Sometimes a poster will ask what people have against a band or solo artist and someone will inevitably come along and say that they’re not that bad, they’re just bland and inoffensive.
So just out of curiosity, I’d like to see some bands, singers, and songs named who you guys don’t think fall into that category. Thanks.
Nick Cave
An album titled “Murder Ballads”, numerous darkly cryptic tunes that seem to be almost love songs until you really start thinking about it, lots of stuff based on old spiritual songs (but not the “jesus loves me” type, more the “why god, why?” variety). He’s not my favorite artist but I do like him a lot and I doubt you’ll find anything more opposite of “bland and inoffensive”.
Pat Boone has always been hip and edgy.
Woot! This is gonna take me awhile to put together, butI promise I’ll be back with a list!
Swans: Raping a Slave
Einstürzende Neubauten: Z.N.S.
Big Black: Kerosene
Young Gods: Longue Route
None of these are bland or inoffensive…
I have more. But I’m curious what Bo is gonna pull out!
Apocalypso: not that there’s anything wrong with Murder Ballads, but it’s not the Nick Cave I’d drag out as a counter to “bland and inoffensive”. More something like King Ink or From Her to Eternity
Good choice. And say what you will about Tom Waits, but he’s not bland and inoffensive.
Death Grips: Guillotine
Itgoes itgoes itgoes itgoes…
Try The Pogues, perhaps something from Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash…
Sure. Artists like Fleetwood Mac, Sheryl Crow and ABBA are often derided as bland, or lumped together with other commercial, pop artists that are legitimately labeled as toss-offs - when in fact the songs are excellent, the production and arranging is great and there is a lot more there than meets the eye.
So if you are looking for bands that might legitimately accused of being bland but aren’t, I would suggest folks like them.
Now, if you are looking for more polar opposites, the most unbland, offensive, relentless song I tend to turn to is Just One Fix by Ministry. Playing this song quietly should be a prosecutable offense. Get ready to break stuff.
I think WordMan is on to something. There’s plenty of angry offensive music. Most of punk, most of industrial, lots of heavy metal. Kiss may seem campy now, but they wouldn’t be called bland and inoffensive.
When someone calls (let’s say) Justin Beiber bland and inoffensive, I don’t think they’re saying, “I wish he sounded like Gwar.” I think they mean he should sing deeper more meaningful songs, with more sophisticated music.
But by all means, let’s continue to list our favorite loud 'n angry music. I nominate Nitzer Ebb, Nine Inch Nails, and put in a second vote for Einstuerzende Neubauten.
I think you don’t have to stray so far from the mainstream to find ‘not bland and inoffensive’. I’ve been listening to Cee-Lo Green some lately, and his voice lends his music a powerful, soulful sound that I’d never describe as bland.
But here are some more interesting things:
Justice - Waters of Nazareth: dance music with a distorted synth lead and a heavy beat. Contrast this with their new album which I found a bit, well, bland and inoffensive.
Janis Joplin - Cry Baby: soulful, blues-inspired rock. There’s so much raw emotion behind her voice, and I like the way it shows in this live video.
LCD Soundsystem - Drunk Girls: LCD Soundsystem usually get described as ‘dance punk’, because their music is guitar driven with a lot of shouting in the vocals, but has a 4/4 dance beat. Their songs tend to be witty and funny if you listen to the words; this one in particular has its more emotional moments too.
Cordelia’s Dad - The Traveler: traditional/folk music with a dark tone. The group are performing a shape note song here from the Sacred Harp tradition. (As a side note, shape note music itself is generally decidedly not ‘bland and inoffensive’, with its stark open harmonies and the fact that the only dynamic direction is ‘as loud as you can possibly sing it’. n.b. as a commenter here points out, it is in fact not Native American.)
I can keep going if you ask me to…
I personally believe that there is a Strung Out song for every occasion. Or maybe it’s just that I listen to Strung Out regardless of the occasion?
Hehe, in that case my Justice track of choice should have been not Waters of Nazareth, but Stress.
Okay, I thought about this a bit, and since my musical taste pretty much runs the gamut, I’m gonna try and save the metal stuff for last. (On preview, I’ll have to do another post for the metal stuff; this post took me quite a while to put together and I need to stand up and do stuff for a bit!)
Peaches never disappoints. Her music is in-your-face, sexual, and fun as hell. As one reviewer said, “subtle” isn’t really in her vocabulary (her 2nd album was called Fatherfucker). For those who don’t know her, it’s worth mentioning that she does not make videos for any of her songs. Instead she encourages fans to make videos and post them online, which I think is one of the ten coolest things any artist working today does. Lady Gaga has nothing, and I mean NOTHING on Peaches; Peaches has been doing it longer and better than Miss Germanotta, IMO.
Fuck The Pain Away
Stuff Me Up
My Dumps (yes, it’s a BEP ‘cover’)
For sheer lunacy, I don’t think you can beat John Trubee’s Blind Man’s Penis. If you play this in an office setting, you are going to be the center of attention for far longer than the 1:40 seconds that the song actually lasts.
