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Post by Kensterberg on Oct 18, 2005 9:24:58 GMT -5
Oh yeah, Alice In Chains. Love "Would", but that's about it. YES! I can "appreciate" AIC (and Dirt is an undeniably brilliant, if not particularly pleasant, listen), but "Would" is the only track by them that I really enjoy. It is one hell of a song, though. |
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Post by luke on Oct 18, 2005 9:39:15 GMT -5
Oh man I LOVE Alice In Chains, and yeah, Dirt is a work of sheer heroin induced brilliance. On the old RS, Blaney used to always mention hearing "Sickman" on some carnival ride and being terrified out of her wits. For anyone who can't get into all that craziness, though, I'd start with Jar of Flies or Sap.
Cantrell was both a strength and a weakness, I think, which is why I often find myself debating the merits of Mad Season over AIC. McCready works much better with the gloom and despair of Layne without the metal-tinged psychedelia. Above is as despairing an album as Closer or Pornography, IMO, and Layne's agony seems more free-form without Cantrell's occasional weak lyrics and butt rock guitar in the way.
I can forgive Cantrell right up to his solo career, though...AIC is incredible.
As for who I "don't get", I have to agree on Neil Young. That'll never appeal to me.
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Post by melon1 on Oct 18, 2005 9:39:57 GMT -5
Too weird, Ken. a'member? I was talking about how much we differ musically the other day.
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Post by madmike4 on Oct 18, 2005 21:06:29 GMT -5
Just can't get into Elvis Costello after Imperial Bedroom or Punch The Clock. I loved everything up until there.
Also love the first Decade of Neil Young, but not much since. Still, he's a legend.
No Zappa, no PRince..........YES, Ramones!!!!
Never got into Alice In Chains.
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Post by rockysigman on Oct 19, 2005 0:34:28 GMT -5
I've always had a lot of respect for Alice in Chains, but never really got into them much. For some reason Layne Staley's voice has always grated on me, although I know that to the people I know who really love that band, his voice was one of the biggest draws.
"Heaven Beside You" was probably the only AIC song that I ever really got into, and that's mostly sung by Cantrell, so that's no surprise. When I was 14 I really loved playing that riff on my guitar.
Neil Young is totally hit or miss for me. He has certain songs that I completely fall in love with (most recently it's "Like a Hurricane") and plenty of others that leave me completely cold. I think overall he's probably slightly overrated as a songwriter (with the exception of a few amazing gems) but incredibly underrated as a guitar player.
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Post by Mary on Oct 19, 2005 2:05:23 GMT -5
Oh man I LOVE Alice In Chains, and yeah, Dirt is a work of sheer heroin induced brilliance. On the old RS, Blaney used to always mention hearing "Sickman" on some carnival ride and being terrified out of her wits. woah - can't believe you remember this!!! but, fuck, yeah, it was in myrtle beach, one of those ramshackle carnival rides that has no doubt been responsible for several gruesome deaths shortly after i rode on it - it was one of those rides like the giant boat swings, except one that actually goes straight up and over the top, and as it's building momentum, it'll kinda hover on the top for a while as you're just hanging upside down, not sure which way the ride is gonna fall - and i was there after the sun went down, so you're just kinda hanging upside down in the middle of the night, waiting to begin this plunge, and they're fucking BLASTING sickman at absolute top volume in each of the little cars, and it's absolutely like the inner circle of dante's inferno. i was 16 years old - it was the height of the whole grunge thing, AIC was at the height of their fame, i'd only recently become pathologically obsessed with dirt.... fuck, i'll never forget that moment. like a bad trip. only great. thanks for giving me an excuse to recount that story for, like, the 18th time  aaaaanyway, as for bands i can't get into: wilco. i've got nothing bad to say about them, i just can't get all excited about them. also - modest mouse. bleh. total indifference there. Cheers, M |
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Oct 19, 2005 8:41:28 GMT -5
The highly rated ones around web forums:
-That Sufjan Stevens bloke. What am I missing?
-Wilco
-Modest Mouse (admittedly, I've only tried The Lonesome Crowded West and didn't perservere)
-REM
-The Clash
-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-Blur
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Post by Rit on Oct 19, 2005 8:44:21 GMT -5
you don't like Clap your Hands?
egads!
that doesn't seem to square up.
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Oct 19, 2005 8:51:43 GMT -5
Exactly. I just don't understand it. All the elements I like are there (though the vocals are a bit weaker than they could be, no?)... but not just fitting together right in my head. I'm wondering if I'm almost imperceptibly brain-damaged.
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Post by Rit on Oct 19, 2005 8:58:11 GMT -5
you lke Will oldham, so your brain's just fine, possibly more refined than the average bear.
Clap Yo' Hands is full of references true, but i lke the songcraft, and the sheer enthusiasm of it.
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Post by luke on Oct 19, 2005 9:41:10 GMT -5
Actually giving that Clap Your Hands a few more shots, and I really still can't get enthusiastic about it. It has its entertaining moments, but I don't see the "sheer enthusiasm." I can't say I really dislike them at this point, but they're just so run-of-the-mill, here-today, gone tomorrow, no one's gonna give a fuck in six months. Just a completely average band, who embody everything people roll their eyes at involving the indie hype machine.
But yeah, decent to bob your head to, good on the MP3 player for calming the heart after running six miles to Iron Maiden.
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Post by luke on Oct 19, 2005 9:45:42 GMT -5
Oh, and as for Mary's story, which I certainly don't mind hearing 18 times...
It always seemed to me like carnivals would be the eternal haven for heavy metal. Through the late 90s even, man, you couldn't go on a single ride without hearing some Judas Priest or Dio or Soundgarden or Motley Crue or Faster Pussycat or something. Carnies love that shit. But in the last few years, I've been noticing that all the carnivals/fairs are jamming nothing but the same ol' Ashley Simpson/Lindsey Lohan crap.
There's something thought-provoking and depressing about our culture in that, but I'm not too sure what.
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Post by Rit on Oct 19, 2005 21:41:07 GMT -5
6 miles?!
CYHSY is not that bad. it entertains me.
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Post by ScottsyII on Oct 20, 2005 6:20:58 GMT -5
I empahthise with JLLM on Surfjan Stevens.... on the surface his stuff sounds good, but I have a feeling it would end up falling into the "Wilco" book of Scottsy's attempts at finding new artists that just don't do it for him in the end...
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Post by JesusLooksLikeMe on Oct 20, 2005 9:19:57 GMT -5
I am not alone! Cheers Scottsy.
I will say that I've done a partial volte face on Modest Mouse though. I'm extremely impressed by the spacey middle sections of The Moon & Antarctica. There's still stuff I don't like, that sounds like it was written with getting AMG ticks in mind... but the stuff amg says lets the album down is (predictably) brilliant.
That reminds me, can't someone remove AMG's licence to review? They ought to carry a warning: reference site only.
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