that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

i think they've entered that stage where you think they aren't popular anymore but are actually way more popular than they were when they had "buzz"

― i'm a fucking walking pair of Docs (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:13 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

on the Odd Future thread re: Tegan and Sara

this probably isn't restricted to any particular genre or type of artist, but especially seems to happen a lot with kind of MOR non-indie rock artists who aren't heavy enough to get radio play but do well on the touring circuit. for instance, i've barely thought about Ben Harper in like a decade, but his last 3 albums had top 10 debuts, and he has a new one out today that i bet will take people by surprise with big first week numbers.

all jam bands everywhere to thread

or, like, college circuit bands

also pearl jam

band of horses

haha was just going to post them!

i dunno if Pearl Jam are MORE popular than they were when Ten was going multi-platinum. they're probably playing about the same size venues.

ben harper is perfect for that...dudes that kind of have this weird "alternative" nostalgia thing but have always been able to appeal to bonarroo type crowds too

like it's fucking WEIRD how popular M Doughty of Soul Coughing and Michael Franti of Spearhead still are

Decemberists.

I think My Morning Jacket is like that too now

cake's last album debuted at #1

CAKE

hold steady is totally going that way too, they play big shows all over

Interpol

yeah pearl jam aren't more popular than their heyday, its just amazing to me that they're still putting out records and that people are still fucking devoted to them

xp was totally gonna say hold steady are headed straight for this

i just checked and "heaven is whenever" which ILX could barely talk about moved 25K in the first week which is probably more than "hold steady almost killed me" sold period

like it's fucking WEIRD how popular M Doughty of Soul Coughing and Michael Franti of Spearhead still are

― i'm a fucking walking pair of Docs (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:32 PM (33 seconds ago) Bookmark

i was talking to an excitable young person the other day about michael franti and was like 'oh yeah, spearhead, i remember them' and this person had no idea what i was talking about.

not sure how the whole "soul coughing is HUGE in mpls but not anywhere else" thing fits into this, but i'm sure it plays a part. like how certain acts can stay fat and happy touring japan and europe while they slide into obscurity at home

Daft Punk

the minneapolis soul coughing effect plays into it.

also:

a friend of mine who knows says that factoring in international sales, the amount of units moved by like mid-level pop punk bands on fat wreck would BLOW your mind

Decemberists.

I saw a huge billboard outside of atlantic city advertising a concert by them. it seemed weird. but i guess i am very out of touch

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

Kid Cudi is shaping up to be this kind of act, it kind of blew my mind the other day to see what size venues he's headlining right now

Black Keys

otm

Muse

Mars Volta

Michael Franti had a big fluke pop hit a couple years ago that kind of made everyone notice he's still going at it, but he definitely would've fit this thread to a T in the years leading up to that

i think everyone who knows who Muse and Black Keys are are aware that they're bigger than ever. Mars Volta has definitely had a weird unpredictable rise.

Gorillaz

drum and bass in 2002/03

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

i don't know if you were responding to my post or just commenting on the thread in general, but anyhow that's what kind of confused me. i would expect to see a huge billboard advertising them at this point but i didn't even realize the decemberists were still together

this is sorta like the dream rocker retirement plan, though, isn't it? keep on doing yr thing, financial security and no media spotlight bullshit

Death Cab for Cutie

del i was just responding to the thread in general

but yeah decemberists is OTM there's a couple guys at work who love them now, very non-hipster musical tastes (they love they might be giants) and they don't even know of "her majesty the decemberists" which i remember being their buzz album

The Frames

this is sorta like the dream rocker retirement plan, though, isn't it? keep on doing yr thing, financial security and no media spotlight bullshit

― cop a cute abdomen (gbx), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:47 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah i mean we're mainly being snarky but for the most part i feel like these kinds of acts have really just had admirable career arcs, catering to a fanbase that stuck with them well after the tastemakers and the industry machinery kind of forgot they existed

yeah otm i think it's great, probably the only real form of "success" left imo

Death Cab are sorta like this, although they're still pretty high profile.

I can't speak to precise sales numbers (and have a meeting to run to so I can't look them up now) but conceptually I'd think The Postal Service was more a candidate here than Death Cab

arcade fire is probably at or going to be at this stage very soon

I think everyone knows the Arcade Fire is huge. Hold Steady and My Morning Jacket otm though. MMJ played Madison Square Garden on New Year's Eve one year. yikes.

i always look at the summer lineup for the big venue near me (red rocks) and wonder who is buying tickets for a lot of these shows. but the bands playing must be successful beyond mere buzz, which is pretty admirable. buzz must be overrated. i mean red rocks is a 9,000-seat amphitheatre and here are just a few of the bands playing: blues traveler, thievery corp., death cab, kings of leon, big head fucking todd...someone buys tickets for this stuff!

Paul Oakenfold

Wilco

I can't speak to precise sales numbers (and have a meeting to run to so I can't look them up now) but conceptually I'd think The Postal Service was more a candidate here than Death Cab

― I HAVE ISSUES (DJP), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:59 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

if Postal Service had released a note of music or toured in the last 7 years or whatever i'm sure they'd be huge, and i'm sure in some ways Death Cab's popularity is kind of a placeholder for PS (as is Owl City). but their existence as a current act is kind of hypothetical at this point.

think that wilco have really done the best job in terms of a long term career -- they've got pitchforky cred, oldsters, jam bandsters, dad rockers. WHO DOESN'T LOVE WILCO.

