Cairo might be considered uncool, even to prog fans? I've said it before but their singing reminds me of gillette adverts, maybe earnest and heroic in a power metal way? Easy to imagine them all with 80s mullets. "Angels And Rage" is one of my all-timers, just incredibly exciting and I like that sort of dense whirlwind quality they have sometimes.
Aren't all the swedish extreme metal bands into ABBA?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:43 (two months ago) link
Late additions:
MagnumSagaPavlov's DogRhapsody of FireUli Jon Roth & Electric SunSteve HackettAngel
― shave and a haircut, two brits (Matt #2), Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:46 (two months ago) link
(xpost) Okay, that makes sense--but I'll stick to "cool" being a subjective concept.
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:49 (two months ago) link
Unless we're talking about Michael Bolton, he's the sole exception.
― clemenza, Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:50 (two months ago) link
that first Angel album rips so hard. its awesome.
― scott seward, Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:58 (two months ago) link
i'm a big City Boy fan. i win. something. i win something.
i love the first Starz album more than any Kiss album ever made.
― scott seward, Sunday, 17 March 2024 22:59 (two months ago) link
I enjoy some Sons of Champlain songs, but I wouldn’t even know of them if not for my dad. Horn rock!
― brimstead, Monday, 18 March 2024 00:56 (one month ago) link
Is union by Toni Childs uncool?
totally.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 01:14 (one month ago) link
Returning to the topic of ABBA’s coolness in the ‘90s; just came across this Flying Nun tribute on social media (had never heard of it)
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Monday, 18 March 2024 01:45 (one month ago) link
i looked at this on FB and realized that there are secret levels of whiteness that i am not privy to. other than richard thompson and the preservation hall band i had no idea who ANY of these people were. there are local festivals like this all the time around here. they aren't for young people. i should be the demographic. but unfortunately they just look really uncool to me. no offense to sir. richard. who i love. and who plays around here, like, 10 times a year.
https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/431883219_931582178343904_5510188593972983208_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=MK3PyoWjoJEAX-vDaFF&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfC4SRlMc7HbMyR6lxpbBu_4TcXHe-Isn2-LMuJQ6dp3nQ&oe=65FBE60C
https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/432401269_931582175010571_632896888730513714_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=AsDwIGvx32UAX-fCKR9&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfCVG904LrGEChN-YXEFpcdG7BAsLRIB0VCAqKP4xHQB4w&oe=65FC5A6F
https://scontent-bos5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/432423551_931582191677236_4885266910016941552_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=kvdnG8Z_K20AX9NdgUQ&_nc_ht=scontent-bos5-1.xx&oh=00_AfDzFatc1kxG45NKaPYwLTqIzUhLnRGPYy6KroBvJZZvFg&oe=65FC62B5
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 01:54 (one month ago) link
i know laura cantrell. or of her. didn't she have a radio show on WFMU?
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 01:55 (one month ago) link
peter blanchette is from here and he plays a crazy guitar. the "archguitar".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COzLdipNUe4
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:00 (one month ago) link
anyway, i don't dig nu-americana for the most part. too many hats.
alright if no one's gonna name anything TRULY uncool I'll just mention that I think both Moxy Fruvous and the Barenaked Ladies have written some excellent songs
― frogbs, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:03 (one month ago) link
I've recently come around to Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66, those records are fun! maybe they are cool now but they weren't for years
― I painted my teeth (sleeve), Monday, 18 March 2024 02:03 (one month ago) link
they are permanently cool. all the 70s records are as great as the 60s ones.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:11 (one month ago) link
Back in 2019, I tried (and failed) to drum up sufficient enthusiasm around here to place a “Frozen II” outtake on the EOY poll.
― Hippie Ernie (morrisp), Monday, 18 March 2024 02:12 (one month ago) link
man, my kid is obsessed with brazil thanks to spotify. his playlists are insanely hip. he's 18! you'd think he was a 50-something japanese sake bar owner.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:15 (one month ago) link
Steve Harley died! he's not very cool now. but does anyone still listen to him?? maybe in the U.K. they never stopped.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:22 (one month ago) link
@frogbs I said The Tea Party and I’m with you on BNL (but not Moxy)
― Premises, Premises (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 18 March 2024 02:32 (one month ago) link
Stuck in the 90s man
― frogbs, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:33 (one month ago) link
Buy a new Gameboy
For the fun and the fashion
No, I bought it for Tetris
― Premises, Premises (flamboyant goon tie included), Monday, 18 March 2024 02:37 (one month ago) link
Seeing as we're above the 49th, I genuinely love--I'm about to cross a line very few have--Glass Tiger's "Don't Forget Me (When I'm Gone)."
(The BNL's Bruce Cockburn cover is great, especially the video. Hated Moxy Fruvous--and talk about baggage...)
― clemenza, Monday, 18 March 2024 02:41 (one month ago) link
The Blow Monkeys are one of my favorite bands and sound objectively great to me.
This can't be cool.
― mr.raffles, Monday, 18 March 2024 03:29 (one month ago) link
I like everything Whiskeytown ever did, including the couple dozen unreleased tracks.
(Ryan Adam's solo gets patchy pretty quickly thereafter.)
― Hideous Lump, Monday, 18 March 2024 04:56 (one month ago) link
Sergio Mendes could def be considered uncool from a bossa nova purist perspective, he's the dude who went off to become a big star in the US and do covers of Anglo songs. but then from a 90's and beyond lounge revivalist pov he becomes very cool indeed.
quite like Barenaked Ladies, I get that they're an early incarnation of epic bacon/reddit style humour but that stuff wasn't as omnipresent then, or perhaps I was younger and less discerning, anyway they strike me as fundamentally benign. got Brian Wilson to sing "Brian Wilson" on that live album, too.
