Yuck - are they good or do they suck? (also, how old are you?)

I've recently been introduced to Yuck and I was pleasantly surprised such that I may well catch them at Primavera.

I am old enough to know better though.

they suck and i hate the fat fuck with the stupid hair and i am old enough to often enjoy lol 90s revivalism

pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock

xpost I've voted "good", although I'm quite aware and willing to forgive most of their many flaws.

That said, at 30, and having got into alternative music in '94, I feel like most of the music they're referencing is just a tinsy weensy bit before my time. I don't really know much about their influences beyond Sonic Youth/early Pumpkins/MBV. Maybe I'd be of a different opinion if I actually owned a Sugar or Lemonheads album.

I might see them at Primavera too though!

is 'Copper Water' a euphemism for having the shits y/n

they're ok. i'm 31

Copper Water? I meant Copper Blue. Do excuse me.

Never heard of 'em until just now. Checked out three videos on YouTube. Didn't make it all the way through any of 'em. They're boring. I'm 39.

this song makes me feel like i'm swimming laps in the english channel cause every time i'd get to france they'd be like passport please and i'd be like i ain't got no passport so they'd send me back. then when i got back to england i'd forget why i had to go back and i'd just go back to france again. i could tell i was getting close to france cause there were always tons of baguettes floating around. i would eat these salty baguette for energy. i picked one up and it was like yo do not eat me...
ultramincubed 2 months ago 15

42. Seems ok. I keep reading their name as "Fuck" (who were probably a better 90's indie group). I can't imagine why they'd be controversial. They seem like a Merge band.

That said, at 30, and having got into alternative music in '94, I feel like most of the music they're referencing is just a tinsy weensy bit before my time.

This is exactly how I feel, though I'm a couple years younger. But that teensy weensy bit can mean a lot. If you didn't grow up with a band it's hard to truly hate something that apes it.

i'm listening to 'rubber' and hearing some bits of 90s post-hardcore/emo stuff which is pleasant

its not bad, its not great, its pretty much mediocre. One thing i don't like about them is their faces.
http://listendammit.com/wp-content/themes/listendammit/images/yuck.jpg

Kind of sort of the same lineup as Fucked Up, right? One biggish sloppy looking guy, girl brown hair bangs, skinny white hipster guys on guitar. Maybe it's a thing.

I was good friends with the two guitarists growing up, so it's great to see them doing so well, and getting all this coverage! I reckon the album is good, if not really my thing..

i fuck w/ "get away" -- are they this year's version of male bonding? if so, i'm in

not sure why they were all like "let's pour vegetable oil on a naked chick for our video" tho

"pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock" is right, but i generally have trouble listening to stuff that is so absolutely immersed in the sound of a very specific other age. always a lingering uncanny valley kind of thing biting away at me.

oh yeah i'm 22

shit, "georgia" is awesom

the girl gets naked and washes a dog in one of their vids

10/10

more like "yuck!" to anyone not feeling this hooky indie rock!!

I'm 25 years old. I like that they're doing the 90s indie thing. Seems like there's not many bands doing this kind of stuff (although I could be wrong about this)

So good.

It seems like there's a wave of bands that are doing the 90's indie thing--Cymbals Eat Guitars, Yuck, Japandroids (?), and the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart has some serious Smashing Pumpkins overtones. Are there other groups I'm missing?

I saw them live last year sometime supporting hmm can't actually remember who but anyway, never heard any of their records but live they were alright if obviously derivative. Not awful anyway. I'm 34.

"pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock" is about right, but I'm 37, so this is mimicking my adolescence and I can't fix stably on it: sometimes it's yeah, what merdeyeux said about uncanny valley (& so get distracted by the ways in which the emulation is wrong – 'need more accurate hairdos' - but then re-realise to them that isn't the point), sometimes funny, also makes me drift off thinking about late 80s Peel, or the way British bands could be fuzzy and slack but would fail on eg solos (vs J. Mascis) or harnessed garage energy (vs Mudhoney), then I'll try to refocus and hear it on its own merits and it'll sound pleasant enough. Can't really vote, but I don't wish them ill.

this band is great and i am 19 years old AND don't know much about 90's indie rock

*rides bicycle off cliff, flies off into horizon*

I listened to their set from SXSW on NPR, and downloaded one of their tunes (Suicide Policeman, maybe?) from RCRDLBL, and really dug it. I'm 41.

i am older than time & i think these dudes are like a b-

I was old then and I am old now (47, since you FUCKING ASKED), and I like the album. These are good songs, who really cares what era they are referencing.

