Post a controversial music opinion

bandsplaining

All duos are terrible.

All bands except R.E.M. are excellent

more like blands amirite

Any musician who has not experienced - I do not say understood, but truly experienced - the necessity of dodecaphonic music is USELESS.

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

All duos are terrible.

All solo artists are cowards.

lol

All trios are Norwegian.

All ILM posters are liars

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 1:03 PM (five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I have a constantly running loop of that lebowski clip in my head, but never more than last night when I was in a duane reade after hell commute that was playing take it easy

jmm otm

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 10:03 AM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"i can't tell you why" is an amazing song but i can't join you here just yet

the eagles are good

i can't tell you why is really good

other eagles songs i like: hotel california, new kid in town, try and love again, take it easy, peaceful easy feeling, witchy woman

The High Llamas were (are?) a million times better than their 'parents', the Beach Boys.

that's not controversial, it's just wrong

the only good Beach Boy was/is Mike Love.

High Llamas relationship to the Beach Boys was always tangential at best (and related to a very brief period/narrow slice of their catalog) and was way over-emphasized in their press materials.

I would take even the low points of M.I.U. over the High Llamas tbh

No artist at all has a "New Jersey" - a huge event album that ultimately feels a bit hollow & signals a career decline

You could say that about any band that has the opportunity to develop someone else's idea further, if it works for you.

xps

There are a bunch of good Eagles songs. Every one of them was released as a single, so a compilation is all you need. There's not one Eagles album worth listening to all the way through. The Long Run comes closest.

The Beach Boys have, like, two good songs ("Good Vibrations" and "Don't Worry Baby"), and I could happily go the rest of my life without hearing either one of them ever again.

Can't think of any.

Black metal sucks. Even the "good" stuff is bad enough that it's worth handing the whole genre over to the Nazis and walking away. Let 'em have it.

Does it have to be a controversial opinion that we actually hold or are we allowed to just say something we think might wind people up?

Saying a band or genre you don't like sucks isn't controversial or even a wind-up tbh.

that late-90s Brian Wilson worship was so tiresome

Counterpoint: at a Silver Jews show, D. Berman did a sneering routine of saying, "What's the big deal with Brian Wilson? He's so overrated," etc.; which was equally annoying.

It could have been John Prine who wrote "Margaritaville."

Here's an (actually held) controversial opinion: while I've been into the Silver Jews since I first ran across "The Arizona Record" (filed under Pavement on a rack), and I think they have some terrific records, I also think Berman is significantly overvalued as a lyricist by most fans. He has some good one-liners, but his lyrics tend to be strings of "clever" non-sequiturs that only sometimes land. He's seen as some kind of rock poet.

I feel like the Eagles worm has been turning for years now, but still no one is ready to say the Eagles are good. Until now folks. The Eagles are Pretty Good

― strong deutan (rip van wanko), Friday, September 7, 2018 10:03 AM

We have a daily listening thread that'll prove you wrong.

you could make a dud list for most anybody

i remember Howard Stern once had a guy on who claimed it was ok to drink your own urine and he did it daily, so they had the guy pee in a cup and drink it to prove it. it was pretty clear he was not very used to drinking his own urine.

music is a fine hobbie for kids and teenagers but should be outgrown (outside of casual interest) early in adulthood

yes

99% of the music criticism on ILM is actually bad sociology

music is a fine hobbie for kids and teenagers but should be outgrown (outside of casual interest) early in adulthood

There's music for adults and music for children/teenagers. Many adults refuse to a) admit this and b) learn the difference.

apollonian >>> dionysian

xp - rude

90% of piano ballads suck

I heard "Take It to the Limit" on the radio last night and man that song sounds great, I'm pro-Eagles now

This is very, very good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqhYXLVYQJ8

controversial opinion: randy meisner sings "take it to the limit" better than etta james

Retro soul covers of rock songs (Charles Bradley's version of Black Sabbath's "Changes" comes immediately to mind) frequently suck, and are mostly championed by people who don't want to be seen liking the original version.

we definitely need another one of these threads

lots of opinions about people here instead of music what a surprise

*falls off high horse into trough of metallica blackened whiskey*

Probably not controversial, but have just realised that most of the music I don't really get, from The Eagles and Steely Dan through to 80s hardcore punk, yacht rock, hair metal, grunge and most of the US indie music of the last 25 years, it's all straight white American guys with guitars.

Kenny G and Chuck Mangione are the two most influential and important jazz artists of the 20th century and it isn't close.

Yeah, but only if you consider 'important' and 'influential' to be synonyms.

xxp humblebrag much, lol

The MC5 were the worst major band to come out of Michigan. Bob Seger, Ted Nugent, the Stooges, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, Grand Funk Railroad, Rare Earth, the Alice Cooper band — all miles better than the MC5.

not miles. they were all good.

MC5 weren't even major.

they were like rock critic major.

people should listen to those SRC albums more. they were so cool.

the big question is: Frijid Pink -vs- Frost. its like they were the same band! i refuse to choose. i like them both a lot.

you must choose, scott. it takes 5 seconds, 5 seconds of decision.

They were a bunch of swell guys.

Here's two:

- the best MC5 album is High Time
- Robert Plant's first couple of solo albums are probably at least as good as what Zeppelin might have released if they'd stayed together

That's not controversial!

Spending the afternoon w/many of the 1999 and SOOT outtakes, I realized: as much as I like or love most of these tracks, I don't want them on the original studio albums. This judgment also applies to Smiths, Pet Shop Boys, Suede, or any other act that recorded exemplary B-sides. Keep the okay or bad songs on the original albums.

