Who are the coolest band that ever walked?

Not necessarily the best, but the coolest?

Motörhead?

Having spent many years giving it undue weight, I’ve rejected “cool” as a concept.

https://y.yarn.co/8555ebcf-1c22-434d-9d2b-df630a4f517e_text.gif

https://media.ntslive.co.uk/crop/770x770/6b2fd821-f24a-4a69-85ce-b3977e823eb7_1453479141.jpg

My guess:

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/The_Specials_crop.jpg

...which I'm trying hard to top really

One of Miles' electric bands maybe? If not giving a fuck = cool, that is.

VU imo

Bad Seeds until Bargeld and Harvey left.

Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem

that Japanese band Ars Nova that are like heavy ELP worship

when the sugarcubes came out there was a lot of lamestain "coolest band on earth" stuff, like in Rolling Stone.

Having spent many years giving it undue weight, I’ve rejected “cool” as a concept.

― mike t-diva, Monday, August 12, 2024 2:44 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

nice to see someone else here. illusion is basically baked into the word to the point where it's meaningless to me. it also tends to exclude older people. it feels good to use other words. i like ya dl but ilm has done soooo much "cool discourse" over the years, and it's always a drag imo.

i certainly don't cAre about coolness anymore either -- still, i think VU were the coolest band who ever was for a number of reasons, not the least of which was Moe Tucker.

https://hoppinjohns.net/WP_Johns/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/a-b54.jpg

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CQCoqempnYg/VycsD8sNi_I/AAAAAAAAEm8/P2HSvtNnAIMI3AFGBliof0dh2Li1sWtRgCLcB/s1600/05.jpg

It’s obviously completely silly and subjective, like I doubt very many young people in my neighborhood would think Motörhead were a “cool” band if they knew who they were

lol now that i've expressed my disdain for "cool" as a concept i have to admit i still think of certain bands as cool. and the coolest band to me is sade. for personal and idiosyncratic reasons that are impossible to apply coherently. some of which are that they started from a relatively humble place, ended up owning the 80s, then took their sweet time making a handful of pop songbook masterpiece albums that are on a shakespearian level as far as humanistic artistic achievement is concerned.

correct answer is outkast, aka the coolest mother-phonkers on the planet

the sky is falling ain't no need to panic

Hey I didn't mean to rock any boats or retread played-out discussions. It was just meant as a fun discussion. I do get that "cool" and ideas of "cool" are a bit daft, especially these days in our overstuffed, oversaturated world

We should maybe attempt a discussion of what is "cool" w/r/t bands, and whether there's an opposite side — "hot" bands. Not "hot" as in "sexy" but "hot" in terms of their energy/vibe, like if "cool" implies a certain innate calm and operating at a slight remove, good examples would be Steely Dan or Kraftwerk, whereas "hot" would imply that the band is fully engaged at all times and leaping up in your face, so like the MC5 or Slipknot.

i don't think either steely dan or kraftwerk were removed at all from what they were doing. i do think that "cool" makes sense as like a sound palette or general energy level descriptor though. there's definitely a spectrum of energy in music that feels akin to the electromagnetic spectrum.

my personal definition of "cool" conveniently aligns with stuff i'm most impressed with about a band.

Africa 70
The Cramps
Public Enemy (early years)
YMO

very often in culture "cool" is associated with not caring, or not trying very hard--which is not usually what I look for in music.

like those rappers with croaky voices who sound like they just woke up are very cool I guess, but fuck 'em

JAMC in 1985
Saada Bonaire

The Proclaimers

https://scontent-lga3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/454717477_1359543764967360_6852455853818614164_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=833d8c&_nc_ohc=UAnztGWjCW0Q7kNvgHqpxGj&_nc_ht=scontent-lga3-2.xx&oh=00_AYCRAXNSQdf9h_L1UERAQhXjWy0yLA1lC-5v0uL0nU9IeQ&oe=66BFED69

i don't think either steely dan or kraftwerk were removed at all from what they were doing.

Not removed from what they were doing but removed from the broader showbiz apparatus. They seemed to be keeping their distance and if you found out about them some way, great, but they weren't going to glad-hand you or even necessarily invite you to the party. You had to find your own way there.

This is, of course, an image all its own, and a carefully crafted one, but it's a cooler image than "Hey! We're _____________, and we're your new favorite band! We're sexy, and fun, and our songs totally rock!"

stereolab were pretty cool

very often in culture "cool" is associated with not caring, or not trying very hard--which is not usually what I look for in music.

― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes), Monday, August 12, 2024 5:17 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"cool" for me is rooted in artistic achievement. mostly in recorded output. the band live is a factor but not as important to me. i do think there's an element in "not trying very hard" that's very germane to artistic achievement. for instance taylor swift is the most try-hard pop star of all time, and i think she has her moments but is uncool overall.

xxp yeah i agree they were forging their own path "to the side" of the dumbest parts of the industry.

though i'm not actually that familiar with kraftwerk's story and who they were working with.

pfunk were highly cool imo

yeah boring answer is Funkadelic

more than 4 very cool people involved

Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem

― nashwan

Cooler than the Riverbottom Nightmare Band?

esp as i age part of the definition of cool for me is watching how artists navigate / come to terms with being older while they still stay in the game and create. lifelong musicians, or people who don't give up on their need to create music even if it's necessarily in a small way due to circumstances beyond their control, are way cooler to me than people who leave it behind.

so like druggies can be cool early on but transitioning out of that while staying vital is the coolest. lou reed is kind of a no brainer answer to me as far as solo artists go, even if i'm not personally a huge fan of the music.

personal life is a factor for me though. when i found out john cale is a scum ass wifebeater, he lost a lot of his cool to me, even though on a gut level i like his music more than lou's.

and moe is obviously very cool on an artistic level, and i like her solo albums quite a bit, but like .. can you be a cool conservative??? idk about that.

finding your soulmate and being a power couple like lou reed and laurie anderson did is the coolest

Electric Mayhem

the coolest bands for me have a confident semi-dorkiness, but not so much that they tip over into being a joke, maybe a bit of humor but not too much. B-52s are a good answer, Stereolab too. Steely Dan is a solid answer in a lot of ways and i love them but they're actually not what i think of when i think of cool. though they got cooler as they went along.

at this point a lot of the bands that really try very hard to be cool come off for me like absolute dbags even if they're not, but frequently they are. the narcissism really shines thru with a lot of acts, too much for me to give them a chance in some cases for better or worse. i'm probably not being fair.

i think one band that pulled off being a cool superstar rock band was Thin Lizzy, maybe also because they never quite broke through to the absolute top level, but just stayed the course.

i definitely like so many musicians that don't come within a mile of being cool in any way, U2 fan here btw.

if your singer is like a respected poet that definitely ups the cool factor in my view xp

as far as new bands go, i've been trying to figure out if the 1975 is cool or not. nb i'm listening to them for the first time lately. i think paramore are pretty cool. my beloved high on fire are obviously the coolest dudes on the planet.

robert wyatt is at the tippy top of the cool list for me. omg i am on one this morning lol.

The Whispers

i think there are artists who are too cool for their own good, and the good of the people around them. prince and van morrison are examples.

Cool is not really a word I associate with Van Morrison tbh.

100% uncool. Maybe briefly cool, for a day in the 60s.

as far as new bands go, i've been trying to figure out if the 1975 is cool or not.

The 1975 are unquestionably tryhards

I’ve heard paramour’s cover of “burning down the house” and I really wish I hadn’t

Nova Twins are cool imo

i feel like a gift or a particularly clear channel to create brilliant music is a foundational aspect of cool. van had it at least through the 80s. seems like it enabled him to be the piece of shit he was through-and-through though. prince had something similar going on. but evolving as a person is also a foundational aspect of cool to me. neither van or prince did afaict.

xp yeah i was picking up on that a bit re 1975. pretty music video for "part of the band". lyrics not as clever as they think the are. tangentially makes me wonder if paul simon is cool.

kate bush is also at the tippy top of the cool list for me.

except i did hear some whispers of reactionary views she might hold. ugh i'm going to stop posting now.

"Cool is not really a word I associate with Van Morrison tbh."

Them were super-cool though!

oh that picture didn't show up. i was on instagram and there was a recent picture of thurston moore with jarvis cocker and thurston had written "The Proclaimers". i laughed!

sonic youth were cool in the 80s. don't know how cool pulp ever where.

Dylan 65-66 was pretty cool.

I don't think Van Morrison was ever cool (and I love Van Morrison's classic records).

Re: Neil Young, I don't think of him as a cool artist, but at what point does uncool cross over with IDGAF Old Dude Swag

Neil Young was probably at his coolest during his ditch era, the absolutely dessicated, bearded version of Neil who released On the Beach/Tonight's the Night/Time Fades Away. i love most of his work before and after, but the coolness wasn't quite there anymore.

NY Dolls, IMHO

Meanwhile the Ramones are over in a corner, leaning against a cigarette machine, paying exactly no attention to this thread, as they are too cool to require your validation

All this talk About Van and Prince has made me realize that while it still sucks that Prince died, it was probably in his best interest he kicked it way before COVID.