Countdown to Ned post in 10, 9, 8...

Weird Al

here's another show at red rocks this summer that might just take the cake here: Unity Tour 2011: 311 and Sublime with Rome

Weird Al has had a surprisingly long shelf life but his chart/media presence is high enough that his popularity hasn't really escaped anyone's notice

ICP kinda fit the bill before the Gathering trailer and the "Miracles" video went viral

xpost. Ha, Thievery Corporation. Never would have believed the makers of "2001: A Spliff Odyssey" would still be around, let alone popular.

Sade is playing the 20,000-capacity 02 Arena in London soon, she's probably bigger than ever.

she also had one of the biggest albums of 2010 and nobody was under the impression that she wasn't popular anymore

The New Deal became kind of weirdly successful

Guess I missed that then

xpost

here's another show at red rocks this summer that might just take the cake here: Unity Tour 2011: 311 and Sublime with Rome

― tylerw, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 1:16 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

one of the hosts of the "power trip morning show" in minneapolis (the morning show of the local sports talk station) is like OBSESSED with 311, he talks about them all the time, and actually traveled from mpls to see them at red rocks, crazy

yeah, they have a really devoted fanbase. i mean, they've been around for like 15 years now, right? i hate being snobby, but people who like them are truly savages.

ICP kinda fit the bill before the Gathering trailer and the "Miracles" video went viral

I was about to argue this but yeah, OTM; they got HUGE media attention circa The Great Milenko and then everyone sort of forgot they were still around, even though they still kept selling way more albums than they really should. (I think you could plausibly argue that they haven't matched their Milenko/Jeckel Brothers album sales in subsequent years but again, I have no facts behind that.)

yeah like he calls them the greatest band of all time and means it, it's mental illness

omaha stylee

P-NUT!

http://brigade311.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/060900_pnut.jpg

yeah, it's like people who go to 311 shows have ~experiences~ and they become fans for life. i dunno, maybe they're amazing live. look at that guy.

let's all watch this together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hsw7yaFGNQw

guys, stop trying to make 311 happen to us again

couldn't do it. "amber is the color of your energy" lol

Black Keys

― solitary posts that effortlessly summarize the spirit of ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 5:42 PM (53 minutes ago) Bookmark

srsly i saw these dudes in like 2004, "rubber factory" was one of the first CDs i ever burned, and then i forgot all about them for most of a decade and suddenly they're everywhere

also re: My Morning Jacket, this band is partially responsible for me "getting" American Dad

311 are staples @ the "Classic Alternative" station here.

so weird that "classic alternative" is a thing now

so weird that its standard-bearer is 311

music peaked around 98 man

drum corps nerds still listen to 311 because the drummer marched corps, and also because of similar facial hair styles (i presume)

lol @ 1:20 of that video.

the dude plays the most rudimentary 'solo' and people start freaking out

dudes it's basically just like

http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l246/grahamgoetz311/PNut.jpg?t=1236871633

i mean, in some ways, it's kind of cool. they seem like the most average guys who happen to play in a band but who also work in the IT dept. or something. like they have a regular gig playing a restaurant patio in the summer.

i remember the nuttiest show i'd ever been to, which was one of the first: bush at sec taylor stadium in ames iowa, after their first album. it was the first big-ish, current-ish band to play that corner of the world in forever. i have never heard people scream louder or longer for an encore than that. they weren't very good (they were bush) but it was like budokan. some people just aren't that jaded about music (if you want to be charitable about it) and if you can get a handle on the affections of that kind of audience you'll be good for a long time.

^^^yeah i think that's true. you can kind of hit a sweet spot of utter mediocrity + rock star moves and people just kinda dig it.

p-nut will be slapping his five string long after oddfuture are distant memories, RIP trollcore

lol I was about to say "there's one Bush song that isn't that bad" but then I couldn't for the life of me remember which one I was thinking of because all of the ones that came to mind were terrible

is the other guy with a mic just a backup singer? can every member of 311 only take on one musical task at a time?

he's the rapper, right?

Uhhh.... Velvet Underground and Big Star?

Big Head Todd still exists?

they just had a new song on classic rock radio here! a john lee hooker cover i think.

they do! it might be a colorado thing? i don't think they'd go anywhere else and play huge places, but here they're heroes. they play red rocks every summer afaik

they were like my pick for stupidest band name back in the mid-90s

Dizzee Rascal

I think everyone knows the Arcade Fire is huge.

