Unwanted legacies.

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I don't know much about Guided By Voices to be honest, but from reading threads here, listening to a couple of albums when I was younger... you kinda get the impression that Robert thingy's aim for the band wasn't to sell a lot of records or to make a massive name for them, but perhaps to build up a fanbase and Make A Difference To Them. Their band could be your life, or whatever. I imagine what he saw GBV's legacy as was perhaps a few bands following in his wake, a reappraisal that saw their albums get remastered and rereleased ten years later, maybe even the seeds of a scene being birthed in one of their songs. Old school US indie attitudes.

Instead, Guided By Voices' sole legacy is that they recorded a song that was on the Buffy soundtrack and is now used to soundtrack fanmade compilations of yaoi and hoyay clips from anime, which are then used as masturbation aids by overweight 15-year-old Bible Belt girls. Pwnd.

Please suggest other bands who've been zinged by the legacy they left behind, or perhaps suggest suitable legacies for bands of today. Maybe you'd like to see Deerhoof live on through one of their songs being adopted as the official anthem for a competetive eating tournament, or The Long Blondes being the nickname adopted by Polish white supremacy activist group. I dunno. I'm opening the thread up to you.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Thursday, 1 February 2007 14:59 (seventeen years ago) link

fuck outback steakhouse

― cutty (mcutt), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link

indie kids are constantly discovering 'bee thousand' and 'alien lanes' for the first time. bit of a legacy there

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link

John Cougar Nippleclamps?

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:03 (seventeen years ago) link

dom -- as a twentysomething college student who definitely had his moment discovering bee thousand and alien lanes for the first time, i have actually never heard the buffy soundtrack, and i had no idea until now that gbv are even included on it...and being a pretty big fan of a bunch of their albums -- always discovering something new in the songs when i go back to an album with which i'm somewhat familiar, yet having a handful of their recordings left to really dig into deeply (and remaining greatly interested in doing so over the years) -- i think, dom, that your hypothesis about their destroyed legacy should be considered null and void...because i just don't think that's what most of their fans remember them for

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:07 (seventeen years ago) link

Fountains of Wayne - three albums of modern powerpop pwned by Milf-a-thon Stacey's Mom and track beloved of local radio programmers everywhere I Want An Alien For Christmas. See also: Babybird.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:09 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe not their fans, but the people who came across them that way for the first time, and now - from cultural snobbery or apathy - might not bother to check them out.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

that's a much better example, fountains of wayne...very otm

― Stephen Bush (Stephen B.), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Marilyn Manson absolutely hates the fact that he influenced those Columbine murderers.

― Frogm@n Henry (Frogm@n Henry), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Kaiser Chiefs were called Keyser Soze on T.Wogan's show this morning. If I'd ever actually seen The Usual Suspects, I could come up with some witty theory here.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:13 (seventeen years ago) link

some of the stuff from that new sloan album really reminds me of gbv. i wanna hear that album. plus, there are 30 songs on the new sloan album, so there ya go.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:16 (seventeen years ago) link

gbv will always have fanatical fans/followers in the u.s. for better or worse. i don't know about elsewhere. people who think they are super genius.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link

The Beautiful South - Paul Heaton has a decent white soul voice, the early stuff was biting but wrapped in a radio-friendly cocoon, yet they get tagged as a soundtrack for Mondeo Man.

Also, I'm a fan of Prefab Sprout, but because of the production - which probably sounded like the future at the time, but because they didn't have Cupid and Psyche's budget dated horribly - and 'that jumping frog' song I'd have a HARD JOB LENDING out the album to friends.

Also, Babylon Zoo. He tried to change the world through blue contact lenses and tinfoil kimonos.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:18 (seventeen years ago) link

don't know about babylon zoo. what about blue zoo?

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:22 (seventeen years ago) link

rest assured, "that jumping frog song" was quite the eye-opener to prefab sprout fans when it came out as well.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:23 (seventeen years ago) link

i dunno, there are tons and tons of one-hit-wonders who will always and forever be known for their one big song who had great careers/big influence/supergenius/no really you should hear their early stuff/etc/etc...you know? simple minds for one. big overcoats and molly ringworm... there are literally a ton of them. omd. anything john hughes related, really.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:26 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno, Cars and Girls was quite commercial. It was hardly Kid A in reverse.

Simple Minds were pretty big in the UK, as far as I remember. It's weird watching those VH1 100 Greatest One Hit Wonders and realising that A-Ha etc. would be on the US equivalent of the nostalgia clip-show.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:32 (seventeen years ago) link

i think most bands, if they are remembered for anything at all, have far exceeded their initial dreams.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:41 (seventeen years ago) link

I've never heard of that Buffy thing either but that whole sentence there is probably the best writeup GBV have ever had on here

― Hell Hath No Furry (DJ Mencap), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:42 (seventeen years ago) link

Chumbawamba? Although IIRC, they badly wanted a true hit song and didn't mind sucking the capitalist teet in order to have one ...

― NoTimeBeforeTime (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:46 (seventeen years ago) link

Michael Jackson owns this thread.

― mike a (mike a), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:47 (seventeen years ago) link

how can you not like the jumping frog song?

― the original hauntology blogging crew (Enrique), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:56 (seventeen years ago) link

Paddy McAloon isn't giving it that Morpeth/mid-Atlantic hybrid. Actually, maybe Field Music was his true legacy.