Yeah Kate Bush not a band but at her prime she was very effortlessly cool

Early days Black Sabbath and Bauhaus seemed very cool to me.

Also Ozzy was kinda hot for a minute there.

Maybe unpopular opinion but Dolly Parton is also cool as fuck imho.

Dolly exists in - and is the sole occupant of - a zone beyond coolness/uncoolness.

When and to whom? I feel like responding as a lonely listener is missing some authority.
I first think of bands like Black Uhuru, A Tribe Called Quest, Wire... but that's kind of reducing it to sonics and inferring the coolness. I have no idea if they had the charisma, looks, the touch of dorkiness, and other things that complete the list of ingredients of cool.

The Revolution

Number Girl

JJ Cale

(Or a band of JJs)

Velvet Underground, Les Rallizes Denudes, 80s Sonic Youth…but eventually you learn that everyone is a dork just like you but they just look better in sunglasses

The Slits

The Muffs

It would be hard to out cool say a band led by Dexter Gordon or Sonny Rollins in their hey day. There are some that claimed Gordon was one that helped popularize the phrase.

if you happen to be watching the movie wild zero, the answer is def guitar wolf

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIjgljvfZgL2OZV0tUAtcz3EsZoHp3ZkqgepL3YgbvfVruUqA1dVF-L1SlOgQuM5nB4pYqHmDPo6Ut2q500W60lnAZLEA2pSMlk3M5kEDCVPOG7bk6WxDwKkZjPpxdif379tz9/s320/wild_zero7.jpg

if you aren't, I suppose a case can still be made. maybe not by me tho, I'd prob go with black sabbath, drexciya, yoko ono, mobb deep, something like that

Guitar Wolf is twice as loud as any other band I have ever heard.

Guitar Wolf kinda saved my ass once, in college I had one of those amazing "Seiji's voice" clips as my voicemail and I'm like 95% sure I lost a decent job opportunity because of it, I actually knew the guy who filled the position and apparently they worked him a ton of unpaid overtime and he then got screwed over by a reorg

Itamar Assumpção

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

Saw a clip of Motörhead on Letterman recently and their coolness still comes across. I can't see Ozzy or Black Sabbath as cool. VU for sure. 70s Bryan Ferry?

I'm trying to think of 80s pop stars who were cool and maybe Van Halen (DLR and EVH at least), Madonna (early), Ric Ocasek, Grace Jones, I second Sade, maybe Annie Lennox?

DLR too hammy to be cool. Madonna absolutely cool.

Cartola
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIGN9fDhrEU

Rita Lee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkZDXv7Ib20

Timbalada
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpitAH2-6dY

Falco was really cool, his whole persona was "I am cool guy"

Jorge ben w/ trio mocotó
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iWiN2CDlkC4

DLR too hammy to be cool.

EVH too, his whole persona is he’s having the time of his life up there shredding his ass off. ymmv on if it’s cool but it is definitely different from VU or early Sonic Yourh

I’ll join the gen-x pile-on here and state that when I was in high school I thought Stephen Malkmus was the coolest person on earth, and I am still connected to that feeling when I watch 90s footage

If you judge by amount of doves in the video, the coolest band is the Rhythm Corps.

Common Ground

https://i.imgur.com/V721SXY.jpeg

Winner

that Japanese band Ars Nova that are like heavy ELP worship

― brimstead

oh shit yeah i remember when "android domina" came out. that's an important distinction to me, not only are they heavy ELP worship, they're also a girl band.

this is a shitty phone video but here's a live vid of them doing "android domina"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3wuDMQbCI

and yes, it's complicated. if you look at some early videos of keith with the nice, he's out there rocking leather pants, and my understanding is that it wasn't necessarily just an affectation, that the man was actually into leather. i don't know if that's true or just something people say, people say a lot of shit that isn't necessarily true and i might be perpetuating that message. i don't mean to.

so i mean it's definitely possible to make a critique of them as playing into the patriarchal stereotype of the "domina", but like

if you're a woman playing rock music one has to deal with the whole "male gaze" thing one way or another. particularly if one does happen to be queer. a lot of women in rock music are queer-coded. you're here trying to do this thing that's, for better or for worse, masc-coded, and negotiating those expectations while still trying to be that thing all the rock fans insist that you be, "authentic"...

i guess, taking sides here: ars nova vs. bi kyo ran? bi kyo ran were the japanese band who are basically "the japanese king crimson". i mean it's an apt descriptor. they're all guys i think? but they went on to do the music for the 2003 anime parody of juvenile delinquent tv shows, _cromartie high school_. that probably ups their cool factor considerably.

