Nickelback? 2 good songs? [citation-needed]
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Saving Me is a good song, if not particularly steeped in originality, and Rock Star amuses me.
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Iām not going to support you on Nickelback having ever done anything worthwhile, but I recall a friend who listens to a huge amount of new music giving the following advice in the last couple of years: āIf you hear a song you like, try to never listen to anything by that band ever again.ā
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See now, Iām all about the lyrics. All of my favorite music is either by storytellers- Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Warren Zevon, Johnny Cash, Curt Bessette, Frank Turner- or is heavily political- Levellers, Rage Against the Machine, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy, a bunch of punk bands.
Iām also pretty heavily influenced by the bardic tradition where the music exists to help you remember the lyrics, because the lyrics are stuff you need to know.
Iāve recorded a couple instrumentals that were pretty complex, musically, but stuff like that works on a different level. I donāt really like listening to classical so much as I like having listened to classical. Itās like the enjoyment you get from reading a physics textbook, rather than that from watching a zombie movie.
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For the record, hereās whatās on my most recent Spotify playlists:
Flaming Lips
Rancid
Barry Manilow
Finntroll
the Refreshments
Bad Religion
Amanda Palmer
Sia
Pixies
Misfits
Avril Lavigne
Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Walk off the Earth
Smashing Pumpkins
Iron Maiden
Anti-Flag
Patti Smith
Adele
the Exploited
Live
Badfinger
Carly Rae Jepsen
Tori Amos
Butthole Surfers
Miles Davis
Also, a playlist of Bhangra, Bollywood, and Punjabi, but damned if I can remember any of the artistsā names.
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I think it depends on your definition of āgoodā. They seem to have a knack for writing catchy pop-rock songs that people seem to like (based on their album sales, any way), and I think a large proportion of the hate for them seems to come from their popularity as ārockā artists despite the fact that most of their songs are just formulaic, lowest-common-denominator pop rock tunes. I canāt particularly muster up any hate for them because I see them for what they are. I think the only Nickelback song I could remember off the top of my head is the one from the Spiderman movieā¦ And even then I had to go and look up what it was (Hero). Catchy, if formulaic and a bit silly, pop rock. Not for everybody, and not something that I want to listen to all (or even most) of the time, but not offensive enough for me to change the station if I hear it on the radio.
I disagree with that philosophy, otherwise Iād never know anything else about Lake Street Dive or Josh Ritter.
More opinions:
If your music doesnāt sound nearly as good in concert (or better!) as it does in studio, then your music isnāt good, your editing is good.
If the people at your concert are jumping around and screaming rather than listening to your music, your music probably isnāt good - people like you, not your music.
Finally, music is best enjoyed at a volume where you can hear the subtleties. Generally, this should be a volume where you can have a conversation with, at most, only a slightly-raised voice. However, if youāre at a concert, you probably shouldnāt be having said conversation because
youāll be disturbing the other people who actually want to listen to the music.
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Tom waits is my copilot (whatās he building in there?)
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I was just about to add a link to that very thing:
Whatās He Building in There?
Very appropriate for our paranoid times.
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I know someone who met Tom Waits. She had just graduated from Grade 8 and she was on vacation. Her family had a condo right next to a condo Tom Waits owned. He heard she had just graduated and asked if she wanted to take a year off to be their nanny before continuing with school - apparently in a misunderstanding about what grade she had just graduated from. On the first day of the vacation he was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. On the second day he was wearing the same jeans and sweatshirt but he had cut the legs off the jeans to turn them into shorts. On the third day he was wearing the same jeans and sweatshirt, but had cut the arms off the sweatshirt as well.
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Amanda Palmer leaves me cold.
Or cool? Just no interest there.
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I am going to frame this anecdote.
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Heās cooking up a Filipino Box Spring Hog.
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Coin-operated boy is listenable if you have never heard anything else she did. Nowadays I canāt even stand that.
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Regarding jumping around at concerts; I would suggest that while some music can be really good to stroke your chin to, the enjoyment of a lot of music is a full-body experience.
Iām totally with you on the subject of volume. I have experimented with a wide variety of earplugs at live venues (the silicon balls that you put over your ear canal are great) and Iāve found that the richness of the live sound is vastly improved. I saw COC last year and my mate who eschewed earplugs basically just heard feedback and his ears clipping all night (if you donāt know what I mean, make a baby really scream and you will immediately get it)
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I went to see My Bloody Valentine when they went on tour a couple years ago and they were handing out earplugs at the door. While Iāve seen this before, itās usually in a āOh, here, if youād like these then take themā way, whereas this was aggressive, more like, āYou must wear these.ā
So at one point in the concert there is what I guess Iād call a ānoise solo.ā Just a giant wall of sound, not very distinguishable. But it was so loud I could feel my whole body vibrating. After it had gone on for 30 seconds I could hardly believe it was happening. This was just an experience in the latter. After it had gone on for about 2 minutes my friends and I were looking at one another confused, wondering if we could actually stand it any longer. At 15 minutes I thought, āWell, I guess this is my life now.ā About 45 minutes in, when they stopped doing it and returned to the song I not only didnāt remember that they had been playing a song, I donāt think I remembered my name.
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Just donāt mix pop-rock songs with soda jingles, or your stomach will explode.
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I hang with a few talented noisers. My favorite uses a pair of 50ās medical nerve stimulators as his noise source. And as you say, earplugs are required. It feels more like a rocket launch than a concert.
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Earplugs donāt mitigate against sound thatās transmitted through your bonesā¦ Iād probably enjoy what you described, but itās a gimmick - doing it for 45 minutes straight is just dull-witted. However it would be churlish of me to demand that all music be turned down to the point where these effects arenāt possible - I guess that just as I think music should be enjoyed as a visceral experience, some people think that by extension it should be enjoyed - or, rather, delivered - viscerally.
What annoys me, however, is that while a specifically noise-oriented band, say Mogwai, or ISIS (I wonder if theyāll change their name now? and yes, the band name is all caps[EDIT] Just realised they disbanded in 2010) can be expected to use volume in this way, itās just fucking stupid when itās Primal Scream or Keane doing it (Under the Iron Sea was an awesome album name, pity their music was so underwhelming).
