Greta Van Fleet

Because I can't believe it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJg4OJxp-co

As far as Zep rehash goes, it's really not bad.

the songs are strong

I'm curious.

Hopefully they will make Frankenmuth, MI known for something other than Christmas stores and beer gardens.

new album seems like a cash in on the EP

Never heard if them before saw them in the new release section. It's a pretty fun album although not necessarily my thing I'd listen to it again though.

Damn tickets to thier show at bowery ballroom on Dec 5th are going for almost $200 a piece

This is about as dull as music gets but the singer's expressions and hand movements are hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NrXSXVS1k

kingdom come 2.0

lol this is a band and not a person?

He sounds like Jack White getting fisted.

A few months back, one of my college friends tried to recommend them to me so I went and streamed a couple tracks. Told him I thought they were pretty lame, and then he countered with "Well, Matt Drudge likes them."

Matt Drudge, the nation's preeminent musical gatekeeper.

This band is lol

World’s best Zeppelin tribute without having to pay for the rights is a good business model. Singer looks like the dude from American Pie.

And sounds like he's got the worst case of hemorrhoids

Haha, there was a thread for this band the whole time?

lolllll

I was genuinely hoping that the rockism thread would culminate in being consumed by a protracted discussion of Greta Van Fleet.

At this point it’s more like a prolapsed discussion

Just listened to all of Anthem.... Not sure I'd pay for it but I enjoyed a bunch of it. It's the kind of AOR fast food I have a soft spot for. There was more early Rush/Heart pomp in there than I expected. I didn't like "You're the One" or "Anthem" that much but I like "The Cold Wind" and "Watching Over". Guy's high register actually seems impressive to me. The screeching on "When the Curtain Falls" seems like the least interesting thing he does.

ok, i'm gonna try porting my gvf commentary over from the rockism thread:

"engagement with the details of the music can miss the wood for the trees and a review like that has its own use and value. there is no clear distinction between aesthetics and social commentary, its like asking to take the politics out of an issue or insisting we can just rationally debate the facts

― ogmor"

ogmor very much otm, i have no use for this "what about the MUSIC maaaan" nonsense.

"people have made the point that lots of kids still go a Zep phase, so it makes sense that there's a band like GVF - do kids still go through a Doors phase? it would be cool if there was a successful band that's like GVF but for the Doors instead of Zep, with a singer who looks like Bruce McCulloch in that Kids In The Hall skit

― soref"

my "zep phase" turned thirty this year

weren't the cult the successful band that was like the doors? or are they different?

there is no clear distinction between aesthetics and social commentary

Yeah, I don't agree with this at all, or at least I don't think it's any truer than saying "there is no clear distinction between aesthetics and physics".

of all the complaining i have seen about this band, why is no one complaining about their name?! i guess there is an abundance of wrong to complain about and still i am stuck on their band name.

Get ready to eat your burritos to this winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1fuYS_3SZg

(add a second "this")

xxp I recall there’s a little chunk of posts on their name deep upthread in the “Rockism” mega-discussion

(Their name suxx, btw)

Iirc, it was the name of an old musician from their hometown?

wtf "zep phase?" Like, always?

i had a period where i literally listened to led zeppelin and nothing else for months when i was 13.

i still love led zeppelin, but that is a zep phase.

I mentioned this on the other thread, but in 7th grade I tried to do a history fair project about Led Zeppelin. That's a Zep phase.

Like when you tune in to Get the Led Out every time it's on even though 95% of the songs they play are on the 3-CD remasters box you own (prior to actually owning all of the albums).

Zep phase is like flu season, reliably hits me about once a year.

I had two weeks in September where I just played either Achilles or In My Time of Dying on repeat for my entire commute.

My Zep phase was devouring Zep 1-4 and Houses of the Holy on an almost daily basis for most of my teenage life. Then I realized in my mid-thirties that Physical Graffiti is their best album and half of Presence is amazing. I rarely listen to the others nowadays but that's a result of overexposure, it's still some of the greatest rock and roll ever put down imo

I'm amazed at how much attention these guys are getting. The negative Pitchfork review is a top trending item on Twitter.

xpost I've even warmed to Coda over the years. Ragged, strung-out Zep can still surprise me.

as much as I wanna shit on these guys I know deep down that if a bunch of Jonas-brother lookalikes went all out to imitate Yes I'd probably love 'em unconditionally even if they weren't very good

That Icelandic prog orchestra featuring Jon Anderson is pretty much better than Yes anyway

Admittedly that is playing the literal songs of Yes, which isn't what gore talking about. Prog is full of dreadful copyists

well yeah but most of those dudes are in their 30s or 40s and therefore have had plenty of time to come up with their own ideas. if it was a group of kids fresh out of high school who wound up sounding like Starcastle I'd be a lot more forgiving.

oh yeah true

If there was a teen band that played Yes-like prog I think I would be OK with that, since prog is still innately cult. Of course, if there were teens that could play Yes then Adrian Belew or Jeff Beck would hire them for their bands.

But anyway, teen Zep? No thanks. I recently cancelled satellite radio, so have been listening to the local stuff, and I came across these guys all the time starting a few months back, and each time I thought, wtf is this shit, and turned the channel. It was only after the 5th or so stumble-upon that I looked them up and saw that they were selling out sizable venues. I didn't know where the fuck they came from but suddenly they were everywhere and, in the words of a friend, I smelled a rat.

as was mentioned elsewhere iirc the problem w/a lot of Zeppelin copycats or bands influenced by Zeppelin is they only ever adhere to the most obvious aspects of the Zeppelin sound, and the aspects that are the easiest to ape. I guess one on hand you have GVF and Kingdom Come, and on another hand you have The White Stripes, who obviously had some Zeppelin influences all over the place but absorbed them into their own sound.

starcastle is one of the most underrated 70s american prog bands (along with like ETHOS, LIFT, YEZDA URFA, and CATHEDRAL). so glad overplay hasn't worn out their charm

xxxpostsss

honestly i have never had a Zep phase

Take two Carouselambras and call me in the morning.

weren't the cult the successful band that was like the doors? or are they different?

Astbury wanted to be Jim Morrison (and actully got to be him with that Doors reunion), which eventually was counterbalanced by his band wanting to be AC/DC.

I cant think of any wannabe arena-sized Doors knockoffs that actually sounded like them ie. with the Manzarek keys and the Krieger jazzy flourishes

(Any that were were nowhere near as successful as the original)

i dunno the early cult/southern death cult was way more goth of that time, the doors obv are an influence on goth as as whole but the vibe is closer to echo & the bunnymen

then they kinda moved into some mix of u2 and hard rock then just hard rock/metal

his vox can be pretty morrison and also just the way he looked and dressed

xpost agree, no one really sounds like The Doors

the closest modern-ish dude to early Morrison in terms of looks and frontman vibe was maybe Hutchence, though his thing was less shaman rock sex god and more pure urbane rock sex god.

the Doors were a very weird band
the only band that I can think of sometimes sounds like the Doors is Stranglers...they have prominent organ/keys like that...that's the thing the Doors their darkness and image and vibe is big but not many bands were like them...like they *feel* heavy but the guitar is generally pretty clean and it's so organ driven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFeykueEZNI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHnK7m2PNVI

The Cult's Electric seemed to kick off this 3 or 4 year cycle of some relatively rookie band getting a big push as the next Zeppelin. Soundgarden's Louder than Love was marketed that way, stuff like Wolfmother as mentioned elsewhere. GVF biggest failing is that there's nothing sinister about them.

Robert Plant in RS in 1988:

Frike: What’s your opinion of the current reincarnations of Led Zeppelin – bands like the Cult, Whitesnake, Bon Jovi and the Mission U.K.?

Plant: They’re all different, aren’t they? I can’t tell you honestly whether Bon Jovi is better than anybody else. I know that the success ratio is fantastic. And I think that’s what counts to them. The aesthetics of the thing have nothing to do with it.

Frike: So are they just imitating Zeppelin or are they getting it right, the whole package with the risks as well as the noise and the strut?

Plant: The Mission are getting it right to me. The Sisters of Mercy too. They’re trying it, and they mean it. It’s not just a parody of a pastiche of a parody. If they nick a few chord shapes, that’s okay. But at least they’re doing it in the spirit of it. I prefer that to the pretty-boy-wailing department.

Didn't Plant also refer to David Coverdale as "David CoverVersion" around that time?

Kingdom Come was nicknamed Kingdom Clone, iirc.

Said it before, but the best Zep imitator was Billy Squier, but he never gets dismissed outright, because he and his songs were good.

Yes, as a novice to hard rock radio circa 1981, I thought "My Kinda Lover" and "In the Dark" were LZ songs, as "Fool in the Rain" and "All of My Love" were still in very heavy rotation at the time.

John Paul Jones was asked on MTV around 1989 or so about Kingdom Come and other bands who claimed a Zep influence. He said that these bands' rhythm sections were all (in his words) "BOOM. BASH. BOOM. BASH." He stressed that he and Bonham were James Brown fanatics, and that that element was completely missed/missing from the new bands' approach.

Wow that anyone heard Bon Jovi as a Led Zeppelin reincarnation at any point!

I love posting this, because this Squier is the best Zep rip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKlu3A3BBgE

Shit, now I'm gonna spend the afternoon listening to the first four Squier albums. (Until today, I thought he was Canadian for some reason.)

Billy Squier rules

also, like Zeppelin (When the Levee Breaks) also was funky enough to have an iconic hip hop breakbeat (The Big Beat), more popular than Zep's

RS review: https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-album-reviews/review-greta-van-fleet-and-the-struts-revel-in-the-reliable-power-of-classic-rock-744694/

Greta Van Fleet seem like they lept fully-formed from the skull of a rock critic in 1975. Three brothers and a bud from a tourist town near Saginaw, Michigan, they come bearing shamelessly recycled Zeppelin-isms with a frontman who seems to have heard Rush’s “2112” a few times.

lol contemporary critics HATED Zep

I don't really care about this band one way or another but I am a bit surprised at their ubiquity - my wife reported seeing them on the in-store media system at Target yesterday

Waiting for a review that doesn't name their hometown.

in 7th grade I tried to do a history fair project about Led Zeppelin

this owns

did their dad play them Stooges or MC5 records? Seger? the Gories? Furthermore, I want to know what exactly constitutes the hollow, manufactured crap that their courageous, authentic music is the corrective to.

I assume everything else on their label: http://www.republicrecords.com/artists

('Cept maybe Jack Johnson, John Mellencamp, Pearl Jam, and ZZ Top?)

Hold on a second, these guys are 16-18 years old??? That puts a whole different spin on the Pitchfork trashing and everything else.

OK, I had the dates wrong. Looks like they are currently about 19-21 years old.

xp That Billy Squier song played in my head several times in the past 2-3 days after skimming thru the p4k & ringer articles and imagining GVF sounding this way, but also I mistakenly forgot that it's not a Led Zep track.

Listened to their first album on the way home and noticed a part of one solo that quoted Page from rock and roll, and the opening of another track that sounded like the opening of Candy Store Rock. But melodically the songs didn’t grab me.

whatever their age they should be tried as adults

LMAO

I had two weeks in September where I just played either Achilles or In My Time of Dying on repeat for my entire commute.

