Thanks to everyone who has commented on and shared the link to that White Stripes post I made yesterday. I’m happy it created some dialog, and I’m even happier it wasn’t perceived as being a take-down piece slamming the band for sucking. I don’t think the White Stripes suck, I just don’t see why it’s big news they have called it quits. It’s hard to be moved by a band quitting when you don’t quite understand their appeal.
Yesterday’s post and its responses have inspired me. What bands other than the White Stripes have achieved great notoriety while eclipsing my radar? What bands are immensely popular without my having heard even one song from their catalog? Or, what bands have I heard a song or two by, passed over, and later found out to be insanely popular? Why do people get this look on their face when I say I haven’t heard of a band I clearly should know? Why am I called a liar when I admit to not knowing much about some band? In short, what are the top ten bands I just don’t understand?
The Top Ten Bands I Don’t Understand
10. No Age – I suppose I should be ashamed of this because I live in Los Angeles and I’m pretty good at keeping up with what’s going on in the area — or at least I was when I first moved out here. Still, I’m 99% sure I’ve never heard a No Age song (unless there’s been one on a movie or TV commercial and I simply didn’t know it). After I typed that last sentence I had to check to make sure I didn’t listen to them for my Coachella post last week. The only reference to them on this site is from 2009 when I was making fun of bands at ATP. I described No Age as “the Interpol of this year” and then spent the rest of the paragraph mocking Bob Mould for sounding like Tom Hanks. I guess they’re better than Interpol if they’re still popular, but then again I don’t even know if they’re still popular. Are they? What am I missing?
09. Fleet Foxes – Never heard a song by these guys. Heard second-hand that it’s acoustic with harmonies? Or am I thinking of Bon Iver? Or am I thinking of something else? I can’t really be bothered to listen if it’s doesn’t sound like Elliott Smith or Mark Lanegan. If there’s more than one man in a band and the main instrument is an acoustic guitar you will find me about as far away from that group as I could possibly get. Furthermore, I don’t understand why anyone would want to listen to a band who describes its music (according to Wikipedia) as “baroque harmonic pop jams.” That sounds like the Bee Gees. Why do people like this stuff?
08. LCD Soundsystem – I got their first record because one of my friends told me to. Was it Ian? I don’t know if he liked that music. It was someone. I bought the LP at Princeton Record Exchange for $5.99 and listened to it once or twice. There was one good song on it (the one about “Trials And Tribulations”) but otherwise it was not my cup of tea. And yet everybody loves LCD Soundsystem. Why? Did the obese guy buy a Travis Bean and surround himself with a brutal rhythm section? Do they sound like Tar?
07. The Fiery Furnaces – Andy told me to at least a year ago that I needed to give these guys a chance. I’ve read a lot about them for a long time (a brother and a sister, right? they’ve been doing their thing for almost a decade?) but never bothered to listen. I feel like maybe I downloaded the album with the blue cover on Soulseek when I was in college and couldn’t get passed the girl’s voice, but that could have just as easily been a Joanna Newsom record or Cat Power or something. I guess I just don’t understand it. And if all this stuff about non-linear concept albums is any indication, I’m pretty sure I won’t understand it after I hear it, too.
06. The National – When I was submitting weekly charts to The Tripwire a few years ago I was always shocked that the same band held onto the top chart position every single week: The National. All the other blogs who submitted data to the Tripwire were absolutely apeshit for that band. Never bothered to listen. From what I read it’s mopey uplifting (how is that possible?) rock music played and sung by dudes pushing 40. I don’t get it.
05. Deerhunter – I feel like Ian and Jon and a few other people have all tried to convince me to give Deerhunter a chance, but I never bothered to when they were getting a lot of press a few years ago and care even less about it now that I haven’t had to read about them for some time. Someone even sent me the album but I never got all the way through it. It was just too boring. I want to like every album Kranky releases but I guess that’s not the case. So, yeah. I don’t understand this band.
