Yuck - are they good or do they suck? (also, how old are you?)

I've recently been introduced to Yuck and I was pleasantly surprised such that I may well catch them at Primavera.

I am old enough to know better though.

they suck and i hate the fat fuck with the stupid hair and i am old enough to often enjoy lol 90s revivalism

pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock

xpost I've voted "good", although I'm quite aware and willing to forgive most of their many flaws.

That said, at 30, and having got into alternative music in '94, I feel like most of the music they're referencing is just a tinsy weensy bit before my time. I don't really know much about their influences beyond Sonic Youth/early Pumpkins/MBV. Maybe I'd be of a different opinion if I actually owned a Sugar or Lemonheads album.

I might see them at Primavera too though!

is 'Copper Water' a euphemism for having the shits y/n

they're ok. i'm 31

Copper Water? I meant Copper Blue. Do excuse me.

Never heard of 'em until just now. Checked out three videos on YouTube. Didn't make it all the way through any of 'em. They're boring. I'm 39.

this song makes me feel like i'm swimming laps in the english channel cause every time i'd get to france they'd be like passport please and i'd be like i ain't got no passport so they'd send me back. then when i got back to england i'd forget why i had to go back and i'd just go back to france again. i could tell i was getting close to france cause there were always tons of baguettes floating around. i would eat these salty baguette for energy. i picked one up and it was like yo do not eat me...
ultramincubed 2 months ago 15

42. Seems ok. I keep reading their name as "Fuck" (who were probably a better 90's indie group). I can't imagine why they'd be controversial. They seem like a Merge band.

That said, at 30, and having got into alternative music in '94, I feel like most of the music they're referencing is just a tinsy weensy bit before my time.

This is exactly how I feel, though I'm a couple years younger. But that teensy weensy bit can mean a lot. If you didn't grow up with a band it's hard to truly hate something that apes it.

i'm listening to 'rubber' and hearing some bits of 90s post-hardcore/emo stuff which is pleasant

its not bad, its not great, its pretty much mediocre. One thing i don't like about them is their faces.
http://listendammit.com/wp-content/themes/listendammit/images/yuck.jpg

Kind of sort of the same lineup as Fucked Up, right? One biggish sloppy looking guy, girl brown hair bangs, skinny white hipster guys on guitar. Maybe it's a thing.

I was good friends with the two guitarists growing up, so it's great to see them doing so well, and getting all this coverage! I reckon the album is good, if not really my thing..

i fuck w/ "get away" -- are they this year's version of male bonding? if so, i'm in

not sure why they were all like "let's pour vegetable oil on a naked chick for our video" tho

"pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock" is right, but i generally have trouble listening to stuff that is so absolutely immersed in the sound of a very specific other age. always a lingering uncanny valley kind of thing biting away at me.

oh yeah i'm 22

shit, "georgia" is awesom

the girl gets naked and washes a dog in one of their vids

10/10

more like "yuck!" to anyone not feeling this hooky indie rock!!

I'm 25 years old. I like that they're doing the 90s indie thing. Seems like there's not many bands doing this kind of stuff (although I could be wrong about this)

So good.

It seems like there's a wave of bands that are doing the 90's indie thing--Cymbals Eat Guitars, Yuck, Japandroids (?), and the new Pains of Being Pure at Heart has some serious Smashing Pumpkins overtones. Are there other groups I'm missing?

I saw them live last year sometime supporting hmm can't actually remember who but anyway, never heard any of their records but live they were alright if obviously derivative. Not awful anyway. I'm 34.

"pleasant-sounding tribute to early-'90s alt-rock" is about right, but I'm 37, so this is mimicking my adolescence and I can't fix stably on it: sometimes it's yeah, what merdeyeux said about uncanny valley (& so get distracted by the ways in which the emulation is wrong – 'need more accurate hairdos' - but then re-realise to them that isn't the point), sometimes funny, also makes me drift off thinking about late 80s Peel, or the way British bands could be fuzzy and slack but would fail on eg solos (vs J. Mascis) or harnessed garage energy (vs Mudhoney), then I'll try to refocus and hear it on its own merits and it'll sound pleasant enough. Can't really vote, but I don't wish them ill.

this band is great and i am 19 years old AND don't know much about 90's indie rock

*rides bicycle off cliff, flies off into horizon*

I listened to their set from SXSW on NPR, and downloaded one of their tunes (Suicide Policeman, maybe?) from RCRDLBL, and really dug it. I'm 41.

i am older than time & i think these dudes are like a b-

I was old then and I am old now (47, since you FUCKING ASKED), and I like the album. These are good songs, who really cares what era they are referencing.

