Your "I Don't Get It" Band

[La Dispute]

Death Cab For Cutie are a decent.

They are a little cookie cutter and weirdly enough kind of like a rich mans Coldplay but Ben Gibbard is a decent songwriter.

Still love ripping through Tranatlanticism and Plans from time to time.

But yeh I’m not sure how you could miss listening to Coldplay by accident if you’ve ever walked into a Woolies. You hear Fix You played in every single Olympics montage… there are actually few more recognisable mainstream rock bands the past couple of decades. Yellow was huge, The Scientist was huge and played in plenty of rom coms.

 

[killtaker1993]

Death Cab For Cutie are a decent.

They are a little cookie cutter and weirdly enough kind of like a rich mans Coldplay but Ben Gibbard is a decent songwriter.

Still love ripping through Tranatlanticism and Plans from time to time.

But yeh I’m not sure how you could miss listening to Coldplay by accident if you’ve ever walked into a Woolies. You hear Fix You played in every single Olympics montage… there are actually few more recognisable mainstream rock bands the past couple of decades. Yellow was huge, The Scientist was huge and played in plenty of rom coms.

I'm glad I've never watched the Olympics or romantic comedies then

 

[Bostonian]

I listened to Coldplay for the first time last night and they are even worse than I imagined.

One of the best and most natural remedies for insomnia.

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

Foo Fighters are white noise to me

 

[the_interloper]

My ones are:

• Nirvana
• Megadeth
• Korn
• Dream Theater

Nirvana, yeah I feel like there's something for everyone in their stuff but ok

Megadeth, I'm a huge fan but I can understand Mustaine's vocals turning anyone off ha ha

Korn, bit of had to be there maybe, nu metal in general annoyed a lot I guess

I love DT but yes there's a lot of w***ery, sometimes I'm not sure there's a song in there, the musicianship is incredible though

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Foo Fighters are white noise to me

That first record of theirs is sublime though. Has a 90's Beach Boys vibe about it at times, some great moments. It all kinda went all MMM after that.

 

[Pistol Night]

That first record of theirs is sublime though. Has a 90's Beach Boys vibe about it at times, some great moments. It all kinda went all MMM after that.

The Colour and the shape was good. After that it was slim pickings

 

[Alberto_Magnifico]

That first record of theirs is sublime though. Has a 90's Beach Boys vibe about it at times, some great moments. It all kinda went all MMM after that.

Fair enough, I never gave their debut much of a chance to be honest, as an angry teen I was too cool and contrarian to listen to it, me being a massive Nirvana fan at the time.

 

[GhostofJimJess]

Fair enough, I never gave their debut much of a chance to be honest, as an angry teen I was too cool and contrarian to listen to it, me being a massive Nirvana fan at the time.

Yeah, I get that. I went a saw them do Marvel about about 8-10 years ago - mate got $200 tix for us in what was apparently gold standard seating. If it wasn't for his birthday I wouldn't have bothered. Complete waste of money and time. Incomparable to seeing them at club gigs in the mid-90's. Stadium rock leaves me cold, gotta be up close and personal or I won't bother. And if Dave Grohl wasn't such a flipping legend of a human I'd have totally discarded them years ago.

 

[La Dispute]

Bands Bigfooty posters ‘don’t get’:

Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Foo Fighters
Coldplay
U2
Nirvana

I have varying levels of interest and get enjoyment in small degrees out of most of those bands (I love Nirvana though), but I couldn’t say I don’t ‘get’ them. They have obvious commercial appeal, mostly passable songwriting, and have produced a handful of memorable tunes each - even if you don’t really want them to be. (Who doesn’t get lashes of nostalgia listening to the Clocks intro, for eg).

It’s a bit of a flawed concept in some ways. Bands will always sit on a spectrum of how much you enjoy them, but it’s hardly a mystery why popular bands are popular.

Maybe we need to look at less commercial bands and wonder why they’ve been elevated about their peers?

Neutral Milk Hotel get a lot of acclaim for a band that released one decent LP - with a surprising number of average songs, if you break it down track by track.

My Bloody Valentine? Loveless is great, the other two albums are so-so, but they are the poster band for shoegaze. Slowdive and Chapterhouse are better IMO, going on their back catalogues.

 

[Lyttelton Ranger]

Bands Bigfooty posters ‘don’t get’:

Pearl Jam
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Foo Fighters
Coldplay
U2
Nirvana

I have varying levels of interest and get enjoyment in small degrees out of most of those bands (I love Nirvana though), but I couldn’t say I don’t ‘get’ them. They have obvious commercial appeal, mostly passable songwriting, and have produced a handful of memorable tunes each - even if you don’t really want them to be. (Who doesn’t get lashes of nostalgia listening to the Clocks intro, for eg).

