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[Kai]

Rush? Maybe. Queen Iron Maiden and Zeppelin? FUCK NO.



Maybe try to stick within their genre.


Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, King Crimson (to an extent), Spock's Beard ( to an extent), various others.

[KharBevNor]

I would love to see a write-up on any of the following, and I'll try to post any I see come up which I have an interest in:

- The Smiths

Band Name: The Smiths

Genre: Post-punk

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 8

Best Album: The Queen is Dead

Songs:
- Best All Around: How Soon is Now?
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': They keep a very even sort of energy...possibly Shakespeare's Sister?
- Most Relaxing: There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard:
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Glum. Sarcy. Slightly Camp. It must be Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now.

Bands Like This Band: The Cure, Joy Division, New Order, Echo and the Bunnymen I suppose, Morrisey tirelessly tries to resurrect their glory with his solo career. They tended to have a, I suppose I would say 'lusher' sound than most other post-punk bands however. Softer synths, more guitar driven.

Coolest Thing About This Band: Morrisey, Marr. 'nuff said.

Uncoolest Thing About This Band: They're David Camerons favourite band.

[Oli]

Band Name: Jets To Brazil

Genre: emo\indie\rock

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 10

Best Album: Orange Rhyming Dictionary

Songs:
- Best All Around: Sweet Avenue
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': That's a hard question. Milk and Apples is kinda rockin'
- Most Relaxing: Further North
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: Perfecting Lonliness
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Sea Anemone

Bands Like This Band: Jawbreaker (kinda) Texas is the reason

Coolest Thing About This Band: Blake Schwarzenbach. But seriously they are just a really good band. Their music is really dark and moody but still makes you smile and the lyrics are wonderful.

[mrpaku]

Thank you all for the write-ups. I wasn't expecting them so quickly, not to mention as concise. Nice forum you guys have here!

[seth uber alles]

Did we really just compare Coheed and Cambria to Queen, Iron Maiden and Led fucking Zeppelin?

Yeah, I did. And although I knew I'd catch a lot of shit for it, I make no apologies. I can't really compare them to any modern bands. They have moments in their songs that blatantly recall the above mentioned bands. They even have a song "2113" as a tribute to Rush, a song as an homage to Zeppelin (Welcome Home) and Claudio has said the new album, especially the song "The Suffering" is heavily influenced by Queen. You can definitely hear it.

[Kai]

Oh, is that what they're calling that song where they steal the Kashmir riff? A homage?



Also, the bands I listen were not modern (save for Spock's Beard).

[jcknbl]

Adding to Khar's summary of  the Smiths


- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: Charming Man got a bunch of college radio play a few years back, they rereleased it or something. How Soon Is Now was on the Wedding Singer Soundtrack if you saw that.


My favorite song is (EDIT) Big Mouth Strikes Again. Embaressing that I couldn't remember the name right.

[KharBevNor]

Man, I knew I left something out. I was leaving that one till last, because, whilst I know the Smiths had a few pretty big singles, I had never actually heard any of their stuff before getting an album.

[nuisance]

If you can stand to think about it, the theme from that TV programme 'Charmed' is an awful cover of The Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now?'

I think one of the big points of distinction (from the rest of post-punk Britain) with these guys is that their guitarist, Johnny Marr, loved soul music.  There's no white boy funk in the mix, it's not A Certain Ratio or Scritti Politti or something, but there's that shimmery jangly cheerfulness to a lot of the guitar lines... off-set by terminally mopey / sarcastic Morrissey.

[Rizzo]

Bands Like This Band: I have no idea. Baitercell and Schumacher and possibly Chemical Brothers (I don't usually listen to electronica)?

*shrug*  Yeah, tough one...

At last count there are I think 5 members of the band, at the time Since I Left You was created there were at least 4.  Maybe as a DJ show only two of them take to the road.

Really? I had alwys assumed it was purely samples since I read a review of their DJ set. Ah well.

[KharBevNor]

Band Name: Current 93

Genre: Industrial (early)/Apocalyptic Folk (Later)

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 10

Best Album: Cats Drunk on Copper (Live, but, oh my...)

Songs:
- Best All Around: A Song For Douglas After He's Dead
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Crowleymass, but not really.
- Most Relaxing: Patripassian
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: There's nothing really... A Gothic Love Song if anything.
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Black Flowers Please sums them up quite well I think.