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive

yeah i have a ten minute commute too

I'm more than a little surprised that the Pitchfork review of the album didn't come up here (though maybe it did elsewhere on ILM).

It's been highly publicized though among the rock critic intelligentsia on my Facebook feed, the commentary has been less about white knighting the record as much as rolling eyes at Pitchfork (which to be fair is just as much of a tradition as ripping off Led Zeppelin) for complaints about the "streaming and algorithm economy" as well as genuine surprise at a negative review of anything.

"genuine surprise at a negative review of anything"

y'all know that ed sheeran got a 3 or whatever last year right

and charlie puth earned a 2.6 two years ago

wow how surprising they published a takedown of a popular group

It was discussed a lot on "What Is Rockism?".

yeah the algo streaming economy angle was imo the most predictable rmde aspect of the piece, 'oh of course this review is an excuse for a Point about spotify'

xpost Greta Van Fleet thread sounds EXACTLY like What is Rockism? thread

To me they sound like Rush before Neil arrived, though there's nothing as strong as Working Man.

If it pushes some Lumineers and Avett Brothers out of the background music at Starbucks and supermarkets, I'm for it.

y'all know that ed sheeran got a 3 or whatever last year right

and charlie puth earned a 2.6 two years ago

But thanks for pointing out that one negative review a year can be expected. Glad GVF got the 2018 entry out of the way.

... ok man

To me they sound like Rush before Neil arrived, though there's nothing as strong as Working Man.

― dinnerboat, Thursday, October 25, 2018 10:46 AM (thirteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i said that upthread just the riffs and musical structures feel way more rush than zep to me (at least on the new album that i listened to)

that Rolling Stone review is classic bet-hedging hackwork, "these guys might be big so let's just mention certain songs, say something neither here nor there about them, throw in a mild dissent about the lyrics, and end on something about how they show promise. 3 stars."

To me they sound like Rush before Neil arrived, though there's nothing as strong as Working Man.

― dinnerboat

ok now i'm curious as to what greta van fleet sounds like slowed down to sludge metal speeds. can anyone comment?

And Greta Van Fleet are not the usual type of target for a negative review in a prominent publication

this band isn't a past-their-prime easy target but they're certainly an easy target

Omar OTM re: the RS review. I also noted the slight of not even reviewing the LP on its own, but combining it in a “twofer” review (or does RS do that a lot now)?

totally w/in the wheelhouse of pitchfork target bands, cf jet

personally as a fan of music i think if the just had a singer who didn't sound like he was trying so hard to be robert plant & just had his own personality/persona this whole thing would go down a lot easier, but it does feel like cosplay at this point...maybe hes a star tho & his personality will come to the forefront by the time they've got records in top 40... young thug was a wayne biter until he wasnt, uzi was a keef biter til he wasnt, etc.

i mean the clothes are pretty cartoony, they look like they're putting on a high school production of We Will Rock You

They definitely seem like the sort of band that will tour a bunch then shell out for a bunch of hitmakers to write their next album. Like, I dunno, Danger Mouse or Desmond Child or something.

surprised to not see any Dio comparisons for the singer as yet - which he definitely resembles physically if not quite vocally

just went outside to get lunch and there was a dude in a tech uniform with long curly hair and earbuds furiously headbanging on the sidewalk. Greta Van Fleet fan in the wild obv.

I hear both Plant and Dio in the singer's voice, but some of his stage mannerisms are cribbed straight from The Song Remains The Same (little left-hand flourishy thingy Plant did/GvF guy does).

And the drummer's kit is a carbon copy of Bonham's setup.

yeah he doesn't *quite* have Dio's range/pipes but who does. also doesn't have Dio's lovable and full-bore commitment to theatricality but whatever

i heard a zep song on the radio today and realized i have mentally categorized zep-inspired bands as "(male) crotch rock" for as long as i can remember. probably since the late 80s?

Anyone remember Deep Jimi & the Zep Creams? From Iceland though they were discovered bumming around NYC if memory serves. The name alone says all you needed to know, but this song off their album put out by Atco (a major label!) in 1992 connects the dots as well. It was produced by Kramer, which is pretty unexpected.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=7n1DUU5QSeI

Our own beloved Ned Raggett reviewed it for AMG, calling it "Uneven, but still worth a good smirk or two."

I think I still have the cassette at home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n1DUU5QSeI&feature=youtu.be

interesting interview w/greta van fleet's singer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaRmg77Ud48

lmao

How did this band not just call itself Kiszka?

I'm more confused by the fact that the letters GvF suggest all kinds of cool logo possibilities...and they lazily went with the Stranger Things font.

I feel like the Lemon Twigs are a good point of comparison in how to do outright retro thievery, to a comparable degree, without making anyone angry. (Similar age range, too, I think.) Though you could argue they've gotten away with it by simply ripping off hipper touchstones (the Zombies, etc instead of Zep)

Probably too obvious to mention, but if this had been your standard lukewarm, 7.4, "this-album-of-music-exists-and-we-are-bothering-to-acknowledge-it-for-whatever-reason" review none of us would be talking about it

this checks too many boxes of "things Pitchfork likes to think they are in opposition to" for them not to go after it

Kiszka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCFBef0NhDY

They definitely seem like the sort of band that will tour a bunch then shell out for a bunch of hitmakers to write their next album. Like, I dunno, Danger Mouse or Desmond Child or something.

― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, October 25, 2018 10:20 AM

Has Max Martin produced a pure rock album? Bet he might want to take that on as a challenge

thank you josh, i've had that song running through my head the whole thread. it's better than anything i've heard by greta van fleet, so that's good, and it makes me think of ghoulardi, which is also good.

Max Martin (whose roots are in rock) produced at least that one Bon Jovi hit.

why is there such a "difference" between this band aping Led Zep vs. the dozen or more popular bands that rip Black Sabbath? Or are there point-making reviews dissing Electric Wizard et al that I've just missed the threads about

Bands ripping Black Sabbath don't usually have major label bucks behind them and aren't touted as "Saviors Of (true) Rock-'n'-Roll" by Rolling Stone etc​.

It might come down to the vocals. Most bands that go the sludgy Sabbath route don't also ape Ozzy.

I'd say these guys show some promise. The singer is fun to watch and has good stage presence. They have some budding song-writing skills. The Plant-alike vocals are no doubt responsible for a lot of their notoriety, but I don't have too much of a problem with them. Probably as they develop they'll start sounding more like themselves and less like a Zep-clone.

would that be an improvement? time may tell. they'll prolly just end up sounding like Kings of Leon.

Maybe. The singer's look is a bit jam band to my eyes, so there's a real possibility they get worse.

Bands ripping Black Sabbath don't usually have major label bucks behind them and aren't touted as "Saviors Of (true) Rock-'n'-Roll" by Rolling Stone etc​.

This is clearly not what RS was saying in that 3-star review, though.

Electric Wizard don't sound like Sabbath though really. They exist on a continuum of course but they're unmistakably different things. If you'd told me that 'Highway Tune' was an In Through The Out Door outtake or demo I probably would have believed you.

John Paul Jones was asked on MTV around 1989 or so about Kingdom Come and other bands who claimed a Zep influence. He said that these bands' rhythm sections were all (in his words) "BOOM. BASH. BOOM. BASH." He stressed that he and Bonham were James Brown fanatics, and that that element was completely missed/missing from the new bands' approach.

These Led Zeppelin comparisons always make me wonder if the listener has ever really heard the band. In musical terms they have more in common with the Meters or Pentangle or Eddie Cochrane or whoever than any of these caterwauling+riffage! bands.

I've been thinking about this on and off since I was 12 or so. I think that basically the thing is that if/when you do get musicians who are both i) as eclectic and voracious in their interests as Zep and ii) at a comparable level of musical skill, they will probably also want to do something fairly original and not just recreate the sound of one of the most-played bands in rock history. A combination of electric blues/English folk/funk/Middle Eastern/noise improv influences is as likely as not to result in the resulting band being classified as something like "jazz" or "folk" or "avant" today. Afaict, Kingdom Come/Whitesnake/Bonham/Wolfmother/GVF aspire/d to the popularity of Zep and so essentially write/wrote pop songs tailored to the rock radio of their (less 'freeform' or 'progressive') day, based on a surface-level imitation of instantly recognizable elements of Zep's sound?

which can sometimes be OK!

One of my fav ilm posts

hard rock/metal is a multi-facted genre, and led zep successfully embodied almost every existing impulse; the guitar god, ersatz bloozmen, thudding knuckledraggers, stoner jamz, proggy wankfest showoffs, 4 on the floor bar rock, hippy dippy flower child folk, pseudo eastern psychobabble, I'm a double-cocked loverman baby, olde english stylee mythology, satanic mysticism. they're like the collective unconscious of rock.

I voted for sabbath.

-- Edward III, Friday, January 18, 2008 3:28 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

It’s funny you mention that because when I was a teenager I went through this phase where I said “If I really want to capture Zeppelin’s secret sauce I need to listen to what *they* listened to, and that got me into a bunch of folk and blues and R&B (to the extent I could discern the right things to listen to in the pre internet days,” and honestly that did make me both understand Zeppelin better and a better musician. But also the idea of using that to do nothing but recreate Zeppelin did come to seem very boring.

Tying to sound like Led Zeppelin, the biggest barrier is that those are some pretty singular musicians with pretty singular talents. As is often noted, lots of drummers try to mic their set like John Bonham, or play their set like John Bonham, or use the same equipment as John Bonham, or record in the same rooms as John Bonham. The only problem is they are not John Bonham. Which - not to veer into well trod territory - has always been one of my longtime defenses of accusations of plagiarism against Led Zeppelin. They might have ripped off a whole bunch of stuff, but they didn't sound like that stuff, not really, because of the players involved. In fact, hearing a lot of Zeppelin randomly on the radio for the last few days, I don't think Led Zeppelin really sounded like anybody at all. It's amazing how well those albums have aged, and how unique and singular they remain. Just that strange alchemy, that mix of all those disparate influences plus the particular players involved. Almost like a hard rock stroke of luck ala The Smiths.

I’m not even a Zep fan really, but once I played a set of Bonham vistalites in a Guitar Center and I remember feeling like “this is how drums are supposed to sound.” I kinda wanna buy some if I ever start playing again!

Good post, Josh. Yeah, my “defense” of Led Zep against plagiarism is along the same lines — let me know who they swiped the bridge of “Ten Years Gone” from, because I gotta hear those guys!

Also makes me wonder, though, if there been any truly great bands that aren’t equally as “singular” as Zep; or (to put it another way) which have been more successfully “imitated.”

Like, to take the example you mentioned, there have been bands which took elements of the Smiths’ sound, but did their own thing with it (e.g., the Sundays). Not a straight-up imitation.

Another (obvious) point is — you can’t “imitate” writing great songs.

Emil Amos (Holy Sons) recounts going into a Chapel Hill record store as a 12 year-old (and in the company of his mother) and nervously asking the clerk "Will there ever be a better band than Led Zeppelin?"