on the third hand, when it comes to japanese bands aping prog rock, you have pazzo fanfano di musica, a project led by motoi sakuraba, who would go on to do some pretty wicked prog-rock for the star ocean games (the jrpg nerd's jrpg games). that band was a pastiche of RPI - italian prog rock - with nonsense "Prisencolinensinainciusol" style lyrics. RPI is kinda low-key the coolest style of prog rock IMO, in a sense of...

like, gentle giant are the prog lover's prog band but they're not _cool_ because look at those motherfuckers. they're high school band nerds who formed a prog rock band. the way i feel about RPI is that they're kind of prog lovers' prog bands in the same way gentle giant are, but don't come off as high school band nerds. a guy like francesco di giacomo, if you look at this guy... idk. to me, he epitomizes '70s prog-rock cool. particularly in terms of, yes, it's 1977, no, our country doesn't have colour television yet, fuck you, we have synthesizers! we had synthesizers before genesis did!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdWKDOUs6ag

i mean the more obviously "cool" RPI band would be a band like Area, with Demetrio Stratos. and i mean i'll accept it. like yes, these dudes are obviously very cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQ6k-v8D40

idk though, for me, it's all about francesco di giacomo. coolest dude in rock.

so like druggies can be cool early on but transitioning out of that while staying vital is the coolest. lou reed is kind of a no brainer answer to me as far as solo artists go, even if i'm not personally a huge fan of the music.

personal life is a factor for me though. when i found out john cale is a scum ass wifebeater, he lost a lot of his cool to me, even though on a gut level i like his music more than lou's.

finding your soulmate and being a power couple like lou reed and laurie anderson did is the coolest

― he/him hoo-hah (map), Monday, August 12, 2024 9:48 AM (ten hours ago)

yeah i agree with you that personal life does play a big part of it. so to me, for instance, i mean, laurie anderson is cool, but lou reed will never fucking be cool for me. i mean it's nice that he got out of drugs, that he, i don't know, became a better person, did...

like i'm not even gonna talk shit about metallica. worked with ANOHNI. i think it was really cool that he worked with her.

on the other hand, rachel humphreys is buried in a mass grave.

is lou reed _responsible_ for that? i don't think so. i haven't finished reading that bio of him, to my discredit. he was fucked up and he treated her like shit and he got out alive and she didn't. i mean i can't even _blame_ him for that, i know how it is. i've left people to die. it's not his _fault_ that lou reed at his worst was the closest to a chance rachel humphreys ever got. shit was fucked back then. all i can say. shit was fucked.

though i'm not actually that familiar with kraftwerk's story and who they were working with.

― he/him hoo-hah (map)

at least one of them was gay, i know that

that's the subtext to me, when someone says "cool", i mean, the velvet underground were cool, kraftwerk were cool, the b-52s were cool... i mean the b-52s were obviously completely heterosexual, but they're kind of the exception that proves the rule imo

The 1975 are unquestionably tryhards

― The SoyBoy West Coast (Whiney G. Weingarten)

ok i don't follow contemporary music but there was this really popular indie band with confessional lyrics who did this whole album that's apparently about the lead singer's relationship with a particular trans woman? but i'm not sure if that's just something that's not supposed to be public knowledge or something that's just not true. it's something a trans woman who was kinda unhealthily obsessed with this particular trans woman (who i'm not gonna name here) told me and she sometimes said things that don't hold up to fact-checking. also i'm not really sure if the band in question _was_ the 1975.

i'm not sure if "tryhard" is an accusation that carries the same cultural weight with millennials. like my perception of millennials is that they all got imposter syndrome, which is kind of another way of saying "tryhard".

Guitar Wolf is twice as loud as any other band I have ever heard.

― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR)

guitar wolf made a film in 1999 called "wild zero". a partial summary of the plot:

Ace returns to the gas station and rescues Tobio from a group of zombies. They flee to an abandoned building, and once inside, share a kiss. Tobio then reveals to Ace that she is transgender, causing him to scream and run into another room. There, he sees a vision of Guitar Wolf, who tells him that "love has no borders, nationalities, or genders". Ace then realizes that zombies have entered the building, and blows the whistle Guitar Wolf gave him. Guitar Wolf hears the whistle, and the band heads to his location. Ace begins killing zombies with a crowbar, while Tobio finds her way outside and sees an alien spacecraft in the sky.

that's pretty cool!

ok i don't follow contemporary music but there was this really popular indie band with confessional lyrics who did this whole album that's apparently about the lead singer's relationship with a particular trans woman? but i'm not sure if that's just something that's not supposed to be public knowledge or something that's just not true. it's something a trans woman who was kinda unhealthily obsessed with this particular trans woman (who i'm not gonna name here) told me and she sometimes said things that don't hold up to fact-checking. also i'm not really sure if the band in question _was_ the 1975.

what is the point of posting this?

