Minor Hijack, for which I apologize…
A lot have been saying Nickelback and Coldplay are like this, so I am thinking about those two bands…and Coldplay has been great for me, love em and everything; but I have the perfect example of Nickelback’s troubles.
Nickelback=Creed
Think about it, both of their first CDs were huge, and not just huge, good as well. They were rock they had a message, they were cool. Then they got all sentimental and failed, tried to come back, but just wasn’t quite there (although Creed went way off the deep end on this one) but yeah, interesting huh?
Perhaps a better term is soul-pop but much of it is more toward the rap spectrum from what I can tell (and to call it pop would not so heavily imply its hip-hop roots, as the soul-pop that gets pushed into my ears from cars is not the type of music that uses more traditional instrumentation). But what I mean is modern soul with hip-hop music in the background, with or without rap, but which you wouldnt be surprised to hear rap in. (But explicitly not old-school rap or middle-school tricky rhyme schemes. I dont like 90s rap either but it’s at least not overplayed anymore.)
I agree it’s their fans, mostly. I was in high school from '95 to '99 and every fucking future yuppie rich-kid nerd turned pseudo hippie douchebag was obsessed with them. And maybe it’s because I switched coasts but all the DMB obsessives I meet now seem to be older than me aging yuppie parents of young children trying to hang onto their college years. Polo or Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts, flip flops, Titleist visor to cover up the receding hairline.
I’ve never liked DMB cause they are not my style (I don’t like the whole jam thing, I had to go to one of their shows and was thoroughly bored) and they were overexposed. I stopped listening to the radio a long time ago except for classic rock stations years ago so nowadays I just have apathy for bands I don’t like.
I’ve heard that Dave and crew HATE coming to St. Louis because apparently the fans here suck. DMB tends to do big summer tours and most big summer tours come to the outdoor venue here in Maryland Heights. At his show, it was tie dye type hippies and polo shirted flip flopped hippies. At every concert I’ve been to at that venue, there is a lot of drinking and a lot of weed. The venue is huge - lots of tickets available - so I guess a lot of people go to shows to see bands they may not like, just marginally like, cause they can hang out and party while hearing loud music. I can’t imagine St. Louis is unique in that regard, so I’m not sure of his hate.
And I guess I don’t like DMB because everyone that liked them in high school minus one of my friends were huge douches. Nickelback sucks because their music sucks AND it’s overplayed, and I like but don’t love Coldplay.
I ended up at a DMB show because one of my exes loved them. And they were the only band he gave a shit about. I was and am way too into music to date someone who doesn’t care what they listen to, doesn’t have a real interest in music regardless of their chosen genres. With a metalhead now, the concerts are more fun
Heh. This was going to be my answer as well. That’s literally the year I remember the backlash against the DMB becoming quite strong.
Actually, I have seen the DMB live as part of a larger showcase of bands back in like 1994/5 or so. I have to say that they are quite a tight and talented band. The drummer, especially, is all sorts of awesome. They’re just a bit too middle-of-the-road white bread/unchallenging for me musically, but, for what they do, they do it quite well. Their fans can be annoying douchebags, though.
I think Coldplay is far, far worse than the DMB. The DMB at least has genuine instrumental talent, clever riffs, and a lot of very unique songs with interesting lyrics (Ants Marching, Tripping Billies, So Much to Say, to name a few.) I never liked Dave’s voice all that much, but the rest of the band is pretty good. I think on the whole, they don’t rock, but they have some songs where they do rock.
Coldplay, on the other hand, NEVER rocks, IMO. All they do is whine. There isn’t one single Coldplay that I can enjoy. Not one. There’s no interesting musicianship, no clever lyrics, and certainly nothing edgy in any way. No soul whatsoever. The epitome of bland and mediocre.
A couple of years a go I attended a meeting on the escalating riots/shenanigans at Halloween in Madison WI. There were representatives from the university, city government, police, fire, city engineers, State street merchants, the fancy art center, homeowners association, etc. Pretty much anyone within 3 miles of State St. About halfway through the meeting the student body representative stood to speak. This guy was one of your second string frat boy types. An “edgy” frat boy, too lame to be a hipster but not quite “all American” enough to be a regular frat boy. This kid presented his brilliant plan. What could it be you ask? You got it… At 2:30 AM when all the bars close the solution is to pipe in some DMB over a PA system so everyone can just chill out. The only thing standing between Madison and an end to violence was a little DMB. For years the entire city had missed this simple, elegant solution and had instead relied on mounted police and pepper spray. When the applause ended he was carried on a makeshift liter to the capital where he was declared emperor of Wisconsin for life.
Carter Beauford I think his name is - and another former drummer of mine, with huge pro cred, agrees with you, so it *must *be so ;). I have never dug into their stuff enough to pick apart the intricacies. All the players are technically talented; I just find that I don’t care.
I’m curious where you guys were living that you heard DMB on the radio all the time. I’ve only heard him on Adult Album Alternative stations, of which there are relatively few, and which are generally located only in affluent, outdoorsy-oriented cities like Boulder, San Francisco and Portland.
When I lived in Denver, DMB was a staple on KBCO, the local AAA station. Moved to Orlando, and then Cleveland, where DMB was simply not played on local radio - there were no AAA stations in those markets. Visit the folks back home, and there’s no DMB or others in the acoustic singer-songwriter AAA category, either on stations in Buffalo or Toronto. I’m in Austin now, an affluent, outdoorsy, hippie-flavored city, and once again I’m hearing plenty of DMB on the air on the local AAA station, KGSR 107.1.
DMB on college radio stations? Never heard it. I’ve found that the playlist of college stations leans heavily towards indie pop, twee/cuddlecore, indie rock, indie punk, and obscure rap – not AAA, singer-songwriter, or jam.
The daytime music program at WFIT here in Melbourne/Palm Bay is DMB genre - basically rock meets singer-songwriter. They don’t miss out on indie pop and indie rock but also have tons of indie singer-songwriters as well. Although I’ve never heard DMB on WFIT (but wouldn’t change the channel if I did as long as it was a one-off occurence.)
Good call. I’m willing to accept that people with good taste will sometimes like things that I don’t, but only if I can see that they’ve got enough experience with the area in question to have an at least mildly informed opinion.
And yeah, I’ve been on-and-off lurky for a long time. Since I discovered that I can reach the boards from work and I’m not required to give in to extortion to post, I decided to un-lurk (de-lurk?).
And yeah, there is an art to finding the right balance between having opinions about what’s good and what’s not, while keeping the tent open enough that folks want to join you inside for the conversation…
…in this case, I think the point to this thread is breaking down the DMB into what works and doesn’t. I enjoy hearing what the DMB fans who have posted have had to say and am really glad they don’t feel like they’ll get snarked at too much for saying it…
Okay. Overplay and douchy fans. Got it. Honestly, though - I fucking LOVE douchy fans of ANYTHING. Hell, I love fans of all sort. There’s just something about someone investing that much love and faith and time into something while the rest of the world looks on and shakes their collective heads - like that guy who thought playing DMB in Madison like it was a legitamite suggestion - it just makes grin in a ‘takes all kinds’ way.
I don’t know a lot of douchy DMB fans, but like I said, I got into them when they were on their way out. Of course, MST3K has been over for about ten years, and the douchiness of that fandom still lives on with the vagina-flooding force of twenty thousand douches, but I digress.
