"Cult" Artists You Don't "Get"...

[Student_Driver]

@Big Bad Voodoo Lou

I like some Pixies songs, but don’t love the band. Frankly, I think the Pixies, Sonic Youth, and a handful of other late '80s/early '90s “alternative rock” bands simply made it acceptable to be mediocre musicians playing noisy, dissonant music with nonsensical lyrics, and then made that the norm rather than the exception. I also blame them in large part for inspiring Nirvana and grunge in general, making the the first half of the '90s a very vacuous and unpleasant time for rock music in general.

You’ve definitely got the blame pinned correctly; Sonic Youth convinced Nirvana to jump to DGC, which marked their sudden ascent. (I’m a huge Sonic Youth fan, by the by, though I definitely understand why others wouldn’t really care for them… and outside of Nirvana, I really disliked most of the grunge bands. )

I really like some of the stuff done by Richard James/Aphex Twin/whatever moniker he uses at any given time, but he’s also done a lot of stuff that just bores me to tears… don’t wanna mention that to a hardcore fan, though, since everything he’s ever touched is genius. Similarly with Einsturzende Neubauten.

[Jophiel]

By the books, I should like Cat Power but I’ve listened to perhaps a dozen or so of her songs and they never took for me.

[gaffa]

@Duck Duck Goose

I just wasted a Netflix selection on Mitch Hedberg. Neither I nor the Better Half thought he was particularly funny, and we certainly wouldn’t place him in the standup pantheon populated by the likes of Steve Martin, George Carlin, Jonathan Winters, Bob Newhart, and Robin Williams. The “aired” version was marginally superior to the “uncut” version, as it mercifully edited out his interminable foot shuffling, hair tossing, microphone fiddling, and alternately yelling at the audience because they weren’t laughing loud enough, and whining at the audience because they weren’t laughing loud enough.

I suspect that nothing is more subjective than comedy. I watched that uncut Mitch Hedberg special and laughed myself sick. It was one of the most hilarious things I have ever seen, bar none. And it is impossible to explain why. National Lampoon had a column titled “Professor Kenilworth Vivisects the Joke”, a piece of meta-humor about the impossibility of explaining why anything is funny. For instance, “slapstick” humor is completely lost on me. I’ve never so much as chuckled at the Three Stooges. But I know a lot of people love them.

[Talon_Karrde]

@Lisa-go-Blind

As someone who lives in Austin, this is heresy, but Daniel Johnston. The Hi How Are You frog makes me smile when I’m walking down the Drag, but his music does nothing for me. From my experience, there’s no such thing as a casual Daniel Johnston fan either. Everyone gushes about how he’s the most brilliant songwriter since Brian Wilson and is really better than Brian Wilson anyway. This is big talk about someone who sounds like a mentally damaged nine-year-old who thinks he’s John Lennon.

That’s who I came in to mention. I like some of his songs but don’t think he’s one of the best songwriters ever or anything. He’s not even the best emotionally unstable songwriter that writes deeply personal and revealing songs: I prefer Chris Bell and Syd Barrett.

There’s also The Minutemen. What I downloaded some of their songs a few years back they didn’t do much for me. There are other bands I started listening to at the same time, like Husker Du, which I didn’t like at first but grew to like, but The Minutemen didn’t grow on me and I lost interest and stopped listening to them.

Speaking of Husker Du, I still think Zen Arcade has a lot of stretches of pointlessness and it’s hard to pick out the good songs because it starts blending together and losing my attention.

[Cisco]

@Duck Duck Goose

We begged to differ. We’ve seen standup comics do the “drunk” shtick successfully, and this wasn’t it.

But he really was drunk. And high.

[Horatio_Hellpop]

@Equipoise

I’m perplexed as to why you think you’re “supposed” to be a rabid fan of Kate Bush. All these people in this thread, MOST especially Kate Bush, are “cult” artists for a very good reason, they only appeal to a small subset of music lovers. Why are you “supposed” to be in that subset? Admittedly I’m a rabid fan too and find much of her music very emotional (regarding your ‘leaves me cold’ remark) but I have never ever thought to myself “Why doesn’t everybody adore Kate Bush?” because I know that she’s only going to appeal to a small group of people. The same could be said for everyone mentioned in this thread.

And Joan Armatrading? How random. She’s hardly a cult artist. Why not Minnie Ripperton or Diamanda Galas or Eddi Reader or Alison Shaw or Sandy Denny or Noe Venable or about a thousand others? What in the world made you pull Joan Armatrading of all people out of a hat? I’m just curious.

When I got to college in 1979, there was a quantum shift of artists who it was okay to profess admiration for. Queen and the Eagles were out, Kate Bush and Rickie Lee Jones were in. Joan Armatrading was definitely in the pantheon of “Acceptable for college radio listening,” but based on the few times I’d heard her–including a terrible appearance on SNL–the snob appeal cachet was overwhelmed by the intense displeasure of actually listening to her.

