Smashmouth

obviously their use of the organ can't be ignored.

Insert comment here.

Smashmouth has a much stronger sense of fun than Coldplay has. To me, they sound like a surf-influenced version of The Monkees, which means of course that they are ACE.

on their VH1 Behind The Music they claim they grew weed to fund their demos and get them signed.

Smashmouth are the sort of band that can turn someone anti-pop. Especially when forced to hear inappropriate monkees covers 15x/day on radio-station-with-pathetically-limited-playlist. I don't quite get the comparison with coldplay (suckiness aside), as they certainly have more so called "fun".

I'm with Dan on this one, and I've always been mystified that anyone would go out of his/her way to slag these guys -- it's not as if they pretend to be offering anything more than they deliver on. Plus they have, at various odd points, reminded me both of Stereo MCs and the Trashcan Sinatras, which strikes me as a positive.

I tend to suspect that people who get annoyed by them are too attached to "We Mean It, Man" signifiers. Smashmouth are actually sort of generous and unique, insofar as they've removed any sense of having their own musical/emotional agenda and are essentially just aiming to please. Hence the Monkees thing, I suppose, and while I've never heard a full recording from them, I assume that sometime in the future, there will be a similar retrospective re-evaluation which reveals that their recorded output is actually pretty likeable.

I hate them with a passion. This is not the only, or even major, reason why; but it's as if in that parallel universe inside the movies Smashmouth are the biggest band ever. I just want to be able to watch a nice dumb pop movie once without hearing Smashmouth. Sometimes there'll even be two or three songs from them on one movie. Just about the worst thing in music right now.

But Dan I., apart from hearing them all the time, precisely what is it about them that makes them "the worst thing in music right now?"

Sorry -- don't mean to single you out or anything. I'm just curious because no one on this thread so far has actually supplied any specific reasons for disliking them.

I know, I know. But seeing as how I only ever hear their music on the radio and, of course, in the movies; I couldn't just line one up in the stereo and give it a listen to puzzle out exactly what it is I hate so much. My god, I can't believe I'm actually sullying my memory trying to remember what a Smashmouth song sounds like exactly. Hmmm, well, just in terms of the sounds, there's something in the way they process the guy's voice that is annoying. I'm usually a fan of those retro organ sounds too, but again, for some reason here they're just too "stupid sounding". I don't know how better to describe it right now. I guess the entire structure is like that. It feels as though they calculated exactly what would be the most aggravating thing possible they could do at every musical juncture, then did it. I'm sorry, please don't make me download a smashmouth song. Please. Maybe I'll add more the next time I have the misfortune of hearing them on the radio.