A quick look confirms Zucchero, Faithless, Eros Ramazotti, Status Quo, Jamiroquai, Toto, Daddy Yankee and Calle 13 do arena tours these days.

god, i should just do a poll for best red rocks bill this summer. a sampling:
Jethro Tull with Special Guest Kansas
Blues Traveler / Matisyahu / Toad the Wet Sprocket
Kenny Chesney, Billy Currington, Uncle Kracker
Chicago with the Colorado Symphony
STYX / Yes
Train / Maroon 5 / Gavin De Graw
Unity Tour 2011: 311 and Sublime with Rome
The Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George Lopez

woah

don't stare into the abyss too long

The Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George LopezThe Divine Rascals Tour with Carlos Santana and George Lopez

hoos that sounds like it's right up you alley

see, hoos has already lost his mind

your

callejón i should say

xp

lmao

"WHO DOESN'T LOVE WILCO."

http://thenakedhero.com/wp-content/uploads/raised-hand-1.jpg

Wilco

― Handjobs for a sport (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 6:06 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

i think i saw them around 2005 at merriweather, which is huge, and the roots opened for them. at that point they would've been accurate for this thread.

also 90% of these bands are enjoyed by my cousins, who are all recently married in their mid-30s and used to be really into DMB. and like, hiking, and shit.

In Canada probably, but outside?

They topped the Norwegian album charts for a few weeks last August.

1) have an identifiable, instantly familiar sound
2) stick with it through thick and thin, even in the midst of experimentation
3) write catchy, comfortable tunes
4) have no contempt for sentiment or easy appeal
5) have no vested interest in staying current
6) avoid confrontation and shock
7) connect with an at least moderately affluent audience that can raise kids & grow old with you

8) get threatened by Scott Stapp

Record Store Day
There's a new BEN HARPER record in stores today. Participating record stores have a really big litho to GIVE you as a special gift TILL they're GONE.

the Flaming Lips play way larger venues now than they did for Transmissions..., Clouds Taste..., and Soft Bulletin

1) have an identifiable, instantly familiar sound
2) stick with it through thick and thin, even in the midst of experimentation
3) write catchy, comfortable tunes
4) have no contempt for sentiment or easy appeal
5) have no vested interest in staying current
6) avoid confrontation and shock
7) connect with an at least moderately affluent audience that can raise kids & grow old with you

― contenderizer, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 3:16 PM (11 minutes ago) Bookmark

i think half of these kind overstate "safeness" as a virtue of these bands to their fans. half of the acts listed in this thread could drop a futuristic techno rock opera and most of their audience would be like "awright! return to form!"

311 futuristic techno rock opera? Really?

if they dropped a full-on drum'n'bass album warning about the ills of a world without weed and hackysack their fans would explode with joy

i think some dude is right, for example, a lot of mars volta's early following and loyal following were at the drive in fans, but they def opened up to an album as bonkers as frances the mute

y'all haven't heard P-Nut in the 24th Century yet? it's crazeee.

radiohead never gave up the "buzz" part but i think their continued popularity has a lot in common with what we've been talking about here, same with bjork

yeah Radiohead and Bjork are basically the versions of this that gained (or never lost) the 'cool critical darling' tag

some bands i wish this kind of thing would happen to or happen faster, like how long does Ted Leo need to keep plugging away before he wakes up one day and is headlining huge venues?

maybe if he changed his name to Big Head Ted?

like it's always surprising to me ppl i know that have pretty like normalish taste in music that will listen to any weird half constructed minimal techno thing because it's radiohead and they hear thom's voice on it

i think half of these kind overstate "safeness" as a virtue of these bands to their fans. half of the acts listed in this thread could drop a futuristic techno rock opera and most of their audience would be like "awright! return to form!"

― bile al (some dude), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 12:33 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

that's fair. i wasn't trying to make a blanket statement about all bands of this sort, only describing a formula that applies to a subcategory of them (pearl jam, black keys, my morning jacket, lots of jam bands). i stressed safeness (or comfortableness) as a virtue not to be snide, but because it is a virtue of a sort, and one that doesn't earn a lot of pop-cultural or critical attention.

for bands like flaming lips and ween, projecting sincerity and avoiding controversy clearly aren't the point.

WOW from 311's FB page:

823,097
people like this

yeah jeez WEEN, surprised it took this long for them to get mentioned

oh wow yeah them totally

very non-hipster musical tastes (they love they might be giants)

just coming here to say :(

i had no idea about their following until the last band i was in, the singer was a super fan and like it sounded they have almost a borderline deadhead/phishhead level of rabid following, she would buy every ween new thing no matter what

very non-hipster musical tastes (they love they might be giants)

just coming here to say :(

― underrated earl sweatshirt fans i have boned (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 2:55 PM (0 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

what's wrong w/TMBG? i fucks with lincoln

yeah i've met people with insane collections of ween bootlegs, otm about deadhead/phish levels of diehards.

nothing, I love the first three albums (Lincoln is the peak) just that... well, if yr a TMBG fan you're already outing yourself as something of a nerd, they're a weird band to cite as a "non-hipster" taste because they certainly aren't mainstream or AOR or whatever

xp

just fyi every band I know dreams of getting to this stage. this stage represents total arrival. you don't have to worry about your haters and you don't have to be constantly trying to win over new people.

weird it's almost like I said exactly that aerosmith

you also know what color you energy is

Brainstorm, take me away from the norm
I got to tell you something
This phenomenon, I had to put it in a song
And it goes like

Chorus:
Whoa, amber is the color of your energy
Whoa, shades of gold displayed naturally

You ought to know what brings me here
You glide through my head blind to fear
And I know why

(Chorus 2x)

You live too far away
Your voice rings like a bell anyway
Don't give up your independence
Unless it feels so right
Nothing good comes easily
Sometimes you gotta fight

(Chorus)

Launched a thousand ships in my heart
So easy, still it's fine from afar
And you know that
Whoa, brainstorm take me away from the norm
Whoa, I got to tell you something

this thread sent me down a rabbit hole of wikis, youtubes, and fan boards about the mars volta and their revolving drum chair. every random video of thomas pridgen soundchecking or deantoni parks playing with meshell ndegeocello is clogged up with mars volta fans arguing about drummers.