I don’t know where else to post about this, but I’ve seen many incredible shows in the past year, some all-timers, Bernice Trio at The Tranzac being the most recent mind-blower

But last night I may have seen the best live set in my life? Coupled with the fact that it happened in an arena, where music goes to suck shit? But it was amazing and it was Jacob Collier and Kimbra. I don’t know how to describe how amazing this show is, the songs are treacly garbage, the choice of covers laugh-worthy (“Fix You” ffs??) but I was pummelled by so many spectacular modulations and ridiculous solos that I submitted and was transported. “He’s G-rated Zappa”, I said, which it basically is, except better than Zappa in every regard.

I’ve always thought that the escalation in popularity of certain music trends was a response to the saturated environment we live in— electroacoustic is like popular now, people stan Grouper all the time and some of that music is just pure noise drone— I believe Collier is benefitting from the other end of the spectrum, maybe; that our ears are thirsting for music that modulates.

The weak link (aside from the consistently insipid songwriting) is the dude’s voice, but he’s got one of those voices that improves with age. I fully expect this guy to be his generation’s Stevie Wonder except perhaps even more popular

My guitarist friend I was with tells me “the albums are so terrible”, that any possibility for soulfulness is quantized out of the picture.

He did “A Bridge Over Troubled Water” entirely on a vocoded Prophet synth and for the first time I heard a use for that bizarre glide-on-a-polysynth feature and it was profoundly moving

About a quarter of the show was being run like choir practice, he treated the audience like a class. It was fun! I miss being in a choir. He played us like an organ to provide accompaniment for fucking “Fix You” and it was shockingly good. Had us singing a cappella for a couple minutes and then went to the piano and I said “no no no it can’t be” but yes, we collectively hadn’t dropped pitch even a cent, we’d stayed in tune, like he’d just transmitted a mist of his own talents on to us. I shook my head saying “wow this is just magical” because it was!

My guitarist friend said “he makes a VST plugin of his audience choir stuff” and I said “I’m buying it tomorrow”

it sounds horrible! but i'm glad you had a good time. i do remember this kid from those videos of him doing all the parts to songs. i was so glad that he wasn't my kid. but its cool that he is still doing it? maybe?

Honestly Scott I recommend everyone going, the bigger the skeptic you are, the better.

Last night was his first show of the tour I guess? But he did play Troubled Water somewhere, solo, a week ago, this performance wasn’t as good as he was last night but it is still crazy good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TADvrlGLCO8

Like I was in a room with 8000 people in rapt silence while this was happening. He was getting standing ovations repeatedly just during the set and I was absolutely one of the ones on my feet

Maybe the corniness of it all just gets diluted once you’re seeing it in person. Like sports!

Haha my god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHkKMJ6DCZQ

It’s a homemade harmonizer! “Oh, yeah you can see it was signed by Herbie Hancock, there. And Quincy Jones, there.”

this reminds me I saw DOMi & JD Beck last year (my kid wanted to go, they opened for Polyphia, who are wanky) and that was one hell of a set. I can't see myself listening to these two's record(s), but that was a really good live set; incredibly impressive chops on these really young people, dumb sense of humor, they played a Weather Report song that had an auditorium of gen z people grooving. Weird!!!!

there are some good young musicians out there.their stuff isn't always my bad but it's cool to see young people doing interesting stuff.

i shouldn't sound so mean. it is nice that so many people like it. maybe i would like it if i saw it live!

No Scott it’s ok that you were being mean! I was too. All I knew about Collier was those impressive-but-dorky happy new year videos that I’d share with friends in a mocking way. He just seemed to me like a musical Wesley Crusher. I would’ve never gone to his show except for Kimbra opening! And I had a blast! Idk it makes me feel really good that this is the kind of shit normal people are getting into

lolll @ "a musical Wesley Crusher"

I was also v amused

Haven't formed an opinion on this yet, but it's just nice to see this thread used for "this thing people hate is good actually" rather than "this thing people like is bad actually"

collier is basically all chops no songwriting but it's funny how much he really tries, his songs have all this ambitious proggy modulation in a relatively pop format but then none of it actually comes together in a compelling way. i can imagine he comes across a bit better live though since you can just appreciate his crazy chops and he makes up for his lack of songwriting ability with a bunch of covers. covering "fix you" is part of the problem though - he has no taste! his harmonizer is rather cool though, iirc bon iver use something similar

he has no taste! his harmonizer is rather cool though, iirc bon iver use something similar

robot voice: dOeS nOt cOmPuTe

the tech is cool, collier is not!

collier is basically all chops no songwriting but it's funny how much he really tries, his songs have all this ambitious proggy modulation in a relatively pop format but then none of it actually comes together in a compelling way.

Controversial music opinion: he sounds like this generation's Todd Rundgren

he's much more 'normie' than rundgren

Norm Rundgren. Todd's little cousin.

Kataklysm suck.

My contribution to the thread

I fully expect this guy to be his generation’s Stevie Wonder except perhaps even more popular

I don't see that happening given that he is essentially the age Stevie Wonder was when he made Hotter in July.

Norm Rundgren. Todd's little cousin.

― scott seward, Tuesday, April 23, 2024 4:35 PM

"norm rundcore." todd's little cousin's smarty pants power pop band.

sorry we're venturing off into The most interesting pieces of pop music trivia that you know (that are 100% false) territory but, otoh, #onethread

that thread, forgot if ever knowed by me, made me laugh a little, ty