I'm 32. I'd say 'not bad' but I'm not in a good mood so I say they suck.

I'm older than Henry S. What I think (and what other people think) (about one song anyway) is here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2988

lol cajun dance party, very random

If they are 90s revivalists, I am sure they suck. The 90s are better best forgotten by everyone forever. The dark, dark, dark ages of music, where the only genres that provided any music of values were strictly revivalist genres based almost entirely upon styles and elements that existed before 1990.

look what geir brings to the table

I suppose that might be a Facebook group or something. "Let the 90s rest in peace - we don't need a 90s revival ever!" :)

I don't know what the fuck you people think 90's rock sounds like, but Yuck does not.

Who are these magical 90's bands Yuck is referencing? I don't hear it at all.

I believe they're right at the forefront of the 2011 hipster revival movement of 2011.

I don't know what the fuck you people think 90's rock sounds like, but Yuck does not.

I think even the Yuck members don't dare to deny the 90s influence.

I saw Yuck live twice, I like them fine
I like their live show in 2011 more than the live shows of some of their reference points in 2011
I am 31
And 90s revivalism, when it does hit full swing, will sound like Vengaboys

Except for most shoegaze, 90's rock rarely used that much vocal reverb. I like the record, but they sound like a modern band to me. If they're influences are mostly 90's, I don't see how that distinguishes them from 100s of other current new rock bands.

bad grammar is so 90s

they sound like an opening band

after i saw them live it really clicked. they slay.

they sound like the first Teenage Fanclub album, which sounds like 90's indie rock if anything ever did. and I like them although I feel a little weird about it.

I am 35.

Except for most shoegaze, 90's rock rarely used that much vocal reverb.

Vocal reverb = shitty, underproduced low-fi mid-to-late 80s indie. I guess the lack of exaggerated reverb is the reason why indie was probably the one genre that was better in the 90s than in the 80s.

they sound like the first Teenage Fanclub album

Strangely enough, at some point last night I listened to both "Get Away" and "Everybody's Fool."

this is alright but the name really fucks me right off

yucks you right off

yes

I think I get it now... when people say "90's sounding" they mean "straight-up rock."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGU60-6A6Xg

heard a song and it sounded fine, inoffensive. i wasn't around for the initial wave of influences but i see no case in which i wouldn't rather put on any one of, like, a dozen yo la tengo albums instead. so they aren't really good, nor do they suck. they are pointless

that girl is hella cute

rubber video is hella weird

they sound like an opening band

― Bleeqwot the Chef (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, March 22, 2011 8:28 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

"an" = "every"

Straight up rock, yes, but there is something very 90s about the compositions. I have been trying to figure out what that is. Setting someone up for a zing here. But seriously. Jangle and fuzz?

Who are these magical 90's bands Yuck is referencing? I don't hear it at all.

― billstevejim, Tuesday, March 22, 2011 9:08 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Despite the gender difference in vocalists, they remind me of Velocity Girl.

I am 41 and I like them, within their limitations. I think Mazes are taking similar influences and doing something more interesting with them.

lol indie

i like them a lot, though i kind of hate myself slightly for it, because they do sound a hell of a lot like a slew of bands i loved in my late teens. they have that hazy, happy/sad melody/noise thing that J Mascis could toss off in his sleep, and probably does, and they do it charmingly. is it enough? not sure.

they remind me a lot of seafood, who did something similar but had the misfortune to do it five or ten years before the cycle of affectionate early-90s US indie nostalgia cast all this with a patina of cool it had previously lacked. by coincidence, kevin from seafood now plays in male bonding, who i think are much better, and whose pleasure seem less smeared with the guilt of nostalgia - they feel more 'now', less indebted to an exact sound or moment from the past, in an intangible way.