04. Spoon – I find this particularly hilarious because when I was writing my travel book I just missed meeting with someone from Spoon when I was in Austin, and I scheduled an interview without having ever heard a song by the band. I just knew that they were really popular and I should probably do my best to get in touch when I was in town. Five years later I still haven’t ever consciously heard a song by Spoon. I even purchased two Spoon records and a couple 7″ singles from an old roommate who was moving and didn’t want to bring his LP collection with him. Even then I never listened to the albums. I just turned around and sold them. Everything I read about the band made it sound like it wasn’t my cup of tea so I never bothered.
03. Grizzly Bear – Before I moved to LA I was walking down a street in Brooklyn and a friend pointed across the way and said, “Oh, look. There’s Grizzly Bear.” I had no idea what he was talking about. Maybe he was making a joke because everyone in Brooklyn looks like they’re in an “indie” band. Whatever, the point is, I didn’t know who Grizzly Bear was then and I still don’t know enough to say I could pick these guys out of a lineup. For all I know Sebastian has played this record a million times at work and I have just glossed over it. Now that I’m looking at their Wikipedia page I see why: the band members are credited with “omnichord, banjo, glockenspiel…” this sounds like nothing I care to hear. Unless it sounds like Tower Recordings. But I’m sure it doesn’t.
02. New Pornographers – Survived for quite some time having never heard a New Pornographers song, and then within the span of a year I heard the same damn record a dozen times at work. Now I can’t stand this crap and long for the days when I was woefully ignorant. From now on I’m going to have to fight to ignore it. What the hell is the deal with this stuff? Each song feels more composed and affected and predictable than the last. Plus the production is all weird. It hurts my ears. Yeah, I said it. A New Pornographers record hurts my ears and Harvey Milk doesn’t. Oh, and that Destroyer guy. Ugh. The worst. I don’t get it.
01. Wilco – I went a really long time without listening to Wilco. In fact, the first time I heard any of the music was when Tom Scharpling did one of his famous “unfair record reviews,” and skewered A Ghost Is Born. Later on I was crushing on a girl who loved Wilco, so I watched that documentary about the band and the singer actually made my blood boil. What an asshole! I was so angered by that film I told the girl — even though she had no interest in me — that we could never be together because she respected that guy. It was kind of funny, actually, now that I think about it. I had no right saying that to her. But the point is, I really, really don’t understand Wilco, or anyone’s fascination/respect for Wilco. Shockingly bad lyrics, music that too-closely mimics its influences, and the worst kind of dick as a frontman. No thanks. Don’t understand it. Don’t want to.
[Image courtesy of Clevescene]
February 5th, 2011
I don’t understand Iron Maiden. Are they a joke and deliberately shit?
February 5th, 2011
For each of the bands mentioned above, there are millions of people who don’t like them.
Everyone has their own taste.
These days if you hear about a band being recommended you can quickly check them out on youtube.
If you don’t like their sound or style, there is nothing wrong with your tastes, and there is nothing strange in the fact that many people like them but you don’t like them.
Also, you shouldn’t have to make any effort to like a band’s music.
There is no good or bad, there is just what some people like and what some people don’t like.
I like 6 of the bands you mentioned and I don’t feel anything for 4 of them.
So there are no rules to any of this. It is simply the variety of the human race.
The 4 I don’t feel anything for are:
Deerhunter
Fleet Foxes
The National
No Age
February 5th, 2011
I’m ien 100% agreement with you which may harm your street cred as I’m a cranky old guy. I do love music though… just not any of this shit.
February 5th, 2011
Interesting you claim to hate some of these bands but never bothered to listen to them. Your argument seems pretty shit
February 5th, 2011
LCD Soundsystem is a Moma installation piece like Marina Abramovic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVY4Whayw0s
I can’t hear Lady Gaga’s celebrity impersonation over the interviewers clattering keyboard strokes. It makes me wonder why the blogosphere can’t be like the atmosphere in space with no pressure or oxygen. Who doesn’t want to email their grandma the viral vid of their heads forcibly exploding like a scanners remake.
