I think in 2019 my indie cred is shot to hell like the 14 year old mall-pop of the Regrettes which is basically like coming on here and saying you like Taylor Swift - and I'm ok with it, their pop actually suits the mood - and really suits it and non-ironically. RBCF are to me REM in their Reckoning stage - a great LP, some great EP's and this year a single I loved too.....In The Capiby mats84
I remember it pretty blah - there's plenty I love from those years but it was a weird time where newer bands were being sold as kind of stars (Jane's Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Pixies (sorta) ........and then there's the rebounding of classic Rock (in a big way) Reed, Young, Dylan, Petty - and all the great bands suddenly got older so even if you liked them things seemed very claby mats84
I think they peaked at Sound Affects where the sound and the songs seem to be of a piece - the just seemed like a bigger, less niche band to me all of a sudden before I liked them a lot - in 1980 I absolutely loved them (and Going Underground and Funeral Pyre). I really think The Gift seems less of a lot of thing less inspired, less energetic, less clear headed - still a good record and a goodby mats84
At the end of their cover of Slade's Gudbye T'Jane (bonus track Don't Tell A Soul) Westerberg sings in parody of Monkey Gone To Heaven "if the Pixies are 7, then the 'Mats are 8!"by mats84
To Bring You My Butt - PJ Harveyby mats84
I like the 80s because it was weird, I'll love songs from the 80s you'd think I'd hate - in the 70s I don't have that sort of excitement, the likes are more obvious.by mats84
Great list. Recommendations for some possible future inclusions: Sackcloth and Ashes - Mr. T. Experience Slit Skirt - Pete Townshend F--- Me Pumps - Amy Winehouseby mats84
It's always fun to see these setlists from artists who have been around a long time - particularly that Mould one. That's a really good setlist and especially you can tell how much The Silver Age trio of albums and the songs he cherry picked not only has reinvigorated him but how much those records mean to him, this lineup, and fit into his career overall.by mats84
It seeps into the nostalgic way people talk about music culture in their town (radio stations, events, concerts) - in your city where did the "Rock" bands play? Well, more important is "where did Black Flag play in your town?" - likely it was somewhere off that established grid and that set up a network of possibilities, opportunities, and a whole culture different than bandby mats84
They were a fun band live - when they played live they could play with anyone - Green River, Sloan, Circle Jerks, Straw Dogs (the F.U.'s), Melvins - there was just enough punk and metal and Pop in their sound to make them fit in any thing happening that night.......by mats84
I suspect, from this weirdo bit below, that I have never actually heard the Buzzcocks before - or at least not the one Heller was speaking of........although I thought I was a fan, and why is my bullshit detector going off. Singles Going Steady didn’t weaponize punk with the goal of toppling the dominance of silly love songs in the ’70s; the album is as much Wings as it is Ramones, as sympatheby mats84
Not my thing (at all)- but I have a hard time naming another young, loosely affiliated with "Rock" in any way (or Pop) band that puts as much genuine thought into their sound, look, songs (and sounds) and album themes as they do on this record. You have to appreciate it, well not really, but you could appreciate it I guess......it's the sound of the mall if you got yourself oneby mats84
Pretty detached year but some stuff I liked Ike Reilly, Regrettes, Flesh Eaters, Low, Superchunk, Iceage.......open to stuff I missed which is always what Best Of lists are for. Not really feeling the new Bob Mould songs I've heard but we'll see.by mats84
Good essay and very true - the canon argument is basically based on 2 things detrimental to all Art assessment - repetition of majority opinion at the exclusion of any contrary opinion and importance based on the creator of the work itself (ie The White Album is worthy because the Beatles made it). On the other hand I would never rank The White Album as an equal to Sgt Pepper myself (to me theby mats84
Mild affection for it. I was still a couple years away from formulating my music taste and it was popular at my school with iirc ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" and Bad Company's "Rock n Roll Fantasy" - I don't know what they had in common besides being instantly "agreeable" songs. Get The Knack I tend to remember more fondly than when actually plaby mats84
