Your Music Shitlist

[alan nagsworth]

A lot of these nominations to me just seem like a reaction against the hype. These bands have been built up in peoples minds to be something that there not, so when they here them they are disappointed. I for one don't give a fuck about hype, I prefer to listen to music on its own merits. How can people not find Pink Floyd's - The Wall album one of the best statements on personal isolation and detachments from society ever record in music? Or not like songs like Break On through To The Other side or People Are Strange by the doors. Some of you I've lost a lot of respect in you as music fans by the choices you've made. Not likening Bob Marley, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Bjork, for gods shake. As for the Arctic monkeys, they have recorded some very well crafted pop songs, that is all, that is why people like them.   

With all due respect for the thread and trying not to make it all end in tears, what the hell are you talking about? I'm sure people here are a lot more open-minded than to slag off something just to go against the grain. I'm not ashamed of any of the music I love, just like I'm not ashamed of the music I hate.

Ironically it seems you're going against the hype of this thread in order to simply contrast with a mass opinion. I really don't understand what you're trying to convey here. Like Nev said, while The Wall makes some valid points and fits nicely together as the ultimate concept album, it still triggers receptors in my brain that wretch upon hearing it. This is because I don't like Pink Floyd. It's not a crime.

Maybe people are hating bands which are generally held by the masses as "genius", but that doesn't mean they're doing it to be edgy, it's their genuine opinion.

Other bands I don't get:

Joy Division - Probably wouldn't mind these so much if my uncle would shut up for five minutes about how great Ian Curtis was. Much like I can't understand how people find Radiohead depressing, I cannot understand how this music made Curtis dance about like a maniac. It's just really boring, droney depressive twaddle to me.

80s synth-inspired pop in general - Like a child with a new toy and a bed head haircut. Just because you've discovered computers make sounds, doesn't mean they have to dominate your music. Maybe I had to be there to get it, although maybe not. There were plenty of great bands using synthesizers before this genre came along but they didn't bum rape their Moog like it was the only key element to the band. Unless you make full-on electronica, I feel like synths should be used sparingly for maybe a lead hook or a backing rhythm.

My Bloody Valentine - I can't get into this at all. Loveless's album cover sums up their music: uninteresting mess.

[Anon]

The Jesus & Mary Chain - quite specifically Psychocandy. Infuriating piece of work; says everything it wants to say by the end of the first minute, yet somehow still regarded as a classic.

Now, I'm rather partial to a bit of The Jesus & Mary Chain, but Psychocandy is, at best, probably about their third or fourth best album.  There's some really good tracks on there, but I do agree that the album as a whole dosn't sustain itself that well over its 45 minutes.  Now, Darklands and Honey's Dead...that's where the real JAMC gems lie.  Darklands in particular is a fantastic album - it focuses a lot more on their more melodic side, and the songs are much more developed than those on Psychocandy.

The Old Shit:
The Kinks - I've just never seen the appeal here really - downloaded Village Green Preservation Society a while back, and I just found it a bit dull really.
The Jam - just unredeemably dire.  Dosn't help much that most of their fans (well, ones my age anyway) are complete wankers either.
Pavement - as with The Kinks, I find them pretty over-hyped for what is, to me, a pretty mediocre band.  They're just...there.

The New Shit:
Interpol - just awful, awful, awful.  Their arrangements and knucle-scrapingly obvious, they have no kind of hooks or riffs to speak of, and they're just painfully bland.  Urgh.
Xiu Xiu - does anyone actually like them?  I've long suspected them to be an over-elaborate prank on hipsters at large by the music press that's just gone completely out of hand.
Bright Eyes - very, very irritating.  Bland songs with horrendous, pseudo-intellectual lyrics over the top.

(EDIT: thecuriousorange, you might want to consider Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) if you want to give Beefheart another go - it's my favourite album of his after Trout Mask Replica, and more than any of his other releases it finds a good medium between the full-on sound of Trout Mask or Lick My Decals Off, Baby and more accessable arrangements and cleaner production.  Safe As Milk and Clear Spot are also very good records for not-quite-at-his-most-out-there Beefheart thrills too.  Good luck - it took me a good year and a half to get TMR, but once I did it quickly became one of my favourite records of all time, and him one of my great musical heroes, so I hope his work will one day inspire and delight you as it has done for me!)

