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

I hated Losing My Religion so much due to overexposure that I don't think I've ever actually listened to Out of Time in its entirety.

I like IRS-era REM because the band sounds so wired. I remember when I first heard The La's I thought "this is what I've always wanted REM and The Smiths to sound like"... all three bands are effectively "Big Star, but faster". Big Star is one of my favourite-ever bands fwiw

I feel that Document-to-Monster-era REM started trading a full paintbox for primary colours, the mystery sounds became scarcer. There were still many good songs, but previously the singles had been highlights of the albums; starting with The One I Love, they became more obvious, two-chord riffs or conventional ballads.

There's a lot of 'rediscovered geniuses' I can't really get into - Rodriguez, for instance, I tried playing his album yesterday and had to take it off. However I was playing the first two Bill Fay albums the other day and I liked them more than I ever had before, I like his voice.

― Young Boys of Bernie (Tom D.), Tuesday, November 3, 2020 6:03 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah rodriguez was ultimately pretty mediocre, good story though

fay is amazing

I think I was able to respond to those mid-period R.E.M. records, and still love them, because they were bailing out before the sell-by date. The production choices said to me that they were owning the fact that the vibe and mystery of those early records was unsustainable. (Peter Buck was already 31 by the time of Document!) In that regard Green e.g. feels to me more left-field and denser with "aura" than say, Fables.

(Peter Buck was already 31 by the time of Document!)

i didn't know that! crazy

After Murmur and LRP, Document is my favorite REM record.

I don't 'listen' to Jandek, but I can kind of agree that the idea is much more interesting than the reality, which is...simply put, eerie and depressing.

I find the idea of Jandek so interesting, I have never listened to the records.

My first try with Jandek was This Narrow Road, which was one of his spoken word albums, and it kept me from trying again for a long time. I was flipping through the used CD bins and was so excited to see a copy in the wild at that point that I just grabbed it, with no idea at the time that he had even done spoken word stuff. Tried again a few years later with Ready for the House, which was much closer to what I expected to hear.

TS: Jandek spoken word albums vs Jandek solo upright bass albums

in my early twenties i frequented the message board "i hate music" (which i didn't even realize at the time was named in response to ilm) and there was some guy on there who was a jandek obsessive. that board was all arty noise-adjacent white boys lol.

I actually kind of love it, but I lump it in with other unlistenable stuff like Reynols and Human Skab. It's interesting to listen to once and play for other people who are into weird stuff, for atmosphere on freeform radio shows, etc. Otherwise, I don't think anyone has been like "let's go home and listen to Jandek."

Honestly the Jandek I go back to most is the live Chicago Wednesday because it has Joshua Abrams and John McEntire made up his rhythm section.

I haven't paid attention in years after some time in college being obsessed with him.

The live albums can be cool, depending on the local musicians he picks up to play with him.

lol never heard of human skab. reynols are legit though xps

The live albums can be cool, depending on the local musicians he picks up to play with him.

Essentially he's outsider music's answer to Chuck Berry.

I fucking love Jandek and own all 22 original LPs, but he def belongs here

the lyrics were actually my gateway into his world, fwiw

Genesis are turning out to be one of these. 'And the word was' and 'invisible touch' were the ones i taped from the library as a little kid and to this day, the Silent Sun is my favorite song of theirs.

I've recently read that Jim O Rourke interview where he talks about taping the lamb lies down on broadway from the library as a little kid, except the last song got cut off. there's an embed of 'Anyway' and i really liked it on first listen, so i promptly took to soulseek and. I HATED IT. Though not 'It' which i have not heard because the user logged off just before the download finished, so I ended up with the same album as Jim O funnily enough.

I have a similar story about Nursery Cryme from 10 years ago, etc, ABACAB a couple of years ago etc etc. just cant get into Genesis.

I taped Lamb off my 2LP set onto a C90 as a kid and yup, "It" didn't fit.

On prerecorded cassette it was often sold as two tapes. I saw the second half in an otherwise pretty well "curated" used bin by itself today. Seems an album that often has orphaned elements.

I've gotten into Genesis over a really long span, first enjoying the s/t and Invisible Touch around age 10, then getting into the Gabriel years (though Lamb took longer for some reason, maybe due to sheer length); for a long time the '76-82 period was opaque to me, but it really opened up in my late 20s when issued as a box set (even as the remixes in that set later came to seem over-the-top in-your face). This process seems to be ongoing: while it didn't exactly become my favorite, ...And Then There Were Three only revealed itself to me last year, in the sense that now I can look at the tracklisting and remember what the songs sound like.

