Things you know you SHOULD like but don't

However, their drummer plays with some other projects I'm a huge fan of; such as Garage-a-Trois with Skerik and Charlie Hunter.

I should like Sun Ra given my tastes, but I've only got a few things and I hardly ever listen to them.

He's boring.

"KURU KURU?"

I guess the same goes for Stereophonics, and my reason for not liking them are also the same as in the case of Starsailor - boring melodies, and a singer with a terribly annoying voice.

Ha! Good one!

It's just that my friends like them, are friends with them, and love their music, and they say "oh dude, you like Medeski Martin and Wood, you like Project Logic, you'll REALLY like these guys!" and I'm met with this bland-as-can-be pseudo-jam-crap, which I expect to be much better, considering these guys are from N'Awlins. Bummah.

Have you ever heard Nine Pound Hammer? They're from around these parts (methinks)...they were one of the first bands I ever saw. They fucking ROCKED.

Never heard Nine Pound Hammer, Nick. Maybe I'll look 'em up.

i love noise shows and noise bands. noise records are 99% poop.

They just don't move me.

But do you move bloody stools?

Dylan-Great songwriter-horrible singing voice.

Wilco- Indie rock fo those who hate indie rock.

The Beatles are my favourite band. I loved 60's pop as a kid. Many of my favourite records then are still favourite records now. My 8 year old self loved ALL The Beach Boys singles, and I actually preferred later stuff like "Good Vibrations", "Sloop John B" and "God Only Knows".

I now know enough about music to appreciate what a stupendous piece of musical imagination "Pet Sounds" is. I don't have the iconoclastic attitude to "The Canon" prevalent at ILX. I admire Brian Wilson both as a person and as an idea.

All of which should point to undying love for PS. But as an adult, "Wouldn't It Be Nice" is the only track on it I actually like very much. The rest of it either doesn't move me, or moves me only slightly, and in ways I don't like. Outside of PS I still like "Good Vibrations" and a lot of the early singles, but "Surf's Up", "Smile" etc leave me just as cold as most of PS.

Honestly, I thought he was one of the greatest songwriters of that era. He had quite a gift for melodies, his lyrics were very distinct and powerful, especially for being so out-there as he was. Now his voice, I like it quite a bit, but I can also admit that it wasn't the greatest around. But Hendrix-as-a-songwriter I think deserves every bit of respect as Hendrix-as-a-guitar-player. And some castles made of sand melt into the sea eventually.

!

How fascinating!

V

jess and hstencil: i order you guys to start liking sun ra.

space is the place (on impluse)
heliocentric worlds
lanquidity

i also saw the neo-arkestra play one time. that was nice.

nothing is and live 1974 (especially the first side: I mean just WTF is sun ra doing with those moogs/machines (?!?!) and marshall allen is blasting his sax) blew me.

the latter was only half price.

'sun song': some jazz standards (I can't quite understand early jazz but its a beginning).

he's an average songwriter usually.

Also, I like Dylan's looks best of all. And I like Fischerspooner, I just wish they weren't so lazy. No one's gonna give a shit when they finally release a new song in 2006.

my "so what?" about fischerspooner is more puzzling, because of my (latent) synth-pop love, because i do like ladytron, and i've been listening to a lot of old synth-pop lately (esp. gary numan, OMD, and depeche mode). what am i missing?

another vote for X -- a group i missed the first time 'round, and when i finally heard sounded like roots-rock (fast roots-rock, but still -- might as well have been the Bodeans for all i cared).

tiny points for his, um, "contribution" to the cover of Ween's The Pod, though.

I just hate John Doe and Exene's voices. Also, they seemed SO OLD and cliched boho compared to the Germs, the Weirdos, the Bags, etc. etc. LA punk was all downhill from there. But apparently no one who was in Los Angeles at the time seems to think so.

Under the Big Black Sun is also amongst the worst albums I've ever paid for. Is their earlier stuff significantly better? They actually seemed OK in Decline. "Johnny Hit and Run Paulene" wasn't bad.

they sure are cute tho.

(haha jody beth is gonna disown me)

other stuff i don't like that much: X, the cramps, spiritualized, a lot of stuff on those 'clicks and cuts' comps. i also realized recently that i don't enjoy listening to my bloody valentine that much anymore. could be tied to a bizarre make-out session while 'loveless' was playing some years back (haha, hasn't everyone done that)

oh yeah! i forgot-- i don't like neu!

Anthony And The Johnsons. Has everything to it that would suggest I should like it, but I just cannot stomach his voice.

flying lotus. am i missing something? just sounds like a druggier less hyperactive prefuse

Minutemen. Never did like'em. :-(
Same goes for Annie (although I can explain why I don't)

It's a hard knock life, I guess.

Oh yes yes! Another one: Joy Division. Don't hate'em but it's all a bit MEH. Of course I do like that one song. Covered by Girls Agianst Boys. haha

Magazine...but no, very neutral about it. Except for "Permafrost" because it's great for jokes at music trivia nights.

the nuum

Ketamine

i mean, i liked the rave music, when that was on the radio, in the early 90s, and i liked 'incredible', and maybe a few speed garage tracks (not that much tho), but otherwise ehhhh

What ArfArf says upthread about The Beach Boys applies to me. I just don't get Pet Sounds past the opening track.

xpost

Oh I thought you was dissing Scargill.

I tried the new Animal Collective album. I really did. I tried. I'm old, I think.

Anthony And The Johnsons. Has everything to it that would suggest I should like it, but I just cannot stomach his voice.

Oh yeah. I'm totally with Geir on this one.

Minutemen is another one, though. Really do not understand why I don't appreciate that band more. I can't even get into them on the same level as other harmless punk bands that remind me of adolescence. Don't understand this at all.

