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

I've tried a bunch of times with them and can barely recall a note of their music. Too light rather than tight, I suppose, but then again I don't like their 50s/60s touchstones either.

margarine eclipse is a late period sleeper for me, give that one a shot. recorded in double mono, so a great headphone album

I first got Transient Noise-Bursts while I was in a heavy Krautrock phase and left pretty unimpressed - "they're just directly copying Faust here and the long track is a big homage to Hallogallo" - I'm not quite sure what people hear in that record

ETK on the other hand I loved but it's been well over a decade since I heard that one

otm

Transient Random-Noise Bursts is the only one I truly like from beginning to end. It has a bit of a rougher production style which suits the music very well. Outside of that there are a bunch of individual songs I like, but no album feels truly great (and I've listened to most of their albums).

So difficult not to jump in the middle of this and start yelling at everyone.

minutemen and sonic youth are pretty much the only bands from that azerrad book that i enjoy listening to. i loved reading about almost all the bands in it though

I listened to Spirit of Eden and Laughing Stock while writing yesterday. I liked them but I'm not crazy about Hollis' voice. Does warrant more listening though.

His voice has that animated 80s style that's hard to describe, or at least a version of it. He has a great voice, but it's the inflections. I don't know. I love those records so much but I know what you mean.

yeah I've never been crazy about his voice. i like indistinct "what are they saying" vocals sometimes but i sometimes am like "enunciate for the love of god"

I've tried 2 or 3 times to listen to Talk Talk and don't think I ever made it through a single song. that's just me though, I do feel sad for everyone who loved his music of course.

It's rather surprising to me that some avowed music fans haven't heard Talk Talk. Isn't this like the equivalent of saying in 1980 that you haven't heard the VU ?

It's rather surprising to me that some avowed music fans haven't heard Talk Talk. Isn't this like the equivalent of saying in 1980 that you haven't heard the VU ?

If indie and pop/rock music is your only framework for "music," this might seem flabbergasting to you, but you know, Anthony Braxton has, like, 400 albums, and I'd be way more interested in wading through more of those than listening to Talk Talk.

Talk Talk was one of the first bands I heard of after becoming a serious music fan/searcher. Could never find their CDs, pre-YouTube and streaming, by the time I heard Laughing Stock I wasn't into it and never pursued them further. But yeah, they're always one of the first names to come up if you're seeking anything experimental/progressive/"arty."

I dunno, I’m pretty into arty rock music, and I think my only ever exposure to Talk Talk (before this week) has ever been hearing “It’s My Life” on the radio here and there (and when No Doubt covered the song). I don’t remember them ever really coming up when I was getting schooled as a teen/young adult.

Isn't this like the equivalent of saying in 1980 that you haven't heard the VU ?

only 300 people heard talk talk but every one of them started a band that sounds like chvrches

i'm sure there are people here who haven't heard television either

it's ok to not have heard basically anything at this point

it's WATCH television, dummy

hmm I do stan for Chvrches, maybe I should give Talk Talk another shot if they're a legit influence.

Top of my head are minutemen n chills. Shlda give'em more time but y'know not now. It's also the right time n place. I hated neil y for the longest time till someone made mixtape. It just suddenly clicked.

To hook back onto the above SY convo — I’m at Disneyland, and have so far seen two different guys wearing Goo T-shirts (and the day is still young...).

Colour of Spring hits the sweet spot for me between the pop structure of the early stuff and the instrumentation of the later stuff. I like and admire the last two records, but I'd rather listen to Colour of Spring any day

― Vinnie, Monday, February 25, 2019 5:40 PM (three days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

totally agree with this

Morris, were they kids or parents?

To the people who think Stereolab are too "tight" or too "light": check out ABC Music! Their songs on there are rawer and have a harder edge.

xp Guys in their 30s

xp

Also Refried Ectoplasm and Transient Random-Noise Bursts

And Peng!

