New Wave Outpost Forum

by **Peter Venkman** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:10 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by earthloop[/i]
REM...Ahhh well! Maybe because I met Michael Stipe in a club after seeing REM in concert earlier in the evening(and loved it...er, the concert that is [:D]) )...I found him to be a nice guy so it is hard to agree in the negative! Though they got a bit MOR in recent years![/quote]

Back in the late '80s, REM kept going on about how they would play a concert at the turn of the millenium, and self-destruct. I was [i]bitterly[/i] dissapointed when they failed to follow through on their promise.

Michael Stipe gets more pathetic every time I see him. Watching him writhe around on stage on Live 8 in his ridiculous facepaint made me fully realize what a self-parody he's become. Just a heroin addict in clown makeup flinging his free-verse stool on the audience.

[quote]Sonic Youth!!!??? Now, I might be a bit controversial here and suggest that anyone who thinks that Sonic Youth are overrated just doesn't get it (them). Sonic Youth produce what I call cathartic sonic impressionism...I love them!!! What they do makes perfect sense to me![/quote]

That's the problem. They made one good rock album--Daydream Nation--and became convinced that they were a modern music ensemble, a la Kronos Quartet. They think they're artists; they're not artists--Kim Gordon can't play bass, and Thurston Moore is a pretentious joke. They've abandoned their original audience of indie dorks and college kids, and now make music strictly for contemporary music dilettantes and rock critics. I mean, Christgau still pops a boner over every album they put out.

I remember reading a few years ago about how Sonic Youth "treated their fans" to an instrumental-only concert. Tell me, how many of their fans do you think thought that was a "treat"?

[i]"Sometimes I want to die in my bed,
All I can think about is "When are we leaving?",
Everytime I think of you I want a cigarette,
Man chooses himself, hero with a thousand faces,
It's the third night and the walls are shaking"[/i]--Tuxedomoon, "Desire"

by **i_like_lectric_motors** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:18 pm

Ummmmm Venkman ..... So now you're the expert on what constitutes art? Yawn. At least have the good sense to try to pretend you know what the fuck you're talking about. It would provide some much-needed relief.

by **Peter Venkman** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:33 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by i_like_lectric_motors[/i]
 Ummmmm Venkman ..... So now you're the expert on what constitutes art? Yawn. At least have the good sense to try to pretend you know what the fuck you're talking about. It would provide some much-needed relief.[/quote]

Hi, Thurston!

I never claimed to be an expert. The subject of what is and is not art is a discussion that has existed for as long as civilization itself. I was just stating an opinion that Sonic Youth were not art-eests--not in the way they want to be percieved, as a groundbreaking modern music ensemble.

Not only that, but viewing themselves as art-eests, Sonic Youth wants to put out the auditory equivalent of:

<IMG SRC="http://artfiles.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10078000/10078232.jpg">

But way too often end up putting out the auditory equivalent of:
<IMG SRC="http://artfiles.art.com/images/PRODUCTS/large/10027000/10027437.jpg">

[i]"Sometimes I want to die in my bed,
All I can think about is "When are we leaving?",
Everytime I think of you I want a cigarette,
Man chooses himself, hero with a thousand faces,
It's the third night and the walls are shaking"[/i]--Tuxedomoon, "Desire"

by **i_like_lectric_motors** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 12:48 pm

I would expect you to show a little more empathy since you seem to be going for this:

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/motors/carlin.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

and end up closer to this:

<a href="http://photobucket.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v604/motors/carrot.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting"></a>

by **Peter Venkman** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 1:13 pm

Hey, I wouldn't mind being Carrot Top. Lucrative telephone deal, seeing the US on tour, your choice of prize college-girl poon. La dolce vita.

[i]"Sometimes I want to die in my bed,
All I can think about is "When are we leaving?",
Everytime I think of you I want a cigarette,
Man chooses himself, hero with a thousand faces,
It's the third night and the walls are shaking"[/i]--Tuxedomoon, "Desire"

by **Panorama** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:07 pm

[quote][i]Originally posted by Barmy[/i]
 I love Black Diamond, but c'mon, they have at least 30 great songs, which is 30 more than R.E.M. has. And doesn't "I Was Made For Lovin' You" count as New Wave?[/quote]You have got to be kidding, right? R.E.M. has more than 30 good songs. I don't think I could name more than a handful of Kiss songs.

The summer of 1987 I listened to Murmer and Reckoning constantly.
Fables of the Reconstruction and Automatic for the People are just about perfect albums.

A few good songs on these 3 LPs
Document: Finest Worksong, It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine), The One I Love
Green: Orange Crush
Life's Rich Pagent: Begin the Begin, Fall On Me, Superman

I agree the last few albums are not the same as the early ones, but even they included some good songs:
Reveal: All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star), Imitation of Life.
New Adventures In Hi-Fi: E-Bow The Letter, Electrolite
Around The Sun: Leaving New York, Electron Blue

Up - I'm not fond of that album.

