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

yeah, but those albums are extremely well-known among a certain group

Um y'all know that Outic is going through all the Bee Gees stuff in a dedicated thread, yeah? Check it out!

Indeed, I'm like the only other guy on the thread though.

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

I think Sister and Dirty are probably the best introductions to Sonic Youth. Daydream Nation is supposed to be the best, but I feel like its appeal is a bit more subtle.

I heard Daydream Nation first, but Sister is the one that made a convert out of me.

In the spirit of recontextualizing bands you can't get into, here's what did it for me with mid-period Pink Floyd:
Watch the live at Pompeii video.

I grew up in the 80's, so knew of Pink Floyd only as middle-aged purveyors on MOR space rock. That video was a bit of a revelation... for one thing, i never imagined that the band were ever that young.

Um y'all know that Outic is going through all the Bee Gees stuff in a dedicated thread, yeah? Check it out!

I wonder how many people who bought the Fine Young Cannibals knew the connection to the English Beat? Or even were fans of the Beat?

Arthur Russell. I listen to him a lot but not sure I understand the level of adoration to the degree I perceive amongst most.

good example. he is definitely underrated from the wide public but maybe overrated here. i like and enjoy his music and i think he brought something new into the music atmosphere. a certain positive vibe and a rare love for the fusion of rhythm and sound. but overall he will never be as important as neil young, miles davis or even bob dylan for me.

I like the disco stuff but I bought "World of Echo" in a bargain bin a couple of years after it came out and played it, like, twice, then later on find out he was a genius

It's not that I keep trying to like them, more that I comfortably don't, but Vampire fucking Weekend.

Not bands but

Vic Chestnutt - i like the ~idea~ of him but i find his voice really unsettling & hard to listen to

I am mad at him for having my last name but adding 2 superfluous t's

Chestnu

not much what's new with you

xp you jest but someone legit tried to spell my name that way when I noted they put one too many t's

cosign on Vic Chestnutt.

I have enjoyed a tune or two of his over the years, but yeah

if you're a big k. hersh fan you know she is a chestnutt permastan, which has let me to listening to him many times, but likewise it never really took

Oh I like Vic Chestnut but think Jackson C Frank is no good except the famous song

“Blues Run the Game”?

I like all of that double cd by Jackson C Frank I think. Definitely think the 60s lp is pretty solid.

At the Cut, one of Chestnutt's later albums, was my gateway. It's a tough listen but it has some fine moments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4Z-kjr4BLs

Just came over from Burt Bacharach poll results thread to ask if Scott Walker has been mentioned yet

Yes, I see that he has, never mind

The National.

Every time I put on one of their albums I keep expecting to the hear some mindblowing music worthy of the critical blowjobs they constantly receive, but then the music starts and I just hear downbeat, morose, tuneless American indie played in the most stock way imaginable.

idgi either, so boring

OTM, their music has always just slid right off my brain.

IDK if I would even call their style "American indie;" it's something even more colorless.

+1 to the above

they are... not difficult to make fun of

such challenging original opinions itt

Angel Olsen, mainly because we lived in the same town, but no

i absolutely cosign on the national. i think i saw them play about 15 years ago in perpignan at the fnac for free in front of maybe 15 people (they weren't famous yet) and thought what an unmemorable boring guitar band that will never go anyway. i was wrong and right at the same time.

you guys really “keep trying to like them”? all it took for me was hearing the singer open his mouth and I was out

it's true I never really tried

and last night I watched a Showtime documentary about Jeff Beck who seems like a chill guy in addition to being a supremely talented and inventive musician and who likes a fair amount of music adjacent to music I like but I'm not really gonna try him either

it seems like maybe he is the joe satriani of the second british wave (and there aren't really any tunes?) and when in the mood for fusion noodling there is always the *actual* john mclaughlin

wave=invasion

Jeff beck is great we can have him and mahavishnu John

“Blue wind”!

“Beck’s Bolero”

“Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers”

so many tunes omg

McLaughlin/Mahavishnu is so *intense* in its shredding. Joe Satriani of the second British wave is not totally off the mark, but Beck's gift is in his lyricism (see: his tremelo/volume knob virtuosity). Though tbh I literally never listen to his albums, it's worth perusing a few youtube clips. Like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toMTAHsz26I

xp ok I know those but what else

Gah, now I'm watching a bunch of Billy Cobham clips on youtube, thanks a lot (but also, seriously, thanks a lot, Billy Cobham is rad)

it’s just really pleasurable hearing him do his thing, and the backing/production is always way way better than satriani records

Yeah I can understand that...but I mean the early run of Beck records as I remember them are just kind of lacking...personality?

ftr I love the faces

I've tried Jeff Beck several times and I don't hear anything there at all. Totally lacking in personality, plus I'm not exactly convinced of Rod Stewart's worth either.

Billy Cobham is amazing to listen to sometimes but other times it's like watching a guy keep a soccer ball in the air for 45 minutes - you would have been happier watching him do it for 5.

I dig Beck's playing in that video above but that band behind him is leaden and absent enough that it sounds at times like one of those shreds vids

There are some old clips on YouTube of him with Jan hammer that are pretty dope