(i had no idea that they had won a grammy or that they're really popular... i'm guessing they have a big high school prog rock following?)

i think they may fill the void for certain teens that rush filled for me

underrated aerosmith otm, this is valhalla

devendra banhart

huh, really? banhart is still big?

contenderizer give credit to gbx, he was the first guy ever to notice this

oh right, thanks, aerosmith

no one is giving me the proper credit

i thought i was in the stage of my ILX career where i could comfortable tour 2000 seat theaters but I GUESS NOT THANKS FOR NOTHING

contenderizer give credit to gbx, he was the first guy ever to notice this

― w of in the attic (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 3:16 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://teslastaging.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif

pre-order my next post on ILX and you'll receive a special edition t-shirt, limited edition 78rpm 10-inch of me reading all my posts from the neil young thread, and my 7th grade school yearbook photo

^^^guy knows how to treat his fans. do u want to be on a bill w/ uncle kracker this summer.

dunno, i'm holding out for the remaster w/black light woodblock print of gbx's "I like to fart and I'm crazy" period.

greg dulli/twilight singers?

was thinking Kid Rock b/c he seems bizarrely ubiquitous to me (tbh I'm not paying much attention) but then I saw that Devil Without A Cause went 11x platinum. So Kid Rock's a bad answer, but still, holy shit.

I'm still surprised that Linkin Park and Papa Roach are still quite popular

Drive-by Truckers should be included here

dunno, i'm holding out for the remaster w/black light woodblock print of gbx's "I like to fart and I'm crazy" period.

― sarahel, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 8:31 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

irl lol

30 Seconds to Mars

^yeah i saw some ridic video on youtube and it was like they were jesus and U2 rolled into a space suit burrito

yeah i've seen that one it was crazytown

-crazytown

what about deerhoof? i didn't even know they were still around but they played a pretty big place around here last year and i think it even sold out. maybe that's just around here though.

yeah a lot of mainstream rock radio staples kinda sorta qualify for this thread (Incubus, Weezer, Foo Fighters) but Papa Roach is probably the best example because they seem like such a one hit wonder but the last few years you can hear one of their new songs on those stations every hour on the hour

1) have an identifiable, instantly familiar sound
2) stick with it through thick and thin, even in the midst of experimentation
3) write catchy, comfortable tunes
4) have no contempt for sentiment or easy appeal
5) have no vested interest in staying current
6) avoid confrontation and shock
7) connect with an at least moderately affluent audience that can raise kids & grow old with you

Cowboy Junkies
Allison Krauss
Lyle Lovett
k.d. lang

xp: then there are bands like Green Day, where you blink and then suddenly they are way more massively popular than you ever could have imagined them getting

like, it was around the time that they did a Broadway show that I was all "okay people, I am not opposed to this band but this is now officially silly"

That reminds me, I have to write a review of the new Incubus album by Friday and I'm still kinda boggling at the fact that it's 2011 and there's a new Incubus album.

album of the year, amirite?

you're never ever funny (on purpose).

who - ilxor or Phil?

love the parenthetical xp

btw, wasnt trying to be lol style funny w/ that post—just my way of asking "so, how's the album?"

New research found that failed attempts at humor can provoke surprisingly rude responses, with the harshest reactions coming from friends and family.

Jennifer Lopez seems to have come back with a vengeance. I heard On the Floor in every store and restaurant I walked inside of on 7th/8th Ave. and Times Square last week.

a lot of this stuff has to do with good management - a manager's job is to sort of help the band locate a place where they can reliably ply their trade without having to be constantly worrying about growth, staying hip, etc

Cowboy Junkies
Allison Krauss
Lyle Lovett
k.d. lang

Krauss is so damn smart she should be teaching seminars on how to do business

neil young

Krauss is so damn smart she should be teaching seminars on how to do business

aero have you gone blonde yet?

sorry that was kinda cheap :/

idgi

btw, wasnt trying to be lol style funny w/ that post—just my way of asking "so, how's the album?"

― solitary posts that effortlessly summarize the spirit of ilxor (ilxor), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 6:08 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark

the fact that that's your way of asking that question is why you're a noxious presence

i suggest a nice sandwich

the fact that that's your way of asking that question is why you're a noxious presence

and the fact that your fav album of April 2011 is by the fucking Foo Fighters may explain why your panties are in a twist about my itty bitty Incubus comment

anyway- done w/ this convo, if you dont have something nice to say etc.

(you'd do well to follow that advice too)

Red Hot Chili Peppers ten years ago is like the ultimate example of this.

the fact that that's your way of asking that question is why you're a noxious presence

― bile al (some dude), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 6:31 PM

this is ridiculous

some dude, i like you, but not when you're in asshole mode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3r7TMObOz8

Atmosphere

jesus christ superstar was the first think i played this morning. its the most popular musical on earth in my life today.

i think i could listen to it every day. i'm sure i could.

