Most overrated band ever?

Kula Shaker
The Vines
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Hall & Oates
Death In Vegas

Deep Purple
Dilated Peoples
Chemical Brothers

- I'm in a frenzy here!!!

I would like to add Supergrass (I do like I Should Coco BTW, but their still overrated), Pearl Jam and Red Hot Chili Peppers.

1. James Brown
2. Public Enemy
3. Sex Pistols
4. Led Zeppelin
5. Aretha Franklin

Nine-Inch Nails deserve a mention to. As do lots of other people.

Most overrated early rock'n'roll star: Roy Orbison. Okay I'll stop.

Bite me, Chuck! I'm going to see them in May!!!! =)

White Stripes are definitely terribly overrated, but the certainly need several more years of being overrated for being the most overrated band ever.

I guess, in ten years, The White Stripes are forgotten, and as such, nobody will see them as overrated anymore.

And yeah, Beach Boys too. I mean, they were good, but come on...

Now we're talking.

How about Mozart, while we're knocking people?

dog latin=OTM

Smiths
Stone Roses
Radiohead
U2

Vincent Van GAGH?!!!

I'd like to second Jay Z, and throw in all electroclash.

THE TEN MOST OVERRATED BANDS/ARTISTS OF ALL TIME
(or "Music that everyone likes except me"):

1. Sonic Youth
2. PJ Harvey
3. The Smiths
4. Nirvana
5. Liz Phair
6. Dr. Dre
7. The Velvet Underground
8. 2Pac
9. Jefferson Airplane
10. The Vines

The Streets
The Strokes
The Vines
Nick Cave
Will Oldham

I humbly beg to differ.

Overrated metal bands...Opeth, the Scorpions and Celtic Frost come to mind. Arcturus too, probably.

Strange. I always thought the only people who hated the Beatles were people born before 1930 who believe that rock music is from the devil hisself, and those folk who don't go for pop music at all like that wanker Steve Albini and Dr. Dre and whatnot.

Most overrated blues singer: BB King (or Clapton, if you must)

Pantera and Korn are hardly "universally ridiculed" OUTSIDE of metal circles (or inside many metal circles, as far as I can see, though I guess not ones that count as metal enough you.) Slayer are a one-joke novelty-shtick band who inspired a one-joke novelty-shtick genre where playing loud tuneless noise busllshit that pretends to be scary, fronted by people throwing up instead of singing, serves as a substitute for actually rocking. That they've influenced a ridiculous amount of worthless music over the years makes them MORE overrated, not less. As does the fact that me listing them bothers you so much.

Fully agree. Although there were Beatles moments ("Helter Skelter", "Come Together") that were still heavily overrated.

Aren't you confused with Venom?

*my book has less interesting comments on Amazon.com though.

siegbran, and i thought you loved metal, okay, scorpions were crap - but Opeth?!!!!! Celtic Frost?! ARCTURUS?!!! You have greatly upset me! You may scoff at it but "The Sham Mirrors" is my favourite metal album ever, Celtic Frost did tons of classic stuff (and we'll forgive them THAT album), and Opeth have influenced so many great bands and have a larger scope for epic metal than any others i care to mention.

I can understand not listing The Beatles as a favorite band -- they are pretty played, after all, and maybe you don't pull out their records that much anymore. But I can see nothing useful in actively disliking them. They are good not as a matter of opinion, but empirically, the way ice water is good, the way sunshine is good, the way cinnamon is good. Not liking the Beatles is a perversity.

OTM

dre doesnt 'go for pop music'?!!??!!???

overrated? are they really that rated to reach a level of being overrated? I don't think so.

oh, and

eat my fuc

I personally vote Sex Pistols though.

(Some scary sounds, a few guest vocalists, here comes the tabla, yawn..........)

Celtic Frost: I love most of their albums, however the huge credit the band gets for the experimentation on "To Mega Therion" and "Into The Pandemonium" is a bit odd considering that the results were very much hit-and-miss.

Opeth: it's 1975 all over again: critics are lost for words to praise meandering, completely irrelevant prog rock with half-assed metal riffs and boring vocals. Kitsch.

Arcturus: Again, it's 1975 but this time, a superband where members of (formerly) respectable bands collaborate to play pretentious psychedelic/experimental rock/metal. Often it's actually rather great (La Masquerade Infernale in particular, but I feel that The Sham Mirrors is a bit lifeless and "safe"), which is why I'm hesitant to call them extremely overrated. But the amount of respect the band gets from critics is completely out of proportion. If Arcturus was a new band without the big names, they would hardly get noticed.

Well, when Cobain's drug-addled scribblings are turned into a glossy, hardcover, coffee-table tome, I think we can safely say things have gotten out of hand.

Nirvana are **SORELY** overrated.

In the US, definitely Nine Inch Nails - plain embarrassing.

1. Dodgy
2. Supernaturals
3. Travis
4. Ocean Colour Scene
5. Kula Shaker

Dude that's like saying uh City High are overrated or something.

oops - but jesus christ on a bike, that's hilarious!

