Your girlfriend hates The Sarcastic Butlers

[turnstyle]

She really does. She doesn't care that you saw them live at the Harlow Square, before Bernie Grimmington joined on bass, or that you have a signed copy of their debut 'Sainsburys Meat Counter Massacre' on coloured vinyl.

She doesn't want to listen to anything by them, even if it's from their more accessible 'Paragliding Subculture' album, which got a 3/5 in the Rhyl Gazette.

She certainly doesn't want you to make a CD up of their 'hits'.

Your girlfriend hates The Sarcastic Butlers. Just like the girlfriend before her. Even the girlfriends of The Sarcastic Butlers hate The Sarcastic Butlers.

Remember when you used to sit in your room with your headphones on, listening to The Sarcastic Butlers, your fingers grubby from the latest NME, your belly full of blue Panda Pop? Oh, how you'd dream of when you were older, and could share your love of your favourite band with a special lady.

Well, she hates them. If she puts the stereo on at home, it'll be to listen to that album by The Script that Lucy from work burned for her. In the car? Radio 1, or maybe a bit of Gaga.

The Sarcastic Butlers? How the fuck did you ever manage to get a girlfriend? You bloody nerd. Nobody is impressed.

Oh, and your '93 tour t-shirt? The one you used to wear down the pub every week in the hope of pulling one of those grungy looking girls in their oversized lumberjack shirts? Cut up for dusters mate.

Dusters.

[Jean-Luc Prickhard]

The girl I loved the most in all the world claimed to have been impressed by Slint, when I put them on a compilation tape for her. But she may have been fibbing. Then she started going out with some goofy-looking fuckwit who probably liked Blur. Since then, I've hated all people with that stupid "Junior Curtainhead" haircut.

[23 Daves]

Oh, I well remember the day when a friend of mine enthusiastically emailed me to say that he had a new girlfriend, and she loved The Fall.  They were one of her favourite bands, in fact.

I met her, mentioned this to her, and she said "Who?" then suddenly remembered her lie and replied "Oh, The Fall... er... yeah, I think I was thinking of another band I really loved".
Yeah, like you keep mixing up bands you're actually a fan of, you deceitful mare.

My wife as well "went along" with my tastes for about six months before loudly declaring one day that I listened to a lot of shit, a comment which has been repeated many, many times since.  From her and others. 

[defmem]

I've never had a girlfriend, friend, family member, acquaintance or even a random stranger who will even pretend to appreciate a second of Melt Banana. I've never actually been in the physical presence of another human being who likes them even vaguely. And it hurts.

[Famous Mortimer]

I've never had a girlfriend, friend, family member, acquaintance or even a random stranger who will even pretend to appreciate a second of Melt Banana. I've never actually been in the physical presence of another human being who likes them even vaguely. And it hurts.

Go to a gig of theirs, and bask in the glory. I'm sure I saw them once, although I can't remember when.

[Little Hoover]

I know at least two girls who like The Fall, (not including the one's on this forum) it's not that rare is it? Loads of idiots like The Fall so some of them would have to be women. Melt Banana seems like a slightly harder task, although of course the singer is Japanese so it can't be impossible as I assume she quite likes Melt Banana.

There's a very stupid part of me that sometimes thinks if I could find a girl who liked the most obscure/noisy/impenetrable artists I like, this would mean she was perfect and I'd instantly know that we should be together.

[alan nagsworth]

It's taken me a gruelling twelve months to get my girlfriend to love Ween, and I'm still working out the fine print to this day. My relentless listening habits and constantly banging on about how much they've changed my life and how happy they make me have very gradually persuaded her to the point where she now sings along, has favourite tracks and sometimes even asks me to put them on! That said, she still calls me a raging homo when I watch the Live In Chicago DVD and go all misty-eyed at Gener's cute and disarming visage. Can't get why she doesn't see the attraction herself, really.

The same can't be said for most of my other tastes, though; she really likes all the Night Slugs funky/housey type stuff but I'll be fucked if I can ever get her to listen more than five seconds of The Locust. I tried explaining that those five seconds were only one sixth of the track's full duration but she was having none of it.

[Janie Jones]

Turnstyle, that was brilliant.  I want to send it to everyone I know.

Dusters?  If only.  Half of the deluded look-back bores are still wearing them. 

[23 Daves]

The thing is, I thought I was doing so well with my wife initially, but it turns out she was just tolerating a lot of the music I put on rather than actually enjoying it.  I kept on and on pushing it and putting more and more obscure things on to see how she responded, all the while thinking "God, she's actually pretty cool and tolerant of this stuff!"  Eventually of course, she just snapped.

Now whenever I go near the record player, she regards me with a very similar expression a nervous dog would give to the sight of an anal thermometer. 

[buttgammon]

On my first day of sixth form, I met a girl who liked Melt Banana and another girl who I eventually ruined my chances with by giving her a copy of 'Y' by The Pop Group, which I had convinced her she would like. That score draw for my 16 year old self is the closest I've ever got to true musical acceptance with women.

[alan nagsworth]

Now whenever I go near the record player, she regards me with a very similar expression a nervous dog would give to the sight of an anal thermometer. 

Haha! In our house I get the cynical glance up from the book and 'oh... really?'

I know it's a rhetorical question but I say 'YES!' anyway just to drive my musical stake in the dirt. Winner.

[Famous Mortimer]

I get "is this music?" quite a bit from the residents of my house.