It’s a bit of a flawed concept in some ways. Bands will always sit on a spectrum of how much you enjoy them, but it’s hardly a mystery why popular bands are popular.

Maybe we need to look at less commercial bands and wonder why they’ve been elevated about their peers?

Neutral Milk Hotel get a lot of acclaim for a band that released one decent LP - with a surprising number of average songs, if you break it down track by track.

My Bloody Valentine? Loveless is great, the other two albums are so-so, but they are the poster band for shoegaze. Slowdive and Chapterhouse are better IMO, going on their back catalogues.

Agree with this but I guess MBV get a free pass for being one of the first bands to bring shoegaze to people's attention in the late 80's. Slowdive and Ride were better overall.

 

[2006_Eagles]

The Wiggles

 

[Purple7x08_24]

Radiohead are divisive. There is not one single thing pop or entertainment about them and they don’t give a *. I can see why people do not like them or get them. They just make their music. My fav band of all time but I doubt I know anyone else who is much of a fan.

I think there is also the issue that they are not necessarily even trying to put on “a show”. They are just doing their thing and you can take it or or leave it.

I always find this fascinating. No one expects Leonard Cohen to get people dancing in the aisles.



And Coldplay are the complete opposite. The entire thing is a show. The whole thing is pop and show biz and get them dancing in the aisles. Coldplay have some great tunes but at the end of the day it is commercial in every way from painting your pianos and guitars to match the album themes (pure sacrilege and a crime against guitars) to preplanned marketing JV’s.

I think everyone gets Coldplay - it is what it is - pure pop.

• The Radiohead fan base is pretentious
• Harry Styles doesn't really set his style no pun intended. I tried to listen to one of his albums but it was all over the place. I didn't really know what his genre was.
• Kiss
• Kanye West and 95% of Drake's music
• U2
• Modest Mouse
• Florence and the Machine

 

[killtaker1993]

My Bloody Valentine were one of the greatest (and loudest) live bands I have ever seen. Anyone who doesn't have 'Loveless' in their Top 10 records must have a truly horrendous record collection

 

[Pistol Night]

The Wiggles

Have a couple kids and you’ll realise how much time The Wiggles open up for ya.

 

[La Dispute]

Oasis. 2 good albums the last in 1995. UK media persist in not letting anybody forget Oasis is a thing that happened.

I don’t mind a few Oasis songs but WTSMG is really overrated.

So many songs that just dwindle into nothing. Some Might Say has such a cool intro and buildup and then gets flattened by a cheesy chorus. Hey Now is boring. The opening tracks are pretty by the numbers.

The whole thing gets saved by the singles and has the best possible ending with Champagne Supernova. Really papers over a lot of boring tracks.

I like Definitely Maybe a little better, I just don’t see the need for such lengthy songs for how few ideas they’re generating. Columbia, Shakermaker etc. I get they’re trying to create these quasi-Shoegaze tracks but I don’t find it super interesting. There’s a clear Stone Roses influence, but I think TSS are a lot more concise with their songwriting.

A jangly 4-minute is fun - a jangly 6-minute song is overwrought. It’s the same issue I have with a lot of Smiths songs.

 

[La Dispute]

• Modest Mouse

What aspect in particular?

I can generally break Modest Mouse into 3 era’s

Peak: TIALD, Lonesome Crowded West, The Moon & Antarctica

Commercial breakthrough: Good News, We Were Dead

Death: The last two LP’s

I think it’s fairly easy to see the appeal for their earlier stuff. They came at the same time The Flaming Lips and Pavement were at their peak and took elements from bands like Sonic Youth.

I’ve always seen Isaac Brock as a similar songwriting to Neil Young. Really evocative and pretty direct lyrics. Even his guitar playing could easily be his take on the kind of sounds Neil Young used to attempt on songs like Down By The River. Not technically great, but really jagged and laidback.

I don’t think they are more of album band at all. Even their better albums aren’t complete listens and usually there’s a couple of key songs on each album that drive the whole thing. The Lonesome Crowded West is probably their most consistent end-to-end, but it’s not a perfect album but any means.

They then got pretty boring once they crossed into the mainstream. Isaac Brock took a lot of ideas from Tom Waits and not all of them hit. I don’t mind the aesthetic of either of those mid-career albums, but there was definitely a noticeable decline in their songwriting.

