Bands I’m supposed to like
The other day I listened to My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless album. I’ve never liked them, but I keep giving them a chance. I do this every few years because people tell me how great a band they are, and the English love them so my natural cultural inferiority complex kicks in.
But I just can’t do this anymore. They suck. They’ve always sucked. The common response I’ve heard is ‘You don’t get it.’ Fuck that. There’s nothing to get. Fuzzy distorted guitars, suffocating feedback and studio noise with barely audible lyrics in the background. Music for English hipsters.
They look like they sound.
I feel liberated, like Scipio when he told his dad that he rollerblades.
Today’s version of My Bloody Valentine is Radiohead. Pretentious. Sterile. Self-indulgent. Unemotional. Poster child for critic rock.
“Do they give a Heisman for self importance?”
The worst thing about Radiohead is their fans. Most annoying group of people on the planet. Every Radiohead concert is “the best concert I’ve ever seen!” They chase down every obscure b side, bootleg and remix like it’s the holy grail.
“I hate Illinois Radiohead fans.”
And worst of all, comparisons to Pink Floyd are thrown around carelessly. “They are the Pink Floyd of my generation!” When I hear this, I want to smack them on the nose with a rolled up newspaper and say “No! They are the Pink Floyd imitators of your generation.”
Then I tell them to get off my lawn.
May 19, 2008 at 10:05 am
Thank God someone shares my feelings on radiohead.
May 19, 2008 at 10:11 am
I liked My Bloody Valentine when I heard them for the first time during Lost in Translation. Then I bought Loveless, which, for me, is a tough CD to listen to. I agree with you.
Radiohead, OTOH, is greatness. Have you listened to In Rainbows? Try it if you haven’t. Then maybe you’ll stop being wrong about them.
May 19, 2008 at 10:20 am
The most annoying fans on the planet chant, “Go Spurs Go!”
May 19, 2008 at 10:39 am
I would agree, but I give an exception to OK Computer. I still love the album. But they have made absolute shit since then IMO. And I would go as far as saying most of it not listenable.
May 19, 2008 at 10:47 am
Agree with KC Horn. Not a lot to reccomend them from their more recent stuff, although I liked Kid A. I think there are a lot of great songs from their earlier work.
May 19, 2008 at 10:54 am
I think that is an issue with the fans I have and probably what HJ is discussing. Their early stuff including The Bends is very good. However, now they make crap and play the crap at their concerts. Fans who fell in love with their early stuff don’t want to acknowlede it because it became too popular. In other words, you suck unless you are a true fan that likes the crap and hates what was popular.
May 19, 2008 at 10:56 am
I used to love Radiohead. Still like their music but their attitude (self-importance) has grinded me down.
May 19, 2008 at 11:39 am
you guys are entitled to your opinions, but radiohead is the best band in the world.
May 19, 2008 at 11:39 am
You uneducated, top 40-loving shitheels JUST DON’T GET IT!
Do you?
May 19, 2008 at 12:00 pm
What you meant to write …
Bands I’m Supposed to Hate But Want the World to Know Anyway LOL!
I’ll start your list around 1980:
Dan Fogelberg (Another Auld Lang Syne on repeat the whole month of December)
Hall & Oates (Your kiss is on Scipio’s list)
Christopher Cross (Sailing still takes you away)
The 90’s could get ugly.
May 19, 2008 at 12:32 pm
First album I ever bought.
May 19, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Darryl & John had to stand face to face for 8 hours until the sweat drops synchronized perfectly … you just don’t see that kind of commitment any more.
May 19, 2008 at 1:06 pm
Sweet: the ad in my browser is for Radiohead concert tickets ($300 = a bit pricey).
Did you arrange this, HJ, or is this just the evil genius of Google?
I’d actually pay $300 to watch Hall and Oates fight each other.
May 19, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I’d pay $300 to watch Oates and Gary Dell’Abate fight each other.
I’d pay $3000 to watch Oates and the Gary Dell’Abate puppet fight each other.
May 19, 2008 at 1:13 pm
the reason radiohead is greatness is here in the responses. everyone chimes in with their favorite album and none are the same one. yeah the hipsters love them too but what can you do.
actually, pink floyd kinda sucks.
May 19, 2008 at 1:19 pm
Greatness occurred a few months ago when Darryl Hall was on Stern and they had Dell’Abate sit next to him to answer questions.
May 19, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Radiohead > Pink Floyd
May 19, 2008 at 1:35 pm
In a lot of ways I view music the same way that I view food. As I am both a music and a food snob/elitist/connoisseur, and someone who is amazing at cooking (I am not bashful)…there are some things such as acquired tastes, and some things that some people will never like. I get it, and don’t really pass judgment on people who can’t eat spicy food, or don’t like curry. It doesn’t bother me that people “don’t get” Kid A…because I enjoy it all the same.
I was at the concert in Houston on Saturday, and it was one of the best I have ever been to, and in my top 3 shows I’ve ever seen. Frankly, 99% of why it was such a good show was the lighting. Take a peek at a Youtube video (preferably for the song National Anthem), and you’ll understand why.
Diving off the deep end, the two concerts I can definitely say were better than the Radiohead concert saturday were Man Man and Acid Mothers Temple. If you don’t want to “get” something, give those two a try. If that turns you on at all, I can guarantee two of the best concerts you will ever see. If you simply hear “noise”, you will be miserable.
Also, Pink Floyd certainly does not suck, although there could be a case that some of the earlier Syd Barrett led music is a bit shitty.