The clerk was Mac McCaughan, who gave it to him straight: "No."

I have not watched much in the way of early Zep live footage (so maybe it's an unfair comparison for a few years) but what strikes me about the costuming is how completely sexless the singer is - if you can't halfway mimic Robert Plant's cock outline, don't wear a vest with no shirt and leather pants.

NEW MUSIC

ON ILM

Xpost part of it is young Plant was just fuckin gorgeous too

if you can't halfway mimic Robert Plant's cock outline, don't wear a vest with no shirt and leather pants

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/SnappyAlertJohndory-small.gif

Like, to take the example you mentioned, there have been bands which took elements of the Smiths’ sound, but did their own thing with it (e.g., the Sundays). Not a straight-up imitation.

Reminds me of an interview I heard with Steve Earle once, where he made a distinction between bands that imitated the Beatles and those that were clearly influenced by the Beatles but found their own voice. (Never mind the fact that everyone is influenced by the Beatles). He brought up Neil Finn as an example of a Beatles-esque songwriter that nonetheless rarely sounds like a rip-off.

Anyway, per Zep, I think a good rare example is Jeff Buckley, whose "Grace" is clearly informed by Zeppelin (to his reported chagrin) but whose voice (in every sense) was distinct enough that his/its impact was separate. No doubt because he had similarly disparate, eclectic influences. Genesis and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Leonard Cohen, say, along with the aforementioned Smiths and Zeppelin.

Iirc, Chuck wrote in Stairway to Hell something to the effect that Zeppelin IV deserves credit for inspiring Sonic Youth and Prince as much as blame for Whitesnake and Kingdom Come?

The only problem is they are not John Bonham.

Don Henley complained to Glyn Johns about his drum mix on an early Eagles album, "Why can't you mix it so it sounds like John Bonham?" Glyn replied, "Because you are not John Bonham."

I seem to recall him proudly mic'ing the drums on the first Television album a la Bonham, and when he passed out after drinking too much the band re-mic'ed them the way they wanted them to sound.

Wait, that was Andy:

The first day in the studio came in November 1976. We had a 2pm start. Andy was nowhere in sight. Finally, about 4.30pm, he came traipsing in. He said, “I came in yesterday, to see what the place was like, and… I can’t work here!” He started listing all the technical tools these old studios didn’t have. We tried to calm him down. Finally, grudgingly, Andy said, “Well, I did manage to set the drums up last night. Got a good sound. Wanna hear it?”

He put on this tape he’d made. And, by God, from the speakers came this humongous, pumped-up John Bonham drum sound. Tom started freaking out. “No! No, no, no, no, no! We don’t want that! You need to take that apart!”

Andy was outraged. “Well, why did you hire me? That’s what I’m famous for. Fuck this! I’m getting a flight back!”

For the next few days, Andy would mutter, “Oh, right, so, this is some kind of New York thing. You want to sound bad like The Velvet Underground. You want to sound crap like The Stooges. I see…”

I was conflating that story with this one:

One day we came in and Andy was asleep in his chair snoring with a bottle of wine dangling from his left hand and several empty bottles on the floor. He had ordered a case of wine for himself and us—but he drank most of it while I drank some too. He had a burned out cigarette between the first two fingers of his right hand. We didn’t want to wake him so we asked Jim if we could tiptoe around him and record a song because we were eager to get started. That song was “Prove It.” When we felt we had a good take we came in and listened at low-volume so as not to wake up Andy. It felt good so we played it again a little louder, and then again even louder. Suddenly Andy snorted and woke up. As paranoid as he was about producing the record, he looked back and forth and forth and back and then asked, “Did I record this?” We all nodded yes and winked at Jim who told him, “Yes Andy, you recorded that—you don’t remember?” Andy's tension drained away and he proclaimed, “I am very good, aren’t I?”

http://loudwire.com/pitchfork-greta-van-fleet-review-album-rock-fans-respond/

“The rock community”

Counterpoint: anyone that would seriously defend this band probably will listen to and like anything, except rap, since that's not real music.

That's such an obvious strawman that I almost don't even want to reply, but I will seriously defend their right to exist as 19-21 year olds and to make efforts to do creative stuff.

They absolutely have a right to exist, duh. But they're such an unambitious low bar that to defend them is to defend pretty much anything. Nickelback, DMB, whatever. I mean, Greta On Fleek is not incompetent, but so what?

Idg why people think reposting some tweets makes for a news - or any other kind of - story. (Ans: because I clicked on the link)

"It’s funny you mention that because when I was a teenager I went through this phase where I said “If I really want to capture Zeppelin’s secret sauce I need to listen to what *they* listened to, and that got me into a bunch of folk and blues and R&B (to the extent I could discern the right things to listen to in the pre internet days,” and honestly that did make me both understand Zeppelin better and a better musician. But also the idea of using that to do nothing but recreate Zeppelin did come to seem very boring.

― Fedora Dostoyevsky (man alive)"

i don't think it's strictly _necessary_ to be a 12 year old skiffle guitarist to sound like zep, but greta van fleet would probably sound better if their guitarist was playing skiffle at the age of 12. this is more an indictment of greta van fleet than a defense of skiffle.

Any excuse...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVQIWyosEeI

Idg why people think reposting some tweets makes for a news - or any other kind of - story.

Lol, of course I knew it was nonsense myself, but posted it in the spirit of some Saturday night “fun”

Xpost part of it is young Plant was just fuckin gorgeous too

― Greta Van Fleek (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, October 27, 2018 7:16 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

is this a commonly held opinion? i don't really feel this way

The musicologist Susan Fast actually mentioned her youthful attraction to Plant in her (v good) book In the Houses of the Holy.

I don't think I'd complain if I were six foot whatever and looked like this:
http://www.ledzeppelin.com/sites/g/files/g2000006376/f/201807/rp-60-4.jpg

Good post btw, man alive.

I taped a lot of Howlin' Wolf off the radio and got Muddy Waters and Lightning Hopkins tapes for the same reason.

(I mean, "a lot" probably = one side of a C90. It seemed like a lot at the time.)

they're such an unambitious low bar

What a bunch of baloney. Have no idea what to attribute this to if it's not them being targeted because of their genre or the way they look or whatever. They're fairly ambitious for people of their age.

XXX was only 20

Lil Peep was only 21

The whole discussion about their age is kind of a non-starter. Like I grew up the 90s suburbs, which was like nearly 20 years removed from Led Zepplin and teens were still jamming Zep riffs, cf Wayne’s World “No Stairway” joke etc. It’s like the hands-down most basic “I like rock/I play guitar/I read Guitar World” kid music like 30 years running.

There’s probably ... SOMETHING ... that made this set of kids connect with an actual audience and I don’t see anyone trying to really pinpoint it. Maybe the kid just has a good voice?

I think Tim and I were trying to do that, a bit.

Like I grew up the 90s suburbs, which was like nearly 20 years removed from Led Zepplin and teens were still jamming Zep riffs, cf Wayne’s World “No Stairway” joke etc. It’s like the hands-down most basic “I like rock/I play guitar/I read Guitar World” kid music like 30 years running.

What does all of this have to do with whether or not age is relevant to this discussion?

XXX was only 20

― 5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Sunday, October 28, 2018 6:05 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think Greta Van Fleet should stay away from domestic violence

I think Greta Van Fleet should stay away from domestic violence

If you want your music to click with the teens of today (or critics in their late 30s desperate to stay relevant with the teens of today), pound on your girlfriend (especially if she's pregnant) and talk about suicide a lot.

The GVF album is debuting at #3 on the next Billboard chart, behind the A Star Is Born soundtrack and the Future/Juice WRLD album, and just ahead of the new Disturbed. Disturbed's five previous albums all debuted at #1, now they've dropped to #4. It's a new world.

I wish PFork had given them the 3.6 they deserve so we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“Rock fans” are likely stanning for them simply to own the haters at this point.

I wish PFork had given them the 3.6 they deserve so we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

late to the party on this but that's some vintage pitchfork there, i love it

http://www.switchedonpop.com/97-greta-van-fleet/

this podcast episode has an interview with the Pitchfork writer, and then the hosts go through the GVF record and try to figure out which Zep songs are being aped.

haha this is awesome, I love how surgical they get with it

They're gonna be the musical guest on Saturday Night Live on January 19. Host is Rachel Brosnahan of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which if you haven't watched it, sucks dog ass.

TV Guide should hire Unperson for an ongoing newsfeed of programming notes, written in that trademark style!^^

I made it through maybe 5 seconds of the band on SNL (well, on SNL on Youtube), and the singer reminded me of fat '80s jumpsuit Ozzy.

Ha, just read some commentary from Alex Lifeson, which can be read both as complementary but also kind of backhanded. He basically says, at first I thought they sounded like Led Zeppelin, but they are young and they are good musicians and maybe they will develop into something as they come into their own style. He conceded, justifiably, that Rush started out that way too, so who knows.

I mostly thought about how the drummer’s gonna get tendonitis in his right elbow real soon if he keeps that stiff all-forearm approach. He’s also going to need back surgery in a few years if he stays hunched over like that (like what happened to Larry Mullen).

they are young and they are good musicians and maybe they will develop into something as they come into their own style

I can't even tell you how many jazz albums I hear where I can close my eyes and picture, for example, the saxophonist's record collection.

I liked when the singers voice broke. I mean, he mostly seemed really nervous, but still.

I watched 25 seconds of the performance and I am convinced that this band does not exists and is a mass hallucination.

double edged sword for a young band to get too much hype early.

I see them getting more proggy, if they have the song writing.

I don't know if they have enough muscle for the cock rock.

I'm sure they have a "Sex Farm" in them

I haven't heard a note of this bands music, but there seems to be a lot of whinge about them being in thrall to Led Zeppelin. Without having to listen to a note of this bands music, all I want to know is do they do what they do badly (thus rendering them completely pointless) or do they do what they do well?

I mean it's decent tributism but the vocalist really overdoes it and is probably gonna

Wreck his voice.

No they don't sound like someone failing on Guitar Hero.

would Jam Master Jay or Rick Rubin sample this band?

Paul Barman might

their drummer is horrible

damn, i always thought boomers loved technical proficiency.

Boomers just love their own Boomer-ness reflected back at them in a positive light, they don't really care about quality or skill

I couldn't make it through either SNL song. Unoriginal is fine if it's not so damn boring, they could at least have a couple of sweet riffs.

What? Of course they do. Their only stated metric for the goodness of anything they like is:

"Now dat gai, he could really play! lemme tell ya"

and

"Those gais were legends ok? nuthin like the crap you hear on the radio today"

xp

that's just what they've been fed to say to justify their preference for 60s/70s shit vs "today's music"

Boomers secretly fear & despise the talent of youth that they know will eventually supplant them. I read about in the AARP magazine.

I was going to quibble that a bunch of early 20s dudes sounding like a less-proficient Boomer-era band would seem to demonstrate the opposite point if anything. But then I looked at the comments on one of their live videos on Youtube and there's a hell of a lot of

It always amazes me that people complain about this band. I am 57 and grew up with some awesome bands I could care less who the sound like. People gotta stop living in the past be grateful some young kids even had the courage to do music that most thought was dead. To see a Marshall Stack or an Ampeg bass amp on a stage is amazing.