I think that's right about Male Bonding, who feel less like a slavish recreation of something from the past, and more like they've filtered that past through their own personalities. That's what I like about Mazes, too.

Listening to Yuck I'm reminded of Edwyn Collins complaining that the C86 bands only listened to Orange Juice, not the bands Orange Juice listened to, thereby missing the point. While Yuck have obviously listened to Dinosaur Jr and the Fanclub, I'm less certain they've listened to hardcore and Neil Young and Sabbath and the Byrds and so on.

Listening to Yuck I'm reminded of Edwyn Collins complaining that the C86 bands only listened to Orange Juice, not the bands Orange Juice listened to, thereby missing the point. While Yuck have obviously listened to Dinosaur Jr and the Fanclub, I'm less certain they've listened to hardcore and Neil Young and Sabbath and the Byrds and so on.

Totally... Also, the Dinosaur Jr Yuck most evoke is their Warners-era stuff - like, the youtube above sounds so much like a specific song off Hand It Over or Without A Sound, and its driving me mad that i can't think which one. i really love those dinosaur jr albums, too, but i don't think i needed to hear another one, so much. whereas if a band were to materialise who tapped into the vibe of, say, you're living all over me - messily veering between sabbath riffs and neil young grifts and wah-driven psychedelia and scary-stoned-lou-tape-experiments - i'd be more excited: like, there's more potential to take those earlier ideas in new directions, where the sound Yuck are copping is kind of the finished article already.

but the yuck album's still quite charming.

i sort of want to see them live, but that youtube suggests they don't put on much of a show...

A charisma vaccuum live. Enjoyable, but not a show.

I really like the album. I'm 22.

i am 31, and this type of stuff is totally in my wheelhouse but these dudes seem pretty mediocre. feels like they're missing the "fun" element somehow.

^^^
By eliminating many of the more irksome tropes that people associated with [grunge/altrock stuff] during it's post-popularity years, they do miss some of its gutsiness.

The album's pretty enjoyable but it's such a period piece, a complete slavish recreation of a particular sound that was never that big in the UK in the first place. But then again people are willing to give a critical free pass to equally derivative italo-disco or minimal synth revivalism and I'm not sure there's that much difference.

But the band don't really have any personality that shines through, nothing you could attribute to them anyway. It's very much a "fun if you were there, meh if you weren't" kinda record.

I don't really know much about their influences beyond Sonic Youth/early Pumpkins/MBV. Maybe I'd be of a different opinion if I actually owned a Sugar or Lemonheads album.

Wouldn't say any of those influences held that strong, except maybe Sonic Youth. Not grandiose enough for Pumpkins/MBV, not pop enough or Sugar or the Lemonheads. It's more Pavement or Dinosaur Jr to these ears. Or a Graham Coxon solo record.

I'd add the Joy Formidable and Dinosaur Pile-Up to the list of bands reviving/inspired by this era. Although it feels weird that none of them are actually trying to sound like Nirvana. Maybe they're just too big and obvious a reference point?

joy formidable have some 90s guitar sounds but don't sound like a 90s pastiche at all to me, their songwriting is relatively adventurous

Not enjoying this much, they remind me of some of the lame UK bands that sprung up in Dinosaur jr's wake the first time round, like the Edsel Auctioneer or Midway Still or something.

joy formidable have some 90s guitar sounds but don't sound like a 90s pastiche at all to me, their songwriting is relatively adventurous

Hah, I think the opposite, their songwriting isn't that great but the guitars sound terrific.

the guitars do sound terrific! but it's the one aspect of the band that screams "1990s alternarock" to me

Live I figured Yuck as a mixture of Pavement/Dinosaur Jr and shoegaze

Yuck were all or part of Cajun Dance Party before, right? What is it with these kids that gets them so much instant hype? Are their parents in the music industry or something?

none of them are actually trying to sound like Nirvana

This is a really important point. Because if they did try to sound like Nirvana or Pearl Jam, they'd just be another Puddle Of Mudd or Silverchair.

Yuck were all or part of Cajun Dance Party before, right? What is it with these kids that gets them so much instant hype? Are their parents in the music industry or something?