I've also probably bought more different copies/releases of each Genesis albums than those of anyone else (at least three times each up through Duke). Probably discovering them while quite young led to them seeming like a mystery ever to be discovered, even when the material is sort of banal. "Origin is the goal," natch!

I like to pretend that Genesis were a little known band that recorded 2 lps in 1971-72 Trespass and Nursery Cryme.
Don't like what they settled on after taht. But those 2 just about work, band in major transition between the school line up and the commercial one I guess. Do have a bit of a soft spot for thsoe 2 and the live material from immediately around then.
NOt really sat down and listened to Lamb though.

of all the classic prog bands Genesis took the longest to get into. I bought Selling England by the Pound and listened to it over and over like "what am I supposed to be hearing here?" I think the guitar solo on "Dancing With the Moonlit Night" and the long keyboard outro to "Cinema Show" finally got me.

I like PG-era Genesis a lot but their forays into British whimsy have always been lost on me.

I'll take PG's British whimsy (the Willow Farm part of Supper's Ready) any day over Phil's hamminess (robbery assault and battery, like china, and um, illegal alien)

Time after time, my Discover Weekly comes running at me, eyes brimming with confidence, arms wide saying 'you'll definitely like this - it works with so many other things you love! Come on!' but no matter, I have to shruggingly turn it away, again and again, telling it I've tried, spurned friends away for years. Why do I keep having an ongoing blank reaction to Broadcast? Do I need a doctor?

I saw them live and it was so loud and frightening and beautiful that I was instantly converted.

I enjoyed their records for sure but that first show was a brain melter.

I'm cool on them, generally, except for the collab album with Focus Group (I adore it)

“America’s boy” is a jam

i think a lot of Broadcast songs are not emotionally revelatory but every record has at least one or two tracks that are and the breakthru is finding them and the rest of what they do opening up as a result

on the other hand, sometimes you just don't like stuff

i would suggest maybe "The Book Lovers", "Look Outside" and "Corporeal" as entries but everyone to their own goat etc

their overall sound is really pleasing to me, I was definitely “naturally” predisposed to their thing when they first came out

i like them more for "overall sound" than "band with songs", deffo

I'm still finding my way into them, but that "Motorway Mix" tape was pretty big for me in terms of connecting some dots when it came out, I listened to that before I ever listened to the band

so yes they fit this thread perfectly, I still can't recall a single recorded moment but I like it when it's on

I love her interviews and her posts on social media, where she displays real sensibility and nuance on the working life of a musician. Her influences and her general genre are right up my alley and many people I respect love her... and yet, I cannot ever hear anything of interest in Colleen's music. Leaves me with the feeling that I'm really missing something.

I don’t dislike it per se but it just feels too slight for comfort.

start with the older stuff. the golden morning breaks is moving

i think a lot of Broadcast songs are not emotionally revelatory but every record has at least one or two tracks that are and the breakthru is finding them and the rest of what they do opening up as a result

so yes they fit this thread perfectly, I still can't recall a single recorded moment but I like it when it's on

Agree re: Colleen, felt insane for a while because I couldn't hear what I was reading, then just gave up...and that was the early stuff :/

Sleep -- this seems so up my alley, and SO many people whose tastes I respect like them. But I always find their riffs kind of boring and clunky? I almost like it, I almost get into it, but it never really does it for me.

just listen to Dopesmoker, don't try anything else

Sleep are better in theory than reality. That goes quadruple for Dopesmoker.

Talk Talk - just so goddamm sparse

see, I struggle with Dopesmoker but I really like the first few songs on Holy Mountain, which I find have more groove and are more, uh, digestible

Sleep's Dopesmoker is my #1 favorite music for grading papers. It's slow, it's loud, it encourages focus. I find it functional.

Earthless >>> Sleep

Earthless is distracting for grading papers but I have enjoyed their live show a lot more than I would enjoy Sleep.

oh yeah I have a lot of music that is "work music" and I can totally see Dopesmoker in that vein

Muslimgauze too, music for the zone

I def can't get into any Earth-related releases other than Earth 2, it just barely misses my sweet spots