i liked nirvana until they somehow became "the voice of a generation". but i do thank them for ushering these berkeleybags (and others) off the stage:
i liked nirvana until they somehow became "the voice of a generation". but i do thank them for ushering these berkeleybags (and others) off the stage:
To keep on-thread -- liked early Megadeth -- Peace Sells is probably my favorite album of Dave's...
To keep on sub-thread -- Like the early Metallica alot! The post-Cliff stuff is good for me too.........right up until we get to St. Anger. Couldn't believe the band thought it was a good idea to release a film about the making of the album and the therapy sessions that were part of the making of the album. Really? I thought if you were metal and had a problem with the mates in your band, you broke stuff, lost yourself in hookers, blow and Jack Daniels, and then proceed to wrap a Ferrari or three around a light pole on Sunset Boulevard. This is followed by more hookers, more Jack Daniels......then show the band shows up sloppy drunk for several concerts only to stop playing after 30 minutes. More hookers, H replaces the blow, then the band breaks up. Then everyone remembers your band for being legendary.
I think the end for Metallica was them posing for the Load or Re-Load album back with martinis and cigars.......jmo.
I give Kobain credit for being brilliant but being the "Voice of a generation"? NFW. He was just a manic depressive who had a way with songwriting. It could be that they avoided eating shotguns long enough to have some evolution to their sound - but these are two examples of same-period bands that are more listen-able to me today:
True, Kurt Cobain was a narcissistic self centered shiny happy person. But, as GPS says, he was brilliant. 'Nevermind' is, to me, a game changer right up there with Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon'. But by the time they did 'In Utero' I was a bit embarrassed to say I was a fan. Same with Pearl Jam; 'Ten' is a helluva great album but 'Vitalogy' sucked badly.
Nirvana only suffers from the albatross of being lauded in their own time.
GPS- the bands you picture above are good. Smashing Pumpkins are arguably great. STP, I liked them, but they’re kind of a pop band in the grunge style. Had some good songs, but really hit a brick wall.
Regardless, I think it’s very likely you’d never have heard of either of those bands, and a host of others, if it weren’t for Nirvana. It’s rare that such a huge shift in popular culture can be directly traced to one band- actually one song. Smells Like Teen Spirit had more impact than any other song written in my lifetime. Even if you look at other great ground breaking artists, their impact, while significant and enduring was not the seismic shift brought about by that song.
Even the huge move that followed, from Grunge to Hip Hop, which has been even more enduring (unfortunately) and invasive, didn’t have that touch-stone moment in time. I distinctly recall hearing SLTS while out with a group of friends (including my now wife!) at a crowded restaurant. I excused myself to go to the bathroom just so I could find a speaker and try to make out what that song was. It was that different. It seemed like it changed everything over-night. In reality, it actually was only a couple of months before everything was different. New radio stations popped up, calling themselves “heavy metal” playing the hot new “Seattle sound”. No one even knew what to call it or what to make of it at that point. It brought metal heads, punks and alternative fans to the record store to buy the same album. As mentioned, it also exposed how bizarre and silly “Heavy Metal” had become and killed a rash of post-glam bands in an instant. Within a few months it made super-stars of bands who were playing bars and giving away cassettes.
It’s kind of human nature, in a hipster kind of way, to deride anything that had that kind of broad appeal. But that doesn’t make it any less good. To say that you liked it until someone else hung the “voice of a generation” label on it is silly. And, while he clearly became un-hinged and probably had his judgment clouded by a lot of drugs, that’s exactly the kind of nonsense that Cobain was all worked up about when he offed himself.
I like Smashing Pumpkins and STP both, but to me, the main difference between their early stuff and Nirvana's was an uneveness. I could listen to 'Nevermind' and like everything Pink Floyd did up till 'The Final Cut' there wasn't a single song I didn't like. With SP and STP, I'd find myself skipping tracks. Maybe they were copycatting, I dunno.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: And, while he clearly became un-hinged and probably had his judgment clouded by a lot of drugs, that’s exactly the kind of nonsense that Cobain was all worked up about when he offed himself.
And here I am, thinking all this time that just being married to Courtney Love was more than enough to make ol' Kurt Ka-bang do the deed.
SilverFleet wrote: I wish someone would go back and turn up the volume on the damn bass track on Justice. I know why they did it, but as a musician it's annoying. Whenever I hear songs from that album, I want to plug in my bass and play along.And no Metallica for me after the Black Album (great ROCK record, not metal) and no Megadeth after Countdown. There are too many other quality metal bands out there to listen to that actually give a crap about making good metal instead of stirring the pot or making money (Lars, I'm looking at you, ya little talentless troll!!!). As far as the old Thrash bands go, Anthrax, Testament, Death Angel and Exodus still destroy when they play.
That's what the left side of your bitchin' 7 band EQ is for, bruh! 
