Why does everyone hate Ocean Colour Scene & Cast?

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seems so from reading the ILM archives... Is it just britpop backlash? I actually like the first Cast album and OCS's Moseley Shoals (and their b-sides collection is about 1/2 good). Subsequent releases from both bands have been of diminishing quality though. I'm not saying I love 'em but I think these are pretty solid trad-rock records that will hold up over time. Any thoughts?

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd take "extremely liquid avant-rock that everyone will forget about tomorrow" over "pretty solid trad-rock records that will hold up over time" any day!

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

With Tracer, more or less. I got free copies of both Cast and OCS's debut (yes, the 1992 record -- the one they try to forget!) and there are bits on both I don't mind. But I don't think I've listened to either in many a year, and compared to Oasis' debut neither send me.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cast is OK in a dopey Cat Stevens kind of way. OCS have no reason to exist. The reason some 'trad-rock' records hold up over time is because they weren't 'trad' when they were actually released, dig?

― dave q, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

point taken about trad-rock, but the great thing about art, music, lit., is that you don't have to always push the envelope to be good. Refinement and performance are valuable too. Ned, Oasis' debut is certainly better.

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Why do I/did I hate Cast + OCS? Dull, grey plodding dad-rock lacking any of the energy or wit that makes great rock music. Just one exhausted cliché after. Unbearably bad.

― stevo, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i dunno, i think they both have a lot of energy, esp. the guitar playing, like the solo in the first song on Moseley Shoals. YEah it's nothing new but it sounds good. What exaclty is dad-rock? anything that has a 60's influence? Stuff dad's listen too? I don't think my dad listens to any rock.

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

stevo, i should say I agree about the lack of wit. the only humorous moments on a Cast or OCS record are unintentional...

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't hate Ocean Colour Scene -- though they're far from my cup of tea. Cast are just DULLLLLLLLL, however.

― Alex in NYC, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Refinement and performance are valuable too.

But not if it produces an adverse or cold reaction in the listener/viewer/reader/whatever. I'm not about to get the whole debate Phil and I beat into the ground running again, but a musician can be a well-schooled, well-trained, 'professional' craftsman and still create little of worth in the opinion of many.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ned, i won't disagree, actually I avoided the term "technique" because what you say is true. I meant performance more in the sense of the energy and palpability of the recording, not in the technical or preofessional merits. While it's clear that a musician or writer or painter can produce something of unarguable technical merit that is still quite boring or uninteresting otherwise, I don't think that was the case here. I mean, a lot of people liked these records when they came out (but they still weren't exactly mainstream). I'm saying, I like rock music and I can appreciate a decent example of the form, which I think these two records are. And it seems to me that since the nature of rock is that even the "classics" can wear a bit thin at times, it's not bad to have some more of it. Let's face it, at this point all rock is basically re-hashing, but it can still sound good. Nothing wrong with a good trad rock album here and there, nothing wrong with a decent retro-film noir like LA Confidential now and again. That is if you valued the genre to begin with. DO I make any sense? Anyway, I am gonna listen to all change tonight and see If I actually believe my own words...

― g, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was just on tour with the drummer from Cast, I think they just broke up very recently. He was a "top geezer" as you people say, a total laugh and a good guy to hang out with. Only "Sandstorm" made it to the US.

― Andy, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Can you say 'pedestrian'?

― Alacrán, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

SNAP What Stevo said. Having OCS/Cast on a loop - would be tantamount to torture.

― DJ Martian, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They've split? Good. Isn't it wonderful that Cast's recent "comeback" single and album didn't even make the *Top 75*?

OCS's "Profit In Peace" = most inane, simplistic, childish, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid record ever made by anyone?

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'pedestrian'

― duane, Friday, 16 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'em but I think these are pretty solid trad-rock records that will hold up over time

well, this pretty much sums up why i, personally, find nothing to like in these records. flat, blokey, stolid. i'm not hugely the person to ask though (i have never liked Oasis either). i agree that music doesn't have to be innovative to be good (much of the music i like is that that comes immediately after the innovators, and fills in and colours what the innovators did, but these really are the stragglers).

i suppose its not so much what these kinds of bands are that i dislike and feel alienated from, but what they refute, what they lack (glamour, beauty, style, excitement, ambivalence, fun, sounds, noises, empathy)

― gareth, Saturday, 17 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blandness is capable of crossing a line that makes if offensive. Both bands haven't so much crossed this particular line as they've willfully catapulted themselves over it.

― Andy, Saturday, 17 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Whoa Andy! Let's not get too carried away here! Bland as they may be, Cast and OCS have just taken number #247 in the Inferno's vestibule and heard #3 called, while the tops of the Stereophonic's heads are being used as ice-golf tees in the Ninth Circle.

― dave q, Saturday, 17 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yuck. They both suck Paul Weller's cock in Hell.

― suzy, Saturday, 17 November 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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