[scout1222]

I’m glad to see Sonic Youth getting multiple mentions. They opened for Pearl Jam recently, and while my boyfriend likes them and was enjoying the music…I had to get up and walk outside to browse the t-shirts. Cripes what a bunch of noise. I just don’t get it.

[ralph124c]

Francis X. Bushman (actor)
Jimmie Buffet (music)
Al Gore (environmental pseudoscientist)

[Wendell_Wagner]

There’s a Francis X. Bushman cult? An actor who died in 1966 and whose movie career faded out in the 1930’s? Where did you even hear about Bushman?

[Gukumatz]

@Wendell Wagner

There’s a Francis X. Bushman cult? An actor who died in 1966 and whose movie career faded out in the 1930’s? Where did you even hear about Bushman?

For the same reason there’s a Bela Lugosi cult.

(Actually, I love Bela Lugosi and have since I found that the IMDB had originally posted two death dates on his profile. Ten years apart. What an awesome tribute to the greatest vampire in history.)

[Wendell_Wagner]

I can understand a Bela Lugosi cult. His movies are still freqently shown. As recently as the film Ed Wood, someone played him and won a Oscar. I can’t understand a Francis X. Bushman cult though. His movies are hardly ever shown. ralph124c, where did you even hear about Bushman?

[whistlepig]

Barenaked Ladies. They’re a parody of a folk group, right? And they’ve been doing that schtick for a long, long time?

[Kythereia]

@whistlepig

Barenaked Ladies. They’re a parody of a folk group, right? And they’ve been doing that schtick for a long, long time?

Well, there were legitimate folk / rock songs (Call and Answer, Jane) alongside the cheesy-fun parody stuff (If I Had a Million Dollars, Be My Yoko Ono).

I bought their latest CD a while ago; it seems like they’ve ditched the parody songs and gone into straight-up rock. Which is a shame–I still get If I Had a Million Dollars stuck in my head on occasion.

[Kythereia]

Sorry, ducking back in: my personal vote goes to Pushing Daisies. Tried a few episodes, wasn’t my kettle of tea.

[Sitnam]

Phish sucks, recoil in horror if you potheads like, but Phish still sucks.

[Plynck]

Fans of “cult” artists are torn by two conflicting emotions: Fear that their favorite artist will not achieve widespread recognition, and fear that they will.

[Baldwin]

@Boyo Jim

Ok, an “artist” in a different medium – Peewee Herman. I never got him, and I have friends who thought he the comic genius the the French used to think Jerry Lewis was.

Do you mean Paul Reubens? He’s done a lot of characters besides Pee Wee Herman, though that’s the one people remember most.

@Freudian Slit

Leonard Cohen. His s longs…they sound kind of whiny, like a chick on her period. I’m not sure what there is to like about it.

That’s baffling. Could you give a specific example?

I’ve never made it through a Cormac McCarthy novel because of his awful prose style, even though he tells some strong stories.

[Boyo_Jim]

@Baldwin

Do you mean Paul Reubens? He’s done a lot of characters besides Pee Wee Herman, though that’s the one people remember most…

Yes, I meant him, though I never heard of him by the Reubens name until later, after the porn theater masturbation mess. I assumed he changed to the Reubens name because his Peewee career was effectively destroyed.

I though he was great in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If he appeared under the Reubens name before or during the reign of the Peewee movies, I’m unaware of it. Perhaps you can point to something?

So really, I should say I never understood or like the Peewee Herman persona.

[ralph124c]

@Wendell Wagner

There’s a Francis X. Bushman cult? An actor who died in 1966 and whose movie career faded out in the 1930’s? Where did you even hear about Bushman?

Answer: the old MAD magazine used to metion the name-and it stuck in my head, for some reason. I thought somebody on the board would know!

[Baldwin]

@Boyo Jim

Yes, I meant him, though I never heard of him by the Reubens name until later, after the porn theater masturbation mess. I assumed he changed to the Reubens name because his Peewee career was effectively destroyed.

I though he was great in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If he appeared under the Reubens name before or during the reign of the Peewee movies, I’m unaware of it. Perhaps you can point to something?

So really, I should say I never understood or like the Peewee Herman persona.

Well, he was born in 1952 as Paul Rubenfeld, and acting in Hollywood since 1970 or '71 as Paul Reubens; did a lot of characters, but I don’t think he debuted “Pee Wee Herman” until the late '70s. Admittedly, Pee Wee isn’t a universally appealing character; I could only ever take him in small doses.

(Never understood the porn theater thing. What’s the big deal about a guy playing with himself in a porn theater? Not hurting anybody. I thought the scandal was that public money and police resources were being wasted on such a worthless “sting” operation.)