I'm 32. I'd say 'not bad' but I'm not in a good mood so I say they suck.

I'm older than Henry S. What I think (and what other people think) (about one song anyway) is here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2988

lol cajun dance party, very random

If they are 90s revivalists, I am sure they suck. The 90s are better best forgotten by everyone forever. The dark, dark, dark ages of music, where the only genres that provided any music of values were strictly revivalist genres based almost entirely upon styles and elements that existed before 1990.

look what geir brings to the table

I suppose that might be a Facebook group or something. "Let the 90s rest in peace - we don't need a 90s revival ever!" :)

I don't know what the fuck you people think 90's rock sounds like, but Yuck does not.

Who are these magical 90's bands Yuck is referencing? I don't hear it at all.

I believe they're right at the forefront of the 2011 hipster revival movement of 2011.

I don't know what the fuck you people think 90's rock sounds like, but Yuck does not.

I think even the Yuck members don't dare to deny the 90s influence.

I saw Yuck live twice, I like them fine
I like their live show in 2011 more than the live shows of some of their reference points in 2011
I am 31
And 90s revivalism, when it does hit full swing, will sound like Vengaboys

Except for most shoegaze, 90's rock rarely used that much vocal reverb. I like the record, but they sound like a modern band to me. If they're influences are mostly 90's, I don't see how that distinguishes them from 100s of other current new rock bands.

bad grammar is so 90s

they sound like an opening band

after i saw them live it really clicked. they slay.

they sound like the first Teenage Fanclub album, which sounds like 90's indie rock if anything ever did. and I like them although I feel a little weird about it.

I am 35.

Except for most shoegaze, 90's rock rarely used that much vocal reverb.

Vocal reverb = shitty, underproduced low-fi mid-to-late 80s indie. I guess the lack of exaggerated reverb is the reason why indie was probably the one genre that was better in the 90s than in the 80s.

they sound like the first Teenage Fanclub album

Strangely enough, at some point last night I listened to both "Get Away" and "Everybody's Fool."

this is alright but the name really fucks me right off

http://www.dummymag.com/mixes/2011/07/22/dummy-mix-82-yuck/

New single - more of the (a-ok with me) same: http://soundcloud.com/yuck/chew

Full of zest and no appeal.

Their songs 'sound good,' but lack any real depth. They basically drive a single verse and chorus line into the ground for 4 minutes without any variation in each song. Some of the hooks are pretty good, but not enough to hold my interest. I feel like the hype surrounding them is more attributed to people's lack of ability to discern between interesting songwriting and slick production.

Also, for what it's worth, I'm 22.

And I wanna add that I lump Yuck and The Men together as bands who are lauded more for sounding like other good bands than being good themselves.

i think i like that new song more than anything on the first album

i like that first song on the album a lot. the rest i can take or leave.

i'm 34, but inside i'm already dead.

i really like these guys a lot, but i know full well its only because of the nostalgia buttons they are pushing. i'm okay with that. also i'm 35.

how in the world does yuck have "slick production" exactly?

yeah i wanted to question that but then, i don't know. maybe all these laptop home recording kids think anything recorded in a real life studio is "too slick" or w/e.

i'm also wondering how playing verses and choruses for 4 minutes is different from any other rock music but let's do this one at a time

This is literally the worst band on Earth. Discuss amongst yourselves.

No, Earth is a different band. But that is a bold fucking claim in a world where Nickelback and Dave Matthews Band exist.

"get away" is an all-time earworm, havent heard anything else by them on that level

xp I'd rather listen to either.

these guys are alright but i'm still weeding my way thorough orig 90s indie

"Holing Out" and "The Wall" are cool.

