Don’t know if this has been done before, but what the hell? Who, in your opinion, are the most overrated and underrated groups/singers/musicians ever? I cna think of a million for each category, but I’ll limit myself. Here are my picks:
Most underrated - Gotta be Husker Du. They pretty much invented the sound (and lyrical content) that was later (badly) stolen by the wave of 90’s “alternative” and grunge rockers. Yet they did it all better, possessing an actual pop sense, and still remain virtually unknown and/or unacknowledged. One of the best bands of all time!
Most overrated: Dave Matthews Band:WTF? I know people whose tastes are otherwise impeccable who are gaga over these guys. To me, they sound like a cross between the Grateful Dead and Sting. I’ve never been a fan of long, masturbatory “improvs” in rock (exception: Husker Du, the only punk band capable of improvising like jazz players), and what’s more, the guy can’t sing. That whine of his goes straight to my central nervous system. When he tries to sound menacing (a la Bono)on that “Blood in the Water” song or whatever the hell it’s called, I don’t know whether to laugh or puke - though usually I opt to puke. He’s also got such an inflated sense of self-importance (a la Bono) that he becomes tiresome quickly. And I hear this talk about how they’re all “for the fans, for the people”, yet last time he came through town I think they were charging $60 a pop. How very thoughtful of them. At least Pearl Jam (also vastly overrated, in my opinion) has the guts to take on Ticketmaster and back it up by selling cheap tickets. Anyway, that’s my rant. I await your picks and/or rebuttals.
No time to think right now, but you get two thumbs up for choosing Husker Du. Camper Van Beethoven might be a good choice too.
It seems to me that a reviewer in Rolling Stone called Wearhouse Songs and Stories the best album ever. It was a good album, but I don’t think it could be called the best ever.
birdybird –
I have no argument with your take on Husker Du being vastly underrated.
BUT:
Don’t make me slap you silly with various Minutemen CDs. I’ll do it, you know.
I did something like this (Best Unheard Band) but, since I shamfully forgot to mention Husker Du, let’s do it again.
Last time I said X. And I still say X:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX!
But I’d also like to mention Television.
They built the stage at CBGB’s. Literally. Came with hammer and nails. The stage The Ramones, Patti Smith, Talking heads, etc. etc. etc. eventually played on. They didn’t have bands there before that. And hell, I think that alone is worth some acknowledgment. But more to the point, Marquee Moon is an unbelievable album.
betenoir: great choice with Television… their cd is in my cd player right now which brings me to my underated choice… LUNA. Greatly inspired by television (tom verlaine appears on one of their albums) and VU, Luna does mellow sleepy rock at it’s best. I would also nominate Jets to brazil. Great rock from ex members of jawbreaker and texas is the reason.
Overated band I would definetly go with pearl jam who have gotten progressively worse with each album. not that they were ever very good. My other choice (please don’t ban me form the board for this) is not really a band but an album by a band. Kid A by radiohead has received great reviews by tons of magazines and people on this board. I love radiohead but I don’t get it. The cd doesn’t go anywhere? Tom Yorke whines more than ever and it lacks the focus of their other albums.
Side note: I second mouthbreathers minutemen comment. Mike Watts the man!
Okay, people are going to hate me.
Overrated: the Beatles.
I don’t hate them. I don’t even dislike them. I really do like a few of their songs. But mostly, I can’t figure out why so many people adore them. They’re pretty good musically, but so are a lot of other bands. I think a lot of their lyrics are fairly stupid, though. (If we have a category for most overrated song, I nominate “Yesterday”.) My coworker brings Beatles CDs to listen to at work, and I have just discovered that “Hello Goodbye” has some of the most inane lyrics of all time. “Hello goodbye hello goodbye, I don’t know why you say hello, I say goodbye”. This sounds like a nonsense song I would have made up when I was five.
Hear hear!
Add Elvis to this – OK musician, I suppose, and because he was a new sound in his day, I can understand the huge following then. But now? I don’t get it.
Underrated (or maybe just mostly unknown, at least in the USA): Amanda Marshall.
WHEW! Now I don’t feel so bad about my radiohead comment. talk about blasphemy! Kyla should be posting in the am I evil thread now…answer, YES! 
Most underrated…hm, I would have to say Freezepop, but I know none of you has ever heard of them.
So I will say
Most underrated- Sonic Youth
Most overrated- Where do I begin? Oh yes- Dave Matthews, of course. And Phish- Boring Boring Boring Boring.
You’re absolutely right. Sorry about overlooking them. D. Boon was the man.
The most underrated band, at lest over the last eleven years, is (in the U.S.) The Tragically Hip. From 1989 to 1995 they were the greatest band in the world, hands down. Since then I wouldn’t say they’ve been the greatest, but they’re right up there.
Husker Du is great, but NO band touches the Hip. There’s a line in the movie Amadeus where someone says that Mozart’s latest creation is too long, and Mozart replies, “No, it’s just the right length.” That’s a Tragically Hip song. Every chord, note, and bar of music is right; the songs begin and end exactly the way they should. Nothing is out of place. Each note played contributes to the story being told.
The songs are masterworks of pacing and tempo. They elicit emotion and images like no rock band I’ve ever heard. Nobody can listen to “Grace, Too” and not feel the longing and sadness it conveys. Nobody could listen to “Locked In The Trunk of a Car” and not at once feel both their own murderous savagery and a terror of same. The languid hopelessness of “The Luxury,” the sincerest of love in “Bobcaygeon,” or the sheer menace and anger of “Put It Off” all shine through in ways other bands could only dream of achieving. Gord Downie’s singing is unbelievable. The lyrics are poetry of a sort Maya Angelou could only dream of composing; “Nautical Disaster” was probably the best poem written in English in 1993.