Coolness for me is tuned into modernist aesthetic borrowed from more intellectual arts, ironic and detached and often sardonic or just dark, and producing great art that hits about 50% innovation, 30% craft, and 20% deep feeling. VU sometimes nails it, but is maybe a bit too emotional and vulnerable at times to be a cool as thelonious monk and Charlie Parker, electric miles, can and faust, mid 70s eno and king crimson, horses and marquee moon, wire and the fall in their prime, early rem and sonic youth and throwing muses, public enemy and rakim, aphex and autechre, outkast and missy elliott.

Stereolab is like Tom waits, cool if you don't already know what they are copying, if you do they are still super impressive because they are so tasteful and good at it and there's moments of actual feeling too but not innovative enough to be cool.

I turned 30 in 2003 so i don't know who's cool after that, i feel like cool is different for younger people and not at all intellectually pretentious or connected to like, film cool (godard, the Japanese scene), literary cool (burroughs)
painting cool, etc. Like i know there were cool metal acts around then but they seemed corny to me, too emotional. I think that's more accepted in modern cool but it puts me off.

Who is tom waits copying?

Beefheart I imagine.

The Fall were never cool, MES will be spinning in his grave at the very thought!

And yet
Shades check
Cig check
Leather jacket-uh
Check

'65 Stones
Kim Gordon

are King Crimson cool, though?

Without the caveats or approaches unperson or map raise it all a bit wee boaby

Cool, for me, as a middle-aged person means "unadulteratedly enjoying the thing you do + being a good listener + maybe wearing excellent glasses".

e.g. Andre 3000 (his flute record is terrible but still kind of a cool move), or Mort Garson
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/7b/Mort_Garson.jpg

Tom Waits is still cool! But it's become less about the cool signifiers (clothes, gravelly voice, vibes) than about the way he seems like a kind person who enjoys making his art

Underground Resistance are cool, although they're obviously aiming for something a bit more ideaologically substantial than that

Time has not been kind but at their 89-90 peak The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays were the coolest thing ever to a younger me

Gang of Four

xp somehow nothing that comes after - & I mean not only the various messes of Ryder and Bez but also their grim epigones like Fat White Family - has obscured the sincerely dgaf threat of the Mondays c1988 for me, so, tho I accept all caveats around cool in general, they are still a version of cool in my internal world.

(not true of The Stone Roses, tho I can sometimes touch that feeling)

Suicide

https://i.discogs.com/X_RYcNeAFLyIb4eUpdvmADV0s7uDPJjO1IcU9mLdnQU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:40/h:300/w:300/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQzNjI5/NzctMTM2Mjk0NjY3/NS02OTk3LmpwZWc.jpeg

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/632c0ee412dc3df8de65b670/632dae8fceeecc299903d06a_1978-80.jpg

^ this band now looks like this!

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/632c0ee412dc3d24e065b667/6401d7cbf31803c8383fcf26_Homepage%20edited%20pic.jpg

I'm guessing some of those may be different people though

You all are sure mentioning a lot of bands that exist

what is the point of posting this?

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown)

legitimate confusion

i get confused a lot about a lot of things

there are a lot of things i believe that when i fact-check aren't actually true but i'm not supposed to talk about them, but i don't know how i can tell if something is true if i don't talk about it

story of my fuckin' life right there

the sincerely dgaf threat of the Mondays c1988

first thing that came to mind when someone upthread mentioned not giving a fuck was this video.

yeah I didn’t get the Mondays music at all until I saw a video of them and was it was like “ohhhhhh okay”

Ok, of course the algo spies everything I do online and it started giving me yt recommendations for Dolly Parton interviews and by watching a few I confirm that Dolly Parton is the real deal. I don’t even know much about her or her music but she’s incredibly lovable, classy and the coolest gal.

The answer is Piroshka. I have never seen or heard them but I read that Miki Berenyi is in Piroshka, and any band that has her in it is automatically the coolest.

It’s easier too look cool with a detached demeanor, but most of the indifferent attitude artists turn out to be a bit dorky and immature at best or just plain misantrophic assholes.

Dolly Parton is not detached at all, she manages to be very positive while handling herself with grace and dignity. She never forgets that she came from abject poverty and understands what really matters.

Looking at some of the really old interviews, she gets asked the most insulting and sexist questions and she never gets mad, but she never backs down. She sticks up for herself without being insulting.

Now she uses her wealth and influence to donate money to and bring attention to worthy causes, and she doesn't make it all about herself.

Yeah my answer is Dolly Parton. God bless her.