---------------------------
"Photography with a Vision"
http://www.cooganphoto.com

by **Frau_Blucher** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:26 pm

Funny that the BBC would just have an article on the Divisive One, Mozz...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/5037620.stm

by **Bitter Almonds** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 5:48 pm

Anything the Stones recorded from the time they went with the Disco wave. Blondie also fits this criteria. Good music at the onset, then they whored themselves out to ride the wave of popularity. I mean, could you imagine if insert name of your favourite band opted to record musak for American Idol or some bullshit like that? So, the Stones and Blondie have recorded overrated shit[}:)]

by **Frank_Chickens** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:32 pm

The Rolling Stones sold themselves out in 1964 when they made an advert for Rice Krispies:

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2715172?htv=12&htv=12

--

"As chairman of the Cradle of Filth fanclub I'm the most insensitive man in Britain, but even I can see there's tension there"

by **randy** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 9:58 pm

ok-coming in late on this one.

Smiths
Morrisey
Smiths
Morrisey
Smiths
Morrisey
Smiths
Morrisey

Other than that crowd of whiners....
Talking Heads-yeah I like them but was always sick of hearing the undeserved praises
Joy Division--I agree with Wolvie
Depeche Mode-one or two songs at a time is all I can handle--more than that? Boring
New Order--ought to raise a few eyebrows. Again-I like them-just dont get the pedestal they are put on around here.

I See the Stones mentioned--once Brian Jones died they lost most of it for me.

Nirvana-agreed-the band that single handedly almost killed rock and roll!!! They turned more people off than they turned on-you just dont hear about it!! So many kids didnt like them so much (and their awful copycats such as Pearl Jam ) that they turned to-gag-either teeny bop crap or rap!!

by **jumpshift** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:36 am

OKAY, LET"S SEE.......

Red Hot Chili Peppers: Seems you can't turn on the radio for ten minutes without hearing these guys. I think maybe they get a little more credit than they deserve. I personaly think theyre an ok band, but the whole world seems to go insane over them. Right up there with nirvana.

Culture Club: Definitely not even a good example of new wave, but one of the most well-known & overrated of that genre. And people that like to rag on the 80's always seem to associate the entire decade with them and Wham.

Nirvana & Pearl Jam: Whole lot of hype surrounds them. It seems the only reason that some people like them is because they credit them for killing off hair metal. Not true. Hair metal was just a fad like disco in the late 70's. Or even more bizarre, some people just plain credit them for killing off the 80's. What's wrong with the 80's. It was great time for music. Okay, not fashion. But music was good.

by **hutter** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 4:44 am

Nirvana is: Ian Curtis "woe is me" lyrics + heavy geetars + stupid image = crap. As much as I rag on Joy Division, I'd sooner listen to their entire catalog 5x than one Nirvana song. Lousy by-product: Foo Fighters. Yeech.

by **SwampThing** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:04 am

Some thoughts about Nirvana.

Based on what I've read via biographies and music mags Kurt would probably agree that they (he) were overrated. He seemed genuinely perplexed how Nirvana received so much fanfare while his favorite bands such as Sonic Youth and the Melvin's only had a cult following.

He never intended to make music for the MTV/Spring Break/Frat boy crowd.

The image started off as no-image, anti-rock star. In other words, you don't get in "costume" to perform a gig, just wear what you normally wear (which in the NW was generally "thrift-shop" at the time).

David Grolh of the Foo Fighters is a highly talented musician. Plays drums well above average, sings, play guitar and writes. Recently backed up Queen on VH1, apparently Brian May is a big fan. Plus Foo Fighters have made a couple of really good New Wave covers.

by **djcraig** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:52 am

I like The Foo Fighters.

Not a huge fan of Nirvana but those of you who put them in the overrated category need to give credit where it is due.

Cobain, himself upset about all the notoriety, took himself out in a moment of self hatred. So he essentially agreed with the opinion that his band was overrated and took drastic action to put and end to it and himself.

So where's the applause?

Too bad Roland Orzabal didn't take the same approach. Tears For Fears early stuff I liked. But "Head Over Heels" was/is a horribly overplayed, crappy song made popular by MTV back when there was little competition for airtime. And "Shout" makes my ears bleed. "Everybody Wants To Rule The World" is a lounge song gone bad.

With every release since then, TFF has stepped closer and closer to becoming straight Beatles parody. Unfortunately, Oasis has them beat here.

TFF- one of the most overlooked, overrated bands of the 80s.

by **SwampThing** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 5:58 am

[quote]TFF- one of the most overlooked, overrated bands of the 80s.[/quote] I love "The Hurting", can't stand much else. Listening to the more recent stuff is like listening to entirely different band.

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