The 90s Alt-Rock Giant That Is Least Embarrasing Itself Today Is...

probably pearl jam tbh

either Pearl Jam or Green Day

went with Green Day

Some of these guys are pretty much strangers to embarrassment.

Trent Reznor or Beck or Bjork or Damon Albarn were they to count, but on the list there, yeah I'm w/Jordan...Pearl Jam.

I take it the lack of Smashing Pumpkins is indicative that they'd have no fucking chance in this poll?

skipped groups that (at least allegedly) no longer exist like NIN and Blur, didn't really consider solo artists. And yeah, i figured Smashing Pumpkins had no chance at all.

http://www.playbill.com/images/photo/a/m/americanidiotcover.jpg

love that these guys actually beat U2 to Broadway

though it's through no lack of effort on Bono's part, I'll admit

of all these groups i'm personally only still paying attention to green day's music but billie joe's face alone disqualifies them from winning this poll

i guess the foos aren't that 'embarrassing' but they're putting out severely diminished music

what is there left to say about U2?

RHCP were born an embarrassment

PJ have aged pretty well tho, that last single of their was pretty dope & vedder made a smooth transition to old rock dude pretty well

pearl jam, because they don't try to please anyone (as their music makes crystal clear).

yeah it's pearl jam because they play for themselves and hardline pearl jam fans only

pearl jam wins alone for that 'deadliest catch' commercial

I haven't heard any new music by any of these guys since 2005, except Pearl Jam who I haven't heard anything new since 1998. Going with the Foo Fighters.

green day

RHCP haven't put out an album since '06, so they're not really embarrassing themselves today per se. i actually enjoyed that one -- fair enough if you never liked these guys, but if you were into them in the 90s i don't really see what there was to dislike about it.

rhcp have been embarrassing themselves since the beginning.

first three RHCP albums are great, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is pretty good and I like to pretend the rest never existed

RHCP and Green Day are HOF-bound simply because they've stuck around for so long and managed to stay in the mainstream consciousness. Neither would've had a shot had they broken up 10 years into their career.

Foo Fighters = Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers if they'd ROCK OUT WITH THEIR TONGUES OUT!!!
Pearl Jam = Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers if they'd ROCK OUT WITH THEIR TONGUES KEPT SAFELY INSIDE THEIR MOUTHS OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE WOMENFOLK!!!
Green Day = because the kids deserve their own bloated-ass arena Who bullshit
REM = searching for an elusive middle ground between late Stones and late XTC
Red Hot Chili Peppers = "hey, if the Lakers would pay us to watch them play, we'd happily just do that"
U2 = the jizz-stained aftermath of a swordfight between God and The Devil

i liked "dani california" a lot

this is all I have to say re: U2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XF_hxuMMcI

rhcp have been embarrassing themselves since the beginning.

http://img.sharedmp3.net/files/pics/451/450439/img_1_pr.jpg

xp: There are assorted RHCP songs off of the albums I pretend never happened that I like ("Dani California" yeah, also "Scar Tissue") but I think of them as albumless singles

Say what you like about Bono, but at least he didn't make the Edge walk around in just a sock.

altho i think everyone should remember that RCHP left us with a video that AT BEST could be described as "possibly racist"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM9uMJWtNww

there could be a poll for what it is exactly about Green Day that makes them most embarrassing 90s alt-rock giant: the broadway show, the video game, the BMW DUI, or the fact the Foxboro Hottubs were created so they could put on their party faces and spray people with PBR anonymously

http://0.tqn.com/d/crime/1/0/n/6/armstrongbj.jpg

Foo Fighters = Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers if they'd ROCK OUT WITH THEIR TONGUES OUT!!!
Pearl Jam = Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers if they'd ROCK OUT WITH THEIR TONGUES KEPT SAFELY INSIDE THEIR MOUTHS OUT OF RESPECT FOR THE WOMENFOLK!!!
Green Day = because the kids deserve their own bloated-ass arena Who bullshit
REM = searching for an elusive middle ground between late Stones and late XTC
Red Hot Chili Peppers = "hey, if the Lakers would pay us to watch them play, we'd happily just do that"
U2 = the jizz-stained aftermath of a swordfight between God and The Devil

lol good post

i love this new ad

"why yes, it's me, bono. i'm in africa because, well, i'm bono. as you can see i landed a plane here in some african valley. oh what's this, it's just my new louis vuitton shoulder bag that i brought with me to africa."