Wannadies were great, but the greatest Swedish 90s Powerpop band was Merrymakers.

However, not in any way would I be able to remove the band who made the wonderful "Smile" and "When Love Has Passed Away" singles from my list of underrated bands. Not until "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" gets its deserved place in most of those Best albums of all time lists.

Horrible.

hahahaha, joy division (not new order)!

But yeah, Opeth ain't really all that but pulling the 'prog = zzzz' card seems like a bit of an easy way out. Do you think the songs meander too much maybe? And Opeth do seem more metal than prog anyway, its not like they're Dream Theater or something.

Also, I think listening to metal in my formulative years is what made me not give a damn about vocals for the most part... so what makes Opeth's vocals any more boring than other standard death metal grunters? I'm genuinely curious because, like I said, vocals are the last thing I listen to in 'extreme' metal for a good 90% of my records.

I agree, and yes too on the vocals. As for Arcturus, I don't care much for any of the affiliated bands (Borknagar, Ulver, Mayhem (?)) but I believe that The Sham Mirrors is one of the most mature pieces of Scandinavian Metal I've ever heard. Sure, it's kinda proggy and pompous, but then all Metal has these elements. You don't listen to Black Metal because you want to hear kitchin-sink accounts of boring relationships that never worked do you? Metal has always been about goblins, witches, dragons and swords - oh and Satan too. So of course it's gonna be overblown, which albums like La Masquerade and Sham Mirrors do to wonderful effect. "For To End Yet Again" is my favourite rock song period.

How so?

True, but was that intentional?

How would I know? And why would that matter, anyway?

(Actually, I suspsect they DID have a sense of humor on purpose -- I mean, they covered a Wall of Voodoo song, for crissakes. And dressed glam-rock on an LP with a song called "Roses Without Thorns" on it!)

dragons gnomes&goblins are all prog specific!

Hard rock + prog rock = heavy metal.

(And if there's no prog element -- like in lotsa Southern boogie or punk or hair-metal, for instance -- it's not "real" metal. Though I guess some of those people even make a non-prog exception for AC/DC.)

(I mean, Sabbath/Zep/Purple/Maiden has PLENTY of prog in it, y'know?)

Heh, good call Alex! Dio was even in a band called Elf(!!!) that sounds nothing like prog. More of a broadway musical sound, believe it or not.

I think it's my job around here to pop up way too late and ask: what significant scrap of respect has recent electro gotten from either music critics or the general public outside of France, Germany, and the Low Countries?

But Broadway musical sounds ARE like prog!

Anyway, genres =/= bands.

Maybe if styx are the realest prog band.

Regarding the Beatles, I'd go so far as to say they have many UNDERrated moments. I mean, you hear the same 30 hits on classic rock radio, but each of their albums has tracks that still sound fresh to me. I can still listen to the lesser-known cuts on _Rubber Soul_ ("You Won't See Me," "Think For Yourself," etc.) and hear new things in them.

My problem with Opeth is that it's like BAD prog. They've got lots and lots of great riffs and ideas, but once they're in the studio, everything seems to get patched together into a big mess. I recall I read somewhere in an Opeth review a while back that they rarely rehearse together. It shows - someone please find them a decent songwriter. They don't even have to leave Sweden, they just have to wander into one of those big forests and locate Shamaatae of Arckanum near some rock/tree/cave, there's a guy who can write long 'atmospheric' metal songs that actually go somewhere. And they really should stop using that "quiet acoustic part - suddenly heavy distortion and harsh vocals - and back to a completely different quiet bit" trick.

(I also always thought metal and prog were pretty closely aligned from the start. Chuck is pretty much OTM IMO. "Stairway to Heaven" and Houses Of the Holy have to pretty much be textbook examples of prog, if we're being honest. And Purple played with a fucking symphony and were playing classical solos as early as Yes was getting into that stuff. I totally see the Broadway thing too - check out "Harold the Barrel", maybe Genesis in general, from what I know of them anyway. In fact, when I played Nursery Cryme for my sister, her first comment on "The Musical Box" was "This sounds like a ballad from some musical". Was Queen like some sort of meta-fusion of all these strands? And where does Meat Loaf come into the picture? Prog-Springsteen? Drawing lines between all those 70s bands that played together and were on the same stations is probably self-defeating.)

then again, there are people out there who think that david beckham isn't overrated... excellent does not equal underrated, does it ?

(dies)

(dies again)

This goes for a lot of acts though. David Bowie, for instance, has had a lot of great album tracks that aren't particularly famous and weren't "hits" in any way.

The Beatles are definitely overrated!

I'd prefer not to have people telling us what we should and shouldn't enjoy.

"Not liking the Beatles is a perversity."

righhhtttt.

Who overrates Christian Death, Rozz Williams's little Livejournal death cult?

Because those same men, when they were in their late twenties, made some of the GREATEST RECORDS EVER.

But who was more blatantly commercial than the Beatles?

For starters...who cares what John Lennon thought? Well, as the guy who's probably ILx's biggest Beatle fan, I do, sure...but what I mean whatever John Lennon might've thought of the Beatles circa '70 isn't necessarily the last word on the subject. Intentional fallacy and all.