I certainly despised Michael Bolton in my youth but "How Can We Be Lovers" works as well as the next AOR/power ballad banger.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:26 (one month ago) link
I like that Bonzo Dog Band album Camaraderie posted
I also have a Blow Monkeys LP but tbh I don't like very much on it so maybe that doesn't count
I own the first Asia LP
I like lots of post-1980 punk stuff that was definitely not cool in the UK when I was growing up but appears to have been cool in the USA to some degree, and a lot of it seems to have been reappraised a bit in more recent times
main uncool music for me is probably lots of pre-Britpop UK indie music that is still roundly detested
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:32 (one month ago) link
The ABBA fan club includes Lester Bangs, John Lydon, Elvis Costello and Pete Townshend - they were always cool to ppl in the know, it's just they look very uncool to the squares.
Chris Carter of Throbbing Gristle ca. 1980.
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZKk0vXesqmA/X9zspXItOZI/AAAAAAAAKCU/j_lEhCqq2RAjhwNF12352KGx2mLFH6WZACLcBGAsYHQ/s500/abbachris.jpg
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:45 (one month ago) link
I saw the Abba Voyage show in London last year and I was the only cool person there.
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:47 (one month ago) link
Oh yes ABBA Voyage is not cool.
The CBGBs store they had at that New York airport also wasn't cool.
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 18 March 2024 10:51 (one month ago) link
That uncool couple you sat next to? Used to be in Throbbing Gristle.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 10:51 (one month ago) link
"main uncool music for me is probably lots of pre-Britpop UK indie music that is still roundly detested"
names please.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:20 (one month ago) link
only one post on the revived steve harley thread. ouch.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:21 (one month ago) link
xp reminds me that I've had an "in defense of Kingmaker" blog planned for quite a while now, must get it finished.
― This is Dance Anthems, have some respect (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Monday, 18 March 2024 11:22 (one month ago) link
I unapologetically love “Cracked Rear View” by Hootie and the Blowfish. As a Brit, do I get bonus uncool points for embracing the sound of mid-90s middle America.
― Dan Worsley, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:27 (one month ago) link
yes. yes you do. i can't imagine listening to the whole thing. but there must be a reason why it sold a zillion copies.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:31 (one month ago) link
only one post on the revived steve harley thread. ouch
More on the obit thread. For the record, I don't think Steve Harley was ever considered particularly uncool - except when he did The Phantom of the Opera.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 11:34 (one month ago) link
some of these bands I only like a few songs by and a lot of it is more for nostalgic reasons than thinking these bands were actually brilliant, but yes the late 80s/early 90s era bands like Carter USM/Ned's Atomic Dustbin/Senseless Things/Mega City 4/Pop Will Eat Itself/Inspiral Carpets/yes even Kingmaker had a couple of songs I could still listen to
I went to see Sultans of Ping last year (not UK obviously but same kind of thing)
― Colonel Poo, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:37 (one month ago) link
I think Ocean Colour Scene might be the band with the biggest disconnect between how irredeemably uncool I find them (everything about their aesthetic and general vibe is so corny and off-putting) and how much I actually like all their big singles. There were all these britpop bands who were terrible but had one (1) quite good song and OCS were like that except they had five or six. Also, The Riverboat Song is better than Four Sticks.
― soref, Monday, 18 March 2024 11:56 (one month ago) link
I like a lot of Britpop stuff that most people would call uncool, I guess.There's some hippy/festival crossover type stuff I enjoy like The SkintsMost of all, I'm pretty cool though
― your mom goes to limgrave (dog latin), Monday, 18 March 2024 12:36 (one month ago) link
xp In my "introduce yourself" post 20 years ago, I said BNL was one of my favorite bands. They've fallen quite a bit in my band ranking but there's a good handful of songs I'll still stick up for. And their live album Rock Spectacle is one of the only live albums I love
I feel like a ton of music I loved in high school was uncool at the time (Enya, They Might Be Giants, Enigma, various synthpop groups), but nearly all those artists have been reevaluated and given some dues over the years. Hard to think of anything that has just stayed uncool
― Vinnie, Monday, 18 March 2024 12:42 (one month ago) link
Has anyone said traditional Irish fiddling yet? Cuz fellas I love a reel.
― ian, Monday, 18 March 2024 12:58 (one month ago) link
Not uncool.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:09 (one month ago) link
Traditional music in general isn't uncool.
― Tom D (the first British Asian ILXor) (Tom D.), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:10 (one month ago) link
reminds me that I've had an "in defense of Kingmaker" blog planned for quite a while
lol I love Kingmaker, definitely add them to my not-cool list. (They were very briefly cool when they first hit, NME lauded and all that, but they basically got middled out between Madchester and Britpop.)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:10 (one month ago) link
I've even seen Kingmaker live, TWICE. (once an exceedingly rare U.S. performance)
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Monday, 18 March 2024 13:11 (one month ago) link
the two albums by The Lucy Show are two of my favorite 80s rock records. I haven't stopped listening to them since 1985/1986. but i don't know if they are uncool or if its just that i am the only person who still remembers or plays them. there must be a difference between those things.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 13:41 (one month ago) link
oh wait duh on the 80s thread i started or maybe the big music thread i just mentioned that i had been playing that first Easterhouse album. surely they aren't cool by anyone's standard. i still love that record though. U2 + Chameleons + Communism.
― scott seward, Monday, 18 March 2024 13:43 (one month ago) link