Atmosphere otm

oh yeah totally

what the fuck happened here

Aerosmith

built to spill, circa mid-2000s. maybe still, if they ever put out any records.

h8 311 SO MUCH, "amber is the color of your energy" stopped me from listening to the radio for like five years.

but lol i've seen mike doughty twice in the last six or so years, he always sells out the little venue here in town. he sounds great live!

also TMBG has a new album coming out soonish, and their single got posted to Pitchfork with like, maybe a sentence of description. it felt really begrudging.

yeah geeky '90s alt in general is fertile for this thread. i still check for new TMBG even if it's not that good, loved Soul Coughing but am not real into the Doughty solo stuff.

is there still a big touring market for bands like the Spin Doctors & Blues Traveler, who were sort of incidental players in the jamrock community, but also briefly embraced by the mainstream? Like, did they basically return from whence they came, or were they able to parlay their brief popularity into a larger and enduring fanbase?

Jamrock folks seem pretty loyal & into long-term commitment, from what I can tell.

LCD Soundsystem

well when it takes you a fortnight to stand up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEdxCn6dYsM

is there still a big touring market for bands like the Spin Doctors & Blues Traveler, who were sort of incidental players in the jamrock community, but also briefly embraced by the mainstream? Like, did they basically return from whence they came, or were they able to parlay their brief popularity into a larger and enduring fanbase?

Jamrock folks seem pretty loyal & into long-term commitment, from what I can tell.

― thats my meme dont were it out (Pillbox), Tuesday, May 17, 2011 9:27 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

Blues Traveler weren't incidental, they started HORDE and headlined it for several years! they still, like, play Red Rocks, but i think their hardcore fanbase is kind of negligible, their last album (which features a SPOKEN WORD INTERLUDE BY BRUCE WILLIS apparently) didn't even chart.

6) avoid confrontation and shock

seems like this could be amended to

6) avoid confrontation and shock
6.a) alternatively, strongly advocate for cheeba

they started HORDE and headlined it for several years! - yeah, but would they have headlined it if they didn't start it? I guess by "incidental," I meant "second-tier" (i.e. not Phish or the Dead).

SPOKEN WORD INTERLUDE BY BRUCE WILLIS - o dear o dear

Spin Doctors are currently touring w/Rick Springfield.

iirc when Horde started it was about sub-Phish jambands pooling their resources, but at the tour's peak Blues Traveler had that one really huge album and were generally one of the 2 biggest acts on the tour every year

The Eels

i feel like the strokes might fit in here

I keep expecting Hot Chip to drop off the spectrum, but they never seem to.

Placebo went on a series of arena-sized concerts across Europe, in October–December 2009. That leg of the tour culminated in a concert in London's O2 Arena which was Placebo's largest gig ever in the United Kingdom.

^ didn't even realise Placebo were still going

h8 311 SO MUCH, "amber is the color of your energy" stopped me from listening to the radio for like five years. (...)

― I don't know if you should use my "Alf" reference (reddening), Wednesday, 18 May 2011 00:53 (8 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, I hadn't heard about this song, but I just googled the lyrics and creased up.

Placebo are HUGE in europe, especially in france. someone i know at their label told me that it seemed like about half of the O2 audience were french.

I don't know anything about 311 but is that some kind of intentional or even unintentional misquote from PiL's "Rise" ("Anger is an energy")?

xp

Nice to be massive in some country other than your own. Go over, get attention, then come home and chill out.

A bit like being hannah Montana, for real!

xp I don't know, but now you are making it more awesome!

There was a 'not-soundtrack' album for the Alice in wonderland film, so lots of songs featuring references to Alice.

There's not so many Amber songs, One by The Residents but it sounds like she'd died in that one, so no.

Deftones in the UK

Placebo is an excellent one

Nada Surf?

Transistor
04-20-2008

as corny as it may sound, this is for real - he felt the feeling 311 is conveying when he saw me. he stole my number because he sensed an amber aura. this song came to his mind. i didn't know who he was when he texted, but for some bizarre reason i went with it. we talked on the phone for a month before we saw each other again - he remembered what i looked like, but i couldn't remember him! anyway, he told me he'd wanted to sing me a song that reminded him of me weeks before the date. when he did, i was blown away. the sound fit the night perfectly - the peaceful vibe of chilling with him and the exciting overtones of finding someone i totally clicked with was captured by the song - and the idea that he thought this way about me still thrills me. as we're in our 6th month of a long distance relationship and i'm still fighting impulses to regain my independence, even though he's so awesome, "amber" still resonates with me, for reasons beyond its great vibe.

o_O

Wow @ Placebo.

The Bluetones pottered on for years and years and may still be going, but they're not big enough to really fit in this equation.

Placebo are HUGE in europe, especially in france.

yep. this makes sense now.

The Eels

― blank, Tuesday, May 17, 2011 11:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah know a dude from mpls that is Eels lighting tech, they do pretty huge tours overseas

what about lambchop are they still huge in the u.k. like the eels. they should all tour with the fun lovin' criminals. bands the yanks forgot tour.

nope not on the same level as eels but they do okay.

Almost every artist featured in The O.C. soundtracks (Death Cab, Modest Mouse, Imogen Heap, Ryan Adams)... they had a certain second rise in popularity post-oc when in reality the days of glory seemed long gone.