Bands Like This Band: The easy comparisons are obviously Death in June and Sol Invictus. Their acoustic material falls somewhere between the two, sonically...less raw and threatening than Sol Invictus, less electronic than Death in June. In Gowan Ring is probably also a good comparison, as are The Legendary Pink Dots. They belong in the same musical continuum as Coil and Nurse With Wound, and have released collaborative albums with both. They don't sound particularly 'cliche' for neo-folk, however, much of that being down to Dave Tibets strange, impassioned vocals, which I can only really compare to a more toned down Anna-Varney Cantonadea. Also, I think their chick

Coolest Thing About This Band: I don't know why Current 93 aren't indie-big. I really fucking don't... They've collaborated with Nurse With Wound, Nick Cave, Antony Hegarty, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and a score of others, and released tons of absolutely fantastic albums full of, quite frankly, beutiful music. Yes, Dave's vocals probably put a good few people off, but they definitely bear trying to get used to. They are infectious, and utterly beautiful...I dare anyone to listen to Cats Drunk on Copper and not get moved.

[nuisance]

Band Name: Current 93

[...] Also, I think their chick

...?  You were going bloody well there, did you stop mid sentence?

I think David Tibet's vocals are actually the main reason the band aren't "indie big", although I have to admit it's been over 10 years since I last listened to Current 93.. and the Dots actually!

[Kai]

You should fix that. Both the Dots and the Current are amazingly wonderful.




And I am totally seeing the Dots live and I am super excited.

[nuisance]

Meh, they're OK, but I don't really find them that interesting.  I wanted to chat about that NWW list.. maybe it's worth its own topic?

[KharBevNor]

Band Name: Current 93

[...] Also, I think their chick

...?  You were going bloody well there, did you stop mid sentence?

I think David Tibet's vocals are actually the main reason the band aren't "indie big", although I have to admit it's been over 10 years since I last listened to Current 93.. and the Dots actually!

'Also, I think their chick singer in the 90's was in Strawberry Switchblade'

I'm probably completely wrong on that one though.

If so, 'Black Ships Ate the Sky' should do something, as its got about 9 different tracks without him singing on.

As I've been discovering as I get more into neo-folk and whatnot, indie really is an extremely trend-based phenomenon. I mean, hipsters champion tons of often very obscure band, but a lot of them have never heard of (or rather heard) really anything of that entire post-industrial scene. Current 93 are more high profile than some of course...they've even been reviewed on Pitchfork :O

[jcknbl]

As I've been discovering as I get more into neo-folk and whatnot, indie really is an extremely trend-based phenomenon. I mean, hipsters champion tons of often very obscure band, but a lot of them have never heard of (or rather heard) really anything of that entire post-industrial scene.

Despite not being a genre indie did actually come from something- that is the scene started around a group of bands in the 90s that are about as different from Current 93 as you can possible get. So to the extent that there is an "indie culture" I don't know that we can expect everyone to drop Slanted and Enchanted and start listening to neo-folk. Its like trying to get goth kids to listen to twee.

It can happen though and probably will at some point with a different band. Honestly, while I think neo-folk is a really fucking awesome idea (I can't emphasize enough how cool it is to me) I don't think Current 93 is especially good. I've listened to the album a number of times and aside from one or two tracks (Song for Douglass, part of Black Flowers Please) I don't really think its that good. I'll try to get some stuff from those other two bands Sol Invictus and Death in June (If you haven't done them yet, heres a formal request), hopefully I'll like them better. Current 93 just doesn't grab me.

[timehat]

Rush? Maybe. Queen Iron Maiden and Zeppelin? FUCK NO.



Maybe try to stick within their genre.


Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Yes, King Crimson (to an extent), Spock's Beard ( to an extent), various others.

I personally don't think they sound anything like any actual prog bands. Ridiculous album concepts aside, they really struck me as just being emo with really strident vocals, which is where the Rush comparisons come from, I suppose. Really though, I think comparisons to Yes and King Crimson are especially faulty.

[jcknbl]

Band Name: John Cale
(obviously, i'm heavily biased by the fact that he's my godfather. yes, i was born a roman catholic, so help me god. when one parent is welsh and the other polish/russian you don't really get a choice in these things. suffice to say, i'm now pro-choice, pro-contraception, pro-women's rights - basically the opposite of the catholic church!)