Do It for "old guys" like me! Rock on guys!

Turning sixty today! Woohoo. But these kids are the best thing to hit hit rock and roll in a long time.

I'm 54, and this band have something......I can't describe it.....but they have it....long may they reign...

I'm 61 years old, and their music takes me back to my younger years listening and jamming with my acoustic guitar with the same influences these cats grew up listening too

so yeah

People gotta stop living in the past

Lol

Greta Van Fleet: The Soundtrack for Midlife Crises

I'm nearly 62, and I'd rather rip my ears off than listen to Greta van Fleet.

The reason Josh Kiszka looks a little stiff is that he's spent the last 45 years imprisoned in the logo of a Rams Head Muff.

The rest of the guys look like they're getting the biggest break of their lives by warming up the stage for Collective Soul in 1992.

Close your eyes and they sound like the Spin Doctors with more distortion and a singer aiming for Geddy Lee and missing.

How come he's not wearin' a toque

Take off, you hoser.

I think it would have been hilarious if, along with taking fashion and musical cues from the 70s, Greta Van Fleet actually became Canadian citizens.

I can imagine the scandal. "They're not even a Canadians!" It would be an international incident, Trump would be tweeting about them.

The SNL clips seem exceptionally weak tbh. I've seen live footage of them that's a lot better.

There used to be (maybe still are?) a bunch of bands like this. Anyone remember Rose Hill Drive? Or Vintage Trouble?

Or Castrati?

I saw Vintage Trouble when they were brand new, killer live band. Please don't sully my memories by comparing them to GVF. (I get that they're both retro/revivalist sorts of bands, but I guess VT mined a musical style I liked.)

Yeah, I haven't heard the bands Tarfumes mentions but I think I said earlier that they remind me of early 90s AOR radio more than anything (which I think the Spin Doctors and 92 Collective Soul references are also getting at).

I saw VT once (at MSG, opening for the Who), and they just seemed like a living ad for manufacturers of vintage-reissue instruments. Somewhat endearingly/hilariously, the singer tried to do a spin, but couldn't, so he just kind of ran in a really tight circle.

I had never heard about this band until now and tried to watch their snl performance out of curiosity...
Aw what a mistake : it's horrible/ridiculous and I couldn't stand it for more than a few seconds of each song!
I think all the terrible aspects about them have been discussed already but the singer is clearly the main issue for me, both his voice and stage act.
It's like watching a LZ tribute band at a high school party.
Unless your kid is in the band, it's simply torture !

also lol at a Rolling Stone intw where they mention their influences... and never mention LZ, only the blues legends (BB King, etc) !

It was a tribute to a Led Zep interview from 1972

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/waynesworld/images/7/76/Bestbands-crucialtaunt-700x300.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20170312080645

https://relix.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/great.jpg

Crucial Van Taunt

looool CAAL

I like how in one of the snl songs they went as far as having the bassist play the keyboard/organ...
That and the guitarist moves : basically they're a role playing game gone wrong !

The GVF singer is even paying tribute to young Robert Plant's hair.

That hairdo (and the fashion choices) are debatable.

they are trolls who even look like trolls. their mission is to sow dissension between millennials and boomers by cleverly transmuting hate for the band into hate for an entire generation.

Mission accomplished!

lead singer of this group should go solo and have the dude from semisonic write him some hits

or make a record with Alison Krauss

I get more of a Dio vibe from the singer than anything else tbh

that's extremely rude to Dio, his voice is weak as fuck

Lol yea he's like Dio if he was in the car with The D.O.C.

The problem is his voice is so bad that the only way to save it would be to add reverb or double it or whatever, but that would make it worse. Kind of like the dude from the Darkness, whose voice fell just short of the kind of hair metal/glam histrionics he was aiming for, except they were silly on purpose, and falling short felt like part of the fun. This dude is like a weekend carny working the Ren Faire whose sole job is clean up the half eaten giant turkey legs left on the picnic tables.

And by "clean up" I mean eat.

Or put another way, all the people who have such a big problem with Geddy Lee should be forced to listen to this for some perspective.

dude's voice is not terrible. he could easily be the lead singer of a band with actual songs. then again, he at some point agreed to a bridge of woah ho hooooo-ooooHooooo yeah...yeyahs and likes to yodel. so maybe not.

he could be the lead singer of The Beets in Doug

All I know is from what little I've heard from these dudes, it's the singer that makes me turn it off. Just like, yeah, what people say about Rush, except Rush is awesome.

GVF's singer's voice is a karaoke parlor trick. He does mimicry which can be fun in that kind of setting, jarring when used on recorded albums and tours.

Like I can do a mean "Thunderstruck" but I wouldn't dare use that voice to like...record music

Lol @Darkness guy. I hated his fucking voice

Obviously he’s not fit to carry Dio’s cape, didnt mean to imply quality there
Xps

I still don't hear Dio as he had a light, pure tone to his voice that he added dirty tones too. Where GVF guy starts shrill and just gets shrilla

I'm guessing the Dio comparison was mostly based on height

yeah it's more of a general resemblance thing - Dio is obviously p unique as a vocalist

Like I can do a mean "Thunderstruck" but I wouldn't dare use that voice to like...record music

Wow, seriously? I was talking to a friend of mine who did a tribute band night of AC/DC and they had to bring in a ringer for some songs. Brian Johnson's voice hangs at this freakish scary full-throated shriek level that seems achievable until you try to sustain it for a whole song, let alone maintain the assault for a second one or more. It'll shred you!

my trick is that I'm a classically trained singer with a loud powerful falsetto so whereas Johnson's is throaty, I start with a clean tone and dirty it enough just enough to where it sounds shrill but doesn't actually hurt. now, dunno if I could do it for 90 minutes, but...yeah!

of course I don't think anybody would confuse me for him - he's much rawer sounding

my trick is that I'm a classically trained singer with a loud powerful falsetto so whereas Johnson's is throaty, I start with a clean tone and dirty it enough just enough to where it sounds shrill but doesn't actually hurt. now, dunno if I could do it for 90 minutes, but...yeah!

of course I don't think anybody would confuse me for him - he's much rawer sounding

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal)

i mean i think if greta van fleet's singer was classically trained he probably wouldn't sing like he does

i heard a great greta van fleet parody recently, it was like 'ooh mama let's go to the misty mountain top, i gotta ramble'. long shot but does anyone remember this and know where it is

WATCH OUT GRETA VAN FLEET, JOYOUS WOLF IS GUNNIN' 4 THAT NUMBER ONE SPOT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=A5pDm0cdna8

have to say the singer is...limber

lol this is terrible

Poppen Report
20 hours ago
Great vid,great vocals, the total package. Congrats on opening for Slash .

Cassandra Cantlon
Cassandra Cantlon
4 months ago
I saw these guys open for buckcherry and they put on an amazing show!!

lol

OMG the guitar player is the kid from this father/son Verizon commercial

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oZ7N/verizon-blake-and-chris-iphone-xr

Haha I just assumed those were actors and that the kid wasn’t a real rock star with his Billy Corgan in 1991 hairstyle looking ass

this is near the top of my all-time fave 70s buttrock songs but seeing those guys do it is just embarassing

the original is an all time classic

Dude looks more like Danzig than Gish Billy

verizon ad harder to watch than music vid imo

he means the guitar player not the singer xp

Boomers just love their own Boomer-ness reflected back at them in a positive light, they don't really care about quality or skill

― chr1sb3singer, Monday, 21 January 2019 20:41 (six months ago) link

These guys look like a Jet cover band.

singer looks like the singer from an '80s hair metal band, the rest of the dudes look like a lite-grunge band from '98, they've got a "wolf" band name from 2006, very confusing

Anybody remember these guys?

Great revive.

FIN

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNupKBdPXlY

still can't believe "Greta Van Fleet" is a band and not Greta Van Susteren's social media stan fanbase name

The one hit wonder band without a hit.

They disappeared over the hills and far away

"Highway Song" or whatever it's called is fun.

yes these guys are totally gone until their next album comes out in few months

^This.

It's not coming out.

I have forseen it

What is and what should never be

the other day, I was hunting for Fairport live footage, and YT suggested a GVF rendition of "meet on the ledge"; that kid's Dio-by-way-of-Percy stylings are…not suitable for that song…

Finally. After decades of searching for the worst possible cover version of anything, I have now found it. Thank you, veronica moser.

And we haven't even discussed their Spotify Single cover of "Rolling In The Deep"!

how on earth did they get the notion to bother with doing such a thing? I wondered if those kids' dad is like a baseball dad, forcing them as 10 year olds to listen to Zeppelin, beating it into them that this is the way to do rock music…

It may surprise you to know that 13 year-old kids are still discovering classic rock warhorses even in 2019. Which isn't meant to support these guys or their approach, but it's not exactly shocking to me to see that bands kids in their early teens are still doing that thing where they get super excited about the classic rock canon. Where they go after that phase is what seems to be more interesting.

yeah the surprising thing with greta van fleet isn't that teenage guitar boys love led zeppelin, its that anybody else cared

yeah no "beating" is generally necessary, kids just latch onto stuff they're exposed to (says the dad whose 6yo is constantly chanting the refrain to Judas Priest's "Breakin the Law" throughout the day)

a few weeks ago I saw some school of rock band where this tiny 14yo guitarist was absolutely raging through "20th Century Schizoid Man"

man, that Paul Green School of Rock shit is gross… it's one thing if kids discover it for themselves, but it seems like that guy is, based on a fee videos I saw, having them learn "One More Red Nightmare" like its "Autumn Leaves" or "caravan." Maybe I'm a jerk, but I'm glad that pedagogy had nothing with my wanting to learn to how to play…I guess we're resigned to having rock and roll having reached such a point where its something parents and teachers hand down to 'em, or I guess this happened 10-15 years ago… my 3 year old pounds the Beatles and the Rutles, but when she's past 10 or whatever, and 1000 Gecs turns out to be a foundational recording for her crowd, I hope I'm not an asshole about it…

I'm not gonna worry about it. In 20 years there will be a School of Cloudrap where kids will be taught how to autotune like Lil Yachty

LOL

Berklee used to have DJ Scratch Skills videos up where a guy who looked like Eric Stoltz show ya how to work the decks.

at the holiday parade this weekend the School of Rock kids were playing "Merry Xmas (I Don't Wanna Fight Tonight)"

Xpost Also auctioneering classes with the vocalist of Rednex

omg omg omg omg omg omg that video

there is a brick+mortar "how to DJ" spot in my neighborhood

are these guys still around?

some say they live in the twinkle of a child's eye

lol

does anyone remember laughter?

Well, they were the future of music, maybe we're not there yet.

For a band so studious of the work of Led Zeppelin, they still haven't managed to totally ape their early release schedule.

Maybe they're changing their template to early Boston

I'm for it!

If this were the mid-90s they would be recording with Albini as we speak.

They're still played four times a day on mainstream bro rock radio.

I am counting the days (hours?) until their weak little bubble bursts.

