Well, I kind of liked the first song of his that was popular. Then he came out with another one, and I said “This sounds really similar.” Then the third one sounded just like the first two… and so on. I don’t really hate DMB, but it’s not far above Muzak, IMO. It just all sounds the same.
Interesting. The little improvisational jam sessions they do during each song is what made it interesting to me.
Dave Matthews wasn’t even on my radar until I came out to DC for college. Then a bunch of kids in the dorm liked it, so I heard. And it didn’t grab me at all. A few years later, after I graduated, a friend of mine played their Live at Red Rocks album during a car ride up to New York and I was impressed by how much more was going on musically in their live version than in their normal albums.
So now I’m a casual fan. I have Live at Red Rocks in the rotation, but that’s about it.
I just don’t like the type of music he plays, neo-folk or jam-rock or whatever. It just doesn’t interest me. I don’t like mellow music. I like to get up and dance to songs, I like stuff with energy. His stuff just doesn’t have energy, or at least, the kind of energy I like. He’s a good musician, probably objectively better than most of what I listen to, but I just don’t personally like it.
Also, I’m totally pretentious.
I agree with a lot of the things other people have said about being too mellow, but I’m gonna go a step further and admit that I’m one of those people who actively dislikes Dave Matthews the person, as well as the band. Like, changing the radio station whenever I hear his patented whining come on active, not leaving dead cats on his doorstep active.
I see this dislike as sort of parallel to the hatred of Martha Stewart. I stopped watching her show when I was in middle school, so I don’t remember much of it, but I always found it vaguely interesting. But it’s very, very cool to hate Ms. Stewart, and the major reasons seem to be that she comes across as arrogant and condescending, and that she appeals wildly to a segment of the population that “cool” people strongly dislike (the K-Mart shoppers, et al.).
This is my exact reaction to Dave Matthews, except that he appeals to the popular kids (who, as per my username, it is my duty to dislike on general principle 
). I’m sure he does a lot of very nice things in the world, but that doesn’t make him less of a jerk on a personal level. The main thing that always irked me was… if his band is all about the music, why is it the Dave Matthews Band, and why is he the only one we hear anything about?
I know there’s a lot of bands like that, and I don’t like any of them. 
continuity error and Trekibilia you are totally cracking me up.
Yeah, I like harder-edged stuff too, which is pretty funny because I am 50 years old and one of my kids is a semi-DMB fan (more like the shuffle playlist type). But believe me, that kid is not and never will be a frat-boy.
Sorry for the slight hijack, but it seems funny to me that these days you have parents who like harder rock than their children. I might be one of them someday; my kids are still little. 
I had never heard of him until the Mormon’s trying to convert me mentioned him and now I like him very much. I gather that his vocal sound is not an affectation but due to him spending his childhood in South Africa. And really the only person in this thread qualified to criticise him is TommyTutone who at least did the forgotten classic Shadow On the Road Ahead back in the day.
So, what I’m getting out of this is that a lot of people in here hate Dave Matthews the person because he reminds them of being unpopular in school. :dubious:
I am going to refrain from telling you how stupid that is in great detail, because it’s not The Pit. But really, people, you need to get over it. If you don’t like the music, hey…that’s why Baskin and Robbins make 31 flavors. But by extension to hate the man? Talk about letting the bullies win.
And especially Trekabilia, who hates the guy because it’s called the Dave Matthews Band. :rolleyes: Jebus, man, are you that petty? Do you also have a similar hatred for the Dave Clark Five, or for The Jimi Hendrix Experience? You’ve admitted that you’ve got really no reason outside of the torment you received from people that like DMB, and you still felt the need to contribute?
Heh. I actually have " Under The Table and Dreaming." I’ve only listened to it once. Why? As I listened to it while doing something else, I heard a really long track, I mean over 20 minutes long. When I looked at the cd player I realized it wasn’t the same song after all, but seven tracks had gone by :rolleyes:
I have to admit I kinda don’t like Dave Matthews either.
I have no interest in his music - it all sounds the same to me. But that’s not it. I’ve been to 2 of his concerts but it was just to be with the people who were going.
What struck me was the enthusiasm of a lot of his fans when the music just didn’t seem interesting enough to like or hate it. And he didn’t seem to care about the fans either. They clamored to hear one song - crash, I think it’s called - and he ignored them.
Certainly musicians have a right to move on musically but they are there, in part, to serve the fans (and these folks were really screaming for this song), so I think giving them one song would be the least you could do.
I guess I get the impression that his fans are nuts about him and he doesn’t care about them which makes me think he’s sort of a jerk.
I’m not at all rabid about it. It doesn’t matter to me whether someone else likes his stuff or not. My kids like it.
Basically, it comes down to this: for most people, the man and the music are the same. I know that I personally have almost no knowledge of Dave Matthews other than his music. Obviously he’s much more than music, but to most people, that’s all he is. To tie it to movies, I used to despise Adam Sandler. I didn’t like his comedies, I didn’t like his SNL skits, I thought, “this man sucks.” Then I saw Punch Drunk Love, and I realized that he could act. Now I think, “I’ll see him in serious movies, but not his comedies.” It’s just this way with any celebrity - you associate the person with what they’re famous for, and if you don’t like what they’re famous for, then that carries over since to you, they are one and the same.
I am opposite to most posters here. I am a huge DMB fan.