1. Pretty much all us Catholics are like that.
2. John Cale is your fucking godfather?!?!?

[KharBevNor]

 I'll try to get some stuff from those other two bands Sol Invictus and Death in June (If you haven't done them yet, heres a formal request), hopefully I'll like them better. Current 93 just doesn't grab me.

Band Name: Sol Invictus

Genre: Apocalyptic Folk

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 10

Best Album: The Devils Steed or Death of the West

Songs:
- Best All Around: Not a choice I can make. I'll choose three: Kneel to the Cross/Twa Corbies (The Devils Steed Version)/The Praties Song
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': There isn't really such a thing, but some songs do get pretty damn intense/harrowing...See How We Fall maybe?
- Most Relaxing: December Song
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: If anything Kneel to the Cross
- Song That Best Represents The Band: In The West

Bands Like This Band: Current 93 and Death in June obviously. However, Sol Invictus, I think really did forge ahead and create a very different sound for themselves (of course, when you say 'them' talking about any of these bands, you need to remember that Death in June, Current 93 and Sol Invictus are basically Douglas P, Dave Tibet and Tony Wakeford respectively, plus whoever they've managed to scrape up to play or sing. This is why the instrument line-up of these bands changes so enormously).  Though the 'apocalyptic folk' moniker was originally applied to Current 93, I feel it perfectly fits Sol Invictus: dark, apocalyptic, mournful and powerful. Their best comparisons nowadays are probably things like Gae Bolg and Neutral, and of course, Agalloch.

Coolest Thing About This Band: They're still doing their best work. Last years album, 'The Devils Steed' was absolute fucking brilliance, somehow both oppressive and ethereal, mournful and uplifting. And full of great songwriting: Tony's probably the best technical song-writer in Neo-Folk nowadays, with great lyrics and brilliant, neo-classically inspired arrangement and layering.



Band Name: Death in June

Genre: Post-punk (early)/Neo-Folk (later)

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 9

Best Album: Rose Clouds of Holocaust

Songs:
- Best All Around: Fields of Rape
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': C'est Un Reve/Klaus Barbie
- Most Relaxing: This is Not Paradise
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: If anything, Rose Clouds of Holocaust
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Omen-Filled Seasons

Bands Like This Band: Well, Current 93, Sol Invictus and all that crowd for the new stuff obviously, but also stuff like Joy Division, really early The Cure and even Swans on their earlier material. Again, they do have a different sound that doesn't quite bear the standard SI/C93 comparison. Death in June have a somewhat warm, dreamy sound, very different from the cut-glass nightmare delicacy of C93 or the pounding epic landscapes of SI. You can also make some Coil comparisons. And of course, Of The Wand and The Moon are basically an endless Rose Clouds/Cathedral of Tears era rip-off.

Coolest Thing About This Band: 'Rose Clouds of Holocaust', which has been banned in Germany for presumably being some evil nazi thingumy, is actually about an acrimonius split with Douglas P's boyfriend of 13 years. And the constant references to 'rotors' etc. in Lifebooks have nothing to do with Swastikas, but are instead referring to a cieling fan in a pub. This is what you get for too much morbid poetry. Also, of course, Dave Tibet and Tony Wakeford have both been members of DI6 at times.

Interesting note: The correct way to shorthand Death in June is 'DI6'.

[Aneurhythmia]

Coolest Thing About This Band: Like I said, the albums are all part of a crazy Sci-fi story with aliens and shiznite. It's really interesting when you read the singer Claudio's explanation of the story and people's interpretations to unknown parts. It's just an insanely badass story. www.cobaltandcalcium.com has more info on that. Other than that, they do some really interesting creative things with their music, and are also hella fun to sing and rock out to. I think they get unfairly tagged as emo, but it's all timing.

Is it a failure of artistic communication if it has to be explained outside of the actual art?
I mean, I expect a certain level of external discovery.  Art shouldn't always be obvious.  But prosaic explication separate from the art?

I personally don't think they sound anything like any actual prog bands. Ridiculous album concepts aside, they really struck me as just being emo with really strident vocals, which is where the Rush comparisons come from, I suppose. Really though, I think comparisons to Yes and King Crimson are especially faulty.

