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

omniaudiosphere = automated generative always morphing endless, etc

i find their project kind of fascinating and they seem to be doubled-down on it when almost all of their IDM peers have reinvented themselves many times over. so i'm cool with seeing how far they can push it, at the expense of a new direction

Well, the “hey you guys realize we can just shit interesting sounds at this point” vibe of NTS was pretty illuminating— and mind-bogglingly impressive

But it somewhat reminds me of a similar vein-that-has-been-mined in music history: tone row-based serialism. I could, too, shit material with that process, and always find ways of making it “interesting”— it’s like, once a utopian form of autogeneration has been invented, it becomes obsolete— enduring music needs to overcome obstacles, not be factory-created?

At the same time, a close friend of mine started shaking and crying when he met Autechre and there is literally no other musician for whom he’d have that reaction

So maybe it’s just “not for me” heh

Do you mean integral serialism? Bc I don't think of regular 12-tone row-based music as factory-generated/autogenerative at all.

Whatever it's called, I always forget the specifics of the terms

Guys, take it on over to Rolling Music Theory Thread

Should have obscured that a bit, I'm off my game today.

I was actually just wondering what you meant fwiw. I write and play music with 12-tone rows - the rows are just repertoires of pitch material for me, like the notes and chords of a given key are in tonal music. Integral serialism, where every musical element is serialized, is another kettle of fish. There are def Boulez/Stockhausen/Babbitt pieces I love listening to but yeah, not something I play or write.

I am also baffled by ISB love. It goes like this: Critics compare them to bands and sounds I adore, I try for a while to get into them, find that I dislike everything that they do, and wonder what those critics here that I cannot.

Lol ridiculous misspellings in that post, apologies

to agree with points above, find ISB not my thing with a couple of exceptions but love COB

I consider myself an Incredible String Band fan, but sometimes the singing or the whimsy (or the whimsical singing) is totally off-putting.

I like ISB, but don’t play them often. Definitely have to be in the right mood. I’m actually a bigger fan of their latter-day stuff, play Hard Rope and Silken Twine way more often than Hangman’s.

What’s the problem with the International Submarine Band?

I can't stop misreading as "IBS".

Lol

Fair enough, that's what they sound like.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer and The Smiths and Morrissey and anything Bernard Sumner sings on and The Clash and Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and New Order for starters!

That's a heavy list.

The one that many people find surprising, knowing me and my tastes, is my inability to get into The Fall. I just don't get it.

"Critics compare them to bands and sounds I adore"

Who are ISB compared to? Was listening to Wee Tam last night, and I love the way they can shape a bunch of lyrics (esp in their longer tracks) and then put in an instrument or sounds that are almost thrown in from nowhere into this ever-growing music. The sitar can sound so integrated, whereas with other groups it's part of an arrangement.

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

I've tried listening to Radiohead (especially Kid A) many times over the years and while they are certainly a band I respect, I'm about to give up on actually enjoying their music. I just think I might have to reckon with the idea that I dislike Radiohead in general, though I liked A Moon Shaped Pool at the time for whatever reason

It’s Radiohead for me as well. I just gave Kid A another shot, and apparently I’ll just never hear what others hear.

i think u have to be a sad youth to start with them honestly, dont know any other way

otm

u cd try thinking about how much your parents dont udnerstand u or how hard it is to talk with people u r sexually attracted to or how much capitalism sucks and -- i repeat -- u r not fucking, that is a major source of consternation

I’ve seen Radiohead twice (Bends and HTTT eras) and both times I thought they were outstanding, totally felt they were worthy of being an era-defining band - and yet I don’t have any interest in listening to their music at home

Maybe it's just lazy critics-- back in the New Weird America shit, ISB were often mentioned in reviews of Espers and Wooden Wand and more ornate chamber folk stuff. I was just unable to hear it, and tbh hated that second Espers album, but I've tried to come back to ISB since and they've never taken

― healthy cocaine off perfect butts (the table is the table), Sunday, 11 October 2020 bookmarkflaglink

From my vague recollection of that new weird America stuff ISB...isn't that, no.