― Matt DC, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 16:46 (1 minute ago) Bookmark

If you have to ask... ;-)

Because if they did try to sound like Nirvana or Pearl Jam, they'd just be another Puddle Of Mudd or Silverchair.

Well, no, they might actually be good.

It's exactly because they're not trying to sound like Nirvana that I'll give them that free pass. So many bands have tried to be the next Nirvana and ended up sounding like a damp pastry item..

Hella hyperbole ITT, more realistically they are RIYL Silver Sun Pickups meets Asobi Sex.

Yeah but come on it's highly unlikely they've even heard those bands.

kinda one of those bands that i'd rather pull out a copy of one of 867926478268397642 other 90s albums than devote all too much time to. they're just not doing anything particularly new with their influences. (i'm in my 20's)

I listened to three Yuck songs this morning. Wasn't really feeling "Rubber," but I liked "Georgia" and especially "Get Away."

In general, I've enjoyed other '90s throwbacks, like Silversun Pickups and Pains of Being Pure at Heart and CSS's "Rat Is Dead."

I'm 31.

I'd probably like this album a lot less if "Get Away" wasn't the first track. Mostly cos it's my favourite one.

But then again people are willing to give a critical free pass to equally derivative italo-disco or minimal synth revivalism and I'm not sure there's that much difference.

think this is probably true, but I had never heard of either of those 15 years ago and I imagine the same is the case for, oh, 99.5% or so of current rock writers - the % of them who got their grounding in 90s altbro-rock is probably a leeetle bigger

if someone super into old minimal wave ish told me that eg Wierd Records were pushing a tried rehash, it might not stop me enjoying their releases but I wouldn't argue much either y'know

I'd add the Joy Formidable and Dinosaur Pile-Up to the list of bands reviving/inspired by this era. Although it feels weird that none of them are actually trying to sound like Nirvana.

the last Dinosaur Pile-Up single was a hilarious imitation of Nirvana which I think was supposed to be serious but sounded like Sadgasm

btw I have not heard anything by Yuck that strikes me as special at all and I am in my early 30s

xpost Dinosaur Pile-Up are trying to sound quite a bit like Nirvana, though. More like Foo Fighters, but a lot like Nirvana. The thing that stops them is that the singer fella can't do that change of vocal gear, which is what really made Nirvana sound different.

maybe the problem with yuck is that they're not so much inspired by their influences, as they consciously try to sound like them.

They suck. I'm 39.

i don't know much 90s rock but like shasta my first instinct was silversun pickups tho indebted less to modern alt radio

judging them on the strong of their best song "the wall" which is the only one i've been listening to wasn't rly paying attn to the rest of the album while it was on. i like the way the singer sing a lot i am a sucker for it i think

ok this band has to be from UK right?

Yep.

haha ok that explains why some average-ish 90s indie sounding band that wouldn't even be like the 6th best band in milwaukee probably has a thread dedicated to them on ilx.

J Mascis fronting Sonic Youth. As said upthread, pointless.

haha ok that explains why some average-ish 90s indie sounding band that wouldn't even be like the 6th best band in milwaukee probably has a thread dedicated to them on ilx.

They were in the BBC's Sound of 2011 poll - god knows why because they're hardly likely to sell many records over here either. These kids just get hyped constantly for no apparent reason no matter which band they're in. They were in a band called Cajun Dance Party a few years ago who had an absurd hype bandwagon that the band couldn't hope to match.

m@tt do u like this song tho

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

^ That song is keen!!! I'm 79

big guy in this band looks like the guy from canned heat but w/an afro on his face

http://www.maninstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/canned-heat-bob-hite-wds.jpg

i caved in and bought the album. it's very weak imo. i don't think i need a more boring version of smudge/lemonheads in my life really

J Mascis fronting Sonic Youth. As said upthread, pointless.

Okay, when I read stuff like this I feel like the person saying this has only heard one or two songs. There is totally this vibe on a couple of songs, but 75% of the songs sound nothing like either band. Not to say the other songs aren't completely derivative and stolen from other 90s bands, but the J Mascis/Sonic Youth thing strikes me as kind of lazy.