The last couple of LP’s are pretty bad and long and I cbf listening to again.

 

[Borough Blood]

What aspect in particular?

I can generally break Modest Mouse into 3 era’s

Peak: TIALD, Lonesome Crowded West, The Moon & Antarctica

Commercial breakthrough: Good News, We Were Dead

Death: The last two LP’s

I think it’s fairly easy to see the appeal for their earlier stuff. They came at the same time The Flaming Lips and Pavement were at their peak and took elements from bands like Sonic Youth.

I’ve always seen Isaac Brock as a similar songwriting to Neil Young. Really evocative and pretty direct lyrics. Even his guitar playing could easily be his take on the kind of sounds Neil Young used to attempt on songs like Down By The River. Not technically great, but really jagged and laidback.

I don’t think they are more of album band at all. Even their better albums aren’t complete listens and usually there’s a couple of key songs on each album that drive the whole thing. The Lonesome Crowded West is probably their most consistent end-to-end, but it’s not a perfect album but any means.

They then got pretty boring once they crossed into the mainstream. Isaac Brock took a lot of ideas from Tom Waits and not all of them hit. I don’t mind the aesthetic of either of those mid-career albums, but there was definitely a noticeable decline in their songwriting.

The last couple of LP’s are pretty bad and long and I cbf listening to again.

Agree with most of that except LCW is pretty much perfect and that and M&A are complete listens end to end.

 

[rye]

the mars volta

i really like at the drive in but for whatever reason mars volta bores me to death

 

[norway blue]

I love both bands. The musicianship and intensity in Volta is breathtaking.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[the_interloper]

I love both bands. The musicianship and intensity in Volta is breathtaking.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

Prog music in general would fall under the I don't get it category I'd reckon.

I love Tool but I'd say to someone that doesn't "get them" they would be mystified to their popularity. I am in some ways, it's a pleasant surprise to see a band making that type of music be so popular. I can't really think of any other prog bands who are anywhere near that popular these days.

 

[La Dispute]

the mars volta

i really like at the drive in but for whatever reason mars volta bores me to death

I like both bands but much prefer At The Drive-In. Relationship of Command is up there as one of my all-time favourites - possibly my favourite.

The Mars Volta are pretty good, but their shtick became pretty old pretty quickly. Deloused In The Comatorium still holds up well, and was basically the perfect crossover of their post-hardcore leanings with some prog experimentation, but the next few LP's they just became too involved in creating prog rock and it became really overblown. Frances The Mute would be awesome if they kept most of their best ideas and didn't use so many reprise tracks/parts in songs to return to. It can work on some albums, but I hate the way they almost lazily bring back riffs from earlier on in the piece - some of which aren't even that great.

Omar is also great post-hardcore guitarist and not a great prog guitarist. His bread and butter is creating Fugazi-style heavy riffs and really spiky open-tuned opening riffs. Cosmonaut, Arcarsenal, Extracurricular (I had to look this up on Youtube - must be an extended version of RoC) etc. I think he basically peaked as a musician on Relationship. In/Casino/Out is a great album too - more moody, some seriously emotive songs that almost verge on emo/Rites of Spring or something. Still listen to Hourglass and Translantic Foe a lot.

That Vaya EP is something to behold too. None of those songs would sit well on either of those last couple of LP's, but you get a sense of what they were building to on RoC, but the songs just aren't as refined or have that same gravity.

I just don't have the interest to keep tracking either of the bands. Bedlam In Goliath was probably the last decent TMV album and was a pretty good return to form in hindsight. Was pretty long in line with every TMV album, but they actually went back to trying to write songs which was a massive weakness of Amputechre and that LP was boring as hell for the most part.

The other good thing about Deloused was the songs could easily be listened to outside the context of the album. They really did fit a lot of interesting ideas into each track and the ebbs and flows worked well. I was listening to Drunkship Lanterns a lot last year. At the moment I'm listening to To The Veil Cerpin Taxt a lot and that is just about the perfect TMV track and encapsulates everything they tried to achieve with that band - heavy riffs, perfect build up, interlude, massive outro. Cicatriz runs a pretty similar pattern.

The whole thing (Cedric and Omar I mean) has become a bit tired, but they had a great run from about 1995-2005.

 

[footyfan1978]

Icehouse...

 

[footyfan1978]

Icehouse...

That was a joke.
Was actually listening to some concert via youtube and was thinking shit, how come never appreciated how many good songs these guys produced.
Slower paced music than I would normally listen to.

 

[davo78]

have you listened to their 'flowers' album (icehouse)? do yourself a favour