IIRC, John felt the rot set in when they became incapable of making meaningful attempts at playing live. Treasuring the live moment over the studio moment is pretty typical of Lennon's occasional bursts of fairly reactionary aesthetic statements in the seventies: after spending the late sixties fucked up on pot, acid and herion, trying to completely obliterate his sense of self by masking and warping his sound (both voice and guitar) through studio "electronic watchamacallit," the seventies find him back into the opposite extreme and starts fetishizing the "live," the "direct," and ye olde time rock & roll. Evidence: Let It Be (yes '69 but still), Phil Spector productions and (crikey!) an album of oldies.

Other points: Rock & roll did not need saving in the early sixties; many of the Beatles' experiments were actually Paul's idea; there was plenty of innovative rock after (and before!) the Beatles that didn't necessarily follow after the Beatles' lead; Kid Rock will be fat old and happy in thirty years and more power to him.

I believe Mr. Hongro might take issue with that.

Michael Daddino,

I can see how you might perceive John Lennon's opinion of his own band to be somewhat biased (if I understand you correctly) but Lennon's untrammeled, unrepentant honesty is what, to me, makes him a fair exception to that rule. No, he wasn't the last word, but he did start the band. As far as innovations, I didn't deny McCartney, Harrison contributed their share, it's just that Lennon invented styles (drugs don't necessarily guarantee coherence in art by the way, i.e. "Tomorrow Never Knows" "She Said She Said") that had no discernable precedent. If I'm wrong, please cite an example.

True, Lennon turned his back somewhat on experimenting and began to re-explore the roots of his beloved rock-n-roll, but I'd say it's a fair bet that, had he lived, he would've broken new musical ground without breaking a sweat. That's what genius is, isn't it?

Michael Dubsky,

The key word here is "blatantly." The Beatles sold millions of records and were happy to do so I'm sure. But they were a genuine creative unit unlike, say, N'Sync or the Spice Girls, who hearken back to the days of Motown-style control (creative and otherwise) of its signed acts. In fact, artists like Dylan and the Beatles inspired Motown legends like Steve Wonder and Marvin Gaye to break free and explore larger visions of the world than what Berry Gordy at the time felt would sell. Living in an age where American radio and record labels are controlled more than ever by corporations, I get nostalgic for the true mavericks.

isn't it possible to think someone is great yet also overrated?

1. The Rolling Stones
2. Red Hot Chili Pepper
3. U2
4. Paul Oakenfold
5. Run DMC
6. Nick Drake
7. The Beatles (don't get me wrong i love the beatles but come on)

thats all i can think of for now. i'll put more later

So... The Beatles?

No one in their right mind can list bands like The Beatles or The Stones as overrated. It's like what someone said earlier in the thread: you might as well say Mozart. It's ridiculous. They shouldn't even be discussed in a "like vs dislike" conversation. They're pioneers.

The Kinks are way underrated.

oh, I didn't make it to that photo of Jim Morrison either.

But isn't that more or less what this type of thread is about? It's not like the criteria for being "overrated" is any less subjective than for liking or disliking something.

Katatonia

If anything, anytime these guys got pretentious or were presented as such (Townshend's spiritual monologues or Daltrey airbrushed into a Centaur), they get plenty flak for it.

(Don't shoot the messenger on this one, I own no Who albums, but have viewed many debates between fans.)

and Elvis too.

Not that I'm necessarily Johnny Hendrixfan, but isn't "revolutionizing rock guitar" enough to warrant his current status?

And more:
Teenage Fanclub
Radiohead
The Pixies
Grandaddy
Pavement
TV On The Radio
My Bloody Valentine
Oasis
Talk Talk
The Rest Of The Grunge Bands

This was supposed to be a single band, wasn't it? :(

Oh, and Jimi Hendrix sucks ass. As a result he is bad. Nirvana revolutionized pop music (at least from an American point of view), but that doesn't make them any good.

Gimme a break.

Oh puh-LEEZE, they didn't even do that!

just the vines.
i hope they die soon.
slowly, and publicly.

I'm referring only to mainstream American pop music, you understand - not to pop music in general. Nevermind may smell of corporate calculuation, but its success led to "Alternative" bands being accepted and invited onto mainstream radio. So-called Punk Revivalists like Green Day or Blink-182 could never have achieved such mainstream acceptance had it not been for Nirvana's earlier commercial success. The same could be said for Post-Grunge artists like Bush and Matchbox 20, or even the movement-eschewing Smashing Pumpkins (we can talk about a kind of modernized prog-rock, maybe, but that ignores their grunge-laden beginnings).

Of course, some other band might have performed Nirvana's same function had Cobain's outfit proved less successful. But that doesn't make Nirvana any less influential or historically important.

(Or maybe Sally Kentwaite has returned ;) )

Most underrated band the most people mistakenly label an overrated band: The Strokes. The Darkness rule too.

Most overrated album by a band who also made one of the most underrated albums (Isn't Anything): Loveless.

Most underrated band: Sportsguitar.

