Random Music Talk XCIX - Hating on Mediocre Australian Bands with Keiran and the Gang

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lazarus said:
Alice In chains over Pearl Jam of Nirvana?


No.

This is how a band goes from underrated to overrated.
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Now that's just silly. There are tons of music fans who prefer Alice in Chains to either one of those bands, and for a good reason. I personally find their music to be more potent and emotionally fulfilling than Nirvana, which I very much like, but none of their songs come near AIC's best work in my mind. Especially when it comes to the more mid-tempo and ballad tracks. All Apologies and Something in the Way have nothing on songs like Nutshell, Brother or Rotten Apple.

Pearl Jam is still on top though, for million reasons that I've stated many times here.

lazarus said:
They'll never have "indie cred" but even among the Pitchfork crowd there tends to at least be a begrudging respect.
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This minor reason being one of them. The term "indie cred" is vomit-inducing, Pitchfork is a terrible website, and apart from Gold Soundz, I don't particularly care for Pavement.

On the other hand, I love the often "BNMd" (just typing that makes me laugh and cringe at the same time) The National so I guess that makes me a part-time self-hating hipster.
 
I can't remember the last Pitchfork review I read in full. I just look at the scores, search for a description and go. I do habitually listen to albums with a BNM tag because they usually wind up being heavily discussed anyway based on the tag alone.

Maybe it's a horrible website, but it depends on what you want to get out of it. I want music recommendations and I get those.
 
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LemonMelon said:
I can't remember the last Pitchfork review I read in full. I just look at the scores, search for a description and go. I do habitually listen to albums with a BNM tag because they usually wind up being heavily discussed anyway based on the tag alone.

Maybe it's a horrible website, but it depends on what you want to get out of it.
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It's one source of finding out about new music and that's fine. One in thousands, and there are many other websites that do the exact same thing. I was always more used to word-of-mouth recommendations due to growing up in a very musical family and circle of friends, so I guess it was easy for me. Therefore, from my perspective, it's a bit of an odd place to look for new music, but there's absolutely nothing illegitimate about that kind of approach. My problem with it is that it is often heavily biased, ignorant and prejudiced towards some genres, and most importantly - terribly written, supported by a certain amount of smugness and sense of superiority that I find to be completely undeserved.

It was surreal for me to find out just a couple of hours ago that a local Croatian band was reviewed on Pitchfork (discussion in the superthread if anybody cares). First I laughed at that grading system, but then I started reading the review. The first paragraph was already full of so many fallacies and sad stereotypes that I couldn't even begin finishing it. For this kind of mediocre website to have so much authority over opinions of young hipsters is, dare I say, troublesome.

Message boards like this are in my mind the logical continuation of the aforementioned word-of-mouth that was going on before. I am grateful for many of the bands that I've discovered due to them being recommended here. But it always seems bizarre to me that anybody here would try and "substantiate" their recommendation with that silly BNM tag. But that's just me so what the fuck do I know.

Anyway, the band was called The Bambi Molesters and it got a 7.9!

Yes, they're called Bambi Molesters. Check them out.

No BNM though. :sad:
 
The best way to find music without bias is to use a variety of sources, but you have to actually read the publications to figure out what genres they agree with you on. Like Pitchfork's opinion on hip hop is mostly garbage. Metacritic is nice, but again, do I care what TinyMixTapes thinks? Fuck no I don't, so their contribution of the score might as well be negated as far as I'm concerned.

I like the rateyourmusic yearly charts because they aren't biased against metal or ambient:

https://rateyourmusic.com/customcha...=both&origin_countries=&limit=none&countries=
 
Random Music Talk XCIX - Hating on Mediocre Australian Bands with Keiran and ...

I check Pitchfork every day, I'm afraid. And I think the writers are quite good, despite being far too prone to pretension. I'd love to be able to write about music like some of them do.

But my absolute number one main source of music is this forum right here. I value the opinions here much more than anything else.

Unless it's deep house. Then I set the agenda.
 
u2popmofo said:
Itz not on there yet, only the old one iz.
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Eno/Hyde Someday World 2014? It's there.