'days of glory'

yeah it was all downhill for those guys after 2004, so sad, what a waste of talent

The Shins

are they still putting out records??

the lead singer put out that dangermouse collab but that's all i've heard lately?

oh god that song is so dull

loooool

guys, every band that you and everyone in your office know the name of can sell out 30 800 seat clubs on a tour regardless of their level of quality or how recent they had an album released.

nope.

if that were only true ... *sigh*

name the band you're thinking of.
cuz winger can do it.

nb: i mean anyone who had at least one major radio single

forks, i work for a contemporary classical music non-profit.

there should be an "office full of hipsters/subculturists" caveat

like, I'm sure that if I started a company with my high school friends, we could spend hours talking about Grotus and Savage Aural Hotbed and everyone would know who they were, but they are not filling 30 800 seat venues across the country

Yah I do mean an "average" office
Sara where do you work?

that's the most detail i'm giving about my day job, sorry.

lol, u think the internet is real

lol, i'm being chided by a kitchen utensil embedded in a meat substitute

http://ranger.gamebanana.com/img/ico/sprays/thats_racist.gif

I know they've already been mentioned but Cake kind of owns this thread

Nick upthread - The Bluetones are splitting up! They're playing a farewell tour including Shepherds Bush Empire which is the same as they have done almost every time in the last ten years. Not quite big enough for this thread, honestly surprised that it's happening now and hadn't before.

Most amazed I've been at seeing a gig listing apart from the aforementioned Placebo at the O2 is usually US bands that I thought never had any UK chart or radio presence but still sell out big shows - e.g. Brand New playing Wembley Arena.

savage aural hotbed is such an amazing show, esp an outdoor show when they can bring the 15 foot drums made out of industrial sewer pipe

Sigur Ros

http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/stopthepresses/392201/jon-bon-jovi-still-rockin-and-making-a-killing/

Didn't Bon Jovi have the top grossing American tour last year?
And that "Who Says You Can't Go Home?" song is on country radio every other hour still.

perennial stadium acts still playing stadiums is kind of a different deal imo

don't believe winger can actually fill as many 800-seat rooms as is being asserted upthread

Conversely, you'd think They Might Be Giants or Ween would be able to pull off a headlining UK tour, but they just don't arrive.

So also: latter-day Weezer (who are a considerably bigger draw)

The 17 year olds Kip was singing about in 1988 are now 40, and I'm sure they're just as desperate for his attention now.

i have personally witnessed kip winger sell out a standing room crowd of 850 or so in times square.
and yeah, it's almost invariably a special variety of woman living out th' dream.

Winger and Kip Winger
at Havana



Havana
New Hope, PA, US
Friday 03 June 2011
Winger and Kip Winger
at Crazy Donkey



Crazy Donkey
Long Island, NY, US
Saturday 04 June 2011
Winger and Kip Winger
at Recher Theatre



Recher Theatre
Towson, MD, US
Friday 15 July 2011
Kip Winger and Winger
with Soft Parade at Showcase Live



Showcase Live
Foxboro, MA, US
Buy tickets Saturday 16 July 2011
Winger and Kip Winger
at The Cube



The Cube
Newark, DE, US

would go to all these crazy donkey winger shows.

Yeah, Winger would be a way more fun show than, say, Fleet Foxes, or whatever (seriously.)

one of the best shows i ever saw was ace frehley at a bar in brewster, new york. kicked ass. ace! and he was like five feet from you. this was before the whole reunion thing. obviously.

the Recher Theatre is a pretty big place! they used to get the same kind of cool acts as the 9:30 club, but then they got a new booking guy or something and started leaning real hard on nostalgia acts and tribute bands.

I remember loving a Vinnie Vincent Invasion show in, like, 1986, even thought the rest the audience was booing (or boo-urnsing.)

thought= though (duh)

Sure, it was ages ago (pre-"Dookie"), but Green Day used to be underground critics darlings at one stage too. They aren't anymore, yet they are more popular than ever in terms of live appeal and album sales.

Jack Johnson

Jack Johnson, Ben Harper et al will be popular for as long as PUA types in Australia use their music to lure gap-year girls away from the campfire.

does reb beach still play for winger? that dude can shred! (would pay approx $5 to see him shred)

Sometime in the mid-to-late-nineties, Kip Winger came and played at the Stone Balloon (RIP) in Newark, DE so my friends and I got high and went down to Main St. to see what kind of people would come to see Kip Winger solo in the mid-to-late-nineties. (answer: lots of people.) Two metal dudes and a woman with huge hair metal hair were walking towards the venue when they got into a loud, raucous screaming fight. Finally, one of the dudes broke away and stalked angrily towards the venue while the other dude pulled the woman back towards the car. She turned and reached her one free hand toward the Stone Balloon and cried wrenchingly, "WIIIIINGEEEERRRRRR!!!!!"

Jack Johnson, Ben Harper et al will be popular for as long as PUA types in Australia use their music to lure gap-year girls away from the campfire.