I really think one of those tracks we listened to bore a superficial resemblance to Yes, but whatever.

[jcknbl]

Band Name: John Cale


(obviously, i'm heavily biased by the fact that he's my godfather

So do you know him? Do you have dinner once a year? I take it you aren't blood relatives, how did your parents know him? Any good stories?

[Fipher]

I don't know that anyone has asked about them, but I thought I'd post this anyway because they are teh roxors.

Band Name: They Might Be Giants

Genre: umm.... rock, pop, alternative, freaking weird.

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 10

Best Album: Apollo 18, with Lincoln in 2nd and Factory Showroom in 3rd.

Songs:
- Best All Around: This is the touchest to answere out of all of these. I have 34 of them rated as at least 4 stars in iTunes, with 8 of those being 5.  I guess New York City from Factory Showroom is the one I most often and easily enjoy listening too
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Man, It's So Loud In Here from Mink Car
- Most Relaxing: Goodnight My Friends from Here Come the ABCs
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: Birdhouse from Doctor Spock's Backup Band
- Song That Best Represents The Band: This is a tough one, they're just so random.  I guess Purple Toupee from Lincoln

Bands Like This Band: well, surprisingly enough I beleive iTMS has something on this, let me check...

Accoudring to them, Blink-182, Barenaked Ladies, Jim Greer, The Presidents of the United States of America, Moxy Fruvous, R. Stevie Moore, and Threebrain are some of their "Followers," while a list of their "Contemporaries" includes Brave Combo, Butterfly Joe, Camper Van Beethoven, The La's, Beck, Crash Test Dummies, Ween, Frank Black, and Barenaked Ladies.  TMBG themselves were inspired by The Residents, Violent Femmes, The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, The B-52's, and Jonathan Richman.

Coolest Thing About This Band: John Flansburge and John Linell can write a song about absolutely anything.  There are absolutely no exceptions.  They wrote a song about an ant living inside of someone's head and becoming elected president for goodness sakes. I know that New York was once New Amsterdam and that the 11th President of the United States of America was James K. Polk because of these people. That, and Linell plays the piano accordion like Douglas Adams writes scifi comedy.


On a side note, TMBG officially came into being the same year of my own birth, 1986.  This year was a complete pie in the face to the book, and I'd like to take this moment to thank a few people fro this fact.  The Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, President John F. Kennedy, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniack, President Harry S. Truman, and president Ronald Reagan.  Without you guys and your actions, our lives just wouldn't be nearly as happy.

[jcknbl]

Is there really no one here who can do the Boredoms?




Also, Kate Bush?

[ImRonBurgundy?]

I personally don't think they sound anything like any actual prog bands. Ridiculous album concepts aside, they really struck me as just being emo with really strident vocals, which is where the Rush comparisons come from, I suppose. Really though, I think comparisons to Yes and King Crimson are especially faulty.

and not even good emo.  like glossied-up radio mall emo.

fuck Coheed & Cambria.

[E. Spaceman]

Can we guess at the question?

[E. Spaceman]

That's alright, the thrill is in the hunt. In fact, could you make up another question and tell  if we guess it?

[nuisance]

Also, Kate Bush?

Band Name: Kate Bush

Genre: art-rock / pop

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 7

Best Album: The Hounds of Love

Songs:
- Best All Around: Cloudbusting
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': From memory some of the early songs are a bit rock, but fairly lame.. Don't Put Your Foot On The Heartbreak or Hammer Horror?  You don't listen to Kate Bush for this.
- Most Relaxing: The Sensual World
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: Wuthering Heights or Babooshka (both of which I can't stand :p)
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Maybe The Hounds of Love - impenetrable lyrics, English imagery ("I found a fox, chase by dogs")

Bands Like This Band: Um, people always say Tori Amos, and I guess that's true for the earlier, mawkish shit Kate Bush released as a teen / tween.  I really don't know.  Indie nrrds: Patrick Wolf loves her, and that makes sense to me.  Let's move on...

Coolest Thing About This Band: She's incredibly distinctive.  You can usually spot a Kate Bush track before she's started singing, what with the mix of sampling and traditional British / Irish folk instrumentation, and then her amazing voice is really her own.  She's also arty without being annoying.  I mean, the b-side of 'Hounds of Love' is a suite of songs loosely about drowning, based on a Tennyson poem.

