Contrarian musical opinions.

[Colly]

I hate emo kids.

But emo bands and screamo bands are pretty cool.

Excellent post. Its the one reason why as a 25 year old I'm not going to see Gaslight Anthem until they do another festival, simply because it'll be like when I went to see Hundred Reasons back in 02'ish while at uni. I crowdsurfed for the first and only time a few weeks earlier watching Idlewild, if I'd done it that night I'd have been arrested for manslaughter of 3 15 year olds...

[YI]

...shit...I couldn't imagine kiddies at Gaslight...fuck...there better not be. I'm really enjoying gigs at the minute where I'm feeling 'of age', that'd just ruin it...I might literally kill someone during Polar Bear Club.

[VerbalPuke]

Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols was a great guitar player. Fuck those people that harp on the "three chord wonder" crap, the guy could play his ass off and was excellent at what he did. Just to elaborate a bit more, there was nothing sloppy about his work as has been claimed about the Sex Pistols in general. He was very fluid, and worked cohesively with Cook and Matlock who provided an excellent rhythm section to back him. He didn't break into cheesy guitar solos and kept things simple, the way they should have been for his style of music.

By the way, the Sex Pistols were not a manufactured punk rock boy band, that is a fucking fallacy. Jones and Cook were already musicians looking to start a band, it just so happened that they worked with Malcolm McLaren, who knew of John Lydon, a frequent guest of his shop "Sex". Lydon and the other two shared similarities in musical ideals, Lydon became the vocalist after singing Alice Cooper's "18" along with a juke box. It's not like there was a punk rock talent search for weird looking guys looking to play music in the vein of the Ramones. They got together like any band does, guys wanting to play music looking for other guys wanting to play music. Simple.

And punk rock bands are given an unfair stigma of being talentless hacks. It's another bullshit fallacy that simply isn't true. A lot of bands from the 70s and 80s were not only diverse, but also very good musicians. The Dead Kennedys for example, or Big Boys, or English Dogs, or Battalion of Saints, and the list goes on and on. All were proven to have been very good musicians in their own right with great vocalists who could write intriguing lyrics. I could hammer this point home for hours but I'll keep it short and to the point.

Motorhead's cover of "Enter Sandman" is better than Metallica's version because Lemmy sounds ten times better than James Hetfield. Hetfield has an annoying, grating voice.

Edited January 11, 2009 by VerbalPuke

[Dan]

I like a shit load of dance/trance/techno and loads of cheesy pop and stuff, but on the other hand, I like some pretty fucking heavy metal bands too.

[RPS]

Some of the non-dreary stuff on In Rainbows is totally solid (I.E. "Bodysnatchers", "15 Step", "Weird Fishes"), but "Nude" and "Videotape" were much better when they were on Kid A and called "How to Disappear Completely".

15 Step is the most amazing song Radiohead has ever done, in my opinion. It's something completely different sounding than anything they've ever done. And than the rest of the album sounds nothing like it and no where close to how amazing the song is.

[METALMAN]

15 Step is the most amazing song Radiohead has ever done, in my opinion. It's something completely different sounding than anything they've ever done. And than the rest of the album sounds nothing like it and no where close to how amazing the song is.

You are so right.

[Skummy]

Motorhead's cover of "Enter Sandman" is better than Metallica's version because Lemmy sounds ten times better than James Hetfield. Hetfield has an annoying, grating voice.

While I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's better (largely because it's a straight cover, so I couldn't really give a toss), Lemmy sounds infinitely cooler singing "it's just the beast under your bed" than Hetfield could ever dream of sounding.

[ROC]

By the way, the Sex Pistols were not a manufactured punk rock boy band, that is a fucking fallacy. Jones and Cook were already musicians looking to start a band, it just so happened that they worked with Malcolm McLaren, who knew of John Lydon, a frequent guest of his shop "Sex". Lydon and the other two shared similarities in musical ideals, Lydon became the vocalist after singing Alice Cooper's "18" along with a juke box. It's not like there was a punk rock talent search for weird looking guys looking to play music in the vein of the Ramones. They got together like any band does, guys wanting to play music looking for other guys wanting to play music. Simple.