― Mippy (Mippy), Thursday, 1 February 2007 15:58 (seventeen years ago) link

unwanted legacy #1-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00aIhnidcXI

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:08 (seventeen years ago) link

i like guided by voices a lot and i had no idea that they were on buffy.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:10 (seventeen years ago) link

i always heard that early midnite oil was supposed to be super tuff post punk. but i only really know the big hitz.

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

I imagine what he saw GBV's legacy as was perhaps a few bands following in his wake, a reappraisal that saw their albums get remastered and rereleased ten years later, maybe even the seeds of a scene being birthed in one of their songs. Old school US indie attitudes.

i think that's kind of what happened, to be honest - and Bee Thousand got a 3-disc (well, vinyl anyway) box set reissue a couple of years ago. GBV totally fulfill that side of bob's ambition - the ultimate rock nerd fantasy (whether you buy into it or not), with the plethora of releases, the side projects, the lore, the myth, etc. but i think bob also wanted to be Roger Townsend - classic rock frontman and songwriter in the same body. And it was never going to happen, but I don't doubt he wanted it. in terms of 'unwanted legacies', i don't think he likes many of the bands he inspired.

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:22 (seventeen years ago) link

also, i think robert really wanted to be popular, they really tried to do the big rock records w/do the collapse and isolation drills*...i think they ended up indie cuz they were some old wierdos from ohio that just did their own little home projects, i think using them as some kinda "typical" indie band strawman is waaaaaayyyy off...those dudes like worked in sandpaper factories and as schoolteachers, etc, not like pranky art schoolers at all.

*which is actually pretty great

― M@tt He1g3s0n: oh u mad cuz im stylin on u (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:26 (seventeen years ago) link

liz phair is a bad example, because she embraced "selling out", so i'm not sure it's really unwanted that her old fans mostly are either confused or disappointed in her.

i think probably the best example of this is nirvana. they won't be known for their rawness or emotional complexity; instead they'll be known for "smells like teen spirit" and "grunge" and selling millions of records. and i think it's pretty obvious that's not what cobain really cared to be known for.

oh, and i forgot GBV was on the buffy soundtrack until just now. and i actually used to watch buffy.

― Emily Bjurnhjam (Emily Bjurnhjam), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Marilyn Manson absolutely hates the fact that he influenced those Columbine murderers.

-- Frogm@n Henry (le_petitrossignol@yahoo.co.uk), February 1st, 2007.

it actually turned out the Columbine shooters were not Marilyn Manson fans

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:36 (seventeen years ago) link

(they were parrotheads)

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:38 (seventeen years ago) link

More people may have heard Guided by Voices on the Buffy soundtrack than heard, I dunno, Pavement on the Schoolhouse Rock tribute -- but it's not like it was this massive cultural phenomenon or anything.

― jaymc (jaymc), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:43 (seventeen years ago) link

however, i first heard both pavement and ween on the schoolhouse rock tribute, which i got from bmg my sophomore year of high school!

― Emily Bjurnhjam (Emily Bjurnhjam), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:45 (seventeen years ago) link

As Pollard tours from town to town, the press is always, "Guy who had that song on the Buffy soundtrack is playing here tonight." And then interviewers are always, "OK Bob -- let's start with Buffy."

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 1 February 2007 20:50 (seventeen years ago) link

otm. and matt otm.

― i am not a nugget (stevie), Thursday, 1 February 2007 21:16 (seventeen years ago) link

How about good musicians who are best known for (borderline) novelty songs, like Warren Zevon or Thomas Dolby?

(I was going to add Fountains of Wayne, but most of their songs are borderline novelty songs.)

― Hideous Lump (Hideous Lump), Friday, 2 February 2007 04:29 (seventeen years ago) link

If Bob Marley came back today and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

― bendy (bendy), Friday, 2 February 2007 05:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i didn't know they were on the buffy soundtrack, but my friend's lawyer-dad DID start listening to them thanks to an NPR.. and i heard "chicken blows" in a bookstore yesterday and had a moment.

― poortheatre (poortheatre), Friday, 2 February 2007 05:24 (seventeen years ago) link

John Bonham being cited by every shit metal drummer ever?

― If you fuck with Jimmy Mod, you call down the thunder (The Famous Jimmy Mod), Friday, 2 February 2007 05:35 (seventeen years ago) link

"Play Streets of London!"

― Mippy (Mippy), Friday, 2 February 2007 11:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Poor Harold Faltermeyer.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Friday, 2 February 2007 13:20 (seventeen years ago) link

The Meat Puppets: They Were On That Nirvana Unplugged Show.

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 2 February 2007 14:20 (seventeen years ago) link

John Vanderslice: he did that "Bill Gates Must Die" song.

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 2 February 2007 14:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Joy Division: that suicide thing (AND the most un-joy division-sounding song of their whole discography being their biggest/only hit)

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 2 February 2007 14:28 (seventeen years ago) link

vanderslice totally wanted the bill gates thing tho.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Friday, 2 February 2007 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link

If Bob Marley came back today and saw what was being done in his name, he'd never stop throwing up.

What's being done in his name?

― Tom D. (Dada), Friday, 2 February 2007 16:58 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost: k, that's true

― StanM (StanM), Friday, 2 February 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

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