Monday, April 26, 2004
REALLY BAD COMP
Jeremy did snatch a couple of my most-hated songs, but I'll probably keep a couple of the artists, i.e., MxPx and Creed. These songs may have an uncomfortable leaning toward the playlists of The End from 1994-96 and KISW from 1996-2000. I may throw some mainstream pop muzak in here, but I don't know. We'll see how this post matures...
"Semi-Charmed Life" Third Eye Blind -- Most of these songs are going to be songs that I hated since the first time I'd heard them. This is number one. Radio overplay, a catchy chorus. The most sickening part? You knew a bunch of teenagers and pre-teens loved the song for its bounciness, catchiness, etc., and lots of parents probably bought the Third Eye Blind album for their kids. Did you ever listen to the lyrics in this song? Crystal meth is involved. I wish I was lying. I didn't even get on my rant about the DJ at the Safe either...
"Fly" Sugar Ray -- If you'd heard a Sugar Ray song called "Mean Machine" back around 1994 or '95, you would have known that Sugar Ray was a fast and hard-rockin' band. I remember hearing the hype of the End DJ before this song was played, calling it "the song of the summer." I'd had expectations built up from "Mean Machine" and was anxious. Then I heard this steaming pile of crap. I've heard from other people that the rest of Floored is a lot like a speed metal record, but "Fly" pigeonholed the band.
"Iris" Goo Goo Dolls -- Speaking of pigeonholed, this one drove the nail into the any hopes of the Goo Goo Dolls not cranking out sappy singles for the rest of their existence. One can argue that "Name" off A Boy Named Goo planted the seed for "Iris," but one song got the Dolls on the map, and the other one got the City of Angels soundtrack and the overload of overplay. Ladies love the song. Of course they do. But there were certain small things I liked about the Goo Goo Dolls, and whiny sappy poppy acoustic ballads were not one of them. As an aside, my favorite songs of their breakthrough era were "Naked" and "Long Way Down." Sue me.
"Hey Baby" No Doubt -- What the hell was this? I watched No Doubt blow onto the scene with the "Just a Girl"/"Spiderwebs" phase and grew sick of them easily. Needless to say, some people knowing about their pre-major label days were screaming "sellout" like mad. Then they took a few years off, and I thought Return to Saturn actually showed them somewhat maturing and growing as a band. Then "Hey Baby" came out. I like what guitarist Tom DuMont did in that song. Oh, wait...was there guitar in that song, or was it just keyboards and beat boxes? Anyway, I imagine I'm not reaching too far by saying this one song may have alienated the second fan base that they cultivated (the first being that pre-popularity crowd) over the years. Overplay made the song worse, and the video made it ten times worse. If there's one thing this song did, it cemented the fact that No Doubt is Gwen Stefani's band, rather than No Doubt being a band that Gwen Stefani is in.
As an aside, Gwen Stefani edged out Mandy Moore in KJR's Bigger Dance on the Mitch Levy show. Mitch went off yesterday about how some guys in the sales department were accusing him of fixing the competition for Stefani. Mitch had a quick rebuttal to this. He asked, "was I not the person that, after Stefani was announced at the selection show, said 'since when did we allow men into the competition?' " Mitch also said that Stefani had "a cleft chin bigger than Kirk Douglas.' "
"Last Kiss" Pearl Jam -- So I might be skewed already because I despise last-two-albums Pearl Jam and greatly am skewed in favor of first-three-albums Pearl Jam. Ironically, three of my favorite Pearl Jam songs were not on any of their studio albums ("Yellow Ledbetter," "State of Love and Trust," "I Got Id"). This was not one of them. This was a remake of some old song, and it was sold for benefit. I can't argue with the selflessness of it, I guess, but the song itself...ughh. It was grossly overplayed, a departure (not that I wasn't surprised) of everything I once liked about Pearl Jam, and the worst part was that they played it slower than the original version. They dragged it out. Just take what I'm saying in this paragraph and multiply the bad feeling by about 20, because I can't accurately convey my discontent for this song.