But for curiosity's sake, what's better in your opinion: Sex Pistols or Lydon's Public Image Ltd.?

[VerbalPuke]

By the way, the Sex Pistols were not a manufactured punk rock boy band, that is a fucking fallacy. Jones and Cook were already musicians looking to start a band, it just so happened that they worked with Malcolm McLaren, who knew of John Lydon, a frequent guest of his shop "Sex". Lydon and the other two shared similarities in musical ideals, Lydon became the vocalist after singing Alice Cooper's "18" along with a juke box. It's not like there was a punk rock talent search for weird looking guys looking to play music in the vein of the Ramones. They got together like any band does, guys wanting to play music looking for other guys wanting to play music. Simple.

But for curiosity's sake, what's better in your opinion: Sex Pistols or Lydon's Public Image Ltd.?

It's easily the Sex Pistols for me, and it's not because I dislike Public Image Ltd., it's because the Sex Pistols play a style of music I prefer. If you ask Skummy you'll get an opposite answer, I've just not been able to enjoy PiL the same way I enjoy the Sex Pistols. Though I will say that PiL is John Lydon doing what he really always wanted to do musically, and I respect what he did with them.

The Sex Pistols helped get me into punk, much like they did for other people, and I think they were an incredibly good band. In a way, their sound epitomizes rock and roll to me, and I've always been a rock and roll loyalist my whole life.

Edit - And fair point to that Skummy, I think my dislike of Metallica is strictly down to James Hetfield. I think I'd have loved their early 80s shit if not for his voice. I like a lot of 80s thrash, and they certainly played some good songs, but I just can't get over Hetfield.

Edit 2 - Oh and I should mention that I am totally biased toward Motorhead for everything. I think they are one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever, and do everything better than everybody.

Edited January 12, 2009 by VerbalPuke

[Clawson]

Yeah I'll add onto The Beatles thing by saying that John Lennon's solo career is full of nothing but utter shit and the only reason he is so praised nowadays is because he got shot. Oh and it was a murder, NOT A FUCKING ASSASSINATION!

Everything Radiohead has done post-OK Computer is shit too.

[RoyWill Rumble]

Axl Rose fucking sucks.

Metallica? Fucking sucks.

I will admit to Jim Morrison being a great musician, but I have honestly never much been a fan of his.

[Emperor Fuckshit]

Yeah I'll add onto The Beatles thing by saying that John Lennon's solo career is full of nothing but utter shit and the only reason he is so praised nowadays is because he got shot.

I think people think 'Imagine' is genuinely profound. Or at least evidence that he was a 'serious' musician with 'convictions'. When actually, it's just shit.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Emperor Fuckshit

[JStarr]

Axl Rose fucking sucks.

Without Slash to give his songs some muscle, yes, yes he does.

I will admit to Jim Morrison being a great musician, but I have honestly never much been a fan of his.

I've never been real sure how Morrison even qualified as a musician. Did he even play anything? No. Did he write ALL the lyrics? No. Robby Krieger wrote or co-wrote a lot of their biggest songs. Morrison's voice was very good, I thought, and based on the footage I've seen, he seemed to absolutely piss charisma, but calling him a "musician" is like calling a 280-pound baseball first baseman an "athlete."

[NobBe Nobbs]

I prefer the original to Lemmy's cover, but I can see why people would like the latter. What I can't see is why people would enjoy Lemmy doing the vocals on the "All-Star" cover version of The Trooper from Numbers From The Beast - there are songs on which his super-gravelly voice works, and there are songs on which it doesn't, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, and the Trooper is the latter. And while I'm on the subject, the Metallica/Megadeth pissing match is completely pointless because both bands sound the same and their later releases have been shit - Death Magnetic was alright, United Abominations ditto, but compared to the past they both stink. Also Mustaine is a godawful lyricist, he cannot write them for shit.