Maybe they're changing their template to early Boston

Can't wait see how their third album poll gets derailed...

Amanda Van Fleet

ok thats epic

If this were the mid-90s they would be recording with Albini as we speak.

― Josh in Chicago

albini would still do it guys, give him a call

This is more accurate than they realize.

Greta Van Fleet on critics: ‘They’re pissed off that we’re doing something’ https://t.co/NtVRU9rXVF

— Guardian culture (@guardianculture) April 12, 2021

hope Lord Summerisle puts them in the Wicker Man soon

Josh Kiszka’s high and mighty voice – which, at full screech, can sound like an ejaculating hyena

Greta Van Skeet

welcoming to the stage Greta NirVan’ Fleet, here to perform their exciting breakthrough hit, “Sounds Like Ejaculating Hyena”!

Read that piece this morning and that line did indeed spurt out at me like a tumescent canine.

I have never heard a hyena ejaculate. Has Jim Farber? Has Josh Kiszka? Have you?

I have. Iirc it was actually a lot more chill than Greta Van Fleet.

is it sort of a husked tonal screech?

Can you guess which omnes ISN'T the sibling based on that picture in the Graun link? I assume it's dude far-right, as he has bare arms, and the drummer is not a sibling, and drummers always have bare arms. I cannot tell by their faces.

omnes = one, I think

hyena bit sounds like a derogatis line

Critics hate Greta Van Fleet because they're nostalgic for the wrong things. If they imitated Fleetwood Mac or any mid '90s Matador act, they'd be worshiped as gods. But Led Zeppelin (or, more accurately to my ear, the first Rush album)? Nope, stone them and banish them. It's such lazy horseshit.

They're a perfectly adequate, replacement level classic rock-ish act. Which is still 10,000 times better than the thrice-microwaved grunge that still makes up 95% of US radio rock.

It's such lazy horseshit.

Tbf, this also describes GVF. It's not that they're ripping off the wrong thing, it's that they're ripping off shit that's already been ripped off a million times, for decades and decades. Like, name a band that imitates Fleetwood Mac. There really aren't any, or many, and of those they're all pretty recent. But Zep? They've been a source of "inspiration" almost as long as the Beatles.

I disagree. Unoriginality is no crime with critics, as long as you're ripping off the "right" things. Led Zeppelin are not a critically favored source of inspiration this decade. If GVF's publicists were smart — or cared to get the critics on their side — they'd have the bandmembers talk about their love of early Rush. Rush have been 100% critically rehabbed and are now on the Approved Influence List next to King Crimson.

Imitating Zep feels more 'original' to me in 2021 than 1980s pop pastiche #25435832034242361.

There have been a ton of bands imitating Fleetwood Mac in recent years, maybe not always consistently or as successfully, but it definitely feels like Fleetwood Mac has been namechecked a ton in the last 10 years or so. Pom otm.

Also seems like bands imitating Zeppelin, going all the way back to the '90s, automatically get more shit for it than bands who ape, I don't know, Talking Heads. I've just assumed it goes back to critics originally despising Zep from the start.

I do think Zep actually *is* still a favored source of inspiration, but it's *aspects* of Zep - the drum sound, the exotica, the sprinklings of folk, etc.. (Same with Fleetwood Mac, probably.) I think in the end it might just boil down to the style of vocals. I think that was always the sticking point with Rush, and certainly the aspect of LZ many least want imitated. Shrieked male vocals have always been a point of contention/division, and in more recent years they've seemed more acceptable when they're arch or camp (White Stripes, the Darkness) than when they're po-faced.

I mean, as unperson hints at upthread, I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now, even if it they are wholly indebted to Zep scraps.

Zeppelin is like the absolute worst band to try to copy. I have no idea how they work, the way they sound, there's some sort of feeling they give me it's hard to articulate, but it's not riffs or any stylistic thing you can copy

Drum sound aside.

I'd rather hear a GVF single on rock radio than three-quarters of what passes for "modern rock" right now,

I mean, what's the opposite of the "why not both?" meme? "Why not neither?"

but agreed how aping 80 sophisti-pop stuff the 10000 time is always seen as progressive as opposed to aping other styles from the past is regressive

I think it's more that it's really hard to imitate Zep well, and they really try hard and with his voice it gets into uncanny valley, off just enough to be offputting. It's viable to build your whole sound off the Ramones or Gang of Four, and change one little thing and it freshens it enough to kindle a familiar thrill. Actually I'd a say it's really hard to ape Talking Heads or Fleetwood Mac too, as they have a similar amount of odd ingredients and big personalities baked into their peak pop sound.

The Raveonettes went pretty far doing uncanny-valley Jesus and Mary Chain but as I recall they branched out some on later records

I can think of some great Zep rip offs (Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night," Whitesnake's "Still of the Night") but in the end it's fun but pretty pointless, because yeah, there's really nowhere to go with it.

Do even Rush consider their first album to be one of their better ones?

I can think of some great Zep rip offs (Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night," Whitesnake's "Still of the Night") but in the end it's fun but pretty pointless, because yeah, there's really nowhere to go with it.

Btw, a lot of mainstream MOR pop-rock from the last few decades sounds Fleetwood Mac-influenced to me, from Sheryl Crow to pre-Max Martin Taylor Swift. Wasn't Courtney Love attempting an explicit homage at one point.

Parts of Celebrity Skin were definitely Mac-influenced.

Fleetwood Mac as a hip musical crush goes back as far as The Dance.

xpost - to me the first Rush album is kind of it's own thing in terms of their history

but yeah for me personally it's fun but not in the top 10 or anything

Yeah, I've found I enjoy the Rush debut more when I pretend it's the only album from a one and done mid-70s power trio, not Rush.

This Ophelias obscurity is a great ersatz LZ III. A parallel naiveté to Plant's lyrics, and the unwieldy grafting of Appalachian folk to barroom slide guitar appropriately Page-like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCrA_a71n1Y

Yeah, I've found I enjoy the Rush debut more when I pretend it's the only album from a one and done mid-70s power trio, not Rush.

― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 10:03 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah totally if it were some obscure Sir Lord Baltimore or Dust type band from Cincinnati or something Numero Group would have re-released it

Also, re: Courtney Love & Fleetwood Mac, Hole covered "Gold Dust Woman" on the second Crow soundtrack in '96.

Zeppelin is like the absolute worst band to try to copy. I have no idea how they work, the way they sound, there's some sort of feeling they give me it's hard to articulate, but it's not riffs or any stylistic thing you can copy

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, April 13, 2021 10:36 AM (thirty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm.

It's the drums. It's the fucking drums. A band can have a singer with Plant's range, Page's riffs, some pseudo-mystical hippie sprinkles...but if the groove and swing (and sound -- Bonham didn't hit super hard, relatively speaking, and drew incredible tones out of his kit) aren't there, it will fall flat, and has always fallen flat. GvF are no exception to this. It's like I posted upthread about how JPJ complained that Zep ripoff bands completely miss what made Bonham great, and how he and Bonham were James Brown fanatics, and how that element is always absent from faux-Zep bands.

Anti-GVF sentiment seems less tied up in aping Zeppelin/classic rock dinosaurs and more in aping poorly. They’re completely sexless, lack the groove of Bonham/Jones or any of the quirks and rough edges of Cream or whomever.

GVF sound like generic radio rock of the last 20 years with someone screeching in a similar way to Plant.

Ok, I just listened to "Heat Above" and it does sound a bit like a Rush pastiche, albeit minus the rhythmic or compositional intricacy that usually makes Rush interesting.

Don't get me wrong, I'll probably listen to this before Robyn Murphy or whatever.

Only 332 messages itt so far? Huh, I was expecting at least twice that amount.

The vocalist sucks, he should feel bad for singing, his vocal cords should be seized

Finally found the JPJ interview bit I keep referring to, at 18:38 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PI4tJlStEIg

Ophelias

Directly related:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh9cPAXyEVg

BTW, I also agree that GVF sound closer to early Rush than LZ, but given that I rarely listen to early Rush, and that Rush itself was often pretty much trying to ape Zeppelin ... yeah that's a hard pass on GVF. It's like something I don't want to hear, several times removed.

The vocalist sucks, he should feel bad for singing, his vocal cords should be seized

Yeah, a bunch of ppl in the YT comments saying he's a stronger singer than Geddy Lee was which I don't think I agree with - he sounds like he's doing an impression on this song but his voice sounds like it's got less behind it to me, as a relative non-singer. Could be something about the recording idk.

Again, I absolutely love Rush, but if I had to pick one thing to imitate, Geddy's vox would be last on the list.

Especially '70s Geddy.

Yes, the JPJ comment gets to one of the main problems of derivative bands - you have to retrace the influence of everything the players were listening to, not just the stuff they overtly covered. Breakthrough bands inherently have to have chops in genres other than the one they created.

Would be better and more impressive if this band aped Yes.

Yes, the JPJ comment gets to one of the main problems of derivative bands - you have to retrace the influence of everything the players were listening to, not just the stuff they overtly covered.

And believe me, this also explains a lot -- speaking of concurrent 70s obsessions -- of post-Tolkien fantasy. (Which post-GRRM fantasy is repeating in similar ways.)

What would you hope for from that? They certainly don't have Squire's or Howe's chops or versatility any more than than they have Zep's or Rush's.xp

There's a reason nobody rips off Yes, and it's not because musicians don't like Yes

I mean, there are a lot of neo-prog bands on one side, and Flaming Lips-y psychedelic indie bands on the other, but, no, no one recreates "Close to the Edge". That Lips side project actually left out all of the instrumental passages when they covered "Heart of the Sunrise" iirc.

Electric Würms, they were called: https://www.stereogum.com/1685826/electric-wurms-heart-of-the-sunrise-yes-cover/news/

"There's a reason nobody rips off Yes..."

...because Spock's Beard already demonstrated the results.

While I agree that post-Zep bands never achieved the same feel, I also don't really know what the point would be of four young musicians embarking on a deep study of Delta blues, English folk, Indian classical music, James Brown, etc., and then applying all of those influences to record new songs that sounded just like Led Zeppelin. It seems like it would if anything be more interesting to listen to Guns n Roses or Soundgarden. (I would listen to that other band's progressive folk-jazz project, though.)

Greta Van Fleet sounds like a competent high school band fronted by someone in the process of having his testicles pulled off by an octopus

Pretty much. Or an ejaculating hyena.

Of course these chumps can't play like Yes, they (try to) play like Zep (or early Rush) because it's easier! I just meant that it would be more fun if they *could* play like Yes instead of the umpteenth Less Zeppelin.

I just realized who else the GvF singer reminds me of: Noddy Holder! If GvF covered "Gudbuy T'Jane" I think it'd actually work.

so you think i got a shitty voice
it makes me money

sort of surprised to see this, re the new GVF album:

"The album was recorded with musical producer Greg Kurstin, who most recently worked with Foo Fighters on Concrete and Gold and Medicine at Midnight."

tarfumes otm about the drumming, this band's drummer totally sucks

I mean, there are a lot of neo-prog bands on one side, and Flaming Lips-y psychedelic indie bands on the other, but, no, no one recreates "Close to the Edge".

