what band are you painfully confused by?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

forget joanna newsom. she's annoying as all hell, but I can at least underneath it all see she's an interesting song writer. but what I will never understand is this antony and the johnsons guy. everyone says how magical and beautiful his songs are, but seriously it sounds like he hired a bad studio band to write some songs for a contemporary christian radio station. looking aside his affected vocals, the songs are really quite simple, boring and the instrumentation/production horrible! can anyone please explain to me why everyone is rushing to praise him. Is it just b/c he sings about sexual ambiguity and dresses in boas. I'm kinda tired of all these "freak" folk people, all seems like an act. help me understand!

― breezy, Saturday, 2 April 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

anything ultragrrrl likes and all of "new weird america".

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Saturday, 2 April 2005 15:13 (twenty years ago)

bush

― -the-night-watch- (-the-night-watch-), Saturday, 2 April 2005 15:24 (twenty years ago)

haha. nice one maria. anything ultragrrrl likes. hahaha. thats' cracking me up.

― breezy, Saturday, 2 April 2005 15:49 (twenty years ago)

I think with Antony you either like or dislike his voice pretty much immediately. If you like it, you can then work out what is new about it and where he seems to be building from other singers (i hear a lot of nina simone behind it, and some aaron neville-ish things too). But if you just don't like it, you don't like it. In short, I don't think someone can "argue" you into liking Antony, nor should you feel that you have to.To me it's not about the subject matter but the treatment of it- believe me, as a tired old gay hag I have heard plenty of tranny singer-songwriters and I'm not just instantly fascinated with the subject matter. If anything, making good art out of subject matter that polarizes people so swiftly makes it harder, rather than easier, to create something compelling. I find the instrumentation unobtrusive but sometimes quite spot on- particularly the piano playing.

― Drew Daniel (Drew Daniel), Saturday, 2 April 2005 22:53 (twenty years ago)

Maria, don't you think Like Moving Insects sort of fit, if by accident, into that "New Weird America" thing? They're pretty great, after all.

I'm confused by Devendra Banhart myself, but I'm also confused as to whether many people actually like him or if he's just this "figure" in the "scene" that everyone "knows about".

― Hurting (Hurting), Sunday, 3 April 2005 00:22 (twenty years ago)

drew, how would desribe his antony's music? also, spot on about the polarizing bit making it harder, especially considering that the audience it seems to be directed at probably wouldnt really care what his sexuality or gender identification is in the first place.

― jack cole (jackcole), Sunday, 3 April 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

I can't figure out what is good about the Decembrists, myself, yet I have friends whose taste I usually find reliable who love them (and who have convinced me that Devendra is worth hearing, at least). I tried to like them but I kept hearing: two folkmusic chords and Supertramp. Perhaps one of my blind spots? I am painfully confused!

― edd s hurt (ddduncan), Sunday, 3 April 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

Omar and the Howlers.

― merritt ranew (merritt), Sunday, 3 April 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

Ultragrrrl roxxx.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 3 April 2005 05:00 (twenty years ago)

all those bands the kidz like, i dont understand. it makes afraid and angry and confused.

― curt mudgeon (latebloomer), Sunday, 3 April 2005 06:34 (twenty years ago)

Radiohead

― Bryan Moore (Bryan Moore), Sunday, 3 April 2005 08:36 (twenty years ago)

madvillian

but also .. ROXY MUSIC/ ridicule me now. uck im dur nk. and i'd 2nd 'new weird(beard) america'

― jake b. (cerybut), Sunday, 3 April 2005 10:06 (twenty years ago)

I can't imagine casting Antony's songs as "simple" or "boring"; they have such fluid transitions and dynamics, and I get the feeling that that's half of what makes the record so endlessly straight-through listenable for me. (I also kinda feel like not as many acts are shooting for that kind of songwriting right now, which leaves Antony with a bit of a niche.)

― nabiscothingy (nory), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:35 (twenty years ago)

can you be painfully confused by a band without hating them?

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

yes. And my answer would be the Fiery Furnaces.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:45 (twenty years ago)

oh okay, just asking.

― hstencil (hstencil), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:46 (twenty years ago)

in fact, in my experience a band that provokes an extreme reaction like hate is easy to understand as having a strong appeal for others than one that doesn't affect you much either way. Thin line between love and hate and all.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:49 (twenty years ago)

Although I haven't heard much Antony and the Johnsons, I did hear an NPR piece on the new album, and they placed a bunch of different clips. I was excited when they introduced the piece since I'd been hearing so much about Antony on the blogs.

As soon as I heard the first clip, I was shocked. This is what the indie kids are digging?