[23 Daves]

The usual response to anything not run-of-the-mill (such as Scott Walker's "Tilt") chez Dave is "Now you're just taking the piss.  You cannot possibly enjoy this.  You have just put this on the stereo to wind me up". 

[boki]

...and just every now and again.... ;)

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

I've listened to a Snow Patrol album enough times.

Your boyfriend hates Snow Patrol.

[Serge]

I'm not sure of the point of this thread. Is it trying to say that women don't like any music other than obvious poppy stuff and are dismissive of more 'difficult' music? That women don't have that obsessive need to own obscure records? All I can say is, you need to meet more women. Obviously, I work somewhere where I'm more likely to meet women who are into say, Burzum or Omar Souleyman, but on the whole throughout my life, I'd say most women I've got to know well are pretty open-minded and slightly obsessive about music, new and old.

[NoSleep]

I think he's trying to say that the Sarcastic Butlers are shit. I have no idea if we're meant to understand that their music is "difficult" or otherwise.

[alan nagsworth]

I think turnstyle is just being Sarcastic about his Butler (girlfriend).

[Icehaven]

I have exactly this situation, except in gender reverse.

[Icehaven]

,,,and he kicks off completely when I play Aphex Twin.

[SteveDave]

My girlfriend hates The Beatles & always brings it up when drunk & in company. She believes The Shadows to be a better band. She also knows Ringo's grand-daughter which further annoys.

[Beagle 2]

When I moved in with my girlfriend that was the end of my Manic Street Preachers communal listening and it was most certainly the end of her Bob Dylan communal listening. In a lot of ways I think we're both richer for it.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm not sure of the point of this thread. Is it trying to say that women don't like any music other than obvious poppy stuff and are dismissive of more 'difficult' music? That women don't have that obsessive need to own obscure records? All I can say is, you need to meet more women. Obviously, I work somewhere where I'm more likely to meet women who are into say, Burzum or Omar Souleyman, but on the whole throughout my life, I'd say most women I've got to know well are pretty open-minded and slightly obsessive about music, new and old.

You're not wrong there Serge, you're not wrong there. And I do try my best. But in my entire life I've probably only met three or four women who are in to really alternative stuff, and the rest are largely pop obsessed. And I know it's a cliche, but the amount who put on Abba at a party for hours on end when drunk is...distressing. I've even struggled to find a lass who likes my taste in music (The Delgados, The National, Animal Collective, The Polyphonic Spree, Ooberman, My Life Story, David Devant, Ultrasound, Lambchop to name just a few) and they're not particularly experiment acts compared to most of the bands listed here.

Vaguely back on subject, to this day one of my ex-girlfriends thinks I like Daniel Beddingfield. I just had to pretend though. She adored him, and I adored her.

[Famous Mortimer]

I don't think it's women, so much as everyone (although Serge, your sample is a bit skewed, working where you do). The chances of meeting anyone who's into, say, Jandek, is pretty small.

[phantom_power]

but that is a pretty extreme example. i only know a couple of people in real life who could name a flaming lips song or even have heard of guided by voices, let alone a merzbow enthusiast. it does seem from my indirect contact with people with similar, less mainstream tastes to me that most of them are male but as that is from the internet there is some bias there.

[Famous Mortimer]

but that is a pretty extreme example. i only know a couple of people in real life who could name a flaming lips song or even have heard of guided by voices, let alone a merzbow enthusiast. it does seem from my indirect contact with people with similar, less mainstream tastes to me that most of them are male but as that is from the internet there is some bias there.

I thought the thread was about extreme examples.

[Serge]

To be honest, I don't know anybody who's into Jandek. Probably in the main because, like me, they haven't heard him, rather than not liking him specifically.

Admittedly, given where I work, I'm obviously going to know more women who like obscure/extreme stuff, and I'd certainly say that the two people who I've worked with at Rough Trade whose tastes are the most extreme are both women. A lot of the men, especially men my age (and this goes for people I know outside work too, I should add) have quite narrow tastes skewed either towards post-punk or indie-pop and close variants.

Though you'd also be surprised how many of us, of both sexes, like mainstream pop stuff too - names I could mention being Take That, Sugababes, Justin Timberlake and Girls Aloud, amongst others.

[23 Daves]

I don't think it actually matters all that much in the grand scheme of things. Admittedly my wife's taste is OK anyway (a liking for dire Canadian folk music and The Vengaboys aside) but so long as you have other people you can share your tastes with it's not going to get in the way of having a decent relationship.  Compatible musical taste is pretty low down on my overall list of requirements for who I'd go out with - which is just as well, because somebody is always going to find something i love objectionable. 

[Famous Mortimer]

  Compatible musical taste is pretty low down on my overall list of requirements for who I'd go out with

I remember when that was a thing for me, then I got a bit older and realised it didn't matter worth a damn.

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's nice to have someone to enjoy music with and to go to gigs with, but I agree it's not critical.  It helps when choosing radio stations and CDs for a long car journey, but it's really not much more important than that.

I'd say that Mrs CG is keen on about 50% of the stuff that I like (chiefly the poppier and more upbeat American stuff - B&S, TFC, SFA, Beatles'n'Stones, Fleet Foxes, etc.) so if we're listening to music during dinner we'll stick to the common ground and there are no issues, and I'm cool with the fact that if someone like Toumani Diabaté comes to town I'll be going on my todd.