I gave her a 7 because I find her catalogue hit and miss, but I have so much respect for her.  I think the 3 albums to check out are 'Hounds of Love' (84? 85?) 'The Dreaming' (83) and 'The Sensual World' (89), but she's already getting a bit MOR by then.  Still has songs about dancing with Hitler, falling in love with an AI (maybe only Kraftwerk sang about this before her?) and all kinds of literary references, an Estonian folk choir and the fairly heartbreaking This Woman's Work.  I haven't heard last year's 'Aerial', but the fans are foaming with glee...

[brew]

Is there really no one here who can do the Boredoms?

I could, but to me, the Boredoms started in 1998.

Band Name: Boredoms

Genre: psychedelic electronic post-rock

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 7

Best Album: Vision Creation Newsun

Songs:
- Best All Around: Super Going
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Super You
- Most Relaxing: (tilde - track 5 from Vision Creation Newsun)
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: ?
- Song That Best Represents The Band: (circle - track 1 from Vision Creation Newsun)

Bands Like This Band: I can't think of anything that's a close match, but Can, Faust, and Black Dice pop to mind, except that the Boredoms are very much Japanese.

Coolest Thing About This Band: 1) the constant movement of the music, largely due to the driving percussion.  2) the way in which a simple, folk base from acoustic instruments is used to create something that sounds very much modern and fresh.  It reminds me of minimalism in that sense.  Now that I think about it, Animal Collective fits this description too, but the results are totally different.

[jcknbl]

Cool, I think someone said before they knew the old Boredoms- if that person wants to go we could cover the entire career.


Also, can someone do Tom Waits?

[JLM]

Band Name: Boredoms (1990-1996)

Genre: Noise Rock

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 8

Best Album: Pop Tatari

Songs:
- Best All Around: 52 Boredom
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Bo Go (but most of the songs from this time were pretty loud/rockin' with a heavy funk influence)
- Most Relaxing: Nice B-O-R-E Guy & Boyoyo Touch
- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: For a while in the 90's, Yamatsuka Eye was the "SEGA!!" guy in the Genesis commercials. That's really the only thing I can think of that most people would have heard.
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Overdrive Assault, Machine 3, Bocabola

Bands Like This Band: Melt Banana

Coolest Thing About This Band: The best way I can describe them, from both the early albums and the few times I saw them during this period, would be meticulously crafted and organized cacophony. They're all incredible musicians, but listening to the albums or seeing them live, one might get the impression that they're just banging on their instruments, until the song moves into a surf-rock riff for a few beats before a blaring, gillespie-esque trumpet solo makes an appearance, at which point the song devolves into screaming, drums and a mish mash of other sounds.

Please feel free to add/edit or correct this if you feel it needs something more.

[Kai]

Thank you. Awesome.



Also, jcknbl, I'll totally do them later tonight if nobody already hasn't. I just have to finish things.

[brew]

Requests:
- Charles Ives
- Max Roach
- Sun Ra
- Funkadelic
- Scott Walker
- Beulah

[karl gambolputty...]

Band Name: Beulah

Genre: Indie Pop

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 8

Best Album: Yoko

Songs:
- Best All Around: Score From Augusta
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': My Side of the City
- Most Relaxing: You're Only King Once
- A song by them you may have heard: A Good Man is Easy to Kill (It was in an ad, for the Nissan Altima I think)
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Silver Lining

Bands Like This Band: Apples in Stereo, Yuji Oniki, Komeda, Olivia Tremor Control

Coolest Thing About This Band: With the exception of Yoko (which is just beautiful), it's pretty much impossible to be anything but deliriously happy when you're listening to them.

[Fortnight]

Artist Name: Scott Walker

Genre: Vocal Pop, Baroque Pop, Rock, Avant Garde

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 10

Best Album: Tilt

Songs:
- Best All Around: Farmer in the City
- Loudest/ Hardest/ Most Rockin': Track 3
- Most Relaxing: Most anything off of Scott 1-4
- Song That Best Represents The Artist: The Cockfighter

Artists Like This Artist: Momus, David Sylvian, Jacques Brel, David Bowie

Coolest Thing About This Artist: He began his career as a teen idol, moved   on to form pop sensation the Walker Brothers, and then eventually became the low-profile experimental madman he is today.
He's created some unremarkable stuff along the way, but when it's good, it's brilliant.