Most underrated (unknown) rapper: Height.

Stones haters: I think it's past your bedtime.

And who overrates the Dandy Warhols? much less Limp Bizkit or Good Charlotte.

Other nominations: Howlin' Wolf, Beegees, Brian Eno.

For what, underrated or overrated?

Also, Odessa is grebt.

Oh, there's so many...

But my #1 overrated vote goes to Neutral Milk Hotel. I tried listening to this album (I can't remember the title, but it's the one everyone was pissing their pants over and Magnet named the best album of the 90's) again recently and I just don't get it. Waaaaaaaaay overrated...

But here are some bands that I think are overrated: Pavement and the Strokes.

I like kicking them out of the canon, it has a satisfying exclusionary feel to it, like keeping someone you don't like out of your club.

michael jackson (as mentioned elsewhere on this thread)

I agree, I don't get Michael Jackson at all, he makes my genitals shrink. I can't believe some people let their children listen to this pervert and his weak music.

All of them

michael jackson

fuck up.

paedo beast; made two classic albums.

lol

seriously, every time i've asked people what they like so much about michael jackson i'm never swayed by the reasoning. they usually say something to the effect of "he's a good dancer". well for starters that has nothing to do with his music and secondly i really have no interest in men who dance well.

Jackson is not unlike Bowie. In popular media memory, larger than life characters, but listening to the recordings, only as good as their producers. Sometimes they had a streak with a innovative but populist producer, a lot of times they didn't. The artists themselves couldn't seem to tell the difference.

I admire MJ for the intensity and rhythmic precision of his best vocal performances. Overrated, maybe, but not "most overrated."

Arcade Fire

^^ agreed

dunno who the most overrated is, but Tapes 'n Tapes is the most underrated

what the angle here ? overrated by whom ? fans or critics ?

real talk, jeevves.

Kraftwerk

QOTSA

have to disagree with kraftwerk.

Metallica are overrated. I have digital cable, so I get to see all the great bands that filmed concerts from a few years ago. Iron Maiden for example really put on a better show than Metallica in the mid 2000's in a soccer stadium.

so there you go. That is your winner.

what a great thread that address some immediate concerns of mine

― max

it does offer a handy compendium of SBs

I'm sure plenty will disagree, but Sonic Youth seems ridiculously overrated to me. Their album E.V.O.L is good and some songs like 'Sunday Morning' are nice, but are they really worthy of all the indie fan-boy/girl love? Umm, no. They're not.

'Sunday' that is...don't know why I'm thinking of V.U

Michael Jackson. Absolutely.

Ha, I see I've already answered this..

Not a band, but JAY-Z. I mean, why do people care about this marginally talented buffoon?

Kula Shaker

Don't you have to be rated before you can be overrated?

Muse!

i do hate muse with undying scorn, so them too, yes.

Impressive analysis there

Tool

Don't you have to be rated before you can be overrated?

Did anyone ever like Kula Shaker? I remember them meeting almost universal scorn.

Never has it been clearer that this is Pavement than right now.

http://matusiak.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/wonder_woman.jpg

don't pick on katy perry nv

SNM is katy perry? awes

She's about as challopian as I expected tbh

i dunno if i'd agree that Michael Jackson was overrated. a greatest hits comp would be enough for ME, but he wasn't really aimed for ME as a fan. i'm gonna follow the "millions of elvis fans" logic here in MJ's case, though -- obviously SOMEONE loved his work.

i'd go for elvis costello right now -- he's been pretty useless since the mid/late 80s.

same goes w/ Metallica -- as they exist RIGHT NOW, massively fucking overrated. but those of us who grew up in the 80s/early 90s remember when they were anything BUT overrated ... it's more a matter of their genre becoming extinct and them turning into the sort of metal buttrock that they were NOT supposed to be that makes them overrated as of now.

Sorry Muse, but you got one more.
Bombastic shite

red hot chili peppers.
woeful

THE BEATLES

the velvet underground, i mean, what's that all about? just sounds like some ppl making some noise w/ some instruments, news at 10 my NEPHEW can do that and he's 4

zzzzzzzzz

1. Sonic Youth
2. PJ Harvey
3. The Smiths
4. Nirvana
5. Liz Phair
6. Dr. Dre
7. The Velvet Underground
8. 2Pac
9. Jefferson Airplane
10. The Vines

― Evan (Evan), Tuesday, 15 April 2003 20:24 (7 years ago)

rip 2003

Naaw tho I think thats a pretty good list from 2003. Just because a band is good doesn't mean they aren't also horribly overrated. Nirvana and Sonic Youth are prime examples, IMO.

the vines were rated, once, by some people

nirvana and sonic youth are both ≈ correctly rated

It's possible that someone who didn't grow up with the Michael Jackson phenomenon in the '80s can't quite relate to how massive a star he was. I remember looking out at recess in 4th grade and seeing nearly every kid on the lot wearing either the red or black version of his Beat It jacket (I had the red one). He was way beyond a few hot singles or specific musical performances.