Also thought it was cute how in some of the early interviews she talks about her husband. Talks about him being the love of her life and that they’ll always be together…. When challenged on how does she know it will last, she says she knows it will always work because he always gives her the space and support she needs and yeah turns out she was right, they’ve been together for almost 60 years.

It's funny that King Crimson was considered in this thread briefly, because I came across this photo in my FB feed yesterday and was very tempted to post it, so I guess I just will anyway

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/905911276/es/foto/king-crimson-at-hotel-new-otani-garden-december-1981-tokyo-japan-robert-fripp-adrian-belew-tony.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=gKbpl2sIEWnPjIbVlCt9c1np4eZlJIkjSRztX7kgm3s=

the dudes in blondie could be the least cool guys on the planet and blondie would still deserve a mention here

https://static01.nyt.com/images/2023/03/24/obituaries/23Haskins2-print2/23Haskins2-superJumbo.jpg

https://facts.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/16-facts-about-sly-and-the-family-stone-1689406023.jpg

dudes in blondie could be the least cool guys on the planet

Cf. Tina Weymouth

also see Pretenders

I second The Slits. Self flagellating for not thinking that originally.

Blondie too, especially circa cover of Plastic Letters.

it looks like fripp's head and upper body have been photoshopped into that picture.

that's part of the allure

Yeah agree with xposts Debbie Harry and Tina Weymouth have enough cool to deflect the uncoolness around them.

Not in the same level of cool but I remember some old Smashing Pumpkins interviews and thought D’arcy was the only legit cool member in that band.

i thought james iha seemed pretty cool, i never read/saw their interviews though

Some might see Courtney Love as very uncool (I think she’s cool, in a chaotic way) but Hole seemed very cool as a band. The other members had a more lowkey vibe to them that contrasted well with Courtney and seem very likable and unpretentious in interviews.

i thought james iha seemed pretty cool, i never read/saw their interviews though

― karl...arlk...rlka...lkar...

I mean honestly the only uncool member is Corgan. Iha and Chamberlin look usually uncomfortable and deflective in interviews. From the interviews I’ve seen D’Arcy was the only one that was somewhat respectful and engaged even when the questions were dull.

In other things I remember on the Nardwuar thread someone mentioned that you can tell which artists are actually cool in how they treated Nardwuar.

With his most recent interviews it’s harder to tell because the post-internet artists are previously aware of his style and love him before agreeing to see him.

yeah, watching Sonic Youth with Nardwuar pretty much ruined any idea of them being cool for me

Courtney Love with Nardwuar always acts troll-like and likes to fuck around with him but iirc when he interviewed Nirvana he was denied access backstage and Courntey spotted him and told security he was his cousin.

So yeah CL passes the Nardwuar test.

yeah, watching Sonic Youth with Nardwuar pretty much ruined any idea of them being cool for me

― There’s a Monster in my Vance (President Keyes)

Yeah I remember them and Blur being super obnoxious. Not that I thought anyone in Blur were cool beforehand.

I submit the original James Chance & the Contortions

Thinking about Nardwuar I remembered Henry Rollins. Which is a weird one because I think he’s both very cool and very uncool.

I interviewed Rollins three times in the 2000s and he has two modes with interviewers: wary/hostile or Total Music Nerd. If you ask dumb/goading/baiting questions, he'll shut down on you, but if you show anything close to his level of dorkiness, you can sit with him for an hour after the interview proper ends talking about old jazz records (ask me how I know).

Nardwar's old persona was totally a fake friendly troll, he was trying to get a rise of out of people. He's changed his style up into wholesome hip hop interviewer with post Internet people as was mentioned. I'm not saying some of the subjects weren't mean to him but he was coming from the same world they were, 80s punk, so I think the whole relationship to the interview subject was wayyyyyy different and way more ironic on his part.

he used to do borat/stuttering john style stuff with politicians too

i feel he's the tom waits thing where you play a character long enough you become it

op question answered:

https://i.imgur.com/9gFNa1r.jpg

Otis is kind of a dork though

the b-52s were cool... i mean the b-52s were obviously completely heterosexual, but they're kind of the exception that proves the rule imo

I'm probably missing the joke here but ftr four of the five founding B-52s were/are queer

Complete

Sonic Youth seem extra try hard to me

I guess early Tom Waits looks cool

only prog guy i can think who might be considered cool is Peter Hammill

That ornette coleman quartet photo upthread <3

My personal answer to this question has always been: Slant 6

(Also I think you can be unconcerned with "cool" but still recognize it when you see it)

When people start mentioning Smashing Pumpkins, one of the least cool bands in history whose vibe/look varied between dumbass hippies and dumbass goths, the thread is lost.