Schooly-D has been a favorite of mine since his first release, way back in 1986. Nothing exemplifies his over-the-top cartoonish, misogynistic, ultra-violent pimpin’ style more than B-Boy Rhyme & Riddle, although nowadays he’s best known for his similarly intense and all-over-the-map theme song for Aqua Teen Hunger Force (which is itself the most over-the-top freakish thing on television; it’s one of my favorite shows ever).
I wrote about Assjack on my blog a couple of years ago, and they still rock. If you like Ministry, you’ll like Hank 3’s side project. Yes, you read that right: Assjack is Hank Williams III and the same guys that play in his country band (live that is; for the album, Hank played and recorded every fucking track by himself). This is what they do after the squares have left the show.
Choking Gesture
Redneck Ride
Cocaine The White Devil (Live)
Atari Teenage Riot has been distressing & pissing off people both with their music and their political stance for more than 15 years now.
Speed
Revolution Action
Destroy 2000 Years Of Culture
Tenacious D - Fuck Her Gently. 'Nuff said.
Okay, time for a little punk rock break.
I can’t possibly say enough good things about Fear, so I’ll let their music speak for itself:
Let’s Have A War
I Don’t Care About You
I Love Livin’ In The City
I found Gay For Johnny Depp while browsing youtube videos and was an instant fan. There’s a little-known sub-genre of music called queercore, and GFJD are without a doubt the flagship band. They are gay and they are punk as fuck.
Shh, Put The Shiv To My Throat (this was the first song I ever heard by them, and it was like hearing Refused for the first time all over again; awesome tune!)
Nine Inch Males (Born To Hate)
Belief In God Is So Adorable
Punk is a great genre for finding non-bland and offensive music, since it’s part of the point of it all: to shake things up and say “fuck you” to established forms and conventional attitudes, processes, etc. (I promise to post more punk when I do the metal stuff later.)
Mindless Self Indulgence has been making a career out of semi-offensive dance/rock for more than a decade now.
Bitches
Stupid MF
You’ll Rebel To Anything
Turning back to rap (yes, I’m a huge fan of rap), Mr. Lif is a Boston rapper who’s been making people uncomfortable since he started releasing his own tracks back in the late 1990s. The comparisons to Public Enemy are immediate (and welcome; this guy rocks as hard as PE ever has. I’d travel a couple hundred miles to see them both on the same bill.).
Home Of The Brave
Obama
Live From The Plantation
I probably should have segued to Lords Of Acid right after Peaches, but fuck it, I’m not that organized. I’m basically going thru all my own albums and posting when something kicks me in the head.
Pussy
Rough Sex
I Must Increase My Bust
Reggie Watts is an ultra-talented uber-smart guy. He fronts a terrific band (Maktub), plays keyboards in another (Wayne Horvitz’s 4+1 Ensemble), and has a wicked sense of humor. His latest album is spoken word monologues and songs, but his songs are truly cool: he samples himself live and then loops the samples (again, live) in order to create the song. So every performance is unique even tho it’s a written song. Plus his video is hysterically funny (and features a lead dancer who is amazing to look at).
Fuck Shit Stack
Fuck Shit Stack (Fluttershy) (this is a user video made by a youtube friend of mine; it cracks me up to watch it, so I’m posting it here too)
I Just Want To (so y’all can see this genius at work for yourselves; this one is safe for work)
Returning to punk rock to close the post, Zeke has been a favorite band of mine since I first spotted their album Kicked In The Teeth at the late, lamented Odyssey Records back in '98. Most songs are about cars, motorcycles, guns, drugs, alcohol, sex or some combination of the above. The band is led by the admirably-named Blind Marky Felchtone. They are punk as fuck. If Motörhead was a hardcore band, this is what they would sound like.
I quickly acquired their back catalog. Subsequent albums have not disappointed me, although their last album, *‘Til The Livin’ End] was more biker rock than punk (even so, it’s still got 2 or 3 of their best songs ever on it). Live shows, by the way, are a fucking frenzy that has to be experienced to really appreciate.
Fuck All Night
Slut
Runnin’ Shine
West Seattle Acid Party
Little Queen (safe for work, but rocks hard)
Dragonfly (safe for work, but rocks hard; can you spot the nod to Sabbath?)
On Thru The Night (safe for work, but rocks hard)
Dolphenwulf (safe for work, but rocks hard)
Okay, this was a lot of fun, but it took me a long time to put together. I promise I’ll do a metal post later this afternoon, but right now I gotta take care of some things. I hope everyone enjoys the music here; it sure was fun to do.
She must make some videos, because I’ve seen at least one – and it is a good one. In the video for “Kick It”, Peaches and Iggy Pop fight zombies in an office building.
Well fuck me; you’re right. I went to her website and checked and she has a buttload of “official” videos there, as well as on her youtube channel (username PeachesTV). I can’t remember where I read that she didn’t make her own videos, but obviously I misread or the information was just flat-out wrong.
Dammit, Bo, where I am going to find time to listen to all this? (respect for Bo’s taste, which means I must find time, implied in this grousing).
This is far from bland, and extremely offensive - I Sent Concentration Camp Footage To America’s Funniest Home Videos, by Anal Cunt.
Probably Not Safe For Anyone, really.
On a serious note, there’s massive amounts of music out there that’s neither bland nor inoffensive, but you’re going to have to search for it yourself. It won’t appear on commercial radio or TV, because they are necessarily scared of offending people