“The museum doers could do as they pleased with her. Somebody tried to shoot her in the head. Somebody tried to fuck her. They ripped her shirt open and cut her hair.”
Excuse the shameless self promotion, but, I’m going to rape the LCD Soundsystem at the Moma.
Mopey uplifting? A chick asked me to be positive and romantic. Is that a riddle? a koan? Maybe it was a koan and that was my first spiritual connection to another human being.
Hey cranky old guy, let’s go listen to a James Gang record.
February 5th, 2011
I am on the same boat as you are.
But I do like my New Pornographers and The National.
LCD Soundsystem I actually like “This Is Happening” since I like to beats and dance around to.
I still haven’t heard a single Wilco track yet!
February 5th, 2011
This article kind of upsets me. I have no problem at all for difference in opinion, but i just really didnt like how you refused to check out the band. It is impossible to jusge a band from their wikipedia page. thats like judging a food by looking at someone’s shit who has eaten it.
February 5th, 2011
I think Dr Levine makes a valid unspoken point here about the majority of these bands, that is, they are such a byproduct of their aped influences that it becomes packaged and bar coded and categorized even before it hits the cd racks. Me and Evan do have some divergent tastes, but one thing we seem to see eye to eye on is this: do this music make me feel something? If not, skipt it to the limit and keep digging. I am pretty jaundiced in these matters of opinion. I know what I like, and nothing in that list made me even a little curious.
sincerely
s bowlin
February 6th, 2011
My opinion, no wait, FACT:
* Not all Grizzley Bear songs are good but some are gems, much like Animal Collective. You probably hate them too. No big deal. Not like anyone can see you pick your nose right now.
* Fleet Foxes are great studio band and suck live – or at least what I’ve heard from them live. Their last studio album was great… but start from the 2nd track, please.
* Wilco – a few songs from each album. Can’t into all of it. Their first release is my favorite – it has more songs that I like.
* The Fiery Furnaces’ Blueberry Boat is the only one I own so I cannot say too much except that I find this album very funny and I have to be in the mood for it. I suggest you give it another listen if that is the one you own.
* The New Pornographers – is really for people looking for new, improved porn. No wait, scratch that. It is really for people like me who are waiting for Neko Case’s next album and tour and have to settle for her slumming it with her friends, making happy music – instead of creative fiction set to music. Neko, please release an album this year. Thank you.
A big BLAH goes out to The National, Spoon. I haven’t heard enough of their music to say yea or nay but so far, I’m not impressed. There might be a song out there, until then… yaaaaawn.
February 7th, 2011
Didn’t you forget Destroyer?
February 7th, 2011
Oh, no I did not. I “get” Destroyer. And it’s the worst shit ever.
February 7th, 2011
I often don’t “get” bands I’ve never listened to. Perhaps it was your title that was wrong, should have been “Bands that worked their butts off without the help of a major label to achieve massive acclaim at a grssroots level that I never bothered to listen to because I just assumed what I would get” Has a ring to it, no? Crazy thing is, on the whole, none of the bands on your list sound alike, so you’ve actually put together a wonderfully eclectic mix. Bravo! but you really should take the time to listen, somebody as crass and irreverent as you(I do enjoy your writing if not always your music) would love the lyrics to “All the Wine” by The National. Just saying.
February 10th, 2011
This is a stupid article. You are a shallow little bitch if you judge a band on a press photo/or one song/or wiki page.
February 11th, 2011
Well, I quite enjoyed this post. You laid your parameters out clearly enough — not bands you think are shit, just bands that lots of others seem to like, including people whose taste you generally click with, and yet for one reason or another they’ve never broken through to you. I know that exact feeling. I’m musically curious and open-minded and I go out of my way to listen to new stuff, and yet I wouldn’t know a Deerhunter song if it bit me in the ass, despite the fact that everyone I know seems to listen to them. It’s just one of those things.
December 10th, 2011
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