Count me painfully confused.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

I'm gonna be able to listen to that thing tomorrow. I have to check it out.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 17:56 (twenty years ago)

What's confusing about the Fiery Furnaces?

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:01 (twenty years ago)

why I should care

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

I like "Single Again" but most of it just rolls right off.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

I gather their a bit of a puzzle band and that they require more concentration than I've given them. I'm just surprised so many people have given them that concentration.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:04 (twenty years ago)

Some people like the Who and psychedelic music and such.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

can you be painfully confused by a band without hating them?

-- hstencil (hstenc!...) (webmail), April 3rd, 2005.

Of course not. We hate what we don't understand! That's why I hate black people so much.

― Mickey (modestmickey), Sunday, 3 April 2005 18:27 (twenty years ago)

Maria, don't you think Like Moving Insects sort of fit, if by accident, into that "New Weird America" thing? They're pretty great, after all.

i dont really think of them as NWE at all. i think they're a bit too contemporary to be part of that group.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 3 April 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

i am definitely on the don't get the fiery furnaces band wagon. I find them extremely annoying. yet I can acknowledge they are doing interesting stuff, I just don't like it. at all.
antony however, I don't have any respect for. his lyrics are so "sexual identity 101", reminds me of freshman year of college. trite to say the least.

― breezy, Sunday, 3 April 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

coheed and cambria

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Sunday, 3 April 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

oh good call

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 3 April 2005 20:37 (twenty years ago)

there has to be a magic cutoff around 18 years of age where you either get or don't get that band. I DON'T FUCKING GET IT.

― latebloomer: AKA Sir Teddy Ruxpin, Former Scientologist (latebloomer), Sunday, 3 April 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

some people see his obviousness as honesty and his simplicity as part of a tradition. I don't think people are listening to him because he's the HOT NEW THING. to me he's just a good songwriter and a great singer. I saw him live last summer with just piano and vocals before I had heard him at all and he was fantastic. he absolutely charmed the whole room.

I missed him on the current tour. is he with a band?

― Sonny! (asshole!), Sunday, 3 April 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

Luke Vibert

I mean some of his stuff at his best is pretty good, and his Wagon Christ persona is pretty good itself (again at his best, so pretty much just the Throbbing Pouch stuff) but otherwiwse I can't get into him.

― AbXy6001, Sunday, 3 April 2005 23:46 (twenty years ago)

There are artists I absolutely fucking loathe, but I can understand why certain people like them, because basically I have nothing but derisive contempt for my fellow man and think most of humanity is comprised of zombified lemmings who'll happily lap up whatever soylent green they're fed before dutifully jumping into a yawning chasm of mediocrity.

That all said, I categorically do not understand how anyone could genuinely get excited by -- let alone even mildly enjoy listening to -- Dizzee Rascal. I don't hate the guy, but I just can't get my head around his music's appeal.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

Don't know all of Vibert's stuff, nor am I a techno expert (I know most of his stuff isn't techno but this one kind of is) but I thought YosepH was a wonderful album. The sounds were so full and juicy, the beats and hooks infectious.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:24 (twenty years ago)

The Smiths. They seem to express this emotion that I just don't have -- this somewhat affected melancholy with a touch of irony and a hint of twee. I watch friends of mine fall into that same state of Morrissey when they listen to The Smiths, but I can't relate.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

You're better off for it, trust me.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

And, honestly, what's so clever about the rhyme "Frankly Mr. Shankley?"

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:37 (twenty years ago)

I hear a tinge of that same "emotion" in The Decembrists and in Belle and Sebastien, neither of whom irritate me anywhere near as much as The Smiths.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, especially since "Shankly" isn't really that common of a name to begin with. It's not the best line in the song though!

xpost

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Monday, 4 April 2005 00:44 (twenty years ago)

I am painfully confused by why people like The Decemberists, The Arcade Fire, and The Fiery Furnaces.

― louis xvi, Monday, 4 April 2005 02:23 (twenty years ago)

Yo La Tengo. I've denounced them many times, but deep down the fact is that they're one of those bands I don't have the secret handshake for.
I don't geddit.

― VegemiteGrrl (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 April 2005 02:29 (twenty years ago)

I'm not so "confused" as to why people like The Decemberists -- they're fun and ostensibly clever and have nice melodies. I still don't like them though.

― Hurting (Hurting), Monday, 4 April 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

miccio otm w/ fiery furnaces. when a pop album works so hard to guard against any actual enjoyment of it, wtf.

― stoleyourbike (stoleyourbike), Monday, 4 April 2005 08:52 (twenty years ago)

LFO - too intelligent to dance to yet not interesting enough to concentrate on and not nice enough to chill to.