The Hip’s first four albums were four of the finest masterpieces of rock music I have ever heard. I urge anyone who wants to meditate over some truly magnificent rock music to buy “Up to Here,” “Road Apples,” “Fully, Completely” and “Day for Night” with all speed. Grab “Phantom Power” if you can, too. Listen , then listen a few more times, and you’ll wonder how your music collection was tolerable without them.
Live, there’s no better band around. The Hip have stated that they won’t perform a song if they can’t do it better than it sounds on the CD, and boy, do they ever. They bring the house down with every song.
As to most underrated, I am said before that Sarah McLachlan is a hack, and I stand by it.
Man, y’all have named some really great bands. Haven’t heard much of Husker Du or the Minutemen, so I guess I’ll have to go to Best Buys and educate myself. Any suggestions for the best CD from each?
Three of the bands mentioned are in my current rotation:
X, “Live at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go on the Fabulous Sunset Strip” - this band really kicks butt live
Television, “Marquee Moon” - the title cut is one of the best songs I think I’ve ever heard; their self-titled reunion album from a few years ago is pretty good too
Sonic Youth, “Dirty” - although I listen to just about anything by them whenever I can
I haven’t heard mention of another of the ones in my rotation - The Replacements, “Pleased to Meet Me”. They are perhaps a little more well-known than the others, but I still don’t think they ever got their due. It’s a shame that the members individual efforts since the breakup haven’t come close to their combined efforts.
Most overrated, there’s so many … Van Halen (a couple of good songs, but mostly just testerone-driven crap), Dave Matthews (as already mentioned), KISS (listen to their first one and then quit … you’ve already heard their repertoire). I could go on, but I won’t. I would have added Hootie and the Blowfish till I heard their version of “Use Me Up”, which is an excellent remake of an excellent song - wish I could remember the artist who did it originally.
Well, she’s not a band, per se, but she’s awesome: Tracy Bonham. Her latest album is sweet - I’ve been listening to it over and over. The song writing is great plus it rocks.
I’d like to second Turpentine’s choice of an overrated band – Phish. I can’t understand how legions of fans can roam the country following these guys.
Oh wait, I take it back – I can understand. Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs.
SaintAlphonso–
Check out Zen Arcade from Husker Du, and Double Nickles on the Dime from the Minutemen.
Husker Du, Minutemen, and Television were all great and influential bands. A few years ago, Spin magazine did a listing of the greatest 100 rock albums of all time or some such, and while Marquee Moon by Television was justly listed, the number of copies sold was some ludicrously low number around 25,000, IIRC. Other bands of similar vintage and influence who have labored in relative obscurity would include The Specials, Gang of Four, and Patti Smith. Some more recent artists which are criminally underheard would include Sparklehorse, Loud Family, Momus, Built To Spill, Tindersticks, and Afghan Whigs (though I didn’t particularly care for the Whigs latest effort.)
For overrated, I think U2 qualifies. I quite like some of the things they’ve done, but they’ve also had some pretty lame releases, IMO. Oasis is a band where I’ve never been able to hear the reason for some of more hyperbole-laden laudations placed at their feet. Same deal with Spiritualized. Very stunning production, but songs that largely leave me cold. And I could say the same about later-era Flaming Lips, though I dug the hell out of their earlier work.
While the Beatles often seem to be overrated, when they are placed in the context of the time when they were releasing albums like Rubber Soul, Revolver, and SPLHCB, the lionizing seems largely deserved. At the time, their influence was nothing less then profound, and it’s some testament to the band that that influence is still being felt today. Looking back though, it’s easier now to see that they were wildly inconsistent in track-to-track quality, with the White Album showing off this variance to greatest effect. When they clicked however, they clicked hard and were amazing.
I couldn’t agree more. Kid A sounds, to my untrained ears, like Pink Floyd (speaking of overrated bands…). Although Tom Yorke does a pretty good job duetting with P.J. Harvey on her new album.
Never understood all the (mostly Britcrit) hype about Oasis, either. And I REALLY never got THE Beatles comparisons. Ripping off a few George Harrison riffs didn’t make them the new Fab Four any more than a similar stunt made Rancid the new Clash. And I won’t even comment on Phish.
Admittedly, I’m not much of a fan of “classic rock”, but even so, does anybody else agree with me that Eric Clapton is and almost always was a soporific, lumbering dinosaur? And finally, the Beatles have attained such legendary status that they can’t help but be seen as overrated, but I do think they were the best band going at the time and also amazingly innovative. But they were mere mortals, and put out their fair share of crap, too.
Mouthbreather,
Cool! Thanks for the information. I’ll be picking them up this weekend.
I think I’d go with the “Warehouse: Songs and Stories” album, myself. The song “Could You Be The One” is such a masterpiece of fuzzy punk-pop.
**
Husker Du, The 'Mats and Superchunk have been my Holy Trinity for a long time. Any Superchunk fans in the house?
When it comes to individual efforts, I have to say that I was very impressed with Tommy Stinson’s Bash and Pop album. It wasn’t lyrically deep like Paul Westerberg, but it nonetheless was an enjoyable collection of fun rock tunes. I – and I imagine everyone else – had no idea Stinson had a full album in him.