I love ABC Music (the 1st disc) so much. That first Peel Session predates any album proper and they already sound so fully-formed

Their later stuff was definitely tighter and lighter, but the first few years were often loud and very not tight in the best possible ways. I love Peng but the way it was recorded or mixed always seems to undermine how raw they could sound. Here's Orgiastic off that record live in early 1993 the way I would have rather it sounded on lp (though the vocals are a bit buried)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gG0poVy8GjA

Every time I immerse myself in the early '70s, I give the white dude singer songwriter combos (eg Simon & Garfunkel, CSN) another shot and, man, I just can't seem to hear anything but echoes of the smugly self-satisfied middle class boomers they'll eventually morph into. I mean, not those dudes specifically (or not all of those dudes, anyway) but more the people they're singing to. There's a mild drug haze hovering over it, some bohemian flourishes with a tinge of political awareness, but at the core much of it is just so...conservative. And I don't think it helps to hear it in the context of the overwhelmingly amazing music being released around the same time.

You're projecting. Not that I'm a fan of any of those groups, and I understand your perspective, but even I'll rep for the best of the Simon & Garfunkel stuff. "Mrs. Robinson" is the antithesis of conservative.

Oh, I'm for sure projecting. And that lot definitely made some good tunes, but the bulk of it is just so bleh to my ears.

I think their production often made them sound more conservative than they really were, you can hear this with their live recordings which imo always sound better. Famous example which pisses all over studio version: https://youtu.be/HhRwNqybWog

CSN(Y) for me, although I love most of the Laurel Canyon scene and a lot of their solo albums, as a group they've always bored me senseless.

I do like the 4 guitars workingf against each other in the electric jams a lot. They did some great extended Down By The Rivers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEXY4SlgJNY

but then i do like the studio lps too.

That clip from Big Sur was the one that Sonic Youth edited into their Snub Tv video

Rush

I'm sure this has been covered but I can't get near the Replacements no matter how hard I try. I don't find the ragged shambles thing exciting or endearing. Oh well.

elvis costello. i don't get him at all. boring songs without tunes - except that one lovely song which i only know in the awesome robert wyatt version - plus a croaking voice which makes bob dylan sound like an angel. to be honest i haven't really tried. 30 seconds of costello are usually the longest i can bear him.

costello has flaws, but writing "songs without tunes" is not one of them.

maybe i am too dumb to get his tunes then.

his first 6 LPs have plenty of tunes on them

can you hum the melody to the chorus of oliver's army? yes you can

elvis costello. i don't get him at all.

Yup, can't stand his voice and his music bores me rigid. I disagree that his work is "without tunes" - there are, I just don't like any of them. Also, I find his melodic sense actually quite limited.

Co-sign. I dig the early singles he did but I've tried more than once to connect with his early albums. No dice.

Turrican OTM!

I had the 1985 best-of on cassette in high school and liked about half of it. I also owned Trust, King of America and Blood & Chocolate, but haven't paid attention to anything he's done in the last 30 years.

https://www.discogs.com/Elvis-Costello-And-The-Attractions-The-Best-Of-Elvis-Costello-And-The-Attractions/release/3543966

Not a band, but I think this fits: I can't seem to get into Brazilian music. I keep buying Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, Tom Ze, Jorge Ben, and Gilberto Gil records; I've read Tropical Truth, and own all the Os Mutantes reissues and a few Rita Lee albums; I like the political aspects of the music, the individual stories and personalities, even some of the sounds, but the music as a whole rarely makes any great impression on me. I think I just find a lot of it too lightweight and happy or something; too twee. Or maybe it's because the so-called "psychedelic" aspects of this music have been greatly exaggerated and oversold. I don't know.

what jorge ben are you listening to because i kinda want to fight you in real life

Paul Ponzi OTM too! WTF? Though, Jorge Ben is pretty good tbf.

psychedelic? i like 70s smooth jazz brazil, funky brazil.

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