Which might explain why I can't get into it! That first Espers album is sick, and I love Wooden Wand and a lot of the more free-floating, noisy New Weird America stuff.

Radiohead for me too; I make an effort every few years, most recently in response to that Guardian article about their influence on black music. I made a 4-hour playlist for a long solitary car journey and sat through the whole thing, when it ended I flipped to the radio just as "Time Is Tight" by Booker T and the MGs was played - the feeling of relief was amazing, it was like putting the car into a higher gear.

tbf, "time is tight" would probably have that effect 95% of the time.

Radiohead are very much in that Porcupine Tree vein of "they're clearly very good at this but I find it hard to enjoy this at all"

^ that's a really good comparison

Also, maybe we are veering off topic a bit here, but since someone mentioned New Order: I love New Order but every time I put on a Joy Division record I am bored to tears

I love Joy Division, but I have a hard time getting into any New Order beyond their singles.

Similarly, I like The Cure's singles, their poppy and eclectic songs, but albums like Pornography and Disintegration are completely lost on me.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

Sparks keep coming up on my Discover Weekly and just no - viscerally no.

Agree (but not with the "keep trying to like" part from the thread title). Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

Very few acts are as Not For Me as Sparks.

cosign

I’m not a huge fan but I dig number 1 in heaven and terminal jive a lot. and “amateur hour”. and “cool places” with jane wiedlin.

Recent Sparks, old, none whatsoever? They're one of my favorite bands of all time, but I certainly get how Russell's voice is a turnoff for many.

I think I've mainly heard older Sparks. It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

It's strange how quickly I have to turn them off: something to do with the voice, the hyperactive bombast, the archness.

Yep. All of this.

this discussion is funny. i was working at a used record store and the owner was a huge sparks fan. would often commandeer the store stereo to play them. one time he did that and he was all into it and singing along and i thought it was funny but i remarked, "it's like they're being annoying on purpose." to which he replied, all excited, "yeah, exactly!"

pretty much sums up my disinterest in them.

I love Sparks but didn't really "get" them until Hello Young Lovers, specifically 'Perfume', but they are like the definition of an acquired taste and I totally get all the folks here who can't hang

Ha, Sparks is me, but opposite-land!

Like, I can't imagine a band who were so more completely tailor-made as something I should completely adore, with all the hyperactively arch camp bombast - and I just cannot get into them at all.

this conversation is bananas

People who think they might like Sparks but don't like the most well-known stuff should try listening to Sparks and A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing, the first two records made when they were an LA-based quintet. Songs like Fletcher Honorama, Saccharin and the War and Angus Desire have a post-psychedelic weirdness to them that they pretty much abandoned by 1974.

sleeve: I'm exactly in the same boat! All I knew about Sparks was annoying better-than-Zappa-but-not-much-and-with-a-whiff-of-Meatloaf 70s stuff, and then 2006 came along and "Dick Around" destroyed my brain. A friend of mine (avid Sparks fan) told me I should check out the 80s albums and ya they're great, I like them too, and all the recent albums of theirs

Still don't care for their "classic" stuff aside from being weird camp curios

The only song of theirs I can make it more than 30 seconds into is The Number One Song In Heaven because there's so little ~~Sparks!~~ and so much arpeggiated synth wibbling.

what is "most well-known" sparks stuff? for a long time, i thought it was kimono my house, the earlier more operatic stuff? but i think that's just how i first became familiar with them.

but then there's also the moroder-produced no. 1 in heaven, which has "Beat the Clock" on it. somehow, i thought that was a massive worldwide smash, because i feel like i've always known that song. but it didn't even chart in the US?

No 1 in Heaven is pretty spectacular imo, if you have any interest in giorgio moroder and haven't heard it