― broodje kroket (dog latin), Friday, May 20, 2011 7:27 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

didn't really need to even say "in Australia" here

^ t bomb

Cake comes to Milwaukee every 2 years or so and I always want to go but the tickets seem to sell ridiculously fast. Was kinda floored that their latest album seems to be selling well. They haven't had a good single in a decade and I would think their fans would be over them by now. And yet here we are.

holy shit, I thought Short Skirt, Long Jacket was like 5 years ago. wrong

Guster

talking to some friends the other day re: Ben Folds, I realized that he almost certainly fits this category — critically panned, artistically irrelevant, and unfathomably popular among people we will never associate with (the phrase "bro-rock circuit" was used)

xxp yeah and the weird thing about that was that most Cake fans at the time thought it was kind of a self-parody, which it is (still a great tune though)

i dunno, i've always been a fan, i guess there are a lot of people to whom this band really MEANT something like, 10-15 years ago. that's why I don't find it surprising that TMBG still is a huge draw, because i know what it's like to be 14 and obsessed with the band, and their albums hold up as you get older. Cake on the other hand; I don't really see myself ever anticipating a new release by them again.

the elephant itt: U2

I see the Violent Femmes are touring again

Lana Del Rey's Summertime Sadness is #16 on the Billboard Hot 100. Does that count?

jimmy eat world just sold 4500 tickets in nyc

the elephant itt: U2

They can't be MORE popular than they were in the late 80s and early 90s, can they?

and yet...

post-buzz records All That You Can't Leave Behind and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb both outsold trailing-buzz records Zooropa and Pop, and their last two tours (2009-11, 2005-6) are both among the top five concert tours of all time in inflation-adjusted gross and very nearly in actual attendance as well even though neither you nor i know a single person who would consider themselves a fan

by contrast, they pulled in slightly fewer dollars and butts on the 1987 Joshua Tree tour than NKOTB managed in 1990.

Wow.

the U2 thing is tough to quantify because, while the last couple records have sold pretty well for classic rockers, they're still very much in that Stones zone where it's all about their back catalog and their 'brand.' not really what this thread is about.

joan osborne

Weezer?

I dunno, Weezer was selling out summer sheds on their own ten years ago, but they've been doing theaters/package tours recently.

They're definitely not bigger than when they had 'buzz' but they're bigger than most people would probably assume they are at this point. The massive success of any/all of those post-reunion albums just boggles the mind. There was probably a point around 'Beverly Hills' where they were 'bigger' than the Blue Album although I'm not sure by which metrics.

Could they have seriously gotten away with doing things like the Weezer Cruise around the time of the first record?

I never really knew much about Passion Pit but a friend is working for them and they play really big gigs

I think they were popping before they had internet buzz actually

Ok yeah I don't have a frame of reference but they sound like they are pretty huge on the tour circuit

Death From Above 1979 have a charting single right now, in 2014

I dunno, Weezer was selling out summer sheds on their own ten years ago, but they've been doing theaters/package tours recently.

― Uncle Cyril O'Boogie (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, August 15, 2013 10:52 PM (five years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Egg on face.

An easy answer to this thread is: everything that has an RSD exclusive release specifically for Black Friday

mass appeal ≠ critical acclaim

For UK people of a certain age.

Ocean Colour Scene released SIX studio LPs between 2001 and 2013, all six charted, their next one will too.

They are playing Birmingham O2, Manchester O2, Dublin Olympia, London Roundhouse and a four-night residency at Glasgow Barrowland this December. Two of the Glasgow dates are sold out.

huh that is wild

hold on no, those dates are for next year. the dates are sold out *more than a year in advance*

Tame Impala is playing Toyota Center (Basketball arena) in Houston next summer.

Maybe that goes here: How did they sell out THAT place? - venue size shocker

I'm starting to think Ween are one of those bands

yeah Push the Daisies isn't even in their top Spotify tracks

Tame Impala is playing Toyota Center (Basketball arena) in Houston next summer.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, December 9, 2019 10:47 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

headlining coachella

Every Eminem album is massive and just not a critical event at all. Obviously he's not MORE popular than when he was at his peak but he's still the best selling artist on the century despite having been officially past his best for most of it.

Bloc Party are still reliably filling up decent sized venues 15 years after their moment of peak buzz and at least a decade since any real hype dissipated.

the best selling artist on the century

waht? is this really true?

yes

that's bizarre. I assume some of that is because he was still releasing huge albums pre-streaming era...

ah I see. Yeah his leader status is all because of his 2000 and 2002 albums.

hell, even during the download era (2009-2013) he was doing phenomenal numbers comparatively

sure. but it's also obvious that Adele will overtake him when her next album comes out.

When you raised the question, I had to look up the sales totals of Adele's three albums.

Just found out that at the end of the month Greta Van Fleet is headlining Toyota Center in Houston, a venue that recently hosted/will host Springsteen, The Cure, Depeche Mode, Bad Bunny, and Paramore.

lead singer came out last month, was talked about a bit

That alone doesn't get you into touring basketball arenas.

Like, Paramore is a way more popular band, and even they are having some issues filling up that place.

GVF has that big boomer dollar

GVF has a bafflingly huge fanbase somehow.

Joe Bonamassa fans ready to step up to something a bit more fresh and exciting.

Tame Impala is playing Toyota Center (Basketball arena) in Houston next summer.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, December 9, 2019 4:47 PM (three years ago) bookmarkflaglink

This show didn't happen for obvious reasons, and when they did return to Houston in '21, they played The Lawn At White Oak Music Hall, the same place they played at here in 2019.