Every year or so I do a study of a band or singer, and in 2002 I chose DMB. During that year I listened to all of his studio albums, along with 35 live concerts at various points in his/their career. I came to the conclusion that his studio stuff was generally bad, but his live stuff outshined most other live bands save Phish. The extended jams and covers (Watchtower, and Wish You Were Here are two of note) are outstanding. I do enjoy the jazz-esque rock beats, along with the Reggae style they pull out every now and again.
My favorite studio album, is Busted Stuff. From the opening high energy title track, through the hauting melodies in the middle, all coming back to one of my favorite songs, Bartender. I think Grace is Gone is on of the greatest songs about losing faith ever.
His live stuff is all pretty much consistant. The stuff he does with DMB is good, with extended jams and covers aplenty. The Live at Red Rocks, which was mentioned earlier, is very good, but The Gorge is hands down my favorite with the band. He also does lots of college shows with Tim Renoylds, who is a great songwriter and guitarist in his own right. I have a show from Atlanta in 2000 that completly blew my mind.
One of the most fun live shows is Live from the Prism Cafe. Recorded in VA in 1995, it is the oldest recording that I have found. That night the band was on, and Dave’s voice boomed.
A last note would be Dave’s solo album, Some Devil. The ultimate ‘mellow’ album, it is very down and somber. In some way though, he seems to pull it off. Dodo, Gravedigger and Save Me are all outstanding and hauting (especially Save Me with a choir as back up vocals).
I am biased though, I admit that, but I do not think that Dave Matthews sucks.
I don’t get this. “Nasal Whining” is not characteristic of South African music. But then the only DM song I recall is “Crash Into Me” and I only found out he was South African a year after I heard that. Plus that doesn’t explain why he sounds like a lot of other whiny frat-boy bands…
I don’t hate him, because that would imply something about him was enough to generate a powerful emotion in me.
He is just blah. Like watery oatmeal. It’s all just mellow and mushy and noodling to me.
I mean mellow can be great, non loud and non aggressive can be great, but when you combine his style of playing and his style of lyrics the most i can muster is a yawn.
To be honest when they first came out I couldn;t tell the difference between the DMB and hootie and the blowfish when they were on the radio. I still can’t. How one boring band thrives on and another fails is beyond me.
Fans probably have part to do with it to. Not the casual fan but the "must see him every time, buy every bootleg fan. Really rabid fans turn me off to a lot of bands. Tool, Radiohead, etc.
Too many mediocre bands with overly rabid fans.
I have nothing against Dave Matthews or his band, but I do wonder if he announces the title of each song in concert before he sings it, so the audience can tell which one is which.
Actually, I think that the consensus is that most of the people here “hate”, or more appropriately, “don’t care” about him because he’s dull, drab, tedious and boring. Like watery oatmeal, some have said.
Additionally, some also don’t like the fact that he comes across as a pretentious twat with a whiney voice.
We’re already way past the danger point (I apologize, my internet connections were wonky so I wasn’t as diligent in responding to complaints as I ought to have been), but…
[Moderator Speaks] Look, you can insult the artist/musician all you want, that’s what the thread is about, but you can NOT insult the other posters. Making comments about another poster’s musical discernment or taste or education or whatever is NOT permitted.
The thing about the arts (including music) is that there’s lots and lots of room for perfectly valid tastes and opinions that differ from yours. Personal insults directed at other posters are not allowed. If you feel you must, go to the forum called “BBQ Pit” and start a thread there.
Chastain, this means you. The word “idiot” is not acceptable. You have been warned about this before. Heed.
Funny story…I went with some of my friends to a DMB concert some years back. Since we were are all preppy baseball cap wearing frat guys (different fraternities though) in their 20s, we soon were separated from each other in the crowd. I spent most of the show wandering around by myself buying T-shirts and talking to girls and whatnot until we found each other.
I like his music and have no opinion of him as a person. I can see how if you are not someone who went to college in the 90s with a predominant culture of A&F and J Crew people in ratty ball caps listening to DMB, Phish, Greatfull Dead, Blues Traveler, Rusted Root and any number of similar “jam-bands” while doing bong hits in their dorm room, the music might not interest you.
Basically it’s “lifestyle” music.
I don’t hate him. He just elicits a big shrug from me most of the time.
I will say that I have the Live at Luther College album, and for the most part enjoy it (although I consider it kind of a guilty pleasure). This has led me to conclude that at least one thing that keeps me from really liking his studio albums is the instrumentation. Everybody’s talented, but it’s not my thing–I’m often a sucker for simplicity, at least if an artist’s particular brand of complexity isn’t up my alley.
His voice can also be a huge turn-off. I’ve never been able to define exactly why.
Lyrics: pretty exceptional, for which I commend him, but I find that his sensibility lacks even the slightest bit of an edge…everything’s mellow, laid-back, and generally just not what I’m usually looking for.
It’s mostly when I get backed into a corner by somebody claiming that Dave Matthews is awesome and the height of musical sophistication and OH MY GOD HOW COULD YOU NOT LOVE HIM?!!! that I’ll resort to saying he sucks. It ain’t pretty, but when you’ve exhausted all your “he’s just not my taste” lines, there’s not much left.
I’ve had the chance to speak with him a couple of times and he’s always been gracious and pleasant. He was also good enough to purchase several large, undeveloped tracts of land in Albermarle County and put conservation easements on them so that they can’t be developed. I don’t recall ever reading about him throwing a tantrum, cancelling a concert, or causing a riot because he was too wasted to perform (even though I have seen him about a dozen times at the Flood Zone here in Richmond when he was on his way to being well baked).
He seems OK to me, and Boyd Tinsely (the violen player) is a certifable hoot.