Fiery Furnaces - they're frustrating yes, and I want to like them but do I have the patience to sit through 74 minutes of kitchen-prog lyrics over wonky toy noises playing upsetting melodies? On paper they should be my favourite band but it's just too too much to take in.

All this Emo rock stuff people only about a year younger than me listen to - yes, Coheed & Cambria, Minus the Bear, My Chemical Romance. I mean really I can't see how one could get excited by this kind of thing. Is there more to it than the blandest post-grunge songs with little or no hooks that seem to go on forever and ever and ever?

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:30 (twenty years ago)

Hearing Primus is like having an air bubble in my bloodstream only I don't die.

― The Silent Disco (Bimble...), Monday, 4 April 2005 09:32 (twenty years ago)

I'm convinced people are lying when they say they like Wolf Eyes.

― darin (darin), Monday, 4 April 2005 17:44 (twenty years ago)

It breaks my heart that so many of you are pretending that Gallowsbird's Bark does not exist.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:09 (twenty years ago)

But, darin, Wolf Eyes does not painfully confuse you. You hate them.

xpost.

― righteousmaelstrom, Monday, 4 April 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

Hearing Primus is like having an air bubble in my bloodstream only I don't die.

Hahahahahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:11 (twenty years ago)

The Smiths [...]
-- Hurting

I hear a tinge of that same "emotion" in The Decembrists and in Belle and Sebastien, neither of whom irritate me anywhere near as much as The Smiths.
-- Hurting

OTM! I did like Her Majesty but I see what you're saying... there's something about B&S and the Smiths that I just don't connect with. It took me forever to make myself listen to Sinister and God Save the Queen all the way through and neither has crossed my mind since.

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:32 (twenty years ago)

I'm convinced people are lying when they say they like Wolf Eyes

I was pretty confounded at the idea of enjoying Wolf Eyes at first, but I'm starting to come around to Burned Mind and finding it kind of interesting. Although I'm rarely in the mood to hear it, I haven't listened to it at ear-splitting, room-shaking volume, and my favorite track is one of the quietest on the album ("Reaper's Gong"), so I'm probably missing the point altogether, heh. [/audition for noise dude enemy list]

Hearing Primus is like having an air bubble in my bloodstream only I don't die.
-- The Silent Disco

I do dislike them, but I never thought there was really a lot to "get" about Primus. So I'm not really confused by them so much as I simply dismiss them as uninteresting to me.

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:43 (twenty years ago)

I too thought the Decembrists were purveyors of pretentious claptrap-until I heard the Arcade Fire, at which point the Decembrists started sounding good to me.

― Ken L (Ken L), Monday, 4 April 2005 18:50 (twenty years ago)

I was gonna mention how Animal Collective et al tend to meander an awful lot between great moments. But I just listened to this Ariel Pink "For Kate I Wait" thing (a signing to their label?), and won't bother now.

And, honestly, what's so clever about the rhyme "Frankly Mr. Shankley?"

Hehe, way to pick a representative and truly top-shelf Smiths song...

― Nag! Nag! Nag! (Nag! Nag! Nag!), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:12 (twenty years ago)

I only know one Arcade Fire song and I like it but then I was die-hard Smiths fan from the beginning. BTW, I can see why some Smiths fans became B&S fans but how are they similar. Morrissey was sophomoric at worst but had a desire to be funny or at least arch. I don't hear that in B&S at all.

coheed and cambria

My gf's 16 yr. old brother who has extensively raided out record/cd collection loves this band and, frankly, I can't understand what there is to love. I won't complain about his voice, since I have loved Dylan, Morrissey, and Lou Reed's singing, bu the song seems amorphous, hookless, for lack of better words, self-indulgent drivel. Do one's testes have to only recently have dropped to get them or am I missing something (i.e. brain tumor, hearning defect, etc...)?

― M. White (Miguelito), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:35 (twenty years ago)

There's a lot of great melodicism on Blueberry Boat, yo.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

I don't get why Kleenex/Lilliput are considered classic.

― Lyra Jane (Lyra Jane), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:43 (twenty years ago)

Their early songs are great and exhibit a real joie de vivre.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:47 (twenty years ago)

I like but can't say I love Coheed and Cambria. But I'm pretty open to the whole emotionally passive-aggressive nu-emo bands, who I tend to find interesting for the same reasons I think they inspire the predictable ILM hate. Coheed and Cambria is simply punk pop Rush, I dig the dude's bratty voice at their best moments, "A Favor House Atlantic" and "Blood Red Summer," the latter track features some nice bubblegum pop vocal hiccups.

― herbert hebert (herbert hebert), Monday, 4 April 2005 22:50 (twenty years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.