[Captain Crunch]

A lot of these nominations to me just seem like a reaction against the hype. These bands have been built up in peoples minds to be something that there not, so when they here them they are disappointed. I for one don't give a fuck about hype, I prefer to listen to music on its own merits.

Bands who get a lot of hype end up all over TV, radio and piped music so a lot of the time it's being forced to listen to Coldpaly rather than Coldplay themselves which is the problem.  Even though they're shit.

My 2p, based on either having the misfortune to see them live or being subjected to them against my will:

1.  Nightwish.  Their Maiden cover is funny for all of a minute then you have to go away, very very far away from them.

2.  Chrome Hoof.  Yes I get, yes it's still shit.

3.  Die So Fluid.  Imagine the Aldi version of My Ruin, it's as bad as it sounds.

4.  Carnivore.  Peter Steele's 'thrash' band which he ill-advisedly resurrected for Wacken '07.  Like diluted Limp Biscuit on life-support.  Shockingly bad.

5.  Orange Goblin.  One of the best UK stoner bands still active today; fantastic albums, anyone with even a passing interest in stoner music needs to check them out if they haven't already.  BUT they qualify for the shitlist on account of their singer being a colossal tit and messing up every show bar that one in 2000 when he didn't show up.  Those guitarists are phenomenal, sweating over those awesome riffs, really giving it some but sadly it's all drowned out by fatface nobby Ben shouting 'Caaam on' like a Corsa advert fucking constantly.  AND, he hangs around gigs talking loudly about himself and hoping he gets recognised.  Argh, what a nob!

6.  Wykyd Wytch.  More spoilt little girls who haven't grown out of metal yet.

7.  Bush.  Had the misfortune to see them before they 'made it big' in America, Christ they were / are awful.

8.  Arch Enemy.  For everyone who puts them on, waits for a bit then goes "can you belieeeeve it, that a GIRL singing!"  Bleurh.

9.  Boris.  Totally overhyped cack.

Not getting:

Queens of the Stone Age.  Like Anthea Turner, everything seems to be in the right place but as a whole it's just very wrong.

David Bowie.  Nothing against him or anything, all his songs just seem to go in one ear and straight out of the other one.  I can't name or recognise even one of his songs.

[Cack Hen]

Well, yeah. I mean, 50s/60s Dylan is virtually all some of the best music ever made, then in the 70s he started getting a bit patchy, but still producing stuff of the same standard (Blood On The Tracks), 80s, 90s, 00s Dylan is...well, it seems to range from complete writeoff to moments of greatness, with it unfortunately swinging further towards the former.

But yeah, Dylan in the 60s...fucking wow. It blows my mind that anybody couldn't be completely fascinated and in love with the bulk of that work. Off the top of my head, you'v got the extremely powerful/almost creepy Masters of War:

And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand o'er your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead

Then you've got some of the songs which deviate from the blues/folk melody and show that he was as good as any of The Beatles, The Stones or Brian Wilson in terms on songwriting. Love Minus Zero/No Limit, for example:

In the dime stores and bus stations,
People talk of situations,
Read books, repeat quotations,
Draw conclusions on the wall.
Some speak of the future,
My love she speaks softly,
She knows there's no success like failure
And that failure's no success at all.

But I could sit here quoting streams of Dylan all day. The man peaked like nobody had ever peaked before or after with this:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO0gSJGJ7Fs[/youtube]

Very engaging, that performance (In Newcastle, I think (it's not the 'Judas' one)) but the studio cut is just absolutely perfect in every way. The thrilling exhilaration that they were reinventing music in that studio on that day is so confrontational and huge, I could hear it a million times and I'd never tire of it or lose any respect.

So yes, just about any other band or artist, I can understand why somebody might not like them. But Dylan? I can't get my head around that at all.

[Funcrusher]

As an actual reaction to hype, can I say I really dislike all that I've heard from Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong.

All I've heard is their name and I already hate them with a vengence.

