From the letters column of the latest Rolling Stone, the one with Jennifer Love Hewitt on the cover, comes the following: If I read one more article that mentionsThe Storkes, The White Stripes, The VinesandThe Hives *in the same sentence, I am going to vomit the last three years worth of food. Please stop hailing these psuedotalented rip-off artists as the *“salvation of rock & roll.”
Daniel Weiandt Boulder, CO
Yeah that pretty much sums up my feelings as well.
Ok, not exactly, but it runs along the same lines.
I’m just REALLY tired of the whole “The Vines/Strokes/White Stripes/etc are going to save rock n’ roll!!!” thing.
Save it from what, exactly.
Anything even hinting of originality? Well, the aforementioned groups of doing a damn good job of that.:rolleyes:
None of these groups are doing anything “new” or groundbreaking or original or even very creative.
The thing is, this year alone, some very, very strong releases have already taken place and or are about to take place by some of the bigest names in the game - to wit, Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
Certainly, in the latter two acts, it’s right up there with their strongest work. (I’ve yet to hear any Pearl Jam mp3’s sadly).
My point being? Quality rock music is far from unhealthy. The established talents have never gone away. It’s just that the ‘industry hangers on’ like rock journalists feel obliged to always justify their wages somehow by endless pursuing the ‘new’ at the expense of objectivity (as if they even know what THAT means…)
It’s just a real shame that there’s no ‘empirical’ merit based points system (like there is in sport for example where a benchmark is a numerical real point) and then we’d be able to compare some of the new to the recent new, or to the 20 year old stuff, or to the 40 year old stuff.
I would soooooooooooo dig to be able to read a points system like that and be able to trust it. If I was to believe Rolling Stone for example, The Strokes or The Vines have just released fucking Sgt Peppers or something…
Damn right. It’s an unfair comparison. Sgt Peppers is way overrated. One good song and half a dozen novelty tracks plus Ringo-sings-Paul’s-“I-wish-I-was-in-the-forties”-song.
Meanwhile, I’m gonna get free, i’m gonna get free, i’m gonna get free!
Huh. Well, I agree to an extent, but I quite like the White Stripes, and have liked them for longer than they’ve been on the cover of Rolling Stone, and, if I abandon them now, I’ll look one of those posers who scream “sell out!” The Strokes, The Vines, The Hives and The Whateverelses, on the other hand, bore me to no end. I actually burned (not copied-burned, incinerated-burned) my Strokes CD because, as a Velvet Underground fan, I couldn’t believe that their music was just being reused and finding an audience in the aughts that they couldn’t find in the sixties… Bastards. Still, The White Stripes rule.
(kidding, kidding, put down those knives, boys, I don’t wanna die)
First off, don’t blame the bands. They’re just making the music they always made. What the critics choose to call them has little to do with how the bands view themselves, and it is my impression that most of these bands are pretty wary of their “savior of rock ‘n’ roll” status. The last interview I read with the White Stripes, they seemed out and out pissed about it.
I’m just happy to see people getting into bands that resemble my friends: a bunch of punk kids who just like to make music for themselves. It’s also nice to see Velevet Underground, MC5, the Stooges and the like get mentioned in mainstream publications so much, even if it’s only to say “these bands are a rip-off of [blank].”
Can I barf now? RHCP came back this year with an album loaded down with over-produced, formulaic crap. They move a lot of records, but they’re hardly vital. Pearl Jam hasn’t progressed much since VS., which had as many good parts as bad parts, anyway. I haven’t heard this year’s stuff either, but I’m not holding my breath.
The music scene here in Tokyo is absolutely choked by kids striving for “professionalism.” They want that perfect, round, clean sound that all the big, overproduced bands have. As a result, RHCP’s latest has been blasting out of every shop here for the last two months. What a snooze. Bands like the Strokes and the Vines have reminded mainstream listeners that rock ‘n’ roll can be raw, as well as unforgiveably unprofessional. Thank God.
I don’t much care for the “rock ‘n’ roll savior” thing, either (and Rolling Stone has been pretty worthless for about 10 years now, anyway), and there are a lot of bands I like better. But I’ll still put the Strokes on before I subject myself to Rock Professionalism.
What’s with all the fighting over the tiniest little variance in sound? A bunch of guys playing guitar poorly: wow, I’ve never heard that before.
Any band that can even be assigned a genre is doing nothing groundbreaking.
Whenever I hear a bunch of pretentious rock snobs bitching about what band is “important” I wish I could stomach listening to the Backstreet Boys…
Until someone somewhere comes up with a reason for their opinion, that’s all it is. Y’all are yust shouting like junior high schoolers “that sux” “nu huh, that sux”
Reminds me of the argument that Oasis and Blur were the reincarnation of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones respectively.
Wait a couple of years and there will be a bunch of new groups out who are “rebelling” against that “formulaic crap perpetuated by bands like the White Stripes.”:rolleyes:
[near future quote] “There hasn’t been a good musical act since Zevon died” [/near future quote]
Seriously I keep on finding new cool acts to like. And like others I’m sick of RHCP (have been for a while really), I pretty much don’t want to hear anyone my age and older rock out. As for the StrokinVineStripes, I liked them a lot more in the 70’s when they were called Iggy Pop and the Stooges.
My current listening fetishes are Yellow Machinegun and Atomic Bitchwax (plus I’m relistening to all the got crap I used to listen to in HS, stuff like Jean Loves Jezebel and Christian Death just for kitsch.).
I had to use my very first post ever to say that I love Radiohead!!!
I know a lot of people don’t understand or like them, but that’s okay. They aren’t about pleasing the masses, they play what they want how they see fit. If that’s not being a true musician, I don’t know what is.
“Oh, I hate those new The _____ bands. They all sound exactly like fuckin’ Iggy. Rip-offs.”
“Oh, I hate those new The _____ bands. They all sound exactly like fuckin’ Velvet Underground. Rip-offs.”
“Oh, I hate those new The _____ bands. They all sound exactly like fuckin’ MC5. Rip-offs.”
“Oh, I hate those new The _____ bands. They all sound exactly like fuckin’ Television. Rip-offs.”
“Oh, I hate those new The _____ bands. They all sound exactly like fuckin’ Stones. Rip-offs.”
Now, I’m not going to say that they’re about to save rock’n’roll (I hate NME/Rolling Stone as much as the next guy), but COME ON. They’re fun bands, none of them seem to want to be anything beyond that, and it’s not like these bands killed your kitten.
Sometimes it seems that half of the self-proclaimed music elitists spend all their time talking about how much they love whatever’s hyped up by the music journalists today, and the other half are just ranting about how much those bands suck ass.
I can understand burning a Strokes CD, but buying one?? No way. Didn’t you get the impression they sucked from the radio singles?
On the other hand, The White Stripes, The Hives and The Vines are fine by me. I probably won’t buy their cds, but I don’t turn the radio to another station the second they come on. And hey, if they keep Creed, Godsmack and System Of a Down from getting as much air play, maybe they are doing something good.