I like these guys, but don't love 'em. Nothing original, but its a sound that I really loved once upon a time. I'm 34.

i get v little dino/SY from it, but lots of lemonheads

a fair heaping of fuzzy too

shoulda come out on half a cow

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

i jam this

boring, been done, lyrics are bland, guitars arent loud enough, 20 years too late anyway

lol

I just am hearing this for the first time after Robert Christgau reviewed it.

I'm old enough to have seen Pavement with Gary Young on drums and holy moley, I like this record.

you got a link to that review?

they write really good songs! their slow songs are like, surprisingly good.

These four Brits are compared to so many '80s-'90s bands you should figure they don't sound much like any of them‑-and that they recall every one more than they do such modern tunemongers as Best Coast or Sleigh Bells. But in the end modern tunemongers is how they sort out, Amerindie-style because guitars stopped being indie over there before Oasis broke. Adding a wistful variation on Best Coast's forlorn romanticism to a sunstruck variation on Sleigh Bells' principled distortion, they seem like nice kids with talent who may have the spiritual wherewithal to stop vaguing out and go somewhere. A MINUS

weird review imo

I listened to "Get Away" like five times yesterday.

^^ very Challopsy review there. Sleigh Bells? How??

"principled distortion"

For a second, I read "A MINUS" as, like "this is a minus" and not a grade.

Also, "a minus" is a spoonerism for "my anus."

Sleigh Bells transformed (watered down maybe) into Silversun Pickups

But they do it well

i really, truly, have no idea what sleigh bells has to do with this band

me either

Sleigh Bells transformed (watered down maybe) into Silversun Pickups

But they do it well

― curmudgeon, Thursday, April 14, 2011 1:04 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so they sound like first album smashing pumpkins now? sweet

gish rules

i'm always late to the party, but really digging some tracks on this, though not the whole thing. are they really young? "Get Away" alone suggests they're capable of doing some awesome things in the future, can't wait to see what they do next.

The only track I listen to off this album any more is Get Away, but it's such a good track. Contender for the EOY poll, definitely.

max from yuck is 21 this weekend or summat according to my facebook feed

i kinda know this lot, didn't realise they were in a band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1HZ7IP4e2A&feature=player_embedded

They were really good on Later last week. This is the best track on the album, imo.

Bizarre, but cool video for Shook Down, which is my favorite of the down tempo songs on 'Yuck':

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI7nqFSmsbs

NSFW btw....

http://www.dummymag.com/mixes/2011/07/22/dummy-mix-82-yuck/

New single - more of the (a-ok with me) same: http://soundcloud.com/yuck/chew

Full of zest and no appeal.

Their songs 'sound good,' but lack any real depth. They basically drive a single verse and chorus line into the ground for 4 minutes without any variation in each song. Some of the hooks are pretty good, but not enough to hold my interest. I feel like the hype surrounding them is more attributed to people's lack of ability to discern between interesting songwriting and slick production.

Also, for what it's worth, I'm 22.

And I wanna add that I lump Yuck and The Men together as bands who are lauded more for sounding like other good bands than being good themselves.

i think i like that new song more than anything on the first album

i like that first song on the album a lot. the rest i can take or leave.

i'm 34, but inside i'm already dead.

i really like these guys a lot, but i know full well its only because of the nostalgia buttons they are pushing. i'm okay with that. also i'm 35.

how in the world does yuck have "slick production" exactly?

yeah i wanted to question that but then, i don't know. maybe all these laptop home recording kids think anything recorded in a real life studio is "too slick" or w/e.

i'm also wondering how playing verses and choruses for 4 minutes is different from any other rock music but let's do this one at a time

This is literally the worst band on Earth. Discuss amongst yourselves.

No, Earth is a different band. But that is a bold fucking claim in a world where Nickelback and Dave Matthews Band exist.

"get away" is an all-time earworm, havent heard anything else by them on that level

xp I'd rather listen to either.

these guys are alright but i'm still weeding my way thorough orig 90s indie

"Holing Out" and "The Wall" are cool.

