i can't say i ever listen to ben folds five but i will always have a soft spot for them as the epitome of freshman year of college music
― na (NA), Thursday, 14 March 2024 14:08 (two months ago) link
First album in particular is just stacked top to bottom with hits. The playing is ragged and loose but accomplished, the vocal parts surprisingly challenging, the lyrics unserious but smart... Folds is a knob but the band had something no other band of their era (or since?) had.
― Indexed, Thursday, 14 March 2024 14:10 (two months ago) link
Third Eye Blind is not a band seen by anybody as "cool", but boy I sure love that first album.
― henry s, Thursday, 14 March 2024 14:36 (two months ago) link
yeah I've never cared about Ben Folds solo career, but those first two BF5 albums are classic
― jaymc, Thursday, 14 March 2024 15:06 (two months ago) link
The first two Dido albums are absolutely fantastic.
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Thursday, 14 March 2024 15:46 (two months ago) link
Never listened to a Dido album but could absolutely see that. Will give them a go.
― Indexed, Thursday, 14 March 2024 16:04 (two months ago) link
Country music -- I really like a couple Sara Evans albums and she's definitely not one of those country artists who would ever show up in respectable year end lists plus she's pretty MAGA. Little Big Town is frequently pretty great, they have some really stunning tracks and some good albums but nobody outside of country music fans seems to give them much notice.
I still like Tranceport by Oakenfold.
― omar little, Thursday, 14 March 2024 16:17 (two months ago) link
I have a weird soft spot for God Bless the USA, probably because in spite of being the most "normal" and conservative song imaginable, it's actually kind of weird and awkward compositionally and lyrically.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 14 March 2024 16:22 (two months ago) link
Doesn't really get any less cool than that.
The worst (from a music criticism perspective) bands I like are 311 (really just Grassroots and Transistor) and Sublime (I’ll take almost all of it still) but I still listen to them at least yearly if not more frequently…great for road trips too when you are looking for something familiar that doesn’t require too much focus/concentration.
― Slim is an Alien, Thursday, 14 March 2024 16:36 (two months ago) link
I still like lots of very uncool dubstep & d&b music, the kind of dubstep & d&b that people seem to want to distance themselves from.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 14 March 2024 16:50 (two months ago) link
I didn't know Ben Folds Five was uncool???
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:11 (two months ago) link
I just found an early 2000s fan page for "geek-rock" bands, with pages for Ben Folds Five, Weezer, and They Might Be Giants.https://geek-rock.tripod.com/main/main.htm
I think I'll leave it at that.
― jaymc, Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:25 (two months ago) link
I have defended 311 a bunch, not to say I *love* them but I think they are underrated. FWIW they just did a Tiny Desk concert, which I'm curious to check out.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:30 (two months ago) link
hello.as anyone who follows my twitter knows all too well re my love of cheesy dubstep mixtapes.also, add bloghouse to the list.
― mark e, Thursday, 14 March 2024 17:30 (two months ago) link
I think those styles of music would prompt 90% of the population to say, “Whatever this is, it’s too cool for me”(!)
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Thursday, 14 March 2024 19:10 (two months ago) link
I actively disliked ABBA when I was a kid. They are now a guilty pleasure.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 16 March 2024 20:35 (one month ago) link
It’s been cool to like Abba for ages. Where you been, jimbeaux?
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 16 March 2024 20:42 (one month ago) link
Josefa just recommended a book about this very topic.
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 16 March 2024 20:43 (one month ago) link
They still strike me as deeply uncool. Anti-cool, actually.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:02 (one month ago) link
I have similar feelings about the Bee Gees, although I think they are cool now.
beegees cool as fuck glad u reconize lol but not lol
― ... 2024-- there's one clear winner! (Hunt3r), Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:15 (one month ago) link
― omar little, Thursday, March 14, 2024 11:17 AM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink
hah, should relisten to that, I remember liking it a lot when I was a teenager but yeah even then some of those vocals going "ooooh aaaahh you are the gamemaster" was a bit much
speaking of I do like Shpongle a lot. they're pretty embarrassing in spots but I think their records are really well crafted and all have a lot of great moments. and Nothing Lasts is an absolute tour de force album
― frogbs, Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:20 (one month ago) link
Same deal with Bee Gees.
― Don’t Want to Say Goodbye Jumbo (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:33 (one month ago) link
Carpenters too, if we are going down the alphabet.
I like Christmas carols and the bands James and The Tea Party
― braaam.flac (flamboyant goon tie included), Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:38 (one month ago) link
So, so much...Simply Red's "Holding Back the Years" comes to mind immediately.
(xpost) For a long time, definitely. But didn't the Carpenters get a second life sparked by Todd Haynes, the If I Were a Carpenter tribute album (with Sonic Youth), and the tragic dimensions of Karen Carpenter's story?