Animal Collective are totally the big one here for me, though. I fucking hate them.

hahaha! I don't feel so old! At first it reminded me of Flaming Lips which wasn't necessarily such a damning thing, and then a few songs in, I just couldn't take it anymore.

Kiss and Christian Death both seem like my kind of bands on paper in their own ways, and I have tried, but the music just doesn't grab me.

They both seem like bands where the appeal should be instant or not at all - chin-stroking contemplation and "ah, see what they did there?" just isn't going to happen.

Actually I feel the same way about those bands.

Thing is, there are plenty of bands 'the canon' says that everyone should like who I really don't give a flying fuck about and don't care either, it's the ones where I feel I'm missing the party that rankle.

Definitely. I don't give a fuck that I don't really like Dylan, for instance, but the fact that I hate Animal Collective irks me; all the signifiers and descriptors people use to describe them are ones that attract me, but I still think they're horrible.

only about 12 internet people like anco. not feeling the pressure.

btw u should like dylan

Haha as if he needs someone to tell him that.

Beach Boys, more, maybe

. . ooh look, there go a couple of canonical flying fucks.

yeah, I tried Beach Boys Pet Sounds years ago at the college radio station and couldn't understand what the big deal was either. Sorry.

Kiss and Christian Death both seem like my kind of bands on paper in their own ways, and I have tried, but the music just doesn't grab me.

Are you fucking kidding me? : )

I'm guessing this is more likely to be "What, are you some kind of Goth?" than "How can you deny the majesty of XD?".

Either way, no, not kidding, I'm afraid!

You know, I fucked up. I actually thought Bimble posted that.

Although he feels the same way about those bands, apparently

Based on everything else that I Iisten to, it's both annoying and baffling to me why I don't like Pavement or Sonic Youth.

on paper the animal collection sound seems like exactly the kind of thing i'd expect you to hate, nick, so maybe they don't belong on this thread.

Yeah? Why's that?

I tried the new Animal Collective album. I really did. I tried. I'm old, I think.

You're not the first to reach that conclusion with them and you won't be the last.

The dBs:Stands For Decibels

It's right in my musical wheelhouse, as it were, early American indie rock. I should love this record. And Black and White is a great song. But apart from that it's barf city, baby.

I really don't get the appeal of Pavement.

I can't stand Devo.

I like Fugazi all right, but I've never gone crazy for them as I feel like I should have. I LOVE Minor Threat more than any other hardcore.

I really love a few Joy Division songs, but trying to listen to their full albums bores the shit out of me.

If "things" include songs then definitely "Heartbeat" by Annie. People pretty much describe it as my dream song, yet it sounds like album filler to me. Same goes for The Knife's "Heartbeats".

Also Stars, the band (supposedly influenced by the Smiths, New Order, St. Etienne, etc). I can't stand them (and I tried).

"I really don't get the appeal of Pavement"

it's this thing called "rock" and it is sweeping the nation

Lotta people explaining exactly WHY they don't like so-and-so, and giving perfect credible reasons - isn't that kinda antithetical to the spirit of this thread?

Steely Dan.

The last.fm recommendations thing seems to only ever tell me about bands I've already heard that do nothing for me.

I'm a metalhead at heart but have never been able to stomach iron maiden. and yet they are often held up as exemplars of the form.

as a teenager, I felt I SHOULD like them, so had plenty of their albums and listened to them dutifully. one day I was able to admit to myself that I couldn't stand them. too warbly, too gallopy, too flimsy. where's the crushing weight that's so appealing about metal?

abandoning maiden was highly liberating.

Haha. Oh man, that's a great story, and I don't give two bits of shit about metal.

it was an act of heavy apostasy.

"I really don't get the appeal of Pavement"

it's this thing called "rock" and it is sweeping the nation

I really should love Pavement, but I only like them OK.

Unrest were better

Steely Dan.

Rhymes with Suggest Ban.

Can - sure crucial somehow, never got the hype. i do even sympathize with Czukay.
The Residents - missed because of my illiterate mediocre boredom
Velvet Undergrund, Joy Division, Killing Joke, XTC - yes, yes, yes
100% of hiphop after 1992 - maybe lack of testosterone

Rhymes with Suggest Ban.

Hahahhah omg PWNED

Also I was surprised in the end how absolutely boring as hell The Residents were.

Beatles, Dylan, Van Morrison, Bjork, Kate Bush, Springsteen, Tom Waits, Elvis Costello etc etc. Not exactly losing any sleep about not liking them either. Suggest banning myself.

Joy Division, New Order, Prince - though I like some songs of each, just don't get them as so called geniuses.
Lil Wayne, Kanye West, T-Pain and all those Auto-Tune rappers.

After years of trying now and then, I'm starting to adore Can. I've long loved Kraftwerk, Neu!, Faust, etc, so it was pretty mysterious. Tago Mago did it, "Oh Yeah" specifically unlocking the door.

You Can fence-sitters are a fucking bafflement.

Why?

that is just drunken subjectivity.

most late 00s House i guess

Can and, in fact, Krautrock generally, just not happening for me, and, again I feel I'm missing the party somehow: Julian Cope loves this stuff, I've seen the current Faust line-up on three occasions, and been bowled over every time, but the records . . nope.

Most of that Japanese stuff Cope also likes

Pretty much any grime album. I like grime when it doesn't suck but it nearly always does for some reason.

It warms my heart that people come around to Can, however slowly. I've told the story elsewhere, but Ege Bamyasi sat on my CD shelf for some years before I finally had the "Ah Hah!" moment.

Stereolab

TVOTR and Akon/Family

Akon Family, hahaha