No one else besides me likes "Rubber" but I think it sounds like No Age.

always had revivalism or past era fetishism - especially overt - so naturally i hate the living hell out of these guys. it's all borrowing of better ideas, it's all pastiche and pathetically imitative

naturally, i largely consider the 90s the last progressive decade in guitar-based rock

for the aforementioned reasons i do not think yuck sounds 90s... the songwriting is simply not as good as 90s indie rock. they have some good/ok/cool songs though.

man, i really need to start error checking these posts before going through with them.

but i dunno, i just have this innate hostility towards anything that embraces wannabe-ism or celebrates something not it's own. the whole pov sometimes fucks with me to the point that i can't go to renaissance fairs and enjoy

oh for fucks sake

that wasn't intentional... the last word was "myself". i edited it down before posting.

Rev otm

In regards to my 'slick production' comment-

Like 85% of guitar-based 'indie rock' bands these days are usually tagged with 'lo-fi' anyway, but Yuck's album was pretty well recorded. Obviously it's not a Talk Talk record, but it has a certain level of sheen. I was just trying to drive the point home that i think the appeal of their music lies entirely on the surface.

Also, in regards to the 'how playing verses and choruses for 4 minutes is different from any other rock music' comment, I guess it isn't, and really isn't a valid criticism. I just remember feeling like a lot of Yuck's songs were particularly repetitive. Even then, it seems like Yuck's outros just exploit the age-old "same as the verse, with a distortion pedal on" formula... which I can forgive in a band like Ride because their music is 20 years old.

But then again, when Yuck first came out, I was only really starting to come to a point where I understood, or at least felt like I understood, music history well enough that most everything seemed like a rip off of something else. I just felt like Yuck didn't really bring anything new to the influences they were drawing on. It's pure pastiche, even if it's not necessarily unpleasant to the ear.

Yeah the songs aren't there imo. Dino Jr. And Teenage Fanclub were such good songwriters, if you want to get away with reviving their steez, you really have to bring the composition chops to the table or else all you did was make the worst album Eric's Trip ever made

which I can forgive in a band like Ride because their music is 20 years old

this was not invented in 1990 btw.

you're nitpicking, friend

so much hate! i love this band. i'm 22, so say what you will, but i also like plenty of the bands who "got firsties" on this sound in the 90s, apparently rendering it null and void for any future band.

seriously guys, do we really need to have the conversation about the "imitation" that drives almost ALL popular music? Yuck just aren't trying to hide it.

if you think "the songs just aren't there" i don't think there's any way i can convince you otherwise but i racked up more plays on this album (and the b-sides ep from the deluxe ed) than any other last year so as far as i'm concerned, there songs are "there".

the* songs are there, fuck.

Yeah their imitation is pretty blatant, but the sound is so straightforward vocally and compositionally that I feel like the line between imitation and influence is super fuzzy. Better for them to let it come naturally than put an unnatural effort into NOT sounding like Dino Jr. As long as they don't steal actual melodies, what else can they do? Bands that imitate more specific musical recipes are the ones truly forcing it and I'm with you all on that.

It looks like their singer left the band, and the other 3 members are continuing without him. Laaaame.

yikes

On an unrelated note, why are there so many threads that just die after I post in them? I guess I'm just that boring huh.

that happens to me too. thread killers club.

I'm glad you said so. I figured if I mentioned it everyone would let the thread die to rub it in my self-pitying face.

On the topic though, I thought Yuck was as much about the singer as GBV is about Robert Pollard. Strange news.

ty sooooo much Evan for killing Yuck <3

Doing my part with every discussion I squander.

i didn't like yuck that much but i tried the hebronix album just based on the neil michael hagerty connection and it is so boring

lol evan

haha the yuck song you guys voted into the year-end poll was almost parodically dull

Yes!

Die, thread, die!

The thread, the?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULJ0TXcahM

I still love "Georgia" fwiw

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/12/i-never-thought-about-oscars-brutalist-composer-daniel-blumberg-happiness-horror-of-big-win

Daniel's a very sweet guy, thrilled for his success with The Brutalist.

a deserving winner, too

i'm sure there are good examples throughout history, but this has got to be one of the all-time "band makes good record, one member leaves, band continues and makes bad records" situations.

Yeah, I never even bought the second one after I heard the lead single. That first album still slaps tho.

well it was a real problem that the guy who left was the singer & main songwriter