http://www.blogcdn.com/www.luxist.com/media/2010/08/bono-edun-louis-vuitton-ad.jpg

I had never seen that video or heard that song ("Hump De Bump")

still not as embarrassing as "Elvis Ate America"

Arguably more embarrassing than playing guitar with a sock on your dick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19KstSgU-c0&ob=av2e

"this is evil Bono..."

ha see I kind of think of that as the last time U2 wasn't totally embarrassing; THAT is how embarrassing they've become

No Radiohead, no credibility

Radiohead would win by default!

bono should be fucking a dead gazelle in that pic

imo

i've said it before, but to understand how big a tool Bono is, you have to realize that a middle-aged man who has covered his bald head with a hat for over 20 years and still calls himself "The Edge" is seen as a pretty cool, laidback guy - strictly because he stands next to Bono.

R.E.M. least embarrassing.

I thought this was obvious: even Stipe is a cipher.

Ciphers don't get to be embarrassing.

PJ is the only band still making music I buy.

ehhh recent r.e.m. records are at least a little embarrassing

Except for the last, loud one, the three post-1996 albums are low-key and boring -- no socks on dicks.

Stipe is kind of a dick in a sock imo.

Pearl Jam, without a doubt.

i never heard that elvis ate america song before. how come tom waits sues doritos but not u2?

a list has two bands i cared about in the 90s and hate now
and one band i hated in the 90s that i care about now

Stipe's bankrolled some good movies (Velvet Goldmine and Being John Malkovich) which is more than any of these other bozos can say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1l0Gqj1whk

i don't think pearl jam = dad rock is such an inappropriate designation, and actually kind of flattering considered they were jock rock in their heyday.

that description baffles me even more.

Pearl Jam were never really a grunge act in their early days per se, more or less just got stuck with the label due to where they were from, and their prior band connections (ie Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, et al). They really became more straight out rock 'n roll after Ten though. and over time also absorbed more Neil Young-isms due to their association with him.

was speaking more to naming their band after a basketball player, fans mostly basketball players, and i think jeff ament was a pro college player?

oh right, when they were Mookie Blaylock....forgot about that tidbit

the whole "dad rock" term becomes really silly to use when you yourself are or are old enough to be a dad

so only kids under the age of 16 can use it?

Public Enemy and Soul II Soul = Dadrock today.

Stone and Jeff were in Green River, they practically invented Seattle Grunge! You mad!

the strain of rock as typified by Pearl Jam, U2

See, this is already Not A Thing, as those two bands . . . is the overlap among fans such that we can use the phrase "this strain of rock" really significant?

I mean, I like PJ, even though I skipped a couple of the post-Vitalogy albums. I saw them on their latest tour. But if I heard in the next ten minutes that all of U2 were killed in a plane crash, I'd still hate them for not having done it earlier.

I love that Geir's argument is "REM is at their best when they stop being REM"

R.E.M. were a pop band from the beginning. "Document", "Monster", "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" and "Acellerate" are their only rock albums, the rest are all pretty much melodic pop music with few rough edges.

Pearl Jam were never really a grunge act in their early days per se, more or less just got stuck with the label due to where they were from, and their prior band connections (ie Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog, et al).

xxpost

while PJ's lineage was definitely rooted in grunge, there's very little of it in PJ's actual music.

also this is going to touch off the argument over what is 'real grunge', and Melvins fans are going to take over this board once that happens

Hi there!

Says the guy with Melvins tickets for next week.