I checked out GVF in Houston on Setlist.fm, and in their two prior appearances they headlined '18 at the House of Blues and graduated the next year to Smart Financial Centre in Sugar Land (huge suburban theatre that hosts a lotta Classic Rock/Nostalgia Alternative/rising Pop acts, plus lol Bonamassa).

Cigarettes After Sex are a slowcore/dream pop band on an indie label and they have crazy high streaming numbers - it feels like a lot of people don't notice they're this big? their top song is no one's idea of commercial but it's closing in on a billion streams on Spotify pic.twitter.com/Oa4vSpcUai

— Matthew Perpetua (@perpetua) July 13, 2023

heard of them through my mom and david lynch

Pitchfork gave their 2017 album a 7.4, but their 2019 album got a 4.0--a sign that the buzz is over.

the band name vaguely rings a bell. Listening to the top track (Apocalypse) now and not really my thing but I guess I see the appeal, has a real dreamy melancholic easy listening vibe.

the buzz is over
you were with me all the while

This doesn't quite fit here, but my friend is seeing Jimmy Eat World next week in an outdoor theater, and the opening act is a band called "Manchester Orchestra"... I had never heard of them, and looked them up (b/c their name is so odd); turns out they've been around since 2004, have released 6 albums, made numerous TV appearances, "curate" an annual music fest, and have had a bunch of songs featured in films, TV, and video games.

iirc Manchester Orchestra has a few big ilxor fans, I really like a few of their records

I've also been baffled by Manchester Orchestra. A chronically ordinary band, they've been getting main stage placements at festivals for the past decade.

I got sent an email about that tour a few days ago, apparently they played Montana (NOBODY plays Montana) this week.

yeah ilm has 4 threads about them, including:

thread of best rock album of year 2017, 'a black mile to the surface' by manchester orchestra (started by ToddBonzalez (BradNelson) on board I Love Music on Jul 28, 2017)

Gen Z kids love My Bloody Valentine.

Also, reunion bias kinda distorts this question for me:

The last time I saw Pavement (peak) was in 2/97 in a tiny bar in San Francisco (<200 people).

I skipped their TT tour and 2010 reunion shows for various reasons but then I was able to see their most recent reunion shows in this enormous music venue (3 sold out nights at ~3500 seats).

little more of a nuanced example, but in my "trying to keep up with the goons" days of hip hop listening, I got into Jellyroll through the collaboration with Haystak, the Strictly Business album, which got some positive recognition in hip hop zines and HipHopDx. I enjoyed it, it was a solid album. Jellyroll had also had that one song with Lil Wyte that blew up minorly in 2010, "Pop Another Pill", so I thought maybe he'd start getting more big features but then he kinda resumed being more of an undie rapper again and doing low rent mixtapes and I forgot all about him for years.

so I go to Welcome to Rockville in 2021, and I hear a familiar voice at one of the smaller stages, and it's JellyRoll! and people are flocking to the stage quickly, but like it's still one of the smaller stages at the festival.

apparently he blew the fuck up shortly after that, like....dude just won three CMT awards! I was blown away. my friend was talking about him and I was like "the little known rapper that used to collabo with Haystak and Lil Wyte?" and she's like "nah he sings now, he's on TV and has performed at the Grand Ole Opry"

he was on the cover of billboard

in his undies

yea I love the jelly roll story lol

hes come a long way from the days of goon classic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNi0zDTPgOc

There are a ton of artists I've never heard of that have songs doing streaming numbers in the hundreds of millions. Tik Tok, I assume?

Rag'n'Bone Man 852 million
Hotel Ugly 394 m
Roar 432 m
TV Girl 382 m
Falling in Reverse 271 m
David Kushner 351 m
JVKE 732 m
ThxSoMch 295 m
Bakar 323 m
Rainbow Kitten Surprise 262 m

Rag'n'Bone Man is big in the UK I think. At least in a "see his record advertised on the tube" way, never actually heard him.

He looks like Jelly Roll's British equivalent

I hear Rag'n'Bone Man all the time on the radio here (in Montreal).

(xxp) You're not missing much.

Yes, he is very very popular.

Hozier is back for more! We can’t wait to see Hozier at #MyXEC on August 17 on his Unreal Unearth Tour 2024.

Tickets go on sale Friday, November 17, 2023. pic.twitter.com/WWf0dbK9lg

— Xcel Energy Center (@XcelEnergyCtr) November 9, 2023

I recently noticed he had several albums currently on the Billboard 200

Mt. Joy is playing Madison Square Garden next year.

Discovering The Wombats were not only still at it but quite big in the States was jaw-dropping

How the heck does Hozier have the #1 single right now?

I think I mentioned upthread that he played the local 20k hockey arena when he came through on tour, crazy

'shed seven have just had a uk no 1 album, even if such things mean little anymore' to thread

it's not that they're 'more' popular, just that they've somehow played the long game finely enough that the dwindling charts and other media have come closer to them, not the other way round

Imagine sitting down and listening to the new Shed Seven album which you have just bought in a shop.

this is precisely what Michael Dugher and Stella Creasy will be doing rn