And "The Drift", his second Tilt-esque album just came out, and it's phenominal!

Edited for clonkyness

[nuisance]

Right on, right on... such a deserving "10", whether I enjoy listening to him or not.

- Song That Best Represents The Artist: The Cockfighter

I was just told this week (during a discussion about 'The Drift') that this song was an attempt by Scott to find a way to write about an impossible topic.  So he approaches it from 3 angles and leaves the listener to kind of pick out a meaning through triangulation.  

He's one of the few truly conceptual songwriters - deeply digging into how songs work and how one can convey meaning with form and so on.  Of course, that means I don't often find him much fun to listen to (I retreat to The Walker Brothers' Make It Easy On Yourself or even drippy solo shit like Joanna ) but he's just soooooo ace.

Edit: Found this great interview with him in The Wire, this quote re: his song Clara cracked me up:

Yeah, the meat punching, that's an idea that came to me because, she was going, especially in her section, you sing quite a beautiful melody, and I needed an undercurrent of evil. Cos it is a fascist love song, essentially. I didn't want to do some cliched thing with strings. So that came to me, so we go the side of pork in, and made poor Alistair punch it. It's pathetic - this guy, he's one of the graetest percussionists in Europe, and he not only does rock sessions, he plays with Boulez, Stockhausen, all these people, and I always subject him to some kind of awful thing, you know

Too funny.

[nuisance]

Edit:  If you dislike wah guitar, stop reading now.

- Funkadelic

Band Name: Funkadelic

Genre: P-Funk (of course) - started out all grungey and Hendrix-y, gets more and more similar to what the same musicians were doing as Parliament...

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 8

Best Album: May as well go with Maggot Brain but the later One Nation Under A Groove is pretty ace, more in the Parliament style

Songs:
- Best All Around: God... um.. I Wanna Know If It's Good To You Baby is pretty amazing, as is One Nation Under A Groove, but in very different ways
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Friday Night, August 14th is pretty rocking, but in a slow, Hendrix blues-rock kind of stylee
- Most Relaxing: Nappy Dugout
- A song by them you may have heard: Well, if you were listening to hip-hop in the mid-90s you've heard crap loads of their basic grooves, from Paris and Ice Cube to Snoop and Digital Underground.
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Promentalshitbackwashpsychosis Enema Squad (The Doo Doo Chasers), at least for the title  I haven't heard it...  Of those I have heard, maybe Maggot Brain is a sensible recommendation for the earlier, more psych / rocky stuff.  (Edit: but be warned, it's just a huge guitar solo through fx)

Bands Like This Band: Hmm... obviously Parliament (same line-up) and The J-Bs (James Brown's horn section were all members of Funkadelic / Parliament too, along with kicked out bassist, Bootsy Collins); Hendrix's funkier stuff is an obvious touchstone for where these guys were starting out.. lots of reversed shit and studio effects and so much soloing.  Also makes me think of Sly & The Family Stone, with more of a jam band vibe.  Superficially, the later stuff is somewhere near Brothers Johnson, some George Duke of a similar vintage, solo Bootsy Collins, early Zapp, Captain Sky, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson, maybe even a bit of Rufus (mainly for Chaka Khan's vox).. most of those bods aren't freaks, though.

Coolest Thing About This Band: They're hilarious, they really had the funk (in the sense of "stench".. it's weird, twisted music).  None of what they did sounds "cool" (with all its implications of acceptability) - it's just stoopid.

[Fortnight]

I was just told this week (during a discussion about 'The Drift') that this song [The Cockfighter] was an attempt by Scott to find a way to write about an impossible topic.  So he approaches it from 3 angles and leaves the listener to kind of pick out a meaning through triangulation.  

He's one of the few truly conceptual songwriters - deeply digging into how songs work and how one can convey meaning with form and so on.  Of course, that means I don't often find him much fun to listen to (I retreat to The Walker Brothers' Make It Easy On Yourself or even drippy solo shit like Joanna ) but he's just soooooo ace.