No one else besides me likes "Rubber" but I think it sounds like No Age.

always had revivalism or past era fetishism - especially overt - so naturally i hate the living hell out of these guys. it's all borrowing of better ideas, it's all pastiche and pathetically imitative

naturally, i largely consider the 90s the last progressive decade in guitar-based rock

for the aforementioned reasons i do not think yuck sounds 90s... the songwriting is simply not as good as 90s indie rock. they have some good/ok/cool songs though.

man, i really need to start error checking these posts before going through with them.

but i dunno, i just have this innate hostility towards anything that embraces wannabe-ism or celebrates something not it's own. the whole pov sometimes fucks with me to the point that i can't go to renaissance fairs and enjoy

oh for fucks sake

that wasn't intentional... the last word was "myself". i edited it down before posting.

Rev otm

In regards to my 'slick production' comment-

Like 85% of guitar-based 'indie rock' bands these days are usually tagged with 'lo-fi' anyway, but Yuck's album was pretty well recorded. Obviously it's not a Talk Talk record, but it has a certain level of sheen. I was just trying to drive the point home that i think the appeal of their music lies entirely on the surface.

Also, in regards to the 'how playing verses and choruses for 4 minutes is different from any other rock music' comment, I guess it isn't, and really isn't a valid criticism. I just remember feeling like a lot of Yuck's songs were particularly repetitive. Even then, it seems like Yuck's outros just exploit the age-old "same as the verse, with a distortion pedal on" formula... which I can forgive in a band like Ride because their music is 20 years old.

But then again, when Yuck first came out, I was only really starting to come to a point where I understood, or at least felt like I understood, music history well enough that most everything seemed like a rip off of something else. I just felt like Yuck didn't really bring anything new to the influences they were drawing on. It's pure pastiche, even if it's not necessarily unpleasant to the ear.

Yeah the songs aren't there imo. Dino Jr. And Teenage Fanclub were such good songwriters, if you want to get away with reviving their steez, you really have to bring the composition chops to the table or else all you did was make the worst album Eric's Trip ever made

which I can forgive in a band like Ride because their music is 20 years old

this was not invented in 1990 btw.

you're nitpicking, friend

so much hate! i love this band. i'm 22, so say what you will, but i also like plenty of the bands who "got firsties" on this sound in the 90s, apparently rendering it null and void for any future band.

seriously guys, do we really need to have the conversation about the "imitation" that drives almost ALL popular music? Yuck just aren't trying to hide it.

if you think "the songs just aren't there" i don't think there's any way i can convince you otherwise but i racked up more plays on this album (and the b-sides ep from the deluxe ed) than any other last year so as far as i'm concerned, there songs are "there".

the* songs are there, fuck.

Yeah their imitation is pretty blatant, but the sound is so straightforward vocally and compositionally that I feel like the line between imitation and influence is super fuzzy. Better for them to let it come naturally than put an unnatural effort into NOT sounding like Dino Jr. As long as they don't steal actual melodies, what else can they do? Bands that imitate more specific musical recipes are the ones truly forcing it and I'm with you all on that.

It looks like their singer left the band, and the other 3 members are continuing without him. Laaaame.

yikes

On an unrelated note, why are there so many threads that just die after I post in them? I guess I'm just that boring huh.

that happens to me too. thread killers club.

I'm glad you said so. I figured if I mentioned it everyone would let the thread die to rub it in my self-pitying face.

On the topic though, I thought Yuck was as much about the singer as GBV is about Robert Pollard. Strange news.

ty sooooo much Evan for killing Yuck <3

Doing my part with every discussion I squander.

i didn't like yuck that much but i tried the hebronix album just based on the neil michael hagerty connection and it is so boring

lol evan

haha the yuck song you guys voted into the year-end poll was almost parodically dull

Yes!

Die, thread, die!

The thread, the?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ULJ0TXcahM

I still love "Georgia" fwiw

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/12/i-never-thought-about-oscars-brutalist-composer-daniel-blumberg-happiness-horror-of-big-win

Daniel's a very sweet guy, thrilled for his success with The Brutalist.

a deserving winner, too

i'm sure there are good examples throughout history, but this has got to be one of the all-time "band makes good record, one member leaves, band continues and makes bad records" situations.

Yeah, I never even bought the second one after I heard the lead single. That first album still slaps tho.

well it was a real problem that the guy who left was the singer & main songwriter