Beg to differ:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5v7Xr0eAc

Anyway, back to the thread

hold up there are plenty of bands imitating Yes they just don't sell any records

unfortunately i'm not above listening to a mediocre-to-shitty rock record just bc greg kurstin worked on it

I love how many of the boomer Zep fans who basically are averse to new music for lacking creativity suddenly embraced Greta Von Fleet.

i definitely don't want to live in a world where it's 2053 and bands are still obsessed with sounding like a band that's 80+ years old

lol who am I kidding there won't be a 2053.

But will there be a 2112?

GVF should form a Rush cover band called 2113, because they sound like a bunch of 13-year olds trying to cover Rush.

Geddy Van Falen

Lock thread.

pic.twitter.com/GyzdOhA4mG

— jonny (@joooouri) April 13, 2021

hahahahahaha fucking amazing

ahah. I would go to an Oasis reunion tour if they did stand up comedy instead of songs.

I always thought Noel was the better insult comedian, good on Liam.

Wibbling Rivalry was their best release

I think Liam being a lot cooler than Noel has really become apparent in the past decade

bahaha excellent

I think Liam being a lot cooler than Noel has really become apparent in the past decade

100%. Noel is an anti-masker still bothering us with new music, Liam just posts "I said maybeee" on twitter everyday.

I hadn't fully realized how mediocre they are, esp the guitar player
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcpFCZgTu7I

singer is deeply embarrassing

yeah they suck pretty badly

The drummer might be the best member of the band, but even still, that dead sound and that tired ass solo, man

randomly chose a spot, the singer was giving the crowd some sharp patter - "smoke 'em if you got 'em"

Might be a better line if anyone in the band didn't seem like they'd run screaming at the sight of weed... or a Juul.

I laughed out loud when he said that, and at several other moments

8:11

I wanna call it Spinal Tap-esque, but the Tap play a lot better.

this band is like kids who went to some "rock camp" and won the battle of the bands at the end of the week

More 'Spin Doctors-esque' I think

If you
Want to play the Zep
Make sure you're more adept

They learned the opposite lessons one should learn from Zep. “The interminable solo sequence in The Song Remains The Same was not terrible or embarrassing, and we should start our show with it!”

And ums otm.

Yeah, they suck. Something weirdly superficial I've noticed, too, is that there are a lot of little frontmen that seem larger than life, but this guy just seems ... tiny.

yeah I kinda can't believe how young they look. Or maybe early twenties looks a lot younger than it used to

he's like the dude who pulls off a decent AC/DC mimicry at karaoke night and thinks he's Brian Johnson

whom amongst us

Lol *looks to side uncomfortably*

The Battle At Garden's Gate is more of a Peter Gabriel-era Genesis album title, honestly.

Do they have pubes

that there are a lot of little frontmen that seem larger than life, but this guy just seems ... tiny

Should have been studying Dio instead of Percy.

Percy Sledge?

Percy Sledge Fleet

Yeah, they suck. Something weirdly superficial I've noticed, too, is that there are a lot of little frontmen that seem larger than life, but this guy just seems ... tiny.

― Josh in Chicago, Saturday, 17 April 2021 13:11 (nine hours ago) link

It's really odd -- he's kind of slight to begin with and then he has this way of tightening his shoulders and keeping his arms in and shrinking himself. He looks very blankfaced on stage too, like he's really not sure what he's singing or why he's singing it.

Their costumes look like mom made them.

The guitarist probably has the most presence out of all of them but p much does that one leaning way back move almost the entire show.

Audience seems to love it, people just love classic rock so much that even a pale imitation of it sells. Like these guys aren't just sub-Zeppelin, they are sub all the imitation Zeppelins that came after Zeppelin.

They are sub-Wolfmother.

My hard-rock pal (who agrees they suck) says he reminds them of Kingdom Come.

They're like a band that has actually never heard Led Zeppelin, or any amplified music, but then heard and saw Wolfmother, and were like, this band is crazy, you can do that!? This is the greatest music of all time!

he reminds them
^flip that and reverse it

They are sub-Wolfmother.

― MarkoP, Saturday, April 17, 2021 7:20 PM bookmarkflaglink

TAKEDOWN!!!

Wolfdaughter?

At least Kingdom Come were competent at Zeppelin imitation. GVF are EASILY one of the most incompetent rock bands I have ever heard. And they seem to be getting worse with each release.

One for the sticker

Showing some real range by also doing sub-sub-Rush
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5PiROGaPXg

oh man, the opening instrumental shit in that red rocks video is infuriating.

Yeah when he does that wheedly lick that every 14 year old stumbles onto in their first six months of guitar, but for like a few minutes straight!

was waiting for them to cover this

I'm watching this Red Rocks thing and went from "are they going to play a song" to "when does the facility management rush the stage and beat them"

haha watching the red rocks clip now, amazing

what's with these fuckin hobbit wizard nudie suits

"Intro (Guitar Center Suite)"

They're a thought experiment: If Rush hadn't met Neil.

I mean they seem like nice enough guys and they are reasonably talented and I can't really hate them, but I kind of hate the musical zeitgeist that enables them to be a phenomenon rather than just a good bar band.

"Intro (Guitar Center Suite)"

― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, April 19, 2021 12:45 PM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

hahaha nailed it

i'm not sold on 'reasonably talented'. feel like they too will be embarrassed of this in 10 years. but they'll also have a real estate portfolio and no real job, so they definitely still win.

yeah i mostly just kind of feel bad for the crowd going crazy eating it up, thinking they are seeing amazing face-melting rock, not realizing that they could be seeing a hundred versions of this band at their local bar or summertime beerfest in the park or whatever

they cannot break into the foo fighters fan scene. need to buy early on greta van fleet.

they feel less like a bar or beerfest band and more like a band that plays one song in a "Rock Through the Ages" type show that is free with park admission when you need to take a break from the roller coasters at Cedar Point.

or maybe a similar show in an off strip vegas casino/hotel. someone comps you tickets at check-in because your room wasn't ready yet. you see them selling for $8 later that afternoon.

yeah i mostly just kind of feel bad for the crowd going crazy eating it up, thinking they are seeing amazing face-melting rock

When the camera cuts to a guy in the crowd gleefully singing/rockin' along, it's a real eye-opener in terms of "even THIS is someone's favorite band"

I just think it's kind of funny that these kids playing classic rock cosplay get people so absolutely, frothing at the mouth furious in certain corners of the internet.

still watching this red rocks vid and gotta say i take major issue with them busting out the 4+ minute drum solo feature only 10 minutes into the set! a true asshole move

it's more being frustrated that there's a non-quiet sect of people hearing them and going YES, REAL MUSIC IS BACK, as if rock in the 70s was the zenith and we must never move beyond that template ever again.

Yeah, I mean the people praising them are just as hard to understand. I just find them too boring and, really, ultimately harmless, to get that angry about.

is the "it's rockist to hate this band for being derivative" take going spare or has it been done already

I guess this is classic rock's Renaissance Fair stage

they feel less like a bar or beerfest band and more like a band that plays one song in a "Rock Through the Ages" type show that is free with park admission when you need to take a break from the roller coasters at Cedar Point.

― microsloth fig stimulator (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, April 19, 2021 1:03 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Yeah this is right, and also better captures the rated-PG feel of their classic rock pastiche

it's more being frustrated that there's a non-quiet sect of people hearing them and going YES, REAL MUSIC IS BACK, as if rock in the 70s was the zenith and we must never move beyond that template ever again.

― P-Zunit (Neanderthal), Monday, April 19, 2021 1:10 PM (twenty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don't even mind this as much as I mind that you could probably just take four random nashville studio guys and make a more convincing "classic rock is back" band than this with a week of rehearsal. It's like celebrating Bob Ross for reviving the technique of the old masters.

I heard these guys on the radio this weekend and was prepared to give them a shot. But when the singing started it was actually offensive.

They're a thought experiment: If Rush hadn't met Neil.

We already have an album of this!

I mean, lmk when GvF bassist plays something even on the level of "Working Man".

first Rush album is sweet

Totally! If they can give us anything as awesome as "Before and After"...
Also, thanks for the Starcastle rec earlier in the thread!

Wait for it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPQO6J-EU08

This is like classic rock written by an AI.

yeah, Al Roker

that is literally a c.2006 sketch show skit that is now a legitimate band in 2021. what a world.

That is one of the funniest combinations of music and performance I have ever seen.

I literally lolled when he started singing

Who Wore It Better: GVF Singer Dude, or Your Niece Madison at Homecoming.

Man the guitar player's acoustic fingerpicking sucks so bad, he can barely play in time.

I will say it's nice that they can also rip off '70s Elton John in a way that reminds you just how good he was and they aren't.

omg, the drummer

https://decider.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/seinfeld-jerry-puffy.jpg?quality=80&strip=all

Fuckin Edith Bunker on vocals

drummer def looks mad to be wearing that bird suit

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Di-tvG5UUAA3fxt.jpg

She wore it better.

This is like November Rain if it had been commissioned by the Liberace estate, but on a tight budget

Btw that singer is going to sound like Tom Waits in 3 years

^^Just in time for their "4 Guys In A Room" Roots move.

This song is terrible but, I don’t know, I almost admire them for this staging? Like, fuck it, you’ve made a decent amount of cash, have an inexplicably sized and loyal fanbase but you are probably the most hated band since Nickelback? Lean into it, I guess, and embrace the Liberace inside.

For sale - red dress, worn once and farted in

“Oh, he kinda sounds like Robert Plant.” “I dunno, I think he sounds like Geddy Lee.”

Both wrong:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mteXQKejzoo

It November Rains In Hotel California

gotta say this song changed my perception of rock music, I think I’m a fan

possibly the first song ever where I didn’t register a single word of the lyrics. what a song to wake up with. this promises to be quite some day. what a world.

More like Tears IN Rain amirite

the Greta Van Fleet Experience diminishes by about 100% without accompanying video unfortunately. hubby, with impeccable timing, chose this moment to start his vacuuming session. guess it’s back to the Eurovision comfort zone for me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P1ueI9j6gk

Worst mustache since Dennis DeYoung.

https://nostalgiacentral.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/styx876.jpg

look who’s sending Styx pix now

You know, I bet if Greta Van Fleet had clipped the first word off their band name and just been Van Fleet, they’d be in much better shape with critics right now. A band calling themselves “Van Fleet” and playing inept ‘70s rock pastiche could have been embraced as ironic, Tenacious D-esque japery. Weezer fans would ABSOLUTELY have bought that shit. But they decided to play it straight, and now they and their singer’s Dennis DeYoung mustache are rock’s laughingstocks. Bands need to recognize when their shittiness is their marketing hook, and lean into it.

I don't see how their marketing has failed, unless you think they want the respect of Pitchfork and ILM more than they want sales, airplay, and awards.

That sad, tentative little piano chord at the end sounds like he didn't know if the song was over.

Btw that singer is going to sound like Tom Waits in 3 years

The reverse Alex Chilton!