That's great, I'll have to go back to Tilt thinking about that.
I haven't read a lot of outside opinions, or even Walker's own comments, about the songs on Tilt (except the theory that certain things may be about the Cuban revolution) so even while I've listened to the album an endless amount of times, I don't pretend to know what the lyrics are really about or how he approached them.
It's hard for me to properly articulate, outside of general praise, how I feel about the songs on albums like Tilt or The Drift. The lyrics, the singing, the atmosphere, the balance, the this, the that, it just fires so many things in my brain. It's crushing! I like certain people and bands more than Scott Walker, but I listen to Tilt for the umpteenth time, and it's the only album in the world. I think to myself "how can anyone else bother making something that isn't this?". But then when it's done, I can go back to something catchy or bouncy, or just anything else. It's its own thing, I can't listen to a few songs on iTunes or pop it in the car, I have to go visit it.
It's funny, it just feels so personal. The Drift is even more like that now, but I haven't spent a lot of time on it yet. Or enough to draw any personal interpretation from it, I'm still getting tossed around.

But yeah, it's fun to go back to the Walker Brothers, and hear him singing these really nice dopey love songs.

Edit: Found this great interview with him in The Wire, this quote re: his song Clara cracked me up

Ha! That's a great interview, thanks for that. It's going to be exciting going back to The Drift thinking about all those anicdotes and little revelations.
I remember before I listened to Drift I read that at one point he uses someone "slapping bacon" for precussion, and being really pysched for the album thinking "God, what's this going to be?". Ha ha

[Cernunnos]

has anyone done Eels yet? i can't find them if ya have.

[jcknbl]

Repeating Tom Waits.

In addition: Mouse on Mars.

[nuisance]

In addition: Mouse on Mars.

Yay!

Band Name: Mouse On Mars

Genre: Electronic listening music

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 8

Best Album: 'Instrümentals' for the squelchy instrumental music they first got popular for, but if you want to check out the mangled vocal pop stuff they've been doing this millenium, try 'Radical Connector'

Songs:
- Best All Around: Subnubus
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Actionist Respoke or First: Break - both are cartoony, distorted drill'n'bass tracks
- Most Relaxing: Chromantic
- A song by them you may have heard: Bib, on the Forced Listening thread just now or Cache Coeur Naif, which was a single with Laetitia Sadier of Stereolab singing.
- Song That Best Represents The Band: maybe Glim for the earlier phase, Mine Is In Yours for the later (free MP3 at the end of that link)

Bands Like This Band: They've really cut their own path. Verrrry superficially: Plaid, Boards of Canada, maybe Four Tet?  Closer, but less well known: FX Randomiz, Schneider TM, Vert, Hausmeister.  One half of the core duo does solo stuff as Lithops, which is kinda similar.  Other projects they've been involved with don't sound like MoM much.  

Coolest Thing About This Band: They've got a really warm, social approach to their music, which is rare in such adventurous electronica.  It's occasionally hard to listen to, but usually heaps of fun, not all poe-faced and stern.

[E. Spaceman]

Hey guys, could anyone do Creed Xiu Xiu?

[Cernunnos]

oh man, i would kill to see creed. would make for good laughs.

[Freelance_Physicist]

Tom Waits

Genre:  who knows?  Imagine, while playing gigs in New Orleans, Louis Armstrong receives a phone call from his beau in which she says she's leaving him for Kenny G.  He then heads to the nearest cabaret, gets hammered on absynthe, then gets up on stage, punches out the master of ceremonies, and starts singing about his misery.

That's how I imagine him anyway.  Well, except that Tom Waits is white.

Anyway...

Rating: 9 (though I've only listened to two albums out of his extensive catalogue)

Best Album: Blood Money and Rain Dogs are both excellent; I'm partial to Rain Dogs since it has a greater variety in sound.


Songs:

Best: (man, don't make me pick) Either Singapore or God's Away on Business if we're talking achievements; I have a thing for Gun Street Girl though.

Rockin': He's really not that kind of musician, but ... the instrumental Midtown is pretty out there

Most Relaxing: Lullaby - in which Tom Waits' voice sinks low and soft enough that his trademark growl softens to soothing with a gravel-like quality

Most Played (by me at least): Downtown Train - a song of longing with a spare guitar line with a great slow build

Best Representative Song: again, Singapore and God's Away on Business, the latter best showcasing Tom Waits' distinctive--to say the least--voice.