NB: I love hippies and goths.

Oh the SP were super uncool, D’Arcy was the only cool member but she wasn’t that cool, she just seemed cool in contrast with the rest.

Melissa Auf Der Mar was clearly the coolest SP member by a mile but she was not a part of the original lineup so I didn’t count her.

My apologies for bringing them into this thread you’re right they have no business in this thread.

I was just thinking of examples of single musicians who are evidently cooler than the rest of their bandmates.

I don't think Sonic Youth is a straight up cool band, BUT I don't think you can completely write them off as a band.

Kim is cool enough to raise the entire band's average well above their punching weight.
Thurston is definitely a try-hard dork.
Lee comes around to being cool again because of his disinterested dorkiness.
Steve is dorky but not in the painful way Thurston is try-hard, he is the kind of dorky every band kinda needs (cf his archival work).

this thread seems to be landing on two big categories: musicians who are effortlessly cool and big dorks who lean into it so hard they cross over into quasi-cool.

only prog guy i can think who might be considered cool is Peter Hammill

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/se2HERfmrFWzsYuFXiGe4D.jpg

personal serious answer I swear no intentional wordplay: the walkmen 2002-2003

bill callahan and friends

They Might Be Giants in their earliest music videos

I think The Byrds in their fringed suede, capes and oblong sunglasses period were pretty cool.

Don't know about that one. There's some uptight personalities in that band.

Dr. Teeth & The Electric Mayhem

― nashwan

Cooler than the Riverbottom Nightmare Band?

― Muad'Doob (Moodles), Monday, 12 August 2024 16:33 (yesterday) link

spectrum (but only after 04/05ish)
brightblack morning light (obv)
little dragon (and whoever happens to share a stage with yukimi nagano, the coolest)

(...) if "cool" implies a certain innate calm and operating at a slight remove (...) whereas "hot" would imply that the band is fully engaged at all times and leaping up in your face (...)

both that cool and that hot at the same time is kyle hall. he should be in a band. 3 chairs, also

that Japanese band Ars Nova that are like heavy ELP worship

― brimstead, Monday, August 12, 2024 11:06 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

love this answer lol

No, Byrds otm, it’s a vibe, mid 60s dylan was the epitome of uptight for ex

i love the byrds but I gotta say that maybe promo photos are skewing people’s placement of them here. i don’t think they seem particularly cool in performance footage tbh

Wearing shades in publicity photos goes a long way

Leonard Cohen was cool

i kinda had the impression that every member of the Byrds was convinced that every other member was Not Cool.

I like this band, (SPAM REDACTED) is a crucial machine for efficiently extracting oil from palm kernels. It uses mechanical pressure to separate the oil from the kernels, ensuring a high yield and quality. Investing in a reliable palm kernel oil extractor can significantly boost production efficiency, reduce labor costs, and improve the overall quality of the extracted oil. This machine is essential for optimizing the palm kernel oil extraction process in any palm oil production operation.

This band is good, SPAM REDACTED

lol, I thought you looked suspicious. permabanned

A few faves of mine that also seem pretty cool people

charlotte adigery & bolis pupul
tirzah and micah
everything but the girl

SPAM REDACTED are a pretty good band that’s true.

spectrum (but only after 04/05ish)
brightblack morning light (obv)
little dragon (and whoever happens to share a stage with yukimi nagano, the coolest)

(...) if "cool" implies a certain innate calm and operating at a slight remove (...) whereas "hot" would imply that the band is fully engaged at all times and leaping up in your face (...)
both that cool and that hot at the same time is kyle hall. he should be in a band. 3 chairs, also

― () (gaudio)

Ah yeah had the delight of interacting irl with Little Dragon after a very small concert early in their career and they were very cool indeed, in that Scandinavian sort of way. A childlike wonder to the way they saw things and very warm but reserved. Very cool band vibes.

lol did this board add a filter where you can't say SPAM REDACTED

SPAM REDACTED was totally cool until that infamous Coachella set

as good as EXPLETIVE DELETED though? surely not

The Drummer from SPAM REDACTED

Ok, so do we do guesses and look like we're nominating bands that are not cool (or young people...)

I assume it wasn't a name so much as a link to some shady site that got redacted.

What will I do with all my palm kernels now

I think Steve Shelley actually is the coolest though. Who do you know that would be a in a band called the Crucifucks? Obviously great, tasteful drummer, right off the bat they're a more structured, song-minded band with him in. As a producer, he produces as a fan of music, getting the Lee Hazlewood stuff back in print, trying to get Townes Van Zandt writing and recording again, producing/releasing the early Cat Power and Blonde Redhead stuff. When did it ever seem like he was doing any of that kind of stuff for financial gains or to elevate his personal brand lol. He's the coolest.

also was going to say, if you consider Soft Machine prog, I would say both Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers are cool.