May 19, 2008 at 1:40 pm
I liked OK Computer just okay. The rest of the Radiohead emperor has no clothes.
I detest all self-styled “jam bands.” This doesn’t mean I hate jamming. I hate jam bands. You know the difference - “Freebird” is a jam. Lynyrd Skynyrd is not a “jam band.”
This includes:
The Grateful Dead
Phish
The Spin Doctors
Dave Matthews
I hate all “Nashville country.”
The Rolling Stones have been so bad for so long, I can barely remember when they were good. There’s not a band in the history of the world in more need of a fiery bus crash. In 1981.
I’ve recently come to really like The Shins.
May 19, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Odd, the more Thom Yorke thinks I want to hear him sing in a shaky falsetto, the less I actually do.
May 19, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Yeah, I’ve never really got Radiohead. They seem to have this whole Electronica thing going on, except it trances you to sleep. They’re not in the same league as Sound Tribe Sector 9, when it comes to the whole Electronica thing. Then, they throw in some soft, gay British lyrics on top of it. Many obviously love it, but it’s not for me. I’m really enjoying Tea Leaf Green and Assembly of Dust these days.
May 19, 2008 at 3:42 pm
If you’re into British bands, I highly recommend The New Mastersounds. They’re The Meters of our generation and they’re just getting warm.
May 19, 2008 at 4:47 pm
They are so overrated. They are the me of music.
May 19, 2008 at 8:21 pm
For those of you in Austin, the Alamo Drafthouse downtown (now at the Ritz theater) hosts “Music Mondays” every Monday night at 945 or 10. $2 tickets and a concert video, music related video, or something locally Austin plays.
Just got back from a showing of concerts that took place in Austin in the late 80’s early 90’s. They were all broadcast on whatever the name of that public access tv station in Austin was at the time. Some really interesting stuff… from Jesus Lizard to Sonic Youth to early Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The music junkie in me really loves Music Mondays.
May 19, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Don’t you ever talk bad about HIMYM again, or Dougie Howser will cock block you for the rest of your life. He won’t enjoy it because he’s gay, but he’ll do it.
Yeah, Radiohead sucks. They had one good song and then phoned it in.
May 19, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Although I am a a lurker and an aggie (of sorts), I had to break cover on this one.
F**k me Radiohead suck. There are lots of great bands in the UK right now which really are reflective of society (certainly in northern english cities) - the arctic monkeys and the wombats in my view being the best.
the only social commentary radiohead provide is on what it is like to have millions of people love you for 15 year old songs about how you cut yourself while shaving.
i will now return to the football blogs as saviour from texags.
May 19, 2008 at 9:27 pm
The Village Green
May 20, 2008 at 4:00 am
I think I’d sell a lung a lung to watch Radiohead vs. Five Finger Death Punch in Thunderdome.
C’mon, Auntie. Make it happen.
May 20, 2008 at 5:20 am
Isn’t “a lung a lung” a new band from China?
May 20, 2008 at 6:25 am
What makes this post even better: I have a big “Radiohead Concert Tickets on Sale” banner ad on the right hand side. Nothing like random internet advertising resulting in unintentional comedy.
May 20, 2008 at 7:53 am
The best thing Radiohead has done was make fun of Scott Tenorman.
May 20, 2008 at 12:41 pm
in 1968 a lot of people were probably thinking back fondly about how much they liked “i wanna hold your hand” and how they didnt get the white album at all.
May 20, 2008 at 1:07 pm
huge, i dont think the people that are bitching on this thread will understand what you just wrote. ‘farting in the forest’ as the saying goes.
May 20, 2008 at 1:09 pm
Music is like fashion. Some bands, like a trucker hat or a tribal tattoo, get so cool that the only cool thing to do is not like them.
Radiohead isn’t a tribal tattoo. They’re cool for the long haul. They’re the denim of bands. Not a denim jacket, just denim.
I’m the Bluetooth of analogies.
May 20, 2008 at 1:19 pm
In 1968, I didn’t get “pre-nuptial” at all.
Forty years later I’m getting it down.
May 20, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I think I still have my Def Leppard painters cap.
May 20, 2008 at 1:33 pm
May 21, 2008 at 9:10 am
What about WYLD STALLIONS!!!
May 21, 2008 at 9:47 am
I’ve never been able to get into MBV despite repeated attempts. However, I am a complete Radiohead homer. They can pretty much do no wrong at this point with how high I’ve put them on my musical pedestal.
However, the guy who inspired both bands still holds the distinction of being my favorite album of all time: Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”
May 21, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Buckley was spectacular.
May 21, 2008 at 12:09 pm
I liked his version of ‘Hallelujah.’
May 21, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Yeah… wait, how in the fuck did Jeff Buckley inspire MBV?
May 21, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Grace is a spectacular album; I would say its one of the few “perfect” albums I’ve ever heard, but for some reason never comes to mind when I think of my favorite album of all time.
If you are a big Buckley fan check out Patrick Watson. His album “Close to Paradise” is the closest thing I can think of to Grace.
At this point I can say that football season cannot come quickly enough.
May 23, 2008 at 1:36 pm
You just don’t get it. Check out Radiohead’s Australian only released B-Side from 1997.
May 23, 2008 at 6:39 pm
“I liked his version of ‘Hallelujah.’”
It’s a good thing you do since it is played during every scene on TV involving a death.
May 23, 2008 at 7:02 pm
kchorn watched too much of The OC
May 24, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Yeah, like the Stones would have been caught dead, or sober, in a bus in ‘81.