Boston vs. Rush

I don't know who will win out of those four, but I suspect I know who will come in last on ILX, and it ain't Rush.

SY > SP > Boston > Rush

(Not drawn to scale)

SP > Rush > SY >>> Boston >>>>>>> Patriots fans

One poll where I love all four options! This will probably come down to Rush vs SY. Boston and SP made one great album each imo (s/t and Siamese Dream obv). I like "Don't Look Back", Gish, and some later SP singles too, though.

Boston at least have one or two enjoyable songs, which is more than I can say for the rest of the options. So I voted them. No regrets.

Boston by far the best singles band out of these, and the least pretentious. But they were only a great singles band in the 70s...and the only great single was "More Than A Feeling."

Rush's lyrics are far too dopey (with maybe one or two exceptions) and their music too unswinging to be taken seriously beyond the occasional "Oh, right, this song...I think it has a not-silly part in it...somewhere."

I'm baffled that SP were/are taken seriously as anything more significant than the Styx of the 90s. And at least Styx had the (slight) advantage of having a sense of humor, however clumsy.

SY's peaks (Evol through Daydream Nation, plus Washing Machine and the SYR series) largely cancel out the blandness of their late-90s/00s/10s records. Voted SY.

When was Cheap Trick ever uncool?

I guess they were kinda uncool when "The Flame" was a big hit, but besides that I always assumed they were pretty nicely embraced by alt-rock throughout the '80s and '90s.

Where's the Rick Nelson option?

Oh wait, you said Rick Nielsen. That makes more sense.

I always assumed they were pretty nicely embraced by alt-rock throughout the '80s and '90s.

They were, for the most part. Problem was, they also put out uniformly sucky records throughout the 80s and 90s.

As far as Midwest rock goes, beloved, but I always assumed they were disproportionately revered here.

SY > Rush > Boston > Billy Corgan

voted Rush in deference to thread title

I really hate that I had to include sonic youth in this. As cool as Kim Gordon probably is, and as much as I admire their gear, they are probably my least favorite of all 4.

should have gone with sadgasm instead

Boston>Rush>Sonic Youth>Smashing Pumpkins.

Rush > SY > maybe 2 Boston songs > the sound of baby animals being stomped to death > Smashing Pumpkins.

xpost You guys are crazy with your Boston love. Seriously, can anyone defend more than the first album? Out of, what, three albums over 20 years?

I will say this: without Boston we would not have my fave Xgau review:

Boston (Epic, 1976)
When informed that someone has achieved an American synthesis of Led Zeppelin and Yes, all I can do is hold my ears and say gosh. C

It's a fun album but not classic or terribly important

I really hate that I had to include sonic youth in this. As cool as Kim Gordon probably is, and as much as I admire their gear, they are probably my least favorite of all 4.

Lol at "had"

Boston is another band my over 45 raised on AM radio friends despise with a passion, along with bands like the Eagles, for getting shoved down their throats like inescapable product in the '70s. I love the Boston origin story, but this is ur-corporate rock.

rush are pretty amazing, and i don't even /like/ that kind of music much. but their best songs are full of instrumental and vocal hooks, interesting textures, structures, the works. the lyrics can be pretty embarrassing, sure, but geez.

i basically like all these bands save for SP, and that's really mostly because i have an irrational, visceral dislike for much "alternative rock" of that era.

anyway

SY > Rush > Boston > SP

with Rush running a close 2nd

actually maybe Rush would be 1st, i dunno, it depends on my mood. Rush probably has at least as many albums I'd eagerly listen to all the way through as SY.

imo we should make this a second "amanda" thread

Rush slightly ahead of Sonic Youth miles ahead of Smashing Pumpkins slightly ahead of Boston

i like the random assortment of bands. sonic youth is the worst out of these, followed by rush, and then a full furlong ahead boston and the smashing pumpkins are neck and neck. into the final stretch now, rush comes up from behind closing in on both, and he's coming, but it's too late! smashing pumpkins win on the strength of 1979 and Tonight, Tonight because you only ever need to listen to the songs you want to listen to and so bad music bands release cannot and will not be held against them.

Rush, easily. Not sure if I prefer SP or SY, they're both great. I like Boston's hits but they are the only of these that I never just listen to by my own volition.

Eagerly looking forward to handing out FPs like candy to all the Rush haterz ITT.

^^ do it

Don't get too eager, I have a special FP for haterz of Patriots fans.

Found a few clips of Pumpkins covering Rush but don't want to link because they gave me a headache.

Boston knew how to write a tune.
Then they gave it 60 different titles

It's a fun album but not classic or terribly important

Defining importance with music as being emotional resonance, I would say that "More Than a Feeling" has been pretty important in my life. Defining it as beauty, I would say "Hitch a Ride" and others have been pretty important to me also.

Fair enough. I mean I played the hell out of it as a kid and could quote Peace of Mind verbatim but rarely go back to it these days.

More than a feeling was the first guitar solo I learned so there's that.

SY is my favorite but the odds are stacked in their favor here anyway, so i voted for Rush

^ that was at least half my reasoning. other half is held in secret trust by the priests.

boston's debut >> SP's debut >>>>>>>>>> sonic youth's debut >>> rush's debut

BUT

rush >>>> sonic youth >>>> boston > SP

Otm.

No "More Than A Feeling," no "Smells Like Teen Spirit." For this crime alone, Boston should be destroyed.

Something weird to think about: Both Boston and The Cars are rock bands from Boston who released their debut albums within two years of each other, and nearly every single song from both debuts can be heard fairly regularly on classic rock and oldies radio.

Yeah, and both bands (Candy-O excepted) never really managed another good record.

Oh, I completely disagree there. The first five Cars albums are all good to great.