Kings of Leon, definitely. When I listen to 'Use Somebody' I fail to understand how something which sounds so incomplete can be so popular. It sounds as if the band didn't really care what it sounded like, musically or lyrically. It's the musical equivalent of a shrug. Yet people bought it by the bucket-load.

I can understand completely why Sex on Fire did so well. It's catchy and kind of superficially epic.

My wife would say the Beatles, but she sings along to them EVERY TIME they come up on my iPod.

SOF's not epic! A song needs to flow to be epic. Sex on Fire just kind of stutters and splutters along to its sub-Status Quo backing.

A song needs to flow to be epic

Where does it say this? Two different things IMO.

Anyway, note I said superficially epic. Like the first time I heard it and wasn't paying much attention I found it pretty rousing (I may have been drunk), but I soon realised it's a thin song.

Radiohead.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, April 15, 2003 5:21 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark

otm, but i don't mind ok computer and a few other bits and pieces. the hype and popularity always kinda baffled me though. normal, laddish kinda guys in sixth form thinking "kid a" was mad deep sort of took me by surprise.

re: kings of leon... they're not exactly critical darlings though, are they? how are we defining "overrated"?

Fleetwood mac
Nirvana
Beach Boys...!!!!!!

― SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Tuesday, April 15, 2003 6:08 PM (7 years ago) Bookmark

was this guy in training for the olympics of WRONG or something?

aren't kol ssb-indie? i've only knowlingly heard that track with the racist video

yeah, kings are totes huge with the ssb crew. foo fighters seem to be a favourite as well, but i kinda like their first couple of albums for nostalgic reasons. "omg, drummer from nirvana started new band and it's pretty good!"

@Discographies

Foo Fighters: 1-6 "My old position was eliminated and I am seeking employment. I have a strong knowledge of current trends in my industry."

1:20 PM Oct 1st, 2010 via web
Retweeted by 100+ people

^^ otm

oasis

Oasis, because the Brothers "knew" they were soooo special. They were so risible.

The Doors, obv. Drab and self-important and dull dull dull. Bring on that organ solo!

Anything involving Eric Burdon.

Pink Floyd.
Neutral Milk Hotel.

neyutral milk hotel
mogwai
m83

problem w/ these lists is that i honestly can't defend my decisions on any of these. i just find all of the above formulaic and self-wanky.

Agree with M83 and Mogwai too. Both dull and predictable.

I won't argue wrt to definitions of "dull", but I think the last couple albums and EPs have proven that Mogwai are anything but "predictable".

Anything involving Eric Burdon.

― Carlos Pollomar (WmC), Friday, 16 March 2012 03:54 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5d/AnimalsTwainShallMeet.jpg/220px-AnimalsTwainShallMeet.jpg

Except for this maybe?

The Animals were great! They deserve some more overrating.

Mogwai for me, especially considering the way a lot of the press kissed their arses in the late nineties I would buy their records and have a general 'meh, is this really it?' moment which grew into puzzlement and annoyance the more I was exposed to their bullshit wide-boy arrogance.

i don't think anyone really cares about mogwai anymore, do they? i mean if they were overrated they were ovverated in the 90's. some people are overrated forever.

xp where do you get arrogance from? they've always seemed like pretty regular down-to-earth guys to me, if not actually 'umble. certainly nothing of the oasis about them.

I care about Mogwai, I think I actually prefer the stuff they are doing now to much of their 90s material. Thier last album and the 20-minute EP that came with it are among the best stuff they've done.

Eminem.

XP - standing behind 'Blur are Shite - Mogwai' T-shirts is arrogant no?

hmm. youthful exuberance?

should they have read 'Blur are shite - Mogwai too'?

yeah i just mean in the 90's they were hyped/written about a lot/a thing, and now they aren't. not talking about the quality of their music really. i think they were kinda overrated in the 90's. i never hear about them now.

yeah, you really have to seek out stuff about them these days. i kind of feel like, as usual, this thread turned into people naming the pet bands they hate instead of really answering the question.

and i think The Animals - not eric with war or solo - are about where they should be in the scheme of 60's/invasion/etc. bands. beloved by old people. written about favorably for their early stuff. seen as a big influence on other bands at the time. i don't know if anyone has ever overrated eric his own self, but i don't live in the u.k. so maybe you hear about how great he is over there all the time. i dunno.

nah, eric doesn't get much a look in over here, either

my challops/trolling post would be The Band. cuz i STILL hear a lot about them and they are LEGEND and i'm not a big fan and there are like a zillion country bands/artists and country/rural rock artists that were amazing that i never ever read anything about or who are practically forgotten. people who i like more, basically.

i mean millions of rock fans know who The Band are, but a lot of them don't know who Allen Toussaint is and all the amazing stuff he has done/had a hand in. but you could say that about a lot of people. that's life.

Ha, I actually first heard of Allen Toussaint because of the horn arrangements he did on the Band's Rock of Ages.

i'll give you that lee dorsey's version of holy cow is prob better than the band's version, but richard manuel rules them all

I've not heard the last two Mogwai albums, to be fair - I've bought pretty much everything previous but just gave up paying attention. How are the recent two less predictable? (I do feel they often do very linear things, and without the... compelling repetition that some of their compatriots can have, if that makes sense.)