Seriously. That was a berkeleying perfectly produced and engineered metal record. Nothing else sounded as crisp at the time. Hate on the lack of bass, the guitars were so crunchy they'd melt your berkeleying face off at volume.
88 was a great year for metal; Justice, State of Euphoria, Fabulous Disaster, South of Heaven, Under the Influence, etc., etc.
In reply to fast_eddie_72:
You are making a lot of assumptions in that wall of text.
Nirvana never meant all that much to me. I thought Nevermind was a good album. It wasn't a game changer to me. Smells Like Teen Spirit wasn't what I thought was great about it. In Bloom, On a Plain, Polly, Come as You Are... they were what I was skipping to every time I put it in.
Appetite for Destruction was the album that righted the ship for me in the fading light of the 80's. Right up there with early Maiden for "berkeley Yeah! Rock and Roll". I still listen to STP's stuff when I go running. It still sounds great.
I am listening to Corigan's new album right now and it's awesome.
I haven't listened to Nirvana or Pearl Jam in years. I'm bored of the sound.
Who couldn't use a little Misfits - Last Caress right now?
I'm going for a run - it's at the top of the playlist.
In reply to Giant Purple Snorklewacker:
Its not that SLTS was a "game changer" for everyone, but it was such a different sound from anything else that was being played on the radio or on MTV(in the good ol' days of actual music videos). Many people had the same experience as fast eddie. Hell, I know I did.
It did in fact move me on to Smashing Pumpkins, Sound Garden, STP, and a whole bunch more of the grunge style of music.
I really enjoyed the obscurity of Incesticide as Nirvana started moving into the boring style in In Utero
ima go ahead and agree with some of what fe72 said. and to GPS i say that the first time i heard Welcome To The Jungle i almost crapped my pants.
that, and
AngryCorvair wrote: ima go ahead and agree with some of what fe72 said. and to GPS i say that the first time i heard Welcome To The Jungle i almost crapped my pants. that, and
You guys are cracking me the berkeley up. Thank you.
poopshovel wrote: You guys are cracking me the berkeley up. Thank you.
GPS gives me the lols at least once per day. hetfield and trujillo @ rodeo drive is funny on one level, but the new lyrics (especially after the earlier commentary about AJFA) made me snot my keyboard.
Oh god, oh god..........those last two...........amazing, I'm crying at my desk.
AngryCorvair wrote:poopshovel wrote: You guys are cracking me the berkeley up. Thank you.GPS gives me the lols at least once per day. hetfield and trujillo @ rodeo drive is funny on one level, but the new lyrics (especially after the earlier commentary about AJFA) made me snot my keyboard.
I had seen the hetfield one before, but not the danzig one. Oh, speaking of danzig, ENJOY! (possibly nsfw. There is a girl's butt in a thong.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHv3qO_Y8kk
In reply to poopshovel:
The only thing I cared about in that video was looking at Shakira. Well, back to youtube to see more videos of her on mute.
oh what the hell.. i give up..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHZN3foEeOQ
if this doesn't make you laugh, then you have no soul.
To get back to the crazy theme...
Ma-Mama we're all crazy now.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: In reply to fast_eddie_72: You are making a lot of assumptions in that wall of text. Nirvana never meant all that much to me. I thought Nevermind was a good album. It wasn't a game changer to me. Smells Like Teen Spirit wasn't what I thought was great about it. In Bloom, On a Plain, Polly, Come as You Are... they were what I was skipping to every time I put it in.
I'm not making any assumptions at all. It may not have meant a lot to you, but there's really no question that it changed the game.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: I'm not making any assumptions at all. It may not have meant a lot to *you*, but there's really no question that it changed the game.
Not hating on Nirvana at all. They were different. Fresh air. The rose colored glass of time might be giving them more credit than they deserve though with statements like "Defined a generation". They didn't define anything - they just rocked for a little while.
Whatever game they changed for the better changed back again - it berkeleying blows chunks today. A berkeleying robot army of lip-syncing teens cranking out repetitive, faceless, meaningless noise and peddling it to kids on the Disney channel.
Now get off my lawn.
fast_eddie_72 wrote: I'm not making any assumptions at all. It may not have meant a lot to *you*, but there's really no question that it changed the game.
I'll agree with that. I'd had already heard of Nivana before Nevermind was released. They already had a bit of an underground following even in the Philly area. Pearl Jam as well - my bass player gave me a cassette of Ten long before they released MTV videos.
So to me they were just another band. I was listening to a lot of Fugazi around that time as well as the stuff we were writing for our band.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: A berkeleying robot army of lip-syncing teens cranking out repetitive, faceless, meaningless noise and peddling it to kids on the Disney channel.
You DO of course realize that this has been true of commercial popular music for about, oh, 80 years now...
I was being a little sarcastic with the "changed the face of music" thing - I think Angry was too; hence the quotations, so let's everyone just calm down, take a deep breath, and go berkeley yourselves.
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