Maybe, but certainly not compared to the first one. I mean, I like the second two Television albums, but ...

Rush>SP/Boston>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>SY

Also Cheap Trick had bad albums in the 90s? They made three and two of them are really great.

Yeah, I probably overstated that. The self-titled one had some decent moments, but was misleadingly/unfairly hyped as THEIR BEST RECORD SINCE IN COLOR!

The "Baby Talk"/"Brontosaurus" single is one of my all-time favorite Cheap Trick things, though.

Rush>Boston>>>>>>Smashing Pumpkins>>>>Five Seconds of Summer>>>>>One Direction>>>>>>Sonic Youth

Any time somebody uses a fucking Robert Christgau review to make their point, they are DQ'd from the discussion.

In Color>every record mentioned in this thread.

Dairy Queened?

"In Color" rules.

"don't look back"
is better than "cherub rock"

AMANDA

the funny thing about Third Stage is that while it rocks considerably less than the two albums before it, at times sometimes I prefer it as it seems like it has more of a individual personality than the prior two albums, even if some of the songs are admittedly bland.

"We're Ready" is fucking sweet and I wish they did more songs like it. "To Be a Man" and "My Destination", though, god are those bleh.

lol that Boston had an album called Corporate America

Boston may be the only band of the four with songs that can justifiably be described as outright bleh.

Like, I don't like much Pumpkins, or listen to much later SY, but neither congress close to bleh IMO. I think Rush is pretty much bleh free.

I second that bleh-notion

Lol writing on phone waiting to get on cruise where I can already tell there are more rush and Boston fans than sp or sy, or have even heard of sy.

Boston's ballads were the worst thing about them. They pretty much avoided them on the s/t but then shit on later albums like "A Man I'll Never Be" and lord was that nauseating(though I like "Amanda").

though the s/t has dreck on it too. "Hitch a Ride" is such middling boredom, "Let Me Take You Home Tonight" had an annoying chorus...

I guess when it boils down to it the reason I still like the album is "More Than a Feeling" (tho I could die happy not hearing it again), "Peace of Mind", "Foreplay/Long Time", and "Smoking".

"Rock and Roll Band" is lame because they wrote it as this cutesy meta tail of their gritty rise to stardom but actually they got their first recording contract before playing a live gig. Yeah, granted *we* in the authorial sense isn't always literal but it was clear in the lyrics of the song that they were trying to paint themselves as some band that came up through the bar scene when they weren't.

Oh, and the chorus sucks.

your cruise mission: convert them.

"what if I told you....."

Have you heard the Good News (about Billy's 4 star album)?

"let me leave some materials with you...this is Daydream Nation. It might mean nothing to you, but once upon a time, it changed my life. Oh, you can go ahead and keep it, I have it on vinyl anyway."

Just played arcade fire over the pa.

only one of these bands has been on incessant earworm repeat for the last three days

With that "Corporate America" thing, I remember reading the articles. Wasn't that Boston getting all left-wing and anti-globalist? I remember that because their music seems so un-hippy and unnatural.

Believe it or not, I read a lot of articles on Boston at one time - because the guy was an engineer and I grew up with an engineer in my house - my dad. So I wanted to learn how an engineer thinks about music. Conceptually, it's interesting but it doesn't move me.

It's like Tom went to MIT to learn how to engineer the best corporate rock band.

it was clear in the lyrics of the song that they were trying to paint themselves as some band that came up through the bar scene when they weren't.

I know what you mean: even though Lynyrd Skynyrd is from Florida, they did "Sweet Home Alabama." They're dead to me now.

Wasn't the first Boston album recorded largely in his basement?

All but one song and the vocals, yep. The one song not recorded in his basement was done in an LA studio as a decoy for the label people who didn't want him recording in his basement.

Also, haha:

While Boylan arranged for Delp to have a custom-made Taylor acoustic guitar for thousands of dollars on the album budget, Scholz recorded such tracks as "More Than a Feeling" in his basement with a $100 Yamaha acoustic guitar.[2][3][7]

"check out these UFOs! I bet this band sounds like they're from outer space!"

^ preceded one of the biggest disappointments of my older siblings' CDs scavenging

Rush.

I don't have strong feelings about any of these bands, but I once saw a chicken walking across the front lawn of Brad Delp's (former) house, so my vote for Boston should be construed as a write-in vote for the chicken.

I'd rather read about Boston than I would a lot of other people, as crap as I think their music is.

Boston and the Sierra Club article below. Scholz is also a PETA member.

http://www.sierraclub.org/boston/scholz_interview.asp

http://i.imgur.com/Ng7wTtB.jpg

(xpost)

http://www.grubgrade.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Boston-Market-1-Chicken-Meal.jpg

and then Geddy Lee had it roasted onstage...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3258/2704497420_84a5f26858.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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

lol rush fans

love that ilx has basically turned into a rush fanclub

CONFORM OR BE CAST OUT

I agree with Rush winning but how the FUCK does Boston beat SP

I wanna take this fucking poll
and shove it up your hole

Honestly, this is the largest concentration of SP fans I've ever seen. I always assumed their stature was roughly equivalent to that of, say, REO Speedwagon.

holmes is the mean age of your community like 57

It's pi.

But it has more to due with the fundamental overwhelming blandness in approach both bands share.

You Can Tune a Piano But The End is the Beginning is the End

Wow @ results. I voted for Sonic Youth in the end.

(Not complaining though.)

Boston wants more sunlight
But Rush ignores their pleas

RIP that old song they used to play

i also like that the results form a descending scale of progness

prog
art
unprog
smurf turds

boston haters got some soul searching to do

*peels out of thread in red barchetta*

still 11 too many

http://www.birchcommunityservices.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Bruschetta.jpg

mmm, barchetta