[Funcrusher]

Actually, that is my number one 'just don' get it': Bowie. And it's an opinion I'd defend to the death.

I do like Dylan, although, after a brief spike of interest when the 'No Direction Home' film and cd came out, I haven't listened to him in ages. But I can see how his voice can grate - I find the pre-electric stuff pretty unlistenable, and he's not helped his cause by everything he's released after 'Blood On The Tracks'.

[Anon]

All I've heard is their name and I already hate them with a vengence.

They are without a doubt one of the worst bands I've ever heard.  You know how The View sounded like The Libertines, only watered down and even shitter?  Well Joe Lean ect. are the watered down version of The View - no, honestly, a band that bad actually does exist.  Somehow.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

I haven't been able to get into B&S properly yet but absolutely love a few of their tracks such as Stars Of Track And Field, Dylan In The Movies, The State I Am In and Lazy Line Painter Jane. Maybe these are just the hookiest tracks?

Ooh, no. While those tracks are indeed wonderful, further investigation will reveal to you that nearly all of their songs are really hooky. OK, I'm exaggerating slightly: the majority of the Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant album, and about 50% of The Boy With The Arab Strap aren't particularly memorable, but Tigermilk, If You're Feeling Sinister, and Dear Catastrophe Waitress are absolute pop masterpieces. Their most recent album, The Life Pursuit, is full of catchy tunes too. And the early EP compilation, Push Barman To Open Oldl Wounds, features some of their finest songs. B&S are a pop band through and through.

[Mindbear]

I'll tell you who I don't like, or get, Okkeril River. I hate the vocals so much I can't bear them for more than one song. Urgh!

And Joe Lean and Jing Jang Jong, when I heard they were on those stupid bastards Young and Lost I was already put off, but when I heard I was even more unimpressed. I didn't realise it was someone I knew in the band, he was in the pipettes, and oddly, nathan barley and peep show too.

[Don_Preston]

1. I find the pre-electric stuff pretty unlistenable,
2. and he's not helped his cause by everything he's released after 'Blood On The Tracks'.

You fool! He went shit when he went electric!! I'll protest that til the day I die (maybe).

and two, I won't have a bad word said against Desire, nor Slow Train Coming

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

You fool! He went shit when he went electric!! I'll protest that til the day I die (maybe).

JUDAS!!!

[Cack Hen]

the majority of the Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant album

I dunno, it does admittedly go a bit wrong in places (most notably with the last few songs all sort of sounding very similar, and Women's Realm sounding vaguely like The Boy With The Arab Strap, too) but I really love about 80% of it. If I can make a Dylan comparison, I'd call it their Nashville Skyline - dismissed as bad because it doesn't hold up to previous work. Storytelling aside, it is their least-good album, but that doesn't mean it's rubbish. Not to me, anyway.

[Cack Hen]

You fool! He went shit when he went electric!! I'll protest that til the day I die (maybe).

Well I suppose you could argue that it was the beginning of the end...but really, where do you go from there? Still, he made two amazing, perfect albums while he was 'electric'.

and two, I won't have a bad word said against Desire

Yeah, it's good. Musically, I really enjoy Hurricane, but lyrically...urgh. It's a bit embarrassing.

[CaledonianGonzo]

and two, I won't have a bad word said against Desire, nor Slow Train Coming

Nor me Street Legal, Oh Mercy, Time Out Of Mind, Love & Theft and the better tracks on Infidels and Modern Times.

Actually, I'm a bigger 'Bobcat' than most (except I hate that term), and I can totally understand not liking Dylan.  I can see why people wouldn't want to listen to it, be it the voice or the sometimes sloppy production.  

That said, they'd be on less certain ground if they tried to dispute the importance of the man himself in the context of post-war music.  To borrow an an analogy from another medium, I wouldn't want to read nothing but Joyce, but I'm still pretty sure he was a genius.

[Sheldon Finklestein]

Other bands I don't get:

Joy Division - Probably wouldn't mind these so much if my uncle would shut up for five minutes about how great Ian Curtis was. Much like I can't understand how people find Radiohead depressing, I cannot understand how this music made Curtis dance about like a maniac. It's just really boring, droney depressive twaddle to me.