"One" Creed -- If Creed had a good album, the first one was it. However, if there was one thing Creed needed other than a different lead singer and a less predictable drummer (it's this open-hat left-hand thing after he hits the snare), it had to be a different producer, or at least one that could thicken their sound. They always sounded incredibly thin to me. It was never a wall-of-sound feeling with them, but rather a doorway screen. Horrible analogy. With the song "One," it was a stereotypical angsty half-yelling song...THEN there was the spacey part where they crank up the phase/sucking effect (I think the former term may be more accurate) and it seriously messed with my equilibrium. It's one thing to phase the guitars and mess with the sonic effect, but to do that with the drums too? I mean, you CAN mess with all of those and phase it, but they went waaaaay too far. The other thing to hate about Creed? There was also a song called "Unforgiven" on the same album. You heard it right, "One" and "Unforgiven" were songs on the Creed album. The only way this could have been more musically blasphemous would be if they covered the Metallica songs of the same names. And then there's that "are we Christian? Are we not?" thing. They would flatly deny it, but I'm sure they still tried to take advantage of that. And THEN there's the comparison Scott Stapp made comparing Creed with LED ZEPPELIN. I wish I was lying, but I heard the words right out of his mouth. When it comes right down to it, I hate everything about this band, and I hate Scott Stapp. That said, "Bullets" was their best song. By far.
"Glycerine" Bush -- If there's one good thing Rolling Stone has ever done, it was their article they had on Bush where the headline screamed "Nirvana Wannabes." I laughed. I cried. I hurled. This was the stupidest of the stupid when it came to Bush songs, and it didn't help that the musical black hole known as Gavin Rossdale was the only member of Bush involved in the song (unless Nigel played the violin or something). Anyway, it was just him singing with an electric guitar, with the backing strings section. If you ever hear the song again, don't get caught up in the mood...listen to the lyrics. Okay, may you shouldn't -- they'll drop your IQ by about 490 points. I kid you not. The lyrics make absolutely no sense whatsoever. At least in other songs the ineptitude of the lyrics can be covered with drums, bass, cymbals, etc., but in this song, the wounds are uncovered for everyone to see and hear. Eeeeeee-ject.
"Complicated" Avril Lavigne -- Okay, it's some skateboarding girl from Canada who can play guitar, who seems to have somewhat of a rebellious streak. Then "Complicated" comes out. I have a feeling the decision to make this a single falls on LA Reid (since ousted from Avril's label), but this is a good way to pigeonhole the young Canadian, and worse yet, give off exactly the first impression that she probably didn't want. Green Day waited until three albums into their major label era to release "Good Riddance" partly because they had built up their reputation and carved their niche over the two albums and tours beforehand and you knew what you were getting from them. With Avril, teenyboppers, trendies, and pre-teen girls alike are buying or have bought the album in droves, but they're going to be decidedly irked if Avril ever decides to grow up and get mean, which late teenagers do. Point is, this crew is going to expect songs like "Complicated" and they're going to be disappointed when they get something else. What it probably means is that Avril will mature as an artist and deserve more recognition when she in fact will lose it, something that happens all too often these days.
"Cant Hold Us Down" Christina Aguilera -- You see, I had a coworker the last two summers that played Star 101.5 in the warehouse all damn day and this song would play every 30 minutes. Yeah, the song with Lil Kim (bet she'll be treated nice if she gets thrown in jail) and Christina asking questions about why guys getting a lot of action are players and why gals doing the same are called whores. Whoa, mothers of America...hope your daughters aren't listening to this!! Also about the "whores" thing, this is probably unfair, but it takes a certain type of person to bring it up, let alone release onto the masses and onto a demographic of youngsters that just might look up to you. Look no further than here to get a review of Aguilera's latest album from one of my favorite music critics, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com. He's slammed bands that I love, so I think he's pretty fair.
"Behind Blue Eyes" Limp Bizkit -- Jeremy had erased this one from his mind, so he totally forgot about it. I'll let him have the floor on this whenever he decides to take it. It won't be the first time he's vented about this song on this site.
And the last one I want to vent about now...
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Aerosmith -- There's an easy way to still like Aerosmith, and here's how you do it: ignore everything they did after 1994. You won't be disappointed. As for this song, it featured absolutely nothing in terms of anything I have ever liked about Aerosmith. No catchy riff, no Steven Tyler swagger, no cool guitar solo, nothing. But only in America can you have a musical climate so pathetic that a band with over 25 years of previous better material can have their FIRST #1 hit with this abomination of a song. To me, this is one of those songs where I could let it slide if Steve and Joe Perry recorded it and had some different backing musicians behind them...but the minute they slap that Aerosmith name on it, there's a certain expectation that I hold, and it wasn't close to being met with this song.