Not sure it applies to the article but the thinking behind that article is why Slayer's Reign In Blood is such a landmark album I think. Not my thing but no other album was ever as overtly anti-everything and popular as that one..........that codified a lot of the ideas in the most extreme metal in a whole different way it seemed to me.by mats84
I would say when I hear a song like this my first instinct is "Is it so conceptual as to be meaningless?" I don't know.......meaningless to me yes but maybe not to some. It's essentially something more akin to the Modern Lovers (ie sounds like the Velvets musically but the opposite milieu lyrically) or The Ramones (sped up bubble-gum)........with this song though is this soby mats84
Well, they're awful and the review was funny but it's low hanging fruit and I'd argue not more awful than Pitchfork itself and how Pitchfork also sort of creates a climate for a band like them too by covering everything equally with ludicrous "sameness" - 4 or 5 reviews same length (!) a day (why?) and 1.6 is differentiated from 2.3 (how exactly?). There's no reaby mats84
I think it's an example of other things did the playlists work for them - years back a classic Rock DJ told me it wasn't his "job" to educate the audience. That was his justification for the station playing "Take It To The Limit" every 2 hours instead of anything, you know, actually alive. In the case of Simple Minds - someone else did the educating for them so theby mats84
Well...........this assumes the audience mirrors the writers in breadth and taste - ie no one who listens to that Liz Phair song is listening to Call Me Maybe and if they are it suggests a lack of a listener's aesthetic really (ie its random playlist generated maybe?). Beyond that, it assumes that the already bad taste of popular music at any given moment will be clung to which would therby mats84
Shadow Of A Doubt - Tom Petty Torn Curtain - Televisionby mats84
RIP - I had just mentioned "Girls That Don't Exist" a favorite of mine and a frequent Delvin setlist appearer. Man new his way around a hook.....by mats84
Cool interview - Ghost is a sort of fascinating thing essentially their look or presentation is at odds with their sound - the music is very pop almost wimpy in a way in some songs. You could compare them conceptually to the Darkness even.by mats84
"Girls That Don't Exist" - The Records Love that song and also love that its at least the second time I've seen it pop on a Delvin setlist. Somebody should cover it!by mats84
Maybe - I can certainly recall a great deal of thought going into what songs meant - which now you lose entirely since everybody is so anxious to tell you what a song means in bold detail and take all the mystery/fun out of music entirely. "This Charming Man" and stuff like that, by the mere act of investigating it or pouring through lyrics or what you thought the lyrics were anyway mby mats84
Good stuff - X, King's X AND XTC - you don't see that everyday! Post show recommendation Husker Du's "It's Not Peculiar", Lemonheads "It's About Time" and the NY Dolls "It's Too Late"!by mats84
I think the early 00s was a great period for Rock not just cause I liked it, but I liked talking about it too - you had several bands, all young, more or less on debuts and kinda great imo, that reflected forebears in good ways and split allegiances along age lines and elitism lines. After that the discussion got a lot duller and so did Rock. The Strokes are no Velvets (or whatever) and The Libby mats84
That's a great set Delvin but two Sonics selections and 0 Monks? It's clear whose side you are on in in the great The Monks/Sonics debate. Geeshby mats84
The chart really is reflective of the power of Classic Rock Radio keeping any artists outside a small group from the listeners ears. Lots of fine but older 70s artists there for a 1988 Modern Rock chart - Armatrading, Siouxsie, Parker, Harry, Smith, Mick Jones, etc. - or who could have been 60s artists (Edie Brickell, Chapman) that should have told us that something was a bit off, when they coby mats84
Fishbone were a particularly baffling one - they were in the era where Faith No More and RHCP got big, they got a Saturday Night Live spot and they were on Lollapalooza. House of Freaks reminded me of the Von Bondies who are now known as the guy Jack White beat up but they had a great record in Pawn Shoppe Heart in an era where Rock records were still selling, a catchy single, big guitars and aby mats84