I only just took all my X-Files and Buffy DVDs to Half Price Books. It was a tough decision, but jeez, everything's online these days, so ...

I thought S7 of XF was decent, right up until the last 20 seconds of the finale. Had they stopped just right there .... would have been so much better.

Even S8 had a few bright spots. I refused to watch S9 ever again.

I'm still a little bitter.
 
Oh, the 2014 threw me. I had no idea they had 2 out in one year already!

Oh well. I'll listen to the other one anyway.
 
djerdap said:
It was surreal for me to find out just a couple of hours ago that a local Croatian band was reviewed on Pitchfork (discussion in the superthread if anybody cares). First I laughed at that grading system, but then I started reading the review. The first paragraph was already full of so many fallacies and sad stereotypes that I couldn't even begin finishing it. For this kind of mediocre website to have so much authority over opinions of young hipsters is, dare I say, troublesome.
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I have discovered a lot of great music through Pitchfork, but as you say its general writing, especially in terms of "context" or background, can be difficult to stomach. This remark on the Led Zeppelin reissues stands out in my mind:

In 2014, Led Zeppelin is typically viewed through one of three lenses: those among the 50-plus set who were actually there hear their music with a nostalgic ear, remembering the days of their youth. There are those who grew up with the assumption that Led Zeppelin were important—let's say 30 to 50 years old—hear them filtered through a second wave of nostalgia, from movie titles like Dazed and Confused and the memory of classic rock radio. To these people (including me), Zeppelin defined an otherworldly image of '70s rock deities, conquering the world on the strength of volume, arena shows, and the baddest riffs the world had ever heard. And then there’s the younger set for whom Zep might seem a little comical, a faintly embarrassing relic from another era even as a certain amount of the music remains undeniable. In one sense, this latter group have more in common with the skeptical critics of the first wave, possessing expectations of "what music should be" that don’t necessarily apply for a band that sounds like this.

Okay, so the writer had three different conversations recently, heard three different opinions, and then extrapolated those to the entire public. The amount of unfounded generalization is ludicrous.

A reason I like the AV Club so much is that they stay away from their own personal experiences with the artist when reviewing an album, focusing instead on descriptions of the music and how it relates to past work from the artist. They have separate articles for nostalgia, argument about an artist's place in pop culture, etc.
 
bono_212 said:
I have started X-Files so many times. I never seem to get further than the second or third season. But I love the show so much.
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Some X-Files fans will cry foul here, but one thing you could do would be to check out the "Mythology" boxed sets, which collect the episodes only dealing with the larger conspiracy storyline, getting rid of all the "Monster Of The Week Episodes". Now some of those latter ones are great, but it does make the show harder to binge watch when the more gripping plot keeps getting interrupted.
 
Skipping MOTWs is not a good idea. Some of the best episodes - especially the ones written by Vince Gilligan, Glen Morgan, James Wong and Darin Morgan - are not to be missed. The Gilligan episodes alone serve a lot in putting the Mulder and Scully relationship forward, so they are essential in creating a continuous narrative, even if it's only character and not plot-related.

corianderstem said:
I thought S7 of XF was decent, right up until the last 20 seconds of the finale. Had they stopped just right there .... would have been so much better.

I'm still a little bitter.
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Make that five minutes instead of 20 seconds. I cannot emphasise enough how much I hated the lazy, recycled plot device they thought of regarding Mulder.

I'm still very bitter.
 
Nah, better to watch the mythology episodes up until about season 6. There is a two-parter in there that resolves some of the important plotlines, which can serve as a conclusion. To watch the craptastic mythology episodes from the last three seasons instead of some classic, unforgettable MOTWs from the first five seasons would be ludicrous. If Ashley would need some advice in what MOTWs to skip, I'd be more than willing to help.
 
The AV Club recently finished their X Files reviews this April after years and years, and I've been using that as a broad guide to figure out which episodes are the bonafide stinkers that should be avoided.

When I only remembered The X Files from 11pm syndication airings I was a little dismissive at how unrealistic it'd be that the US government couldn't squash Mulder and Scully like bugs. But watching the mythology episodes with Deep Throat and Mr. X unexpectedly emphasized that was really a strength- it's another part of the layers-within-layers paranoia that these cases are often less about Mulder and Scully being proactive, and more trying to understand how someone's trying to use them as pawns.