"Tears of Rain" is a really funny title for a dumb rock ballad. "the loneliness of solitude" b/w "the smiles of happiness"

Or, like one song from the Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album:

"Tears of Rain"
i. "The Loneliness of Solitude"
ii. "The Smiles of Happiness"
iii. "The Castrati Incident"
iv. "The Sour Scent of Sweet Relief"

”Tears of Rain" (from the Candelabra Sessions) to boot

ahah this is incredible. between snl, spinal tap and black adder.

Stairway to Tears of Rain in Heaven

1. Growlin' Dog
2. Rockin' Rock
3. The Eternity of Always
4. Stairway to Tears of Rain in Heaven
5. Hallucination Mountain
6. Drummin' Sticks
7. Headed for a Location
8. When the Water Floods

jeez I was expecting a way bigger train wreck given the comments here, disappointed

Even their ability to disappoint is disappointing.

its kind of just all about the comedic timing of the moment when it cuts to the singer

Fred Armisen is getting a little too on the nose with his bits

i would love to hear how this singer sings the Diarrhea song

I think you just did

DJP can you record a barbershop version of this pls

My throat say "what, no"

"I'd listen to them sing the Diarrhea song" is highest praise

I'd listen to him shit the phone book

Lol @ 8. When the Water Floods

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I seen Greta Von Fleet Candlelight sessions. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears of rain. Time to die.

1. Growlin' Dog
2. Rockin' Rock
3. The Eternity of Always
4. Stairway to Tears of Rain in Heaven
5. Hallucination Mountain
6. Drummin' Sticks
7. Headed for a Location
8. When the Water Floods

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), woensdag 5 mei 2021 14:55

I prefer my version honestly:
1. "Heat Above"
2. "My Way, Soon"
3. "Broken Balls"
4. "Built by Nations"
5. "Age of Machine"
6. "Tears of Rain"
7. "Stardust Chords"
8. "Light My Love"
9. "Caravel"
10. "The Barbarians"
11. "Trip the Light Fantastic"
12. "The Weight of Dreams"

Lol, beastcrawl. I was just typing up a list of their actual song titles to compete, but you beat me to it in a much more efficient way.

lol I was hoping the song was actually called Broken Balls but it's Broken Bells :(

Stardust Chords isn't a song, it's an email fwd from the bass player to guitar player containing tablature

"My Way, Soon" is a cover of Sid Vicious's cover of "My Way", but twice as fast.

"Heat Above" is the Glenn Frey tune with the saxophone replaced by farts

9. "Caravel"

Fudgie Van Whale

oh man that video is the funniest thing I've seen in a while. Sketch groups wish they could come up with stuff this good.

reading the youtube comments now and they are 100% positive/masterpiece/tears

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRkHqkgCzx4

I think all the people fawning over vocalist (and there are sadly even voice coaches with Youtube react vids doing so) don't get the worst part about him is he has no sense of dynamics. Geddy Lee could and often did sing quietly, this dude's reedy bray starts at 11 and goes to 20. he seems incapable of anything but full-throated wailing, even on a song like this which is supposed to be a mood piece (the mood is hilarity though apparently)

as far as Plant, he picks the broad strokes to ape. Plant was/is a dynamic vocalist with a husky, bluesy voice, that could effortlessly sing into the stratosphere, but did also spend quite a bit of time in his lower and middle register, especially the further away they got from "shameless blues plagiarism with their name slapped on it". this kid just wants to do the screechy, nasal stuff, like, all of the time, as loudly as possible.

like sure I do that shit at karaoke night when I'm doing AC/DC songs but I'm not then going on tour with them or recording full length cds with them. he's a parlor trick that got a full-time gig

This singer also looks like a Hobbit, which you'd think would work in his favor, but nope.

he looks like one of the goombahs from Mario Brothers after he went through puberty

His hobbit-ness was really emphasized when he played barefoot on SNL that one time.

I'm quite fascinated by this. It's trying so hard to be impactful, and it does smack you round the face* - yet despite having watched/listened three times in fairly rapid succession, I'm yet to identify a single memorable hook or any kind of coherent structure behind it all.

*at least as much visually as musically to be fair.

Like in the piano breakdown the guy almost seems to be playing random chords.

sounds like sour grapes to me, Neanderthal - you must have missed the 2:55-2:57 section

xps

I think all the people fawning over vocalist (and there are sadly even voice coaches with Youtube react vids doing so) don't get the worst part about him is he has no sense of dynamics. Geddy Lee could and often did sing quietly, this dude's reedy bray starts at 11 and goes to 20. he seems incapable of anything but full-throated wailing, even on a song like this which is supposed to be a mood piece (the mood is hilarity though apparently)

as far as Plant, he picks the broad strokes to ape. Plant was/is a dynamic vocalist with a husky, bluesy voice, that could effortlessly sing into the stratosphere, but did also spend quite a bit of time in his lower and middle register, especially the further away they got from "shameless blues plagiarism with their name slapped on it". this kid just wants to do the screechy, nasal stuff, like, all of the time, as loudly as possible.

See also: Ariana Grande's mush-mouth routine

lol breastcrawl

i love how many of the YT comments use the word "effortless" to describe his singing, as he shrieks with his eyes bugging out, awkwardly holding his body completely rigid, feet cemented in place

I'm quite fascinated by this. It's trying so hard to be impactful, and it does smack you round the face* - yet despite having watched/listened three times in fairly rapid succession, I'm yet to identify a single memorable hook or any kind of coherent structure behind it all.

Seriously. The only thing I remember about it is a single piano chord struck toward the end, and all that made me think was, "I've heard that chord used in exactly that way on about 100 other songs." I can't remember any of the words, either — the guy might as well have just been making random mouth sounds. (I'd probably like him better if he did that, in fact.) He is hilarious to watch, though.

fuck are you talkin about, i could sing the song in my sleep

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d8FTPv955I

Neanderthal be careful, would definitely be a fire hazard to be asleep with that many burning candles arranged around you

Spotify, play Bathory - "A Fine Day to Die"

I'm quite fascinated by this. It's trying so hard to be impactful, and it does smack you round the face* - yet despite having watched/listened three times in fairly rapid succession, I'm yet to identify a single memorable hook or any kind of coherent structure behind it all.

Yeah, this is exactly that "composed by AI" sensation I'm talking about - I can never recall any part of a GVF song after hearing it (with the exception of one melodic phrase in another song that sounds a lot like Closer to the Heart). It's actually impressive in a way, it's like a kind of anti-composition -- I think it would be challenging to write something this formal and not particularly dissonant and at the same time wholly lacking in memorable melodies.

As some YT commenters note, their new album is called The Battle at Garden's Gate, ie TBAGG.

ahahaha

hopefully we get a group of kids who wanna be Tears for Fears next year

i think the greatest discomfort watching these guys play is the implied, but never shown, 4 smiling and nodding corporate dads just offstage.

if they could just show us the dads, it'd put me at ease

but three of the band members are brothers!

i guess they could all have different dads. all of whom have the same bland record collections and neckties

I watched 25 seconds of the performance and I am convinced that this band does not exists and is a mass hallucination.

― chr1sb3singer, Monday, January 21, 2019 1:21 PM (two years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Seriously how is anyone watching these videos? The second he opens his mouth I physically recoil from the speakers

the satin sheets on the cymbal hardware is the funniest visual element in this

Roughly 50% of YT comments are saying how amazing his voice is, wondering if these people have ever listened to an actual good singer. The thought occurred that maybe they're all gen Zers who have only ever heard autotuned mumble rap, then I chastised myself for being old xpost

the satin sheets on the cymbal hardware is the funniest visual element in this

― call all destroyer

At one point yer man on the mic does a little karate chop which is priceless.

its kind of just all about the comedic timing of the moment when it cuts to the singer

This is all kinds of otm! It's like the moment in an SNL skit when they finally cut to Will Ferrell in a ridiculous outfit, revealed to be the lead singer.

Is it possible he's Sacha Baron Cohen?

He kinda looks like him

the singer's usual routine is to looks up and raise his hand like a cantor, as to say "if you exist, then you can hear us. so prove it -- strike me down, or we'll continue to play for your creation."

It's like the moment in an SNL skit when they finally cut to Will Ferrell in a ridiculous outfit, revealed to be the lead singer.

for me this is also echoed beautifully in the breakdown when, over portentous piano chords, the guitarist steps up for his big spotlight moment and then blorps out a dinky little solo thats just barely this side of a StSanders shreds vid, while staring down laser-focused on his fingers

its like poetry, it rhymes

i think i realized thats whats so funny and endearing about watching videos of this band for me. instead of the showbiz move of impressing audiences by doing simple things but making a big showy effort to put it across as if youre trying really hard at an incredibly challenging display of technique, this band is like the opposite: they just have that perfect classic high school band look of playing basic stuff that they think is really impressive, and trying to seem cool and collected but very obviously sweating it out just beneath the surface, concentrating so hard and just completely focused on not fucking up. takes me back to my youth.

lol kind of like how there was always a member or two of each boy band that seemed to be struggling with counting off the dance moves.

but three of the band members are brothers!

Tbf, these guys have a lot more flair to their badness than Kings of Leon.

I can never recall any part of a GVF song after hearing it (with the exception of one melodic phrase in another song that sounds a lot like Closer to the Heart)

"Heat Above" (the one you're thinking of?) has finally gotten stuck in my head after Spotify was repeatedly bombing me with ads for it in between tracks I wanted to hear.

still a ways to go to Hanson tho

xp

Mmmplop

Hey olds, no worry about the kids these days. Gen Z daughter had never hear of them and found this totally hilarious.

"Eighties ice skater costume?"

I have a friend at work who keeps trying to get me to listen to this band - absolutely unironically. I am trying to be good™ and not judge people for their taste but fucking hell.

they're amazing, they play chords, they sing notes, they don't do drugs or swear

they tour all over the Shire

they play chords, notes AND riffs. that's what we call a "triple threat" in the business

Pretty sure Bonamassa can't play chords

So many lols, can't pick one, thanks guys

Pretty sure Bonamassa can't play chords

Bonerama, on the other hand:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhwaNGeq22A

now, behold "Broken Bells"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2W87qkkkoE

this dude makes the singer from Bread's voice seem like Jamey Jasta in comparison

Piano player looks actively aggravated

vocalist making the most hilarious "taking a dump" face during high notes

he is actively trying to sound like a dying Roger Hodgson at 3:41

Robert Plant arrives from the future for a mercy (Percy?) killing:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/5b/71/14/5b71145922422d351c5388a1cdebe204.jpg

so this song is just the last song that was posted but twice as long?

"Et tu, Percy?"

xpost but sadly no loldress

so this song is just the last song that was posted but twice as long?

― call all destroyer, Thursday, 6 May 2021 02:37 (five hours ago)

But this time with the actual tune of Stairway to Heaven. Maybe the purpose of the first song is to make you forget how Stairway goes.

Oscar Isaac is a terrible singer.