Well their 2008 album was a little more "metal" than they'd been before, and I guess I should point more towards their most recent EP which was filled with really gentle, piano-driven pieces. I'm not saying these guys don't have a formula, they totally do, but it's felt like they've been trying to find new ground lately, even if the results aren't always great.

Kraftwerk. I love love love Neu!, Can, Faust...but the robot boys have just never done it for me

I refer you to the 'live' set on the 'long youtubes' thread.

I was more about the first three or four albums (depends on how you count them), but.

similarly to Scott's feelings about 'The Band', I like The Grateful Dead and all, but to me, they don't seem to be this mind bending experience that they're painted as.

James Blake.

Nicholas Jaar.

Maybe I'm getting too old or maybe they are both just not very exciting. For me they both released the two most overrated albums of last year. Just measly little talents who must have a lot of incriminating photos to get the leg up they have.

Disclaimer: I am a bit of grumpy middle aged git, so I could be wrong :)

All music is overrated, its just sounds, there's nothing to see here....

oh and The Clash for me. i like the hits and i like mick and i like paul's style, but, man, they are the 2nd coming to a whole lotta people and i guess i never felt that way. its just a personal thing really. i know they inspired a lot of folks to do stuff. its all good. i'm just way more inspired by rudimentary peni.

Eminem.
― I Fucked Up (jer.fairall), Friday, March 16, 2012 10:41 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

At his peak, absolutely. I like some of his songs just fine, but he would still definitely get my vote for most overrated 2000-2009.

i rated him really high at the time, or the early days anyway

but yeah, his music is not aging well

I hadn't listened to any Mogwai albums since like 2003 and I listened to the latest one and it was pretty much exactly what I expected a new Mogwai album to sound like.

They were quite good live in the late 90s, in a "playing very loud" sort of way.

I kind of think the Clash are both overrated and underrated. A lot of people seem to really hate them now, including people who seem to love a lot of music that's quite similar to the Clash.

Like for example... I dunno why I end up referencing SPIN so much, but "The Real Slim Shady" as the #1 song of 2000 and "Cleaning Out My Closet" as the #1 for 2002 is kind of a huge stretch...

I'm with Scott. Its The Band. They were one of the best backup bands in the world and should have stayed that way.

Has to be the three that are never referred to without the additional expletive in the Snail household; that is...

Groove Sodding Armada
The Fucking Pixies
and
My Bloody Valentine

I can definitely see the Band as overrated when their whole discography -- patchy albums far outnumbering great ones -- is taken into account. And the fact that they made not-bad records without Robbie Robertson, and he only made irredeemably shitty records without them, speaks volumes. But those first two albums and Rock of Ages are beyond unfuckwithable.

i'm listening to the dave clark five right now and man oh man NOBODY listens to this band in the u.s. except for people who subscribe to ugly things magazine and they were so great.

sorry, now i'm going underrated...

but its weird they were huge in the 60's and little girls and boys bought their 45s but they just never got the rehab treatment like i dunno the monkees or whoever. even my beloved paul revere & the raiders have received a little more critical love over the last ten years or so.

i have this pretty hard to find u.s. epic comp of dc5 stuff and its the only u.s. release where you can hear true stereo mixes of a lot of songs and it has become like holy ground for me. you just wouldn't believe how amazing it sounds. wish you could all come over to hear it. also completely generic looking. if you are in a record store and see a copy, scoop it up. you won't regret it. looks like any old best-of comp and most people would sell it accordingly, but online it goes for 50 to 100 bucks.

http://www.popsike.com/DAVE-CLARK-FIVEULTRA-RARE71-TRUE-STEREO-2LP-ANTHOLOGY/350294021341.html

http://78.46.76.238/pix/20091228/350297971991.jpg

great cover.

peter frampton with this bar band in the commercials

oh and up above someone said the dead and i can dig it (the sentiment i can dig though i'm a fan), but i STILL feel that the songs are still underrated by a lot of people. they - mostly garcia/hunter - wrote some of the best american songs in any genre of the last 40 years or so. inmyveryhumbleopinion.

The Clash always flirted with being ridiculous given Bernie Rhodes's pseudo-revolutionary shtick and then their "Last Gang in Town" nonsense, but now I think all the earnestness endearing. Oddly enough, what turned me off the Clash was "Sandinista." I hated everything about it from the title to the music's sloppiness and overindulgence. It's now my favorite Clash album. Go figure...

i'm such a fan of "lesser" post-clash punk like sham and the upstarts and on and on that the clash often seem drab to me. but i do LOVE the hits a ton. i don't think i actually own a clash album - they are too easy to sell - but i would definitely keep a greatest hits cd if i saw one for a dollar. i get my clashness from oi! basically. 4skins 4ever.

i ADORE The Business for instance. yet most Clash fans have probably never heard them.