There's tons of other songs out there that really get under my skin, but they'll have to hold off for a later date because I am hungry at the moment...
I hope y'all are enjoying the rainy day recess, brought to you by our good friend Precipitation.
"Semi-Charmed Life" Third Eye Blind -- Most of these songs are going to be songs that I hated since the first time I'd heard them. This is number one. Radio overplay, a catchy chorus. The most sickening part? You knew a bunch of teenagers and pre-teens loved the song for its bounciness, catchiness, etc., and lots of parents probably bought the Third Eye Blind album for their kids. Did you ever listen to the lyrics in this song? Crystal meth is involved. I wish I was lying. I didn't even get on my rant about the DJ at the Safe either...
"Fly" Sugar Ray -- If you'd heard a Sugar Ray song called "Mean Machine" back around 1994 or '95, you would have known that Sugar Ray was a fast and hard-rockin' band. I remember hearing the hype of the End DJ before this song was played, calling it "the song of the summer." I'd had expectations built up from "Mean Machine" and was anxious. Then I heard this steaming pile of crap. I've heard from other people that the rest of Floored is a lot like a speed metal record, but "Fly" pigeonholed the band.
"Iris" Goo Goo Dolls -- Speaking of pigeonholed, this one drove the nail into the any hopes of the Goo Goo Dolls not cranking out sappy singles for the rest of their existence. One can argue that "Name" off A Boy Named Goo planted the seed for "Iris," but one song got the Dolls on the map, and the other one got the City of Angels soundtrack and the overload of overplay. Ladies love the song. Of course they do. But there were certain small things I liked about the Goo Goo Dolls, and whiny sappy poppy acoustic ballads were not one of them. As an aside, my favorite songs of their breakthrough era were "Naked" and "Long Way Down." Sue me.
"Hey Baby" No Doubt -- What the hell was this? I watched No Doubt blow onto the scene with the "Just a Girl"/"Spiderwebs" phase and grew sick of them easily. Needless to say, some people knowing about their pre-major label days were screaming "sellout" like mad. Then they took a few years off, and I thought Return to Saturn actually showed them somewhat maturing and growing as a band. Then "Hey Baby" came out. I like what guitarist Tom DuMont did in that song. Oh, wait...was there guitar in that song, or was it just keyboards and beat boxes? Anyway, I imagine I'm not reaching too far by saying this one song may have alienated the second fan base that they cultivated (the first being that pre-popularity crowd) over the years. Overplay made the song worse, and the video made it ten times worse. If there's one thing this song did, it cemented the fact that No Doubt is Gwen Stefani's band, rather than No Doubt being a band that Gwen Stefani is in.
As an aside, Gwen Stefani edged out Mandy Moore in KJR's Bigger Dance on the Mitch Levy show. Mitch went off yesterday about how some guys in the sales department were accusing him of fixing the competition for Stefani. Mitch had a quick rebuttal to this. He asked, "was I not the person that, after Stefani was announced at the selection show, said 'since when did we allow men into the competition?' " Mitch also said that Stefani had "a cleft chin bigger than Kirk Douglas.' "
"Last Kiss" Pearl Jam -- So I might be skewed already because I despise last-two-albums Pearl Jam and greatly am skewed in favor of first-three-albums Pearl Jam. Ironically, three of my favorite Pearl Jam songs were not on any of their studio albums ("Yellow Ledbetter," "State of Love and Trust," "I Got Id"). This was not one of them. This was a remake of some old song, and it was sold for benefit. I can't argue with the selflessness of it, I guess, but the song itself...ughh. It was grossly overplayed, a departure (not that I wasn't surprised) of everything I once liked about Pearl Jam, and the worst part was that they played it slower than the original version. They dragged it out. Just take what I'm saying in this paragraph and multiply the bad feeling by about 20, because I can't accurately convey my discontent for this song.