Robert Wyatt is indeed one of the coolest musicians who ever walked.

Mike Ratledge looked extremely cool in the 60s too. Pre-droopy moustache and with leather coat.

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/r72Br6RQ4bLEmqnerNpUDX-1200-80.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/J3bVchB.jpeg

xp Supergrass's Gaz Coombes definitely cool

Robert Wyatt is indeed one of the coolest musicians who ever walked.

― Sam Weller, Wednesday, August 14, 2024 11:34 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh god very guilty lol

just cuz the real lies thread is up right now i think real lies are extremely cool.

Funny that there's little mention of shoegaze bands, since shoegazing was a tactic deployed to look cool.

they just stood there tho

If it was a tactic deployed to look cool - which I don't think it was - it failed miserably.

Hang on, Slowdive were pretty damn cool back in the day.

https://consequence.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/slowdive.jpg

https://media.soundoflife.com/34/resources/xT45PKPeNkBcOf6aQckwQ08r8CM69Ehll4Z4f11G.jpg

i still stand by VU as the coolest band -- it's 1967 and these people are playing their weird music at The Factory, the coolest place in NYC, the coolest city in the USA. Before Moe became conservative and John Cale committed domestic violence, they were the pinnacle of cool. I honestly don't think a rock band could be cooler than VU at the Factory.

or at least not at that time

where is this Cale DV stuff from? I can't find anything about it online.

something map mentioned -- i have no idea what it is either but i think it was mentioned in the John Cale thread? i did not read his book either, maybe it's in there.

I hope someone isn't confusing John Cale with Lou Reed there.

First time hearing about JC being physically abusive? Lou Reed on the other hand:

https://amp.theguardian.com/music/2015/oct/13/lou-reed-new-biography-domestic-violence-abuse-women

found it (it's in the hidden text and it's really gross!!) John Cale S/D

sorry guys i recall reading some allegations somewhere on ilm in the last few years, definitely about cale, enough to make me think it was fairly well known. i'll be damned if i can find where now and obviously happy if i'm wrong.

xp

i would never confuse Lou Reed and John Cale btw

God bless Sterling Morrison (and Doug Yule) I say.

... the two least cool VU members of course.

i mean Nico was awful -- I read a book about her too -- but that doesn't stop her from being cool as a member of VU in 1967.
you give people enough time in the public eye and they will inevitably do something you think is wack.

cale mentions his DV and shitty behavior in his autobiography “what’s welsh for zen”

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/peel/images/6/63/Chicory_Tip.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20160613123809

i'm having problems with photos...

i need a flickr account apparently.

haha, i still have a flickr account. last used in 2007.

i am totally on board re the VU at their peak.

but as a man of a certain age then yeah, for me, the coolest band has to be this lot of course :

https://louderthanwar.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/earl_brutus1.jpg

miles davis sextet

https://www.prettythingsandcoolstuff.com/cdn/shop/products/Miles_Davis_at_Newport_1958_2_600x.jpg

https://i0.wp.com/www.michigandaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/yellowmagicorch.jpg?w=465&ssl=1

it's The Specials

I met Sterling, he's definitely cool.

i mean Nico was awful … you give people enough time in the public eye and they will inevitably do something you think is wack.

Yes I agree. After reading the book I decided she was a truly awful person.

The bit about Nico that made me sympathetic toward her was when she talked about how her extreme polyglot status made it difficult for her to express herself effectively in any language. I can't even imagine trying to think through things without at least one language on my side. Doesn't excuse "giving heroin to your kid", but it did make me more sympathetic to her

I have no mouth and I must hook my child on heroin.

That sounds like utter nonsense to me, tbh. Had she forgotten how to speak and think in German?

I can't express myself so I must stab a black woman in the face with a wine glass, requiring 20 stitches, while screaming "I'll show you what suffering is!"

she also said "I hate black people" while doing it but perhaps something got lost in translation

I feel like the thing about being cool is that it doesn’t protect you from being a gigantic asshole — if you can be cool and not be a massive assmonster you have won some kind of life lottery.

I feel like the thing about being cool is that it doesn’t protect you from being a gigantic asshole — if you can be cool and not be a massive assmonster you have won some kind of life lottery.

Woops sorry

Woops sorry

Woops sorry

Wow

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

I mean, were they trying to sound like Roxy Music on that?

I remember one of those music mags had asked the question of Roxy Music's office, and got a fairly miffed "No, it bloody well isn't Bryan Ferry singing!" in reply.

the mummies