Whoa, that DC5 set looks great.

oh tim i wish you could come over and hear it. it sounds like heaven. seriously, a brit invasion audiophile's dream. i've played it for people at the store who had no interest in DC5 and their jaws dropped to floor level. it's friggin' killer. whoever put it together was some kinda genius.

Reading a Steve Hoffman forum thread about it and someone says those stereo mixes are from 1968. Early stuff only issued in mono in the U.K., mono and fake stereo here.

yeah i have no idea how they came about. but they sound heavenly. i mean i have heard great u.k. press DC5 and even some decent u.s. mono versions, but the sound on this set is in a league of its own. its very loud and very clear and every element/instrument sounds stunning.

i didn't think early stuff would have been recorded in stereo at all. but there is stuff that doesn't sound "fake" at all. i dunno, its just a great recording. maybe there are some individual things that are actual stereo?

come on people, nobody gives a shit about the grateful dead anymore. back in the 60s and 70s when their smelly hippie fans were still alive, maybe.

Did this thing make it to CD in stereo?

xpost

The guy on the forum was saying they recorded on four-track from the beginning. They didn't do stereo mixes early on but it was possible to do them and I guess the mixes on that comp were done a little later. It's all real stereo.

xxpost scott otm about DC5. My friend's Dad used to listen to them in the car all the time on road trips, and I grew up loving them, but no-one ever gives them the kinda love they deserved. So many hits!! And even the non-hits are great. Love them.

the thing is there is really no reason for this comp to sound as good as it does. most u.s. epic DC5 stuff sounds really bad. not just the fake stereo releases, but even the mono ones in comparison to the u.k. releases. in fairness, the u.s. epic 45s sound good for the most part. those are all mono and probably direct copies of the u.k. singles. whoever put the comp together REALLY took their time and wanted this stuff to sound great. so, hats off to them! and, typically, there is absolutely no information on the comp itself.

I don't think they're on CD. There's also a UK LP called The Best of the Dave Clark Five that's those stereo mixes from 1978 but it's a single album. (I'm reading all about it! Apparently, DC5 was not in print AT ALL for a long time until a 2008 29 track comp only available as a download. Mono mixes.)

yeah, for real, DC5 were prolific for years and its all fun or good or great!

there are some youtube rips from that comp. some of them sound pretty good as far as youtube goes. a lot of them say *true stereo* in their titles.

can you link one, scott?

From that forum:

The stereo mixes were done in 1968 by Adrian Kerridge and John Macksworth, both the original engineers on the DC5 recordings. The mixes were made from the four-track multi-tracks, and approved by Dave Clark, who subsequently made the stereo mixes unavailable after the lease to EMI ran out in the 1980s.

this for instance on that comp is just so sublime! every element, the horns, the piano, everything is all perfectly placed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov2bfiyZRy8&feature=related

this is what i would play for people in the store. youtube, sadly, doesn't do it a bit of justice, but you can get the idea. the bass is HUUUUUGE on vinyl. everything about it is huge, but also this real depth and clarity to the sound. kills me every time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa-CjVb9m1c

that track is so beautiful to me. sax + organ + piano + guitar + vocals + kickass drums + deep bass!!, man, they had a lot going on and it just swings like hell!

it's just thrilling rock & roll. pure & simple.

YES! that is fantastic. I've always loved how they're just a *little* bit rough around the edges. Not Sonics ragged but just slightly outta control.

In the context of the British Invasion, DC5 records definitely stuck out as having a much bigger sound than any of their contemporaries' records (except for the Kinks and, later, the Who).

yep

Wow!! I never knew the DC5 were so damn good. This is what I always hoped The Action sounded like, wild and slightly out-of control RnB tinged rock and roll.

DC5 are the shit

There was a great Saturday afternoon Chicago radio show in the 80s called "Rock 'n' Roll Roots" and one day they played all non-Beatles/Stones/Kinks British Invasion stuff. I hadn't heard most of these bands, and a lot of it was meh -- Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers -- but man, once the DC5 came on, it was like they were from a different universe. A universe that rocked.

the brits had the bass going on in the 60s. they KILLED the bass sound. in the u.s. you had jazz and r&b with fat bass - and amazingly recorded bass - but in rock it was often a non-entity. i don't know why. listening to brit freakbeat and psych last week - like the god-like band The Attack - and damn its just so powerful. definitely english drum 'n' bass music i can fully support.

The Action were super disappointing for me. A mod band? Great, I love the Who and the Small Faces! Produced by George Martin? Sign me up! But their sound was so thin and restrained.

xp

if The Who had been an American band they would have totally toned down that unholy rhythm section. i have no doubt about that. would have been all roger the dodger and some twangy guitar up front.

A lot of the Chess groups -- Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry -- were still using acoustic bassists, and it really wasn't until James Jamerson plugged directly into the board at Motown (and, nearly simultaneously, when Booker T and the MGs recorded "Green Onions") that bass guitar was heard really prominently on US rock records.

xp

thoughts/theories on why that is? ie US/Britisher no bass/bass?

