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

That's alright, I totally hear why someone would get mileage out of his arena-ready sound, but this thread kind of duplicates the musical controp thread so… (I don't actually miss the age of irony btw, assuming it ever existed.)

I liked Strapping Young Lad a lot - had all the albums, saw them live twice. I do not like Devin Townsend's post-SYL music at all.

but haven't paid attention to anything he's done in the last 30 years.

tbf that only brings us back to 1989, which means (looks at discography) maaaaaybe three or four albums worth hearing but still (looks back at discography) 10 pretty imo great albums before that (if you like him at all), and that doesn't include the b-sides collections.

Husker Du: one of my all-time faves, but I understand.

Brazilian stuff: there are so many artists under that Tropicalia umbrella, and so many albums over so many eras, that there's bound to be stuff you like. Tom Ze is sure a lot of fun. Maybe move ahead from the '60s to the late '80s and early '90s, and some of the Luaka Bop or Nonesuch stuff?

Boards of Canada. They've got one tune that everyone likes, including me, and the rest is just this in-one-ear-out-the-other bland mush of no tunes, no basslines and indifferent, and frequently pointless, beats - with no really interesting sounds or textures to boot. Plus I don't get this nostalgia for childhood thing that gets talked up - I'm not sure what it is I'm supposed to be hearing but I don't get it. By the way, I don't hate them by any means, I can listen to them but that's because, like most people, I don't mind listening to undemanding, featureless music occasionally.

Cosign on BoC, I said the more or less the same thing upthread:

Boards of Canada. I love the idea of all this occult stuff lurking in their music, but when I actually listen to it all I hear is pleasant, drifty ambience.

― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Friday, 8 November 2013 13:47 (five years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah I dig the woozy tape ambience stuff they do but this is the age of vaporwave and Orange Milk type stuff and tbh I think a lot of those guys do it better. takes more than a decaying synth tone to turn me on right now

Boards of Canada. I love the idea of all this occult stuff lurking in their music, but when I actually listen to it all I hear is pleasant, drifty ambience.

try again i'd say you haven't tried hard enough.

do you find this tactic usually works

to be clear my real issue is that you didn't point them to Alpha and Omega

You don't have to like them. You're wrong, but it's ok.

Nlogax owns

Aquarius owns

the interludes on maxima and mhtrtc rule

to me mpb isn't so much "psychedelic", it has a lot in common with smooth soul. and i love smooth soul.

I've heard Eno's "Music For Films", I'm not sure why BoC's interludes should impress me.

Tomorrow's Harvest is secretly the best Boards LP

fuck the hype, that one will convert you

would be curious to know rough ages of those for whom the nostalgia of BoC’s earlier work doesn’t resonate. Especially anybody who prefers the 90s nostalgia of vaporwave. For children of the late 70s who watched a certain type of public television, educational film, nature documentary, it should resonate immediately. When I first heard BoC (I think it was the song Aquarius), it hit me immediately - and it came out of nowhere. It tapped into an atmosphere I’d forgotten but was so familiar. It was like the pivotal moment with the food critic in the movie Ratatouille. I don’t listen to them a lot these days, and when I do it’s Tomorrow’s Harvest, but I’ll love MHTRTC forever for the feelings and mood it evoked when I had it on constant rotation.

I think nabisco compared it even more specifically to the sound of those soundtracks being warped on the playback of old, near-replacement film reels, which is definitely evocative of elementary school for me.

Yeah I remember 1998-9 was the year of MHTRTC, Mogwai's Come On Die Young and Autechre's EP7 - all deeply burned into my brain. I was 29 at the time and in the right window age-wise.

Sund4r OTM.

BTW I did a double take and had to scroll back a bit because when I first arrived to thread I thought you guys were talking about Blue Öyster Cult and had just been a little remiss in the acronym.

borads of canada leave me pretty cold too and i am absolutely a child of the 70s. i think it's the vague head-noddery of the beats more than anything else - i get what they're trying to do but too much of it just plods along

actually they’re awesome

hard to be transported on a hobbled horse innit

did the whole jorge ben revive pass without anyone mentioning africa brasil? it's the best album ever. he basically invented a new genre of music.

it’s not “psychedelic” in fact it’s probably “breezy curtain” music or whatever so who cares

Agree that those of you who aren't into BoC are wrong, but also agree that "keep trying" isn't the best advice.

In my experience, you need to switch up the listening context to have any kind of revelation... listen while stoned, see it played live, hear it as a soundtrack to something. Sometimes when music gets recontextualized like this, you realize what was sitting in front of you all along.

yeah like hearing BTO “taking care of business” on a mediocre FM signal while driving to pick up ice at 7-11 l, covered in dirt and sweat, 5pm Thursday after a shitty workday, i hella felt that song

I second Alex's suggestion to at least check out In a Beautiful Place Out in the Country.

that boc ep is my favourite listening on noise-cancelling headphones while flying. actually i think boc work better in the air than on the earth. following enochroot's suggestion, that could be a good way to recontextualize boc.

yeah like hearing BTO “taking care of business” on a mediocre FM signal while driving to pick up ice at 7-11 l, covered in dirt and sweat, 5pm Thursday after a shitty workday, i hella felt that song

:D

i haven't been converted to BTO but i feel this! there was one magical time, alone in the living room, when fleetwood mac's "don't stop" (which i normally skip) made perfect sense to me and briefly became the best song in the world. wish i could go back!

xp - is that the one with Don't Fear the Reaper on it?

"dayvan cowboy" "don't fear the reaper" "mashup"

About 72 results (0.30 seconds)

None of them are conclusive, alas.

xp - is that the one with Don't Fear the Reaper on it?

Hope that cleared up any confusion

wait a second, hold on

The mashup is happening after all.

boc = boards of canada AND blue oyster cult

luckily the music of both is best heard in the same exact social contexts, so the last several posts are still very useful regardless

The mashup is happening after all.

Flew in from Miami Beach with boc

dang Karl, I envy your “don’t stop” experience, it’s the one FM song I can’t stand

I got another one for the thread: The Bevis Frond

what makes "don't stop" a banger is imagining lindsey b Extremely On Cocaine while performing

my contribution to this thread is ive never been able to get into pink floyd. find them dull songwriters.

Syd wasn’t! (But most Floyd heads seem not to like his shit too much, lol)

floyd fans who don’t like syd are: fuckin wrong

brimstead what don't u like abt Bevis Frond? I love all the stuff up tp Sprawl, but I can see several dealbreakers e.g. the inept cardboard box drum sound

Pretty sure I said this upthread, but my #1 has gotta be Scott Walker. Overemoting constantly does not make you a good singer. Also sets off every "pretentious" alarm in the house.

so otm

As an update to my trying to get into Sonic Youth: Sister is indeed awesome and I want to hear more like that. It has the right blend of melody and noise for me. Evol has two good opening tracks and a great closing track but the rest just drifts by - decent, but I don't think I'll come back to it. Still willing to hear another album so I'll try Dirty next

There's a string of Bevis Frond albums in the 2000s that are relentless combinations of bleak imagery, mopery about lost traditions, and fourteen minute low-fi garage rock jams. The album from last year is better, but the only reason I can explain why it's so is because I haven't deleted it yet.

That said, my knowledge of Bevis minutiae is bullshit because while I love one demented genius, I cannot, have not, have never been able, and have ultimately given up on another. I will never be a Guided By Voices fan.

PINK FLOYD RULES