Also, Chinese Democracy was the best GNR album since Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion II was much better than anybody gives them credit for, Boston are one of the best classic rock bands to ever play, Iron Maiden are THE greatest band to ever play and Stevie Nicks is the best female singer in years (albeit in the rock genre alone. I'm not getting into the Tina Turner/Celine Dion/etc debate).

And Axl Rose is a damn entertaining singer. Even if you don't like his music, the feuds he gets into are excellent.

Edited January 12, 2009 by Ashley B

[livid]

..so wait, I'm slightly confused here.

Is this thread the equivalent to the "Unpopular Opinion" thread in The Ring or is it about artists that you like that wouldn't necessarily reflect your musical tastes in general? Because the way that ROC started off, seemed like it was about the latter but re-reading it seems like it could mean unpopular opinion as well.

Edited January 13, 2009 by Livid

[Skummy]

Hahaha, Lemmy's version of The Trooper is fucking ridiculous, I love it. Worst pairing of song and vocalist ever. One of Lemmy's few failings is that he very rarely changes things too much when he does cover versions, and him trying to do vocals on a straight Maiden cover is horrible - it could've worked with a few alterations, the subject matter fits his usual style very well, but the "WOAH OH OH" Maiden vocals really don't.

[NobBe Nobbs]

..so wait, I'm slightly confused here.

Is this thread the equivalent to the "Unpopular Opinion" thread in The Ring or is it about artists that you like that wouldn't necessarily reflect your musical tastes in general? Because the way that ROC started off, seemed like it was about the latter but re-reading it seems like it could mean unpopular opinion as well.

It's supposed to be the former.

[RoyWill Rumble]

I prefer the original to Lemmy's cover, but I can see why people would like the latter. What I can't see is why people would enjoy Lemmy doing the vocals on the "All-Star" cover version of The Trooper from Numbers From The Beast - there are songs on which his super-gravelly voice works, and there are songs on which it doesn't, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, and the Trooper is the latter. And while I'm on the subject, the Metallica/Megadeth pissing match is completely pointless because both bands sound the same and their later releases have been shit - Death Magnetic was alright, United Abominations ditto, but compared to the past they both stink. Also Mustaine is a godawful lyricist, he cannot write them for shit.

Also, Chinese Democracy was the best GNR album since Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion II was much better than anybody gives them credit for, Boston are one of the best classic rock bands to ever play, Iron Maiden are THE greatest band to ever play and Stevie Nicks is the best female singer in years (albeit in the rock genre alone. I'm not getting into the Tina Turner/Celine Dion/etc debate).

And Axl Rose is a damn entertaining singer. Even if you don't like his music, the feuds he gets into are excellent.

I see your Stevie Nicks and raise you that chick from Heart, or Janis Joplin.

[VerbalPuke]

I've not actually heard Lemmy do The Trooper, but I can agree that his gravelly vocals don't exactly seem as if they'd mesh with an Iron Maiden cover. His voice seems to work pretty good with God Save the Queen though.

[NobBe Nobbs]

I prefer the original to Lemmy's cover, but I can see why people would like the latter. What I can't see is why people would enjoy Lemmy doing the vocals on the "All-Star" cover version of The Trooper from Numbers From The Beast - there are songs on which his super-gravelly voice works, and there are songs on which it doesn't, at all, by any stretch of the imagination, and the Trooper is the latter. And while I'm on the subject, the Metallica/Megadeth pissing match is completely pointless because both bands sound the same and their later releases have been shit - Death Magnetic was alright, United Abominations ditto, but compared to the past they both stink. Also Mustaine is a godawful lyricist, he cannot write them for shit.

Also, Chinese Democracy was the best GNR album since Appetite for Destruction, Use Your Illusion II was much better than anybody gives them credit for, Boston are one of the best classic rock bands to ever play, Iron Maiden are THE greatest band to ever play and Stevie Nicks is the best female singer in years (albeit in the rock genre alone. I'm not getting into the Tina Turner/Celine Dion/etc debate).

And Axl Rose is a damn entertaining singer. Even if you don't like his music, the feuds he gets into are excellent.

I see your Stevie Nicks and raise you that chick from Heart, or Janis Joplin.

Good, but no Stevie. In both cases.