Coolest thing: I've never heard anything like this.  Whiskey-soaked voice, anachronistic instruments (a calliope makes several appearances) and rhythms, and bizarre imagery in the lyrics all combine to create an atmosphere--no, a world--where you feel you want to get out as soon as possible, but not before downing some shots at the seedy bar down the alley and hearing the story of the man with dead eyes slowly disappearing into his drink.

YouTube videos:
(These two are a pretty good showcase of the spectrum of sounds you can expect)
God's Away on Business
Downtown Train

[Action_franky]

Stereolab

Genre: french pop rock(early stuff)  french pop/dream pop (more recently)

Rating: 9

Best Album: Switched on (early rock stuff)  or  Instant O in the Universe (later dreamy stuff)


Songs:

Best: Florescences

Rockin': French Disco

Most Relaxing: Escape pod(from the world of medical observations)

Most Played : Cybele's Reverie

Best Representative Song: International Colouring Contest ( it serves as a good bridge between their early Indy rock melodic songs and the later weightless sounds)

Coolest thing: stereolab is not a traditional band in that it is made up of ever changing members on each album.  the only three members that serve as the base are Gene Latisha and Mary(who passed away after a bus accedent)this is what causes their sound to change and very so much.


i don't have all the stereolab albums i have 9 albums the ABC music collection and Oscillons form the Anti-sun which are compilations.

[Action_franky]

Hey guys, could anyone do Creed Xiu Xiu?

yeah i went to a Xui Xui show at SxSW this year and it's sounded pretty lame and i was confused as hell.  they seemed like they were haveing tech trouble with mics and stuff.  so i bought the album Chapel of Chimes.

i'm still confused as to what this IS that i'm hearing.

will somebody explain the fuck is with Xui Xui

am i missing something here?

[E. Spaceman]

or Creed? Please?

[jcknbl]

Band Name: Creed

Genre: Pseudo-Christian Post-Grunge Shit
Your Rating Of Them (1-10): Negative 8

Best Album: According to wikipedia "My Own Prison" got the least radio play of the three. So we'll go with that.

Songs:
- Best All Around: This isn't really Creed's gig.


- Most Played/A song by them you may have heard: "Higher" that was the one I think.
- Song That Best Represents The Band: "With Arms Wide Open"?

Bands Like This Band: Nickleback, Limp Bizkit

Coolest Thing About This Band: In 2004 they broke up.

[Freelance_Physicist]

Band Name: Creed

...

Bands Like This Band: Nickleback, Limp Bizkit

Nickleback, I agree.  But, Limp Bizkit?  Come on now, you're just letting your hate do your writing.

Calm down and revise.  There's no need to lie about Creed's blandness; the comparison to Nickleback was enough.

[jcknbl]

Well I couldn't think of another one and last.fm had them overlapping. So I figured what the hell...

[Praeserpium Machinarum]

How about Live, aren't they pretty similar to Creed, semi-religious pompous shite?

Band Name: Xiu Xiu

Genre: Hmm... they have a wide range of influences from post-punk(Joy Division, The Cure etc.) over Gamelan to noise.  

Your Rating Of Them (1-10): 9

Best Album: Fabolous Muscles

Songs:
- Best All Around: I Love the Valley OH
- Loudest/Hardest/Most Rockin': Pink City is a noisefeast
- Most Relaxing: Even when they are really quiet they are quite disturbing but Fast Car(cover of Tracy Chapman)
- A song by them you may have heard: Well I love the Valley OH
- Song That Best Represents The Band: Sad Pony Guerilla Girl

Bands Like This Band: Well the lead singer Jamie Stewart old band Ten in the Swear Jar of course, in vocal delivery maybe The Paper Chase.  
Allmusic says The Jim Yoshii Pile-Up, Devendra Banhart(this I presume would be strictly in their acoustic moments), Nervous Cup and The Dead Science.
 
Coolest Thing About This Band:
The danger in their sound I would say.
 Xiu Xiu walks the fine line between ludicrous and compelling by being well over the top, very cathartic and grotesque.
There is a fascination with pain and sorrow, which is presented in an almost theatrical way.
Perhaps the best way to describe it is to quote the song Fabolous Muscles:
"Fabulous muscles
Cremate me after you cum on my lips
Honey boy place my ashes in a vase
Beneath your workout bench."
Grostesquely funny or just ridiculous, either way this is the crux of my fascination with them, the balance act.
Also their press photos are great fun