― clemenza, Saturday, 16 March 2024 21:43 (one month ago) link
“holding back the years” is awesome, surely it’s been reclaimed by younger generations as one of those Miami Vice “stare through your apartment windows” heavy melancholy mood type thing, it’s quite vaporous I enjoy the “rapping” on blues traveler’s “hook”
― brimstead, Saturday, 16 March 2024 22:03 (one month ago) link
It was used memorably to open an episode of Pose, so maybe you're right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROIxst-LfSU
― clemenza, Saturday, 16 March 2024 22:07 (one month ago) link
( beegees To Live Somebody was my wedding dance 25 yrs ago, a little biased)
― ... 2024-- there's one clear winner! (Hunt3r), Saturday, 16 March 2024 22:24 (one month ago) link
er “love,” but at this point yo i lived it
― ... 2024-- there's one clear winner! (Hunt3r), Saturday, 16 March 2024 22:25 (one month ago) link
I think ABBA, Bee Gees and Elton John suffered from overexposure in the 70’s and early 80’s and were considered uncool for a couple of decades but they have been rediscovered as iconic, cool artists with some great music with people born mid 90’s onwards. I have never heard anyone younger than 30 have a negative opinion on them.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 17 March 2024 16:14 (one month ago) link
i was listening to petula clark sing in french last night...
― scott seward, Sunday, 17 March 2024 16:19 (one month ago) link
she is 91 years young i might add...
― scott seward, Sunday, 17 March 2024 16:20 (one month ago) link
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Saturday, 16 March 2024 bookmarkflaglink
Heard a 12 year old recently muttering "Staying Alive" while walking down the street. I don't get it but I'm old now
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 17 March 2024 16:28 (one month ago) link
growing up in the 90s, i remember elton/abba/beegees being "around" but more as like ... kinda "novelty oldies." also it was considered "gay music" in a lot of circles+carried connotations.
the 90s were fairly homophobic, idk if anyone else remembers that????
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 17 March 2024 18:46 (one month ago) link
moka says overexposure- i say at least partial damage was done by "DISCO SUCKS."
(i think the three acts are fine. all are "greatest hits=good enough" for me.)
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 17 March 2024 18:49 (one month ago) link
xpost i see you, scott! in the end, is early france gall _that_ much different?
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 17 March 2024 18:52 (one month ago) link
Holding Back The Years has always been great, don't know why Simply Red were so hated for so long. I sometimes think about this scene from the otherwise pretty good film 24 Hour Party People
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B6AZdgQbeU
The quote (from "God") is "It's a pity you didn't sign the Smiths, but you were right about Mick Hucknell. His music's rubbish, and he's a ginger." - I am a ginger myself, and this sort of thing can fuck right off.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Sunday, 17 March 2024 19:00 (one month ago) link
disagree. i don't deem anyone "uncool" for liking music, but 'holding back the years' ... nah, very dud. much no. you do you, but i can think of better ways to spend my time.
(like slagging off 'holding back the years' for an immediate example)
(also yes, 24 hr party people very good despite many problematic things)
― interstellar anthropologist+music philosopher, (Austin), Sunday, 17 March 2024 19:09 (one month ago) link
but wait what about the "cool" version...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbwlFDZDh_U
― scott seward, Sunday, 17 March 2024 19:51 (one month ago) link
Whoa, I had never heard that!
― Requiem for a Dream: The Musical! (Dan Peterson), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:02 (one month ago) link
Pretty good! I was bracing myself for the worst because of the band's name, but they get the mood basically right. The vocal is fashioned after Hucknall's, the music no--Mick Hucknall fronting the Velvet Underground.
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:07 (one month ago) link
The Frantic Elevator’s singer is Hucknall.
― from a prominent family of bassoon players (Boring, Maryland), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:10 (one month ago) link
Oh god--that's the most spectacularly boneheaded mistake I've made since I reviewed an unmarked cassette of the La Bamba soundtrack in 1987 and complained that the version of "Who Do You Love" lacked Bo Diddley's menace or something like that...and it was Bo himself (I don't think the original, but maybe that too).
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:17 (one month ago) link
^^Bo w/Los Lobos backing him, IIRC.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:22 (one month ago) link
Yeah, I looked it up--and it was, as I recall, a pedestrian version.
I like the Frantic Elevators' original, like the hit better.
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:25 (one month ago) link
It sounds like Bo doing his lyrics over a random Los Lobos song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq-vmb8Gem8
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:27 (one month ago) link
ABBA was cool in the ‘90s… Think “Muriel‘s Wedding.” ABBA Gold was a cool CD to have. I honestly don’t remember a time when Abba wasn’t cool.
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:31 (one month ago) link
Xxxpost: yeah the 90’s were very homophobic but also very cynical for the most part… so artists using gimmicky outfits and making bombastic, heartfelt party music was probably seen as corny or uncool. I’d argue the 90’s were one of the corniest decades for music, ironically.
― ✖✖✖ (Moka), Sunday, 17 March 2024 20:33 (one month ago) link