I Just Don't Get the Hype

[Gribbz]

I recently sat down and listened to Bird's entire discography for the first time. He really is a fantastic musician. A lot more range than I imagined.

[bmack86]

Joanna Newsom. Some people absolutely adore her, I don't get it at all. Can't get through her shrill voice and her harp playing is pleasant, but I don't get anything from it. I've listened to Ys and part of her last album. The only song I can take from her is 'Peach, Pear, Plum'. .

Obviously, I adore her. The reasons being: 1) she is an incredible lyricist and storyteller, and 2) one of the best musicians I've ever witnessed. Sheer fuckin' talent.

[elephant6!]

I don't get the hype on The Black Keys. I feel like a modern music heretic by saying so, but they just sound pretty mediocre to me. I like their sound, but I just think that they're only mildly interesting. I have always been a White Stripes fan, and the constant comparisons were pretty annoying, but if you must compare, I'd choose the Stripes any day. And all of my Black Keys loving friends bag on the dangermouse produced material and worship Thickfreakness and Rubber Factory. I might be crazy for thinking this ahah.

[TomAz]

Perhaps you should reconsider your points of reference.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

I didn't realize people compared Black Keys and White Stripes to each other. Do they sound similar, besides having guitars and drums and vocals?

[TomAz]

Some people think the whites play blues, like the blacks.

[hippityhip]

Some people think the whites play blues, like the blacks.

I see what you did here.

[SlowMotionApocalypse]

Bob Dylan

[Gribbz]

I didn't realize people compared Black Keys and White Stripes to each other. Do they sound similar, besides having guitars and drums and vocals?

I don't think they sound alike at all. I've always found that comparison extremely annoying and misguided. Then again, I think Jack White is a gigantic douchebag.

[theanteater]

At the Drive In...which I feel almost sad about since everyone is so excited about their set...

[zircona1]

At the Drive In...which I feel almost sad about since everyone is so excited about their set...

I didn't like them either when I listened to them years ago, I kept thinking that they kinda sounded like Linkin Park.

[mountmccabe]

I didn't realize people compared Black Keys and White Stripes to each other. Do they sound similar, besides having guitars and drums and vocals?

The Black Keys popped up on a lot of radars not long after the White Stripes did, they were both two-person bands and (at the time, at least) they both played blues-influenced, garagey music. They don't sound the same but they do sound more similar than most pairs of bands. And, really, much of what I remember was more using those superficial similarities as a jumping off point to talk about their differences.

Actually, looking for some thoughts from the time I found the Pitchfork review of Thickfreakness, which starts

The pressure to make a White Stripes comparison here is almost unbearable, so I'll get this out of the way quick-like: The Black Keys and the Stripes will inevitably be indexed on the same page in the great canon of Rock history, but paper similarities aside-- each duo brazenly, turbulently rehashing American blues tradition through a minimalist storm of scraping guitars and bruised skins-- they've got almost nothing in common. The Black Keys may just be a couple of white dudes from Akron, but they seem closer in spirit to something that Muddy Waters himself might've considered "the blues" than to any midwestern bar-band's approximation of it. The only Stripes link of any importance, in fact, is that the Keys' previous album was better, too.

A NYT review of Elephant can't help but mention the Keys "the White Stripes have opened doors for other back-to-basics rockers, including duos like the Black Keys and the Kills."

[mountmccabe]

I didn't like them either when I listened to them years ago, I kept thinking that they kinda sounded like Linkin Park.

Your chronology is off. Linkin Park kinda sounded like a dumbed down, less adventurous At the Drive-In.

[bmack86]

Kinda wish people would think before they say (or write) things like that. Chronologies aren't that hard to figure out.

[TomAz]

I didn't like them either when I listened to them years ago, I kept thinking that they kinda sounded like Linkin Park.

Also you may be hearing the album with the hardened ears of someone who first heard all the inferior imitation stuff that came after.

...

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

Well, when he first listened to ATDI years ago, it wasn't as many years ago as when he first heard Linkin Park, and therefore formed a strange frame of reference. He's wrong though.

My friend saw ATDI in like 1998 or some at some KXLU-sponsored fest and kept urging me no to listen to them because they were "like an indie rage Against the Machine with lyrics that don't make sense." I'm glad i ended up not listening to him.

[rag and bone]

They always reminded me of a Mars Volta rip off.




...kidding

[bmack86]

My friend saw ATDI in like 1998 or some at some KXLU-sponsored fest and kept urging me no to listen to them because they were "like an indie rage Against the Machine with lyrics that don't make sense." I'm glad i ended up not listening to him.

But really, that's not a horrid description of them. Lots of people at the time seemed to frame them as a more melodic and obtuse RATM.

[zircona1]

OK, so they were active before Linkin Park. Sorry if I offended anyone.

[kreutz2112]

I get the Rage comparison, but Linkin Park? I don't hear it.

[zircona1]

You know what? I think I'm gonna just listen to them again.

[Drinkey McDrinkerstein]

But really, that's not a horrid description of them. Lots of people at the time seemed to frame them as a more melodic and obtuse RATM.

No, it's not, but the person who told me that HATES Rage Against The Machine hahaha

[mountmccabe]

OK, so they were active before Linkin Park. Sorry if I offended anyone.

No offense taken! I hope I didn't come off as offended and if I did I apologize.

You know what? I think I'm gonna just listen to them again.

Now there's the spirit!


Also I get the RATM comparison, in the sense that it was valuable at the to begin thinking of them in those terms.

I found it very useful to think of Sparta and the Mars Volta as ATDI divided, to an almost mathematical precision. The former band continued on with more of the base sound, the latter with more of the wildness and obtuseness. I find it even more interesting that they continued to diverge along those paths until Sparta was dull and saying nothing and the Mars Volta was too far out for me to follow/appreciate while still listening to other bands.

[zircona1]

No offense taken! I hope I didn't come off as offended and if I did I apologize.

Nah, it's cool.

[ods..]

You know what? I think I'm gonna just listen to them again.

This is the attitude everyone should have about EVERY band they dislike!

[PotVsKtl]

[bmack86]

This is the attitude everyone should have about EVERY band they dislike!

Fuck Bon Jovi. No amount of relistening will change my mind.

[Ride a Tire!]

Fuck Bon Jovi. No amount of relistening will change my mind.

...you're halfway there.

[buddy]

Pearl Jam. I just can't get over Vedder's voice, seems like a nice enough guy, though.

[Gribbz]

I just cannot get into Cloud Nothings for the life of me.