susans shuffle on Spotify and really enjoying all of it. Never have heard them before today.