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

Here's where I wave my giant 'Tom Waits' Big Time is his best record! Number 1' foam finger again. Such a shame that it doesn't get any love as it has *scorching* versions of songs from the Island years that surpass the album versions by miles and is the best entry into his middle years.

It is a really good, overlooked album. It might help if the movie was available, too...

I have a friend who is passionate about Sebadoh, and I kept trying to engage with it, but have found that I am just not interested... partially cuz dude seems like such a shitty, prickish ghoul of a human.

^I wouldn't go that far, but (as a big fan) I'm not sure how someone would get into Sebadoh "fresh"... they seem like a pretty context-specific band, if that makes sense (III is a klassic, tho).

Also - Smash Your Head... is one of my favorite records, and I think the Barlow 'tude is fairly minimal on that one (it's mainly rockin'). So maybe there?

i prefer swordfishtrombones to rain dogs because its less traditional ... i remember finding rain dogs kind of a disappointment bc it just got a bit less theatrical and a bit more idk ... bluesy

Re: Sebadoh - How about listening to Jason Loewenstein's 100% Barlow-free At Sixes and Sevens solo album?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JPQpDqEGsY

Another thing about Sebadoh is (and I know this is a very Indie Rock Dick comment) a lot of their key stuff was spread out in random places - so if you didn't have, like, the "Asshole" 7"; Oven Is My Friend on Siltbreeze; the Magic Ribbons 7" comp box set, etc., you weren't getting the whole picture (though I'm sure that stuff is all on YouTube now).

Looking back, I can see how the main impression they make is - "Uptight stoner guy dryly dissects his hang-ups and passive-aggressively gets emo about relationships" - but they were really one of the premier bands of the scene, at least early on, they did so much that was so great.

Another example is Unrest - even in their time, they were mainly known for their last few albums (when they settled into a poppier sound), but their early output is some of the most exciting, diverse, and creative of anyone's (and they got started a little earlier, too). Now they're just lumped in on streaming services with a bunch of identically-named cruft, and are barely remembered AFAIK.

Just seconding morrisp on Sebadoh - the impact they'd had by 1992 was muddled (I think) by the years of the band after that. Not to say they weren't good later records/line-ups, but in that moment: this dude kicked out of Dino Jr, putting out lo-fi stoner folk tapes as duo with Eric, then pivoting to loud overblown trio live shows and then records (songs often redone from the original acoustic versions from those tapes), shambling shows where the equipment was falling apart, switching instruments/singer/songwriters (Eric was a huge part of that early group magic), and singles/albums/comp tracks coming out left and right as morris said made them as vital as any band then. Live stuff usually helps me get into a band, so these two from 1991 and 1992 might help with that context (or cement the perspective that he's a prickish ghoul - imo he's more that friend who can't stop obsessing over a past relationship. I'd lose my mind dealing with him as a friend/bandmate, but in the context of a fan of the band I don't mind it).

Maxwell's 1991: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMlY93hlL-o
Maxwell's 1992: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLILUFeYF8w (with snippets of Royal Trux and Smog)

And yes to Unrest too!

Nice links! This is my favorite Sebadoh boot (7th Street Entry) - it's tense, brittle, terrific:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9A9T9Nm7lQ

RE: Coltrane stuff upthread

Must concur on Crescent. It is so lovely. Jimmy Garrison's long, unaccompanied bass solo on "Lonnie's Lament" is one of my favorite Coltrane Quartet moments on record. Andy once had a dream that John Coltrane did not exit in 1967 and, with Alice by his side, ended up as a co-leader of Sun Ra's Arkestra. In his Earthly life, Coltrane was a fan of John Gilmore, mostly based on Gilmore's time in NYC around when this album was recorded. There are a few anecdotes around it in John Szwed's Sun Ra biography.

Would liken someone not really getting why with Sebadoh now to a time when we worked at Tower Records. It was 2005-ish and a very younger co-worker (eighteen exactly, to be sure) was recommended Sunny Day Real Estate and hated it based on the fact that, at that point, it sounded like a thousand other stock cliche emo bands. Sometimes the context is approaching to be —or just as— important as the music.

Those Sebadoh clips are good - definitely a band I never completely "got" and I can at least see what people see in them from those. I would have enjoyed those shows I think.

That Maxwell's set is crunchy as hell - love it

Okay, I actually dig that clip from Maxwell's. I still probably won't get into Sebadoh, but it's the first thing I've heard that made the appeal palpable

Fourplay

Love ;_;

Margo Price

Someone said it upthread but Unrest was one for me, before Perfect Teeth. Tried to listen to the early stuff but nothing doing. In theory I should love them.

Young Marble Giants

Swell Maps

smiths, morrissey, new order, bernard sumner

ha, Unrest, YMG and Swell Maps are three of my favouritest bands

I think I've said this before but I love the Young Marble Giants album so much that I rarely play it. Which sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism, but I really never want to wear out its charms with overplay and overfamiliarity. It's one of my favorite records of all time.

Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R. is one of my favorite albums. Interesting though if that does nothing for someone who likes Perfect Teeth!

I think I've said this before but I love the Young Marble Giants album so much that I rarely play it. Which sounds like a Yogi Berra-ism, but I really never want to wear out its charms with overplay and overfamiliarity. It's one of my favorite records of all time.

Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R. is one of my favorite albums. Interesting though if that does nothing for someone who likes Perfect Teeth!

_Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R. is one of my favorite albums. Interesting though if that does nothing for someone who likes Perfect Teeth!_


Lemme try again!

I love the Young Marble Giants album so much that I rarely play it.

There are lots of Big Monolithic Albums that I count among my favourites (Colossal Youth, Suicide s/t, The Drift) that I've maybe listened to about five or ten times only. When the music has a simplistic quality to it, it resonates in your brain longer and doesn't require actual listening, at least, that's my experience

The Drift is a great example of that. I love it, have only listened to 3 times, not going to happen again anytime soon either

also, so far i have only listened to laurie anderson's United States Live once, in full, but it was enough to fall in love

also, so far i have only listened to laurie anderson's United States Live once, in full, but it was enough to fall in love

My exact experience as well, though I've dipped into bits and pieces over the years. I'm due for a full immersion soon.

Pixies

i forget, was the original performance of the material from US Live also 4 and a half hours long? If so, were the performances split across multiple nights, or did she do it all in a single night (with intermission, I'd assume)?

I don't remember, but I asked her about archival footage once and apparently it does not exist :(

The Drift, in particular, has a cinematic or radio-play aspect to its sound and structure, so you can absorb it on a dramatic level as well or instead of a typical musical level.

Wikipedia says United States originally ran about 8 hours and that most of what's not on the box set was chiefly visual.

I saw her on the Strange Angels tour. It was one of the most remarkable performances I've ever seen.