Trendy NME/MM/etc type groops that actually sound good NOW!

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Buick6

too punk to drunk
You know the type, NME 'darlings', Melody Maker (RIP) darlings, and even those techno magazines from the 90s darlings...The bands that came in the wake of others ie: Smiths imitators, MBV imitators, grunge imitators, Coldplay imitators, Libertines imitators etc..etc... I'm trying to find bands that despite the hype-backlash-death cycle, left behind artefacts that like all great art 'stand the test of time'...

Personally, I reckon some of the the shoegazers namely - Moose, Swervedriver and Medicine - still sound totally fresh, considering they have been eclipsed by some of the worst massive-euro-rock ever, namely - Placebo, Coldplay, starsailor - but I know there are more out there, and my ears are curious ;)
 
swears

swears

preppy-kei
People say oh, stop moaning about the Strokes/Killers/monkeys, but the problem is that those bands are seen by the press as really fresh and exiciting. (Apparently)
There was a fair amount of public criticism of Britpop to go with the hype, even within NME. Bands like Kula Shaker and Cast used to get the piss taken on a regular basis!
(And rightly so, imo)

Anyway, Suede had their moments I guess.
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
Suede have aged alright, and I didn't mind some of the Cast stuff, but of them all, the LAs are the most under-rated.

But it's interesting to note darlings that dated terribly, like the Sundays or the Mary Chain - listened to PsychoCandy on the Zen, except for Jus Like Honey and Some Candy Talking the album sounds so tinny and shitty and cockless, in fact the later JAMC albums are the ones to get!

But there are HEAPS of American bands that fare worse, esp. off the 'grunge' deal - Tad, Pavement, Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr (mid period), Sonic Youf etc..etc..
 
S

stelfox

Beast of Burden
Buick6 said:
Suede have aged alright, and I didn't mind some of the Cast stuff, but of them all, the LAs are the most under-rated.

But it's interesting to note darlings that dated terribly, like the Sundays or the Mary Chain - listened to PsychoCandy on the Zen, except for Jus Like Honey and Some Candy Talking the album sounds so tinny and shitty and cockless, in fact the later JAMC albums are the ones to get!

But there are HEAPS of American bands that fare worse, esp. off the 'grunge' deal - Tad, Pavement, Fugazi, Dinosaur Jr (mid period), Sonic Youf etc..etc..
Click to expand...

since when were fugazi ever grunge?
 
L

labrat

hot on the heels of love
Martin Dust said:
Anyone remember the New Wave of New Wave/Taking Speed period?
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i once wrote a thing for a mag about These Animal Men and S.M.A.S.H. they were ok as i recall...
 
M

marke

Tumbling Dice
actually - Compulsion were supposedly part of NWONW .. but nah .. just good riff heavy punk-pop that proves it can be done. weirdly, i recently went through a phase of rediscovering these animal men .. tracked down a copy of their lost second album - very relevant to todays scene in fact. the S*M*A*S*H album is good in parts - but very ragged production making it difficult to totally love.
 
H

henry s

Street Fighting Man
Moose still sound fresh because they were incorporating elements of country into their music, a full decade before that sort of thing became a common indie practice...Slowdive still sound fresh because about 80% of the current crop of laptoppers are trying to be them...Medicine still sound fresh because they were infusing their particular brand of MBV noisepop with rudimentary dance beats, which few others at the time were attempting...

I would argue/agree that none of the so-called "next Smiths" have fared well over time...Stone Roses, Suede, Gene, Echobelly...who am I missing?
 
M

marke

Tumbling Dice
on recommendation/love of Medicine elsewhere on this wired net thing i picked up their Def American album, and the revised Wall of Sound release

- and so far i dont get it.

as they used to say all those years ago 'must try harder'

m.e/ireallylovemusic
 
M

mms

sometimes
henry s said:
Moose still sound fresh because they were incorporating elements of country into their music, a full decade before that sort of thing became a common indie practice...Slowdive still sound fresh because about 80% of the current crop of laptoppers are trying to be them...Medicine still sound fresh because they were infusing their particular brand of MBV noisepop with rudimentary dance beats, which few others at the time were attempting...

I would argue/agree that none of the so-called "next Smiths" have fared well over time...Stone Roses, Suede, Gene, Echobelly...who am I missing?
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i think suede are one of the few real britpop era acts who sound good, perhaps better than they sounded in retrospect.

i dunno who the melody maker etc really liked - but it's amazing how that shoegazy stuff currently sounds really avant guarde in comparision to the new bunch of 3 chorders, slowdive sound lush still.
dinosaur jnr sound good and jesus and mary chain do as well - so do nirvana.
 
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T

Tim F

Well-known member
The Sundays have not dated terribly, i don't think. But then I have difficulty imagining that they ever sounded "right now" anyway. And I was too young to be into them when they first appeared so I don't really know.

I was 14 in 1996/97 and I very much liked Puressence and the first Geneva album at that time. I don't think Puressence were ever darlings of the press though. Geneva maybe. I could imagine that album being ruined by retrospective resemblances to Travis, Coldplay, Starsailor etc. The second Geneva album was pretty bad. So was the third Puressence. There was always something very tenuous about the quality of a lot of these bands, like they were only ever good by dint of some strange and unlikely combination of circumstances, with mediocrity always waiting in the wings to reassert itself.
 
T

tryptych

waiting for a time
Heh, I'll put my hand up to quite liking Puressence too... even though I only discovered their music about 2 years ago.

Re-listened to Whipping Boy recently, whom I quite enjoyed at the time, and thought they sounded pretty shit. Terrible trite lyrics.
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
Tim F said:
Did anyone like Marion?!?!? I can't even remember what they sounded like now.
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They recently reformed.

I have a 7" somewhere, but really can't remember what it's like.
 
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