Cool stuff. I'm definitely thinking I'm going to stay on board until season 6 or 7.
 
u2popmofo said:
Hay IWB, you might like The Hotelier.

Hay Martha and IWB, youz might like White Lung.

Hay Cobbler, this message was sent from my iMac.
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I will have to look into them, then.

The Hotelier--either I was pointed in their direction by something/someone else before and never checked out, or I disliked the 1 song I heard. Can't remember. Think the former, though.

White Lung--never heard of them.

Cool. Will look into them.
 
so basically, if say anything (when they didn't suck) and band of horses (at least that album with funeral on it) had an album baby, it might very well be home, like noplace is there. i can live with that. it's got some good stuff going on. :up:
 
LemonMelon said:
La Dispute
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that could be worse, i suppose.

ok, it's good enough for me to overlook their singer's douchebag hair in the video for "such small hands"


but i heard "the impression that i get" on the radio while i was driving earlier, and now all i want to listen to is the bosstones. that song doesn't even come close to ranking in terms of my favorite bosstones songs, but after sitting through that irritating bastille song, it was like the greatest thing i've ever heard. i really need to do something about my lack of cd player in my car.
 
IWasBored said:
so basically, if say anything (when they didn't suck) and band of horses (at least that album with funeral on it) had an album baby, it might very well be home, like noplace is there. i can live with that. it's got some good stuff going on. :up:
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Pretty sure I mentioned them in your direction once before. They have a very late '90s emo sound. The good kind of emo.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
LemonMelon said:
I agree.

But La Dispute > both
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Home, Like No Place Is There > Deep Fantasy > Rooms of the House, but all are in my top ten for the year so far. I do sometimes wish La Dispute would reuse more of their great hooks rather than using them just once in a song and then hurriedly moving on to another idea.
 
Yeah, the mythology just went completely off the rails in the last few seasons, and there are some simply classic MOTW episodes. So I'd give a pass on the mythology box set as well.

re last episode of S7

I would have been happy if they'd zipped Mulder away in the spaceship, ended the series right then (right before Scully's announcement of her goddamn fucking miracle baby) and then had a second movie where they go off and find/rescue Mulder.

sure would have been a fuckload better than that terrible, TERRIBLE second movie.
 
lazarus said:
Some X-Files fans will cry foul here, but one thing you could do would be to check out the "Mythology" boxed sets, which collect the episodes only dealing with the larger conspiracy storyline, getting rid of all the "Monster Of The Week Episodes". Now some of those latter ones are great, but it does make the show harder to binge watch when the more gripping plot keeps getting interrupted.
Click to expand...

That's what I was doing and I was actually pretty happy doing it that way. Thus why I've started 3 times:

Started once without Mythology

Started a second time when my friend gave me the Mythology box

Started a third time when Travis wanted to watch the show, but did NOT want to watch the Mythology.
 
I'll say again it is really not a good idea to separate the two. You can skip some episodes if there's too much of it, but the best way is to watch it and then run from it like from a fire when it turns to shit.

corianderstem said:
Yeah, the mythology just went completely off the rails in the last few seasons, and there are some simply classic MOTW episodes. So I'd give a pass on the mythology box set as well.

re last episode of S7

I would have been happy if they'd zipped Mulder away in the spaceship, ended the series right then (right before Scully's announcement of her goddamn fucking miracle baby) and then had a second movie where they go off and find/rescue Mulder.

sure would have been a fuckload better than that terrible, TERRIBLE second movie.
Click to expand...

I can't tell you how much I hate the fact that they had decided to have Mulder abducted by aliens to get rid of Duchovny. It ruins the wonderful irony the show had up to that point that the skeptic, and not the believer, had the alien abduction experience, plus the fact that this was exactly the plotline used to explain Anderson's absence in season 2 due to her pregnancy. Hence "lazy and recycled". Not to mention the ridiculous torture porn in season 8 that followed.

Goddamn you Fox for not allowing the show to end in a timely and logical manner, unnecessarily and unnaturally prolonging it for at least two seasons.
 
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