Haha, yeah, totally. It's not insignificant that the producer of their early records, Shel Talmy, was American -- he specifically set out to find an English group that could bring it in a way other English groups hadn't up to that point. (He also produced the Kinks up through Face To Face, but was less impressed with their live sound)

xp

a lot of it was meh -- Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers -- but man, once the DC5 came on, it was like they were from a different universe.

I like Gerry and the Pacemakers quite a bit. They were a legit Merseybeat band and probably one of the best. Stuff like "Here's Hoping," "It's Gonna Be Alright" - really good.

The Attack are the mod band everyone needs everything by. everything they did was amazing.

thoughts/theories on why that is? ie US/Britisher no bass/bass?

It's funny, because the Beatles thought US records had MASSIVE bass, and compared to the early Beatles records, they did. But so did DC5 records. EMI in Britain supposedly had very strict rules about bass frequencies on their records, which is why so many early Beatles records sound small. But really, it was Motown and Stax leading the way, with British bands trying for that hugeness of sound and, in the case of the DC5/Kinks/Who, achieving it.

Ironically, the Stones recorded in US studios -- Chess and Gold Star -- hoping for that BIG US SOUND, but still sounded tiny.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAtAwjFk9Z4&feature=related

The arrangement on this!!

I don't know if the Action are well enough known to be over rated, but other than "Shadows and Reflections" they do little for me. Supposedly they were the "mod" band, I guess their live energy never translated to vinyl. Maybe it would have been different if their producer had been Shel Talmy instead of George Martin.

maybe its because in the u.s. it was such a priority to have pop hits and the voice was all important? like, rock was a fad and who cares about the actual sound of the music, just get a catchy tune and have a lead singer who could sell it. that's one theory anyway. or maybe british producers and engineers just REALLY liked the electic bass! lots of british invasion stuff - other than stones and beatles - and british psych stuff have really prominent bass sounds and really well-recorded rock bass. badass bass! thick, chunky, proto-metal bass even.

compared to the early Beatles records, they did

I always thought the bass sounded good on Please Please Me. Used to have a Parlophone stereo copy.

Byrds had good bass sound, yeah? "Eight Miles High," Younger Than Yesterday.

badass bass! thick, chunky, proto-metal bass even.

The first person to ever play through a (massive, theretofore-unheard-of 100 watts) Marshall amplifier was John Entwistle. So, huge bass was on the agenda.

Although, ha, I just put it on and you're right, it certainly doesn't sound like the Attack!

I always thought the bass sounded good on Please Please Me. Used to have a Parlophone stereo copy.

The mono PPM definitely sounds good, decent bass. Especially "Twist & Shout." But after that, it was all hi-hat shhhh and no bass for about a year or so.

I think I remember seeing a picture of the Attack and they had Marshalls!

one exception being the raiders on this track. sadly, youtube makes it almost unlistenable, but on record its one of the heaviest bass sounds until black sabbath debut:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uF6PgNHwzc

could actually be the saddest youtube upload of an amazing song that i've ever heard.

The Attack...jesus, what a band. almost as genius as Small Faces if you ask me. But they were one of many. The Creation being another. and, yeah, the byrds had it sometimes, but the brit bands featured the bass as a big part of their sound in a way that american bands never did.

Early Who, Creation, Small Faces...all engineered by Glyn Johns. Dude knew what he was doing.

from brit invasion to blues rock to early u.k. doom a la sabbath to early 70's freakout rock a la groundhogs to glam to art rock to prog to punk to post-punk the bass is large and in charge and on a whole 'nother level. no comparison or competition really. no entwistle or even a jah wobble to be found here. or a peter hook even! you have to go to jamaica to beat them. or be ron carter. or mingus.

post-punk bands alone! jeez louise. the bass is king of the castle. and its not only loud but impossibly and perfectly recorded. don't know why americans are so tinny. white americans anyway. god bless the great state of florida and its bass-loving denizens.

I find the evolution of it really fascinating. And I honestly hadn't given a lot of thought to the recording studio having the influence; before, I'd only ever thought of it in terms of the band and the musicians.

not for nothing is england completely in love with big booming "northern" soul music. the drum & bass of its day.

I find the evolution of it really fascinating. And I honestly hadn't given a lot of thought to the recording studio having the influence; before, I'd only ever thought of it in terms of the band and the musicians.

I think in the case of Motown it was, "We can't let this genius musician get lost in the mix the way his contemporaries are." iirc, when Motown was 3- or 4-track, James Jamerson had a bass track all to himself. The producers knew that the success of the song -- on every level -- was dependent on what Jamerson was doing.

motown can never be overrated enough. i beg and implore anyone with ears to get themselves real motown vinyl and hear the wonder of that sound in all its glory. every warhorse that you never thought you needed to hear again will become a revelation.

otm

Led Zep shouldn't have been in my list up there. Replace them with Mötörhead.

Orbital Joy Division Bowie

Nicholas Jaar (if we're talking purely ILX)

Nicholas Jaar (if we're talking purely ILX)

Absofuckinglutely.

mmm....let me see..

Top-hated Bishop stole the show at fete.

http://i48.tinypic.com/2akbtvp.jpg

oh what whoops

http://i47.tinypic.com/a9rbs4.png