"One" Creed -- If Creed had a good album, the first one was it. However, if there was one thing Creed needed other than a different lead singer and a less predictable drummer (it's this open-hat left-hand thing after he hits the snare), it had to be a different producer, or at least one that could thicken their sound. They always sounded incredibly thin to me. It was never a wall-of-sound feeling with them, but rather a doorway screen. Horrible analogy. With the song "One," it was a stereotypical angsty half-yelling song...THEN there was the spacey part where they crank up the phase/sucking effect (I think the former term may be more accurate) and it seriously messed with my equilibrium. It's one thing to phase the guitars and mess with the sonic effect, but to do that with the drums too? I mean, you CAN mess with all of those and phase it, but they went waaaaay too far. The other thing to hate about Creed? There was also a song called "Unforgiven" on the same album. You heard it right, "One" and "Unforgiven" were songs on the Creed album. The only way this could have been more musically blasphemous would be if they covered the Metallica songs of the same names. And then there's that "are we Christian? Are we not?" thing. They would flatly deny it, but I'm sure they still tried to take advantage of that. And THEN there's the comparison Scott Stapp made comparing Creed with LED ZEPPELIN. I wish I was lying, but I heard the words right out of his mouth. When it comes right down to it, I hate everything about this band, and I hate Scott Stapp. That said, "Bullets" was their best song. By far.
"Glycerine" Bush -- If there's one good thing Rolling Stone has ever done, it was their article they had on Bush where the headline screamed "Nirvana Wannabes." I laughed. I cried. I hurled. This was the stupidest of the stupid when it came to Bush songs, and it didn't help that the musical black hole known as Gavin Rossdale was the only member of Bush involved in the song (unless Nigel played the violin or something). Anyway, it was just him singing with an electric guitar, with the backing strings section. If you ever hear the song again, don't get caught up in the mood...listen to the lyrics. Okay, may you shouldn't -- they'll drop your IQ by about 490 points. I kid you not. The lyrics make absolutely no sense whatsoever. At least in other songs the ineptitude of the lyrics can be covered with drums, bass, cymbals, etc., but in this song, the wounds are uncovered for everyone to see and hear. Eeeeeee-ject.
"Complicated" Avril Lavigne -- Okay, it's some skateboarding girl from Canada who can play guitar, who seems to have somewhat of a rebellious streak. Then "Complicated" comes out. I have a feeling the decision to make this a single falls on LA Reid (since ousted from Avril's label), but this is a good way to pigeonhole the young Canadian, and worse yet, give off exactly the first impression that she probably didn't want. Green Day waited until three albums into their major label era to release "Good Riddance" partly because they had built up their reputation and carved their niche over the two albums and tours beforehand and you knew what you were getting from them. With Avril, teenyboppers, trendies, and pre-teen girls alike are buying or have bought the album in droves, but they're going to be decidedly irked if Avril ever decides to grow up and get mean, which late teenagers do. Point is, this crew is going to expect songs like "Complicated" and they're going to be disappointed when they get something else. What it probably means is that Avril will mature as an artist and deserve more recognition when she in fact will lose it, something that happens all too often these days.
"Cant Hold Us Down" Christina Aguilera -- You see, I had a coworker the last two summers that played Star 101.5 in the warehouse all damn day and this song would play every 30 minutes. Yeah, the song with Lil Kim (bet she'll be treated nice if she gets thrown in jail) and Christina asking questions about why guys getting a lot of action are players and why gals doing the same are called whores. Whoa, mothers of America...hope your daughters aren't listening to this!! Also about the "whores" thing, this is probably unfair, but it takes a certain type of person to bring it up, let alone release onto the masses and onto a demographic of youngsters that just might look up to you. Look no further than here to get a review of Aguilera's latest album from one of my favorite music critics, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic.com. He's slammed bands that I love, so I think he's pretty fair.
"Behind Blue Eyes" Limp Bizkit -- Jeremy had erased this one from his mind, so he totally forgot about it. I'll let him have the floor on this whenever he decides to take it. It won't be the first time he's vented about this song on this site.
And the last one I want to vent about now...
"I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Aerosmith -- There's an easy way to still like Aerosmith, and here's how you do it: ignore everything they did after 1994. You won't be disappointed. As for this song, it featured absolutely nothing in terms of anything I have ever liked about Aerosmith. No catchy riff, no Steven Tyler swagger, no cool guitar solo, nothing. But only in America can you have a musical climate so pathetic that a band with over 25 years of previous better material can have their FIRST #1 hit with this abomination of a song. To me, this is one of those songs where I could let it slide if Steve and Joe Perry recorded it and had some different backing musicians behind them...but the minute they slap that Aerosmith name on it, there's a certain expectation that I hold, and it wasn't close to being met with this song.
There's tons of other songs out there that really get under my skin, but they'll have to hold off for a later date because I am hungry at the moment...
I hope y'all are enjoying the rainy day recess, brought to you by our good friend Precipitation.
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