Greta Van Fleet

And we haven't even discussed their Spotify Single cover of "Rolling In The Deep"!

how on earth did they get the notion to bother with doing such a thing? I wondered if those kids' dad is like a baseball dad, forcing them as 10 year olds to listen to Zeppelin, beating it into them that this is the way to do rock music…

It may surprise you to know that 13 year-old kids are still discovering classic rock warhorses even in 2019. Which isn't meant to support these guys or their approach, but it's not exactly shocking to me to see that bands kids in their early teens are still doing that thing where they get super excited about the classic rock canon. Where they go after that phase is what seems to be more interesting.

yeah the surprising thing with greta van fleet isn't that teenage guitar boys love led zeppelin, its that anybody else cared

yeah no "beating" is generally necessary, kids just latch onto stuff they're exposed to (says the dad whose 6yo is constantly chanting the refrain to Judas Priest's "Breakin the Law" throughout the day)

a few weeks ago I saw some school of rock band where this tiny 14yo guitarist was absolutely raging through "20th Century Schizoid Man"

man, that Paul Green School of Rock shit is gross… it's one thing if kids discover it for themselves, but it seems like that guy is, based on a fee videos I saw, having them learn "One More Red Nightmare" like its "Autumn Leaves" or "caravan." Maybe I'm a jerk, but I'm glad that pedagogy had nothing with my wanting to learn to how to play…I guess we're resigned to having rock and roll having reached such a point where its something parents and teachers hand down to 'em, or I guess this happened 10-15 years ago… my 3 year old pounds the Beatles and the Rutles, but when she's past 10 or whatever, and 1000 Gecs turns out to be a foundational recording for her crowd, I hope I'm not an asshole about it…

I'm not gonna worry about it. In 20 years there will be a School of Cloudrap where kids will be taught how to autotune like Lil Yachty

LOL

Berklee used to have DJ Scratch Skills videos up where a guy who looked like Eric Stoltz show ya how to work the decks.

at the holiday parade this weekend the School of Rock kids were playing "Merry Xmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)"

Xpost Also auctioneering classes with the vocalist of Rednex

omg omg omg omg omg omg that video

there is a brick+mortar "how to DJ" spot in my neighborhood

are these guys still around?

some say they live in the twinkle of a child's eye

lol

does anyone remember laughter?

Well, they were the future of music, maybe we're not there yet.

For a band so studious of the work of Led Zeppelin, they still haven't managed to totally ape their early release schedule.

Maybe they're changing their template to early Boston

I'm for it!

If this were the mid-90s they would be recording with Albini as we speak.

They're still played four times a day on mainstream bro rock radio.

I am counting the days (hours?) until their weak little bubble bursts.

Maybe they're changing their template to early Boston

Can't wait see how their third album poll gets derailed...

Amanda Van Fleet

ok thats epic

If this were the mid-90s they would be recording with Albini as we speak.

― Josh in Chicago

albini would still do it guys, give him a call

This is more accurate than they realize.

Greta Van Fleet on critics: ‘They’re pissed off that we’re doing something’ https://t.co/NtVRU9rXVF

— Guardian culture (@guardianculture) April 12, 2021

hope Lord Summerisle puts them in the Wicker Man soon

Josh Kiszka’s high and mighty voice – which, at full screech, can sound like an ejaculating hyena

Greta Van Skeet

welcoming to the stage Greta NirVan’ Fleet, here to perform their exciting breakthrough hit, “Sounds Like Ejaculating Hyena”!

Read that piece this morning and that line did indeed spurt out at me like a tumescent canine.

I have never heard a hyena ejaculate. Has Jim Farber? Has Josh Kiszka? Have you?

I have. Iirc it was actually a lot more chill than Greta Van Fleet.

is it sort of a husked tonal screech?

Can you guess which omnes ISN'T the sibling based on that picture in the Graun link? I assume it's dude far-right, as he has bare arms, and the drummer is not a sibling, and drummers always have bare arms. I cannot tell by their faces.

omnes = one, I think

hyena bit sounds like a derogatis line

Critics hate Greta Van Fleet because they're nostalgic for the wrong things. If they imitated Fleetwood Mac or any mid '90s Matador act, they'd be worshiped as gods. But Led Zeppelin (or, more accurately to my ear, the first Rush album)? Nope, stone them and banish them. It's such lazy horseshit.

They're a perfectly adequate, replacement level classic rock-ish act. Which is still 10,000 times better than the thrice-microwaved grunge that still makes up 95% of US radio rock.

It's such lazy horseshit.

Tbf, this also describes GVF. It's not that they're ripping off the wrong thing, it's that they're ripping off shit that's already been ripped off a million times, for decades and decades. Like, name a band that imitates Fleetwood Mac. There really aren't any, or many, and of those they're all pretty recent. But Zep? They've been a source of "inspiration" almost as long as the Beatles.

I disagree. Unoriginality is no crime with critics, as long as you're ripping off the "right" things. Led Zeppelin are not a critically favored source of inspiration this decade. If GVF's publicists were smart — or cared to get the critics on their side — they'd have the bandmembers talk about their love of early Rush. Rush have been 100% critically rehabbed and are now on the Approved Influence List next to King Crimson.

Imitating Zep feels more 'original' to me in 2021 than 1980s pop pastiche #25435832034242361.

There have been a ton of bands imitating Fleetwood Mac in recent years, maybe not always consistently or as successfully, but it definitely feels like Fleetwood Mac has been namechecked a ton in the last 10 years or so. Pom otm.

Also seems like bands imitating Zeppelin, going all the way back to the '90s, automatically get more shit for it than bands who ape, I don't know, Talking Heads. I've just assumed it goes back to critics originally despising Zep from the start.

I do think Zep actually *is* still a favored source of inspiration, but it's *aspects* of Zep - the drum sound, the exotica, the sprinklings of folk, etc.. (Same with Fleetwood Mac, probably.) I think in the end it might just boil down to the style of vocals. I think that was always the sticking point with Rush, and certainly the aspect of LZ many least want imitated. Shrieked male vocals have always been a point of contention/division, and in more recent years they've seemed more acceptable when they're arch or camp (White Stripes, the Darkness) than when they're po-faced.

I mean, as unperson hints at upthread, I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now, even if it they are wholly indebted to Zep scraps.

Zeppelin is like the absolute worst band to try to copy. I have no idea how they work, the way they sound, there's some sort of feeling they give me it's hard to articulate, but it's not riffs or any stylistic thing you can copy

Drum sound aside.

I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now,

I mean, what's the opposite of the "why not both?" meme? "Why not neither?"

but agreed how aping 80 sophisti-pop stuff the 10000 time is always seen as progressive as opposed to aping other styles from the past is regressive

I think it's more that it's really hard to imitate Zep well, and they really try hard and with his voice it gets into uncanny valley, off just enough to be offputting. It's viable to build your whole sound off the Ramones or Gang of Four, and change one little thing and it freshens it enough to kindle a familiar thrill. Actually I'd a say it's really hard to ape Talking Heads or Fleetwood Mac too, as they have a similar amount of odd ingredients and big personalities baked into their peak pop sound.

The Raveonettes went pretty far doing uncanny-valley Jesus and Mary Chain but as I recall they branched out some on later records