Joy Division is a phenomenon in my musical appreciation: a four-hit wonder. Precisely. I could (and do) listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, She's Lost Control and Atmosphere again and again, but, beyond that, I just find them turgid and dull. And my ambivalence towards the rest of their output has no impact on my adoration of those four.

Anyway, my shitlist:

Kate Nash: For reasons previously covered. Just baffling.
50, as someone so rightly said, Cent: Typifies everything that's wrong with rap as a genre. A mindless thug, with no lyrical skill or innovation. And yet, stratospherically popular, above truly talented people like Rakim. Eminem and Snoop Dogg at least have undisputable ability and are distinctive; Fiddy is just generic gangsta rubbish.
Underoath: Yeah, emo is a spectacularly easy target, but it still riles me. Sullen, masturbatory twaddle. And utterly unlistenable. Why make music that is so relentlessly unpleasant to listen to? As for the lyrical content: 'Can you taste the fear in her sweat?' pretty much sums it up for me.

Don't get:

Elvis Presley: I've tried to acquiant myself with most of the musical greats, and he doesn't do a thing for me. Irritating singing style, dreary lyrics (not that he wrote them).
The Libertines: Overly scruffy and uninspired. One can only assume that this generation of teenagers has latched on to them, because of the current vacuum of true geniuses.
Oasis: A band for whom the term 'meh' could have been invented.

[Mindbear]

Another band I never really got was the Incredible String Band, which is a shame because my dad had a stint in them.

I do love Dylan, but I don't know enough of his stuff, because my dad really loved him, but chose to expose me to a lot more Dire Straits and subsequently I decided to love that. Don't be mean, I don't understand it myself really.....

[Captain Crunch]

Xiu Xiu - does anyone actually like them?  I've long suspected them to be an over-elaborate prank on hipsters at large by the music press that's just gone completely out of hand.

Heh, I've got a mate who swears they're the best thing since bread and this year will be their year.  Mind you, he also said I should check out Sunburned Hand of the Man so yes it's probably a wind-up.

Bob Dylan

Again it's context, my Mum loves Dylan but when you're not keen on something to begin with, having to sit through two hours of it on a motorway will turn you off for life.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Now, I'm rather partial to a bit of The Jesus & Mary Chain, but Psychocandy is, at best, probably about their third or fourth best album.  There's some really good tracks on there, but I do agree that the album as a whole dosn't sustain itself that well over its 45 minutes.  Now, Darklands and Honey's Dead...that's where the real JAMC gems lie.  Darklands in particular is a fantastic album - it focuses a lot more on their more melodic side, and the songs are much more developed than those on Psychocandy.

Replace 'Honey's Dead' with 'Automatic and parts of Barbed Wire Kisses' and I'm with you on that 100%.  'Head On' is a vastly underrated track in their canon.

Stephin Merrit, however, has recently named Psychocandy 'the last significant event in pop music production', thus re-igniting the 'he's a hip-hop hating racist' debate.

[Mindbear]

Heh, I've got a mate who swears they're the best thing since bread and this year will be their year.  Mind you, he also said I should check out Sunburned Hand of the Man so yes it's probably a wind-up.

Again it's context, my Mum loves Dylan but when you're not keen on something to begin with, having to sit through two hours of it on a motorway will turn you off for life.

I really like Xiu Xiu. I don't like them to be cool, honestly, I got sent Fabulous Muscles for free from Kill Rock Stars I think, and I listened to them totally free of any prior knowledge and loved it. The albums since haven't really been as good sadly, but yes, I honestly like them.

[Labian Quest]

Joy Division is a phenomenon in my musical appreciation: a four-hit wonder. Precisely. I could (and do) listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, She's Lost Control and Atmosphere again and again, but, beyond that, I just find them turgid and dull. And my ambivalence towards the rest of their output has no impact on my adoration of those four.

I feel the same way about Joy Division except that I would classify them as a six hit wonder, the four songs you like plus 'Dead souls' and 'Shadowplay' still that's not a bad hit rate for a band that only recorded two albums and a few singles.