Regarding Pearl Jam I guess it depends whether you think that grunge=Nirvana or grunge=Pearl Jam. I would say Pearl Jam are more musically typical of the genre, like for instance Eddie Vedder very much defined the archetypical "alternative" American way of performing vocals, copied by acts as desperately pathetic as Hootie & The Blowfish, Dave Matthews, Nickelback and Creed.

there are also those who would say neither were grunge. I mean I can't say it's not there at all on Ten but that album doesn't exactly sound like a carbon copy of those 80's Subpop albums either. and after that album they veered pretty far from that sound.

(some say Nirvana's Bleach is punk. I get sick of labels. Bleach is just GOOD.)

i'd feel weird if my dad sang along with 'rape me' or 'milk it' or 'fight the power', not so much 'bugs' or 'radio free europe'
if you can parse out the inherent ageism, it's a pretty useful label.

there are also those who would say neither were grunge. I mean I can't say it's not there at all on Ten but that album doesn't exactly sound like a carbon copy of those 80's Subpop albums either.

Subpop is a lot of different stuff though. A lot of their most well-known post-1990 releases have been more powerpop than alternative rock.

Especially the early Earth stuff.

Public Enemy and Soul II Soul = Dadrock today.

― Tied Up In Geir (Geir Hongro), Friday, October 8, 2010 6:37 PM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark

Geir this might be one of your wildest claims ever. I wish my dad liked Soul II Soul...he mostly likes 70s classic rock (which is cool enough): I think the only recent-ish bands he paid any attention to was ones like Black Crowes, Tesla, Jeff Healey Band, & prolley the whole Springsteen/U2 axis.

i'm a dad and i like public enemy

Your kid will rebel by liking Pearl Jam, obv.

Geir this might be one of your wildest claims ever. I wish my dad liked Soul II Soul...he mostly likes 70s classic rock (which is cool enough): I think the only recent-ish bands he paid any attention to was ones like Black Crowes, Tesla, Jeff Healey Band, & prolley the whole Springsteen/U2 axis.

Lots of people who grew up in the late 80s/early 90s hating rock are also dads today, mind you.

dad&b

Sub Dad Records

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the middle aged couple across the alley were playing jodeci really loud sunday nite, they have kids!

soon couch humping R&B will be the new dad rock

Tapes n Tapes

you changed your username again?

I think Green Day is the only one of these that is still making stuff that I'm aware of liking.

Drive is a great song.

voted REM. even tho the last decade has been iffy, i'd still be interested in hearing new stuff from them.

Out of all the frontmen, it seems like Vedder and Grohl would be the least embarrassing drinking company, but as a group Green Day might be the best to eat omelettes and coffee with, and wouldn't that trump any musical considerations?

eating coffee sounds pretty painful

i'm sure they'd be gentlemen and brew it for you first, unlike those ruffians in RHCP.

I think i wouldn't want to eat omelettes and coffee with any 40 year old dudes with green hair and eyeliner. Sorry.

I thought that was stage makeup? like Gwar doesn't go around eating breakfast in full-on monster gear, right? haha, not that that wouldn't be awesome watching a dude in 40 pounds of latex ask for help with an 8-letter word for Peruvian singer while sipping demurely from a very tiny glass of orange juice.

was tempted to vote for Pearl Jam but then I remembered the words "Target Exclusive"

xpost "Ms. Hymen? Your Visa card was declined, did you have another card you wanted to use?"

Waiter: Are you all ready to order?
Oderus: YES. I'll have a MEAT....SANDWICH!

may go with Foo Fighters, cuz Dave drummed for the Heartbreakers on SNL the same year Kurt shot himself, dude probably would always have been fine with singing "Times Like These" or "Wheels"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-QYAWXK7fo

really shouldn't win this

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

YES.

i would say that the results are 100% in the right order

^

Pearl Jam and REM are like Obama-McCain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaD_fvehAaU

VICTORY CELEBRATION AT TARGET!!!