Spirit should sue Greta Van Fleet.

most annoying thing about that other candlelight video is that they dont even have a moment where he dramatically flings off his white satin cloak to reveal his stage outfit, which is the ultimate no-brainer, why tf else would you wear an fancy cloak in a rock band? but no they just cut away and then cut back a minute later and he's wearing his little jumpsuit, presumably after very carefully removing the cloak and gently hanging it back up so it doesnt get wrinkled. guy truly cowers in fear from anything resembling showmanship or fun. at least he moves his feet a couple times in that one tho.

Aretha Van Fleet:

https://ww2.kqed.org/pop/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2018/08/aretha-franklin-coat-off.gif

why tf else would you wear a fancy cloak in a rock band?

Because Rick Wakeman?
Because just got out of the shower?
Because chilly in unheated castle?
Because mom and dad told you to, and you complied, because you already blew off mowing the lawn and didn't want your $5 allowance taken away?

There's something very never-had-sex about them, like they're low-key mormon

Video opens with a Byzantine cross logo?

Their theology appears to be deeply syncretic at any rate.

they're low-key mormon

Hmm ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_garment

6 minutes songs are a bit much to ask of me. This one isn't funny like the previous song.

It's a bit funny.

yeah it doesn't really have the same LOLs as the other sadly, except for when the vocalist sings

There's something very never-had-sex about them, like they're low-key mormon

So one dad but many moms then

Not a lot of Mormons in Frankenmuth, Michigan, afaik. Considering that the town's main draw is a sprawling complex that sells Christmas tchotchkes year round, I'm not sure I want to blame anyone turning to classic rock cosplay to escape.

They just seem like a mediocre AOR revival band to me. I'm not really getting the comedic value of any of it.

xps

same but I am a known hater of fun

I'm not sure how you could watch, say, the first 45 seconds of the first video in this revive and not chuckle at the pomp and the cut to the lead singer.

I don't see how you could not find the lead singer funny.

The humor to me is just a combination of factors (e.g. the whole mise-en-scene of the “Candlelight Sessions”, the singer’s inability to never dial it down even for a quiet ballad, the song titles, their instrumental incompetence) a major one I think is the utter sincerity of it all. If there was a wink to it it wouldn’t be as funny and they’d have the cultural impact of The Darkness.

—The signers inability to ever dial it down...

OTM. Also I genuinely love his dress-pants.

I just put on The Darkness as a comparison point and they areis SO MUCH BETTER it's astonishing:

- The lead singer has a wider range and multiple facets to his voice that he uses to maximize the impact of when he launches into the stratosphere
- The lead singer's energy matches the band's
- The songs are as much Van Halen (in mood, not technique) as they are Led Zepplin, which makes them feel more like they're informed by predecessors than direct, inferior copies

So, I guess thanks GVF for giving me an avenue into taking The Darkness more seriously?

is there video of the singer's normal speaking voice, I like to imagine he swallowed a tank of helium when he was a kid and it's still stuck in there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TU4a9OqG2MA

on a related note, I need to inhale an entire jar of Vicks VapoRub

Michael Horn
3 years ago

The vocalist has one of the weirdest accents I've ever heard. It's like 1 part 1920s NY jew, 1 part British, 1 part upper-Midwest. He's also got the teeth and chin of Tiger Woods. I'm so confused.

I just put on The Darkness as a comparison point and they areis SO MUCH BETTER it's astonishing:

The Darkness could actually pen a hell of a catchy tune as well, which seems to be eluding these fellas.

I haaaaated the Darkness until I interviewed them. They're smart guys. I haven't watched that interview clip yet, but I seriously doubt the GVF kids are nearly as smart about what they're doing.

his speaking voice sounds like what Sam Kinison would sound like if he'd gotten to old age and mellowed way the fuck out

I was really into the first Darkness album. I wasn't that into Hawkins's falsetto, but they wrote some bops ("Love is Only a Feeling" is my fav).

Neanderthal called it, he's already well on his way to a Tom Waits voice

my first thought was "now I know who's going to get cast if they ever greenlight 'Young Harvey Fierstein'"

Torch Song Trilogy 2

He has a very odd accent. Is that a recognisable regional thing, or just him?

Yeah, the Darkness can actually write a song, plus they're really smart and funny. And that Christmas song they did with Bob Ezrin, *that* is how you do tongue in cheek tribute. You can be funny or ironic, but you have to be good first. Like, this is the gold standard for any band that wears a unitard:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrVg1toMzuo

get your hands offa my woooooman motherfuuuuuuuuucker in the weeniest voice imaginable - was where I realized they had a strong command of irony, whereas GVF does not

I skipped ahead to hear one of his bandmates, who sounds nothing like him. xp

Is that double-cross-on-a-hill symbol meant to be their Zoso rune?

maybe none of them know who they really are so they all just do random voices they think should belong to them

Maybe they are all voiced by Frank Oz.

"want to restore balance to Force, do we"

Maybe they are all voiced by Frank Oz.

Or Gilbert Gottfried.

My mate has also revealed he likes Nickelback and saw them before the first lockdown. He is in his 30s and is absolutely not trolling. I don't know what to do.

gotta get the Nickel out before your lockdown

Man, you could put together a hell of a nightmare bill with still active, widely despised rock bands - Nickelback, Chili Peppers, Greta Van Fleet.

I know the Chilis get a lot of shit, but I don't think they deserve that grouping...

Like they've definitely got a distinct, fairly original sound, and know their way round a tune.

^^Self-Aware too. They know they're silly.

Neither Nickelback or RHCP are as detestable as GVF. For that tour, you want Godsmack and Three Doors Down.

I am told that Nickelback put on a very good live show, too.

Forgot about Three Doors Down, didn't realize Godsmack was that hated (hadn't really thought about them much at all tbh).

I don't know, I actually like parts of the Chili Peppers catalog, I just know a lot of people irl that actively hate them. Like most people I know don't particularly like Foo Fighters, but don't really object to their music playing. Every time I've ever been in a social setting and a Chili Peppers song has come on, at least one person at audibly objected or groaned.

"at" = "has"

I generally find the Chilis more interesting than FF, but the latter are less in your face and obnoxious, yeah.

Hoobastank and Candlebox would be good choices to fill out the bill. Godsmack, I don't think they're punchline worthy.

I don't think the Chili Peppers know they're silly, I bet they think they are really cool. Maybe not Flea (which explains his hipper side projects), and maybe not the guitarist (which is why he keeps quitting). But as a unit, I bet the RHCP think they are pretty funkin' great.

I saw Nickelback once, at their early peak, and they stopped the show mid way, killing the momentum for the sake of firing some t-shirt cannons and kissing the crowd's ass like Paul Stanley at his most desperate. "I've seen some crazy crowds, but Chicago ... we want to party with *you.* I hope you don't have plans later, because we are going to rock this place *all night.*

(show ends two songs later)

Yeah, these guys are totally serious...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cx12sg1XUAAgYU0.jpg

Dim bulbs.

Modern foo fighters feels like best comparison. Hookless songs surviving on misguided idea that they are "real rock" or some shit. Foos are probably better musicians, and Dave Grohl way more charismatic, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-rccN7ZsRE

All the aforementioned bands have some level of dues-paying, woodshedding, former glory, etc. What’s really special about GVF is that greatness has been thrust upon them simply because of the guy’s voice, which some subset of the population hears as retrieving a lost golden tradition.

As a phenomenon, they fall somewhere between the Walmart yodeling kid, the Harry Connick can sing like Frank and play like Monk believers, and Bohemian Rhapsody singalong memes. And this candlelight session has a very magical exurb event planner vibe. The satin sheets on the cymbal stands never woulda happened when there were in-house fashion resources at the majors.

can't wait til vocalist goes to Jesus Christ Superstar auditions and they give him Herod

Keep on Cheugling, if you will.

xpost we might get a "Now you've unleashed the freaking fury" moment from him then

most of these famously bad (i.e. hipster-uncool) bands named are actually competent and sound like themselves. what grates about the phenomenon of this band is that they are just not very good at doing the things they are being praised for doing, it's almost like dinosaur rock fans are doing violence to their own favourite music by not appreciating the massive gulf in quality between that and this

how much of this weird fandom is coming from actual Zepheads vs people who maybe had one Zeppelin album and know the rest of the tunes from classic rock radio?

legit curious, because I could see someone who owns every Zeppelin album, bootlegs, boxed sets, tee shirts, saw them three or four times in concert saying "the fuck is this shit, guys? this ain't no Zep!" and getting in flame wars with Greta fans on JOe Bonamassa message boards.

but maybe even the Zepheads are infected too?

I genuinely don't have a clue about the demographics about the fans. From what I'm bothered to glean, even the crusty old "classic rock 4 life" guys at places like the H0ffman Forums mostly can't stand 'em.

imagining some Nuge fans creating shitty videos on their IPhones and doing a Crocodile Dundee-esque "that's not a riff, THIS is a riff" that they upload to each other

Given how old Zeppelin is, and how old I am, and how little people my age or older listen to anything new, with that number shrinking dramatically the older than I am they get, I'm going to guess a good number of this band's fans have never heard Zeppelin.

"I loved Zeppelin's Sister Christian and this band is totally creating music like that"

Well, it makes sense. Why would a Zep (or Rush, or whatever) fan listen to this when they can listen to Zep or Rush? Ergo, the only people listening to this must be people who don't listen to Zep or Rush.

people who don't like new music but want to like new bands (see all those retro soul bands)

I just looked at all mentions of Greta Van Fleet on FB and pulled up a thread my friend posted from 2019 and 90% of the people saying "omg stfu you old farts, they're great" were old farts

i've seen plenty of praise for them from older dudes too on facebook, hoffman boards are pretty niche really

also i'm generally surprised by how much classic rock young ppl DO know actually, streaming makes it easy i guess

Yeah, I have no idea. I do ask my guitar teacher (who is 10 years older than me, so nearing 60) what younger kids are bringing him, and he says it's generally all over the place, not just new stuff. He thinks one big difference is how they're hearing it. In a movie, say, or on tik tok, or in a TV show. Some younger kid brought him Jim Croce's Time in a Bottle because it's in an X-Men movie. The stuff he says has fallen off the most, in terms of lesson requests now vs. lessons at the time, is actually a lot of late '80s/early '90s hard rock like GNR, or Aerosmith or Def Leppard or whatever. Which is ironic, given the subject at hand. I suppose classic rock transcends trends, or at least, by definition has sort of stood the test of time, with "time" ending somewhere around "1980."

That is weird, because '80s stuff like that has been for the last number of years the dominant sound on Classic Rock radio.

I don't know if it's the dominant sound, per se. I think it's more that a lot of that hard rock stuff in the '80s/early 90s was also top 40, and now that there's absolutely no place for it anywhere else it's found a home on classic rock. Makes me wonder what classic rock stuff has been kicked out of rotation to make room for that stuff. Though curiously, I hear next to no Metallica on the radio, despite the black album being one of the biggest selling hard rock records of the era. Maybe they were a programming casualty?

people who don't like new music but want to like new bands (see all those retro soul bands)

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 6 May 2021 20:43 (forty-one minutes ago) link

I went through a phase with them but eventually found the phenomenon a little offputting and creepy, like civil war reenactment. But the thing is, at least a lot of those bands are very good. Sharon Jones kind of transcended that whole thing by just being fantastic, for example.