[Cack Hen]

So The Libertines have inevitably been mentioned a few times in this thread. I won't bore everybody with any rant, instead I'll post a video of why they were great:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Luhb3ucnVIE[/youtube]

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Joy Division is a phenomenon in my musical appreciation: a four-hit wonder. Precisely. I could (and do) listen to Love Will Tear Us Apart, Transmission, She's Lost Control and Atmosphere again and again, but, beyond that, I just find them turgid and dull. And my ambivalence towards the rest of their output has no impact on my adoration of those four.

My thoughts entirely. They literally have four great songs and nothing more.

Don't get:

Elvis Presley: I've tried to acquiant myself with most of the musical greats, and he doesn't do a thing for me. Irritating singing style, dreary lyrics (not that he wrote them).

Ah, but Elvis had many singing styles. If you listen, say, to Blue Moon, Jailhouse Rock, How Great Thou Art or the '60 Comeback version of Guitar Man, you'd be forgiven for believing that they were recorded by four seperate singers. The breadth and scope of Elvis' output is quite something to behold. Like Dylan, there's tons of shite, but acres of magnificent stuff too.

[olafr]

I feel the same way about Joy Division except that I would classify them as a six hit wonder, the four songs you like plus 'Dead souls' and 'Shadowplay' still that's not a bad hit rate for a band that only recorded two albums and a few singles.

If I may add 'Day of the Lords' to that ticket, I'll be riding in the same carriage.

Actually, I don't mind them as such, it's just coming from Manchester and rapidly approaching 40, I just feel a little resentment to any idea that Joy Division are automatically part of my cultural DNA. Same goes with 'Madchester' bands.

Which leads me to Stone Roses. I liked 'Tell Me' and that's about it.

[Brundle-Fly]

It's SEX PISTOLS, not The Sex Pistols, as people keep saying in here. And not all prog is dire.

It's funny how protective one gets over their fave bands and music tastes.  I'm getting irrationally annoyed by this thread, much in the same way I used to get annoyed by 'J'accuse' type articles in music mags or TV. Must resist.

...and another thing, how can anyone hate Madness? That's like hating Dad's Army, bangers and mash or Big Ben.

[alan nagsworth]

Weren't Madness an official "joke band" as stated by Suggs? If so I can see why a lot of people would hate them.

For the record I think they're ace.

[Glebe]

The Wombats and all these bland 'indie' pop bands that are getting signed after playing at a school concert or something and immeadiately getting advertised on TV, only to disappear into oblivion next week.

[thugler]

mentioning Joanna Newsom and Sandi Thom in the same sentence

Well how about this. I prefer Thom to Newsom, because she is a fairly unpretentious pop artist. While Newsom wails on in a child's voice and acts like she's a genius, and is constantly lauded by people, I can't stand listening to her.

So The Libertines have inevitably been mentioned a few times in this thread. I won't bore everybody with any rant, instead I'll post a video of why they were great:

Absolutely nothing remotely original music-wise, and irritating vocals which sound almost like self parody. Whats to be impressed about?


As for the Wall, while conceptually it's impressive, the music and songs are just a bit cheesy and crap bar a couple. It's self consciously trying to be arty.

[Gulftastic]

U2 have been top of my hate list since 'Where The Streets Have No Name'. bunch of pillocks.

It annoys me that Clayton and Mullen appeared on Nanci Griffith's finest album 'Flyer', even if it was just for one song. If I had the power, I'd go back in time and change that before anything else.

[Cack Hen]

It's funny how protective one gets over their fave bands and music tastes.  I'm getting irrationally annoyed by this thread, much in the same way I used to get annoyed by 'J'accuse' type articles in music mags or TV. Must resist.

Well yeah, that's the thing. I don't mind people not liking music I love, but I hate to see music I love just flippantly disregarded. Of course everybody is welcome to flippantly disregard whatever they want, but that doesn't make it any less disappointing and frustrating.

[Brundle-Fly]

Weren't Madness an official "joke band" as stated by Suggs? If so I can see why a lot of people would hate them.

For the record I think they're ace.


I think Suggs was being facetious because they were never taken that seriously. Even though they had the nutty image they wrote as much downbeat social commentary and political material as anything The Jam/ The Specials/ The Clash ever did.