One of the local radio stations I listen to at work has started to play Nickelback’s “Never Again” in heavy rotation (like once every 2 hours). This song is an angry lament against an abusive father. Sample lyric:
He’s drunk again, it’s time to fight
She must have done something wrong tonight
The living room becomes a boxing ring
It’s time to run when you see him clenching his hands
She’s just a woman… never again
And so forth. Hearing this song’s hackneyed cliches (lamenting about spousal abuse is kind of like saying “Gee, that Holocaust thingie sure was unfortunate, wasn’t it?” It’s restating/belaboring the obvious.) over and over again got me to thinking. I actually liked Nickelback’s first two hits, “How You Remind Me,” and “Too Bad,” but once I thought about it, I realized both of THOSE are angry laments as well. “How You Remind Me” is a guy bitching about betrayal by his girl:
It’s not like you to say sorry,
I was waiting on a different story
This time I’m mistaken
for handing you a heart worth breaking
I’ve been wrong, I’ve been down,
to the bottom of every bottle etc.
And “Too Bad” is all about a poor family abandoned by its father:
You left without saying goodbye,
although I’m sure you tried
You call the house from time to time
to make sure we’re alive
But you weren’t there right when I needed you the most
And now I dream about it… and how it’s so bad
And then there’s Nickelback’s lead sing Chad Kroeger’s duet from the Spiderman" soundtrack, “Hero”:
Someone told me, love will now save us
But how can that be
Look what love gave us
A world full of killing
And blood spilling
I guess the point of all this is, geez Kroeger, kill yourself already! You’re bumming me out!
God, I loathe and detest Nickelback, especially “Never Again,” though I thought the song was about an abusive boyfriend/husband rather than an abusive father.
I cringe every time Kroeger sings “She’s just a wooommmaaaannnnnn,” partly because it sounds like he’s in the midst of an excruciatingly difficult bowel movement but mainly because it’s blatantly sexist. And following the line “Haven’t you heard ‘don’t hit a lady’” with “Kicking your ass would be a pleasure” is unintentional comic gold. Thanks for taking the burden of female suffering and oppression upon your manly-man shoulders, Kroeger. I’m sure once they recover from their fit of swooning, brought upon by the shattering of their delicate feminine sensibilities, women everywhere will thank you.
I’ll restate it: I loathe Nickelback. Kroeger sounds like a neanderthal.
It’s funny you should word it like that, since I was thinking a few days ago that he looked like one. I think Nickelback are an average band, but mainly a victim of overexposure.
Rock’s been whinier, though. Look at Staind. Hell, even the name sounds whiny. I think we can blame Nirvana for starting this trend, but at least Nirvana did it well.
Is Chad Kroeger channeling Art Alexakis and/or Billy Corgan? When did it become cool for lead singers to have issues with their fathers? (If that is indeed CK’s problem. Personally I think it’s just a misguided attempt at a PSA.)
This past September, Nickleback played WEND’s End of Summer Weenie Roast. The month prior to that, “Never Again” went into SuperDeluxeUltraExtreeeeeeemeHeavy rotation. The title of the song describes the number of times I want to hear it again. I felt very sorry for the deejays having to fawn all over themselves about how great this song was and what a fantastic band Nickleback is every time they played that song.
Hate Nickleback. Hate.
Although for some reason I still like “How You Remind Me”.
some one beat me to it…as soon as i saw the topic that was my EXACT thought. nickelback, staind, “rock” bands like that don’t rock very hard and only have songs complaining about how their lives suck. THEY suck.
For the record, their first “hit” wasn’t “How You Remind Me;” they got some minor airplay on alternative stations with “Leader of Men,” which was quite a good song. I liked it.
They persevered for quite a long time (they were formed in 1996) before hitting it rich, so I guess it’s all good… but still. I liked “How You Remind Me” but Jesus, that song was overplayed to an incredible amount. “Never Again” is just annoying, and the hero song…
Oh god, the hero song is horrendous.
One of my favorite bands just released a single; I hope to God the over-play that Nickelback recieved doesn’t happen to them. Once the deluge is over, they’ll just fade back into obscurity, the radio stations having eliminated every fan’s desire to ever hear the name Nickelback again.
As for the subject matter of the song – would you really rather hear some testosterone laden version with all the lyrical content of that “let the bodies hit the floor” song yet AGAIN? For that matter, I’d rather the rock bands whine about abusive parents or relationships then yet another recital of how his girl done left him.
I appreciated “How You Remind Me” whenever it came on radio, though I never had the slightest desire to buy the CD. I could listen to “Never Again” when it came on the radio at work without wanting to take a baseball bat to the stereo. I can’t do that for “Too Bad” or “Hero.”
Just like the rock topics of previous times (drinking, babes, getting laid, hating your job, etc.) I’m sure the nauseating influx of whiny “defunctional” lyrics that had its popular debut with Nirvana (and has been carried to laughable extremes with Korn and Disturbed) are probably conceived with half a eye on the marketplace…“Hey, there’s a lot of disaffected kids out there who hate their parents, let’s write a song about how we hate our parents! The sales will go through the roof!”
“How you remind me” had been my first and only exposure to this shower of twats. I was really hoping that they’d turn out to be one hit wonders. I am saddened that it appears we will be hearing more from them.
Unfortunately their music hits a rich vein. To quote Bart Simpson “making teenagers depressed is like shooting fish in a barrel”. At least the Pumpkins and Nirvana were talented. The only noticeable thing about this band, apart from their ability to give me a migraine is the remarkable prognathous jawline of their lead caveman.
I get similiar desires to smack the lyricists for Blink 182 (you’re 30 and married! Stop singing about high-school!), Linkin Park (depression gets really boring), and to a lesser extent Nine Inch Nails (you’re a multibillionaire star in a genre you created! write something upbeat for once!).
Mind you, that’s just the lyrics I don’t like, the music is good. Which is why I find it irritating, I guess.
I believe it was around the time Korn began using it as the subject matter for every single one of their songs/videos/album covers/bowel movements.
At least Art and Billy could write about other stuff, and in the case of the latter, was actually good.
(old fart voice)I haven’t heard a decent new rock band in 5 years.(/old fart voice)
[/quote]
Interpol, White Stripes, Moldy Peaches, Rocket Science, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Modest Mouse, At the Drive In, The Strokes, Death Cab For Cutie, The Vines, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Grinspoon, Bluebottle Kiss, The Devoted Few, Bright Eyes, The Get Up Kids, Magic Dirt, The Postal Service, Cursive, The Sleepy Jackson, Libertines, Liars and Wilco.
Gex gex,
I think actually you’ll find that the strokes are massively overhyped trustafarians, who have influential daddies that managed to whip up a brief storm of interest around them and their crashingly talentless take on real NYC punk. I doubt they will be troubling the charts much again, the backlash must be about due by now. The other bands you mentioned (that i’ve heard of) i concur are great, and i’d add Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Queens of the Stone Age.
Just barely that long. He was 23 when Asbury Park was released. (I don’t count time spent in bands while in school ‘persevering’.)
Hell, 4-5 years on the Doors’ timeframe probably gets you from the formation of the group to Jim Morrison’s death. And 4-5 years after George Harrison first started playing with Lennon and McCartney, they were bigger than God. (Or was it Rod? ;))
This whole spend-all-of-your-20s-paying-dues thing is, IMHO, another artifact of corporate control of the music biz. Makes for worse music too, IMHO: by the time a typical group finally signs a record contract, their creative years are behind them.
