Who's better...

I reckon there's definitely a 'who's better' craze sweeping dissensus. here's some more suggestions (with a couple of old grudge matches in there to keep it real spicey, like):

John Foxx's Ultravox Vs. Midge Ure's Ultravox
The Seeds Vs. ? & The Mysterons
Robert A. Moog Vs. Alan R. Pearlman (one for the analogue freaqz)
The Smiths Vs. New Order
Spectrum/E.A.R. Vs. Spiritualized
Amon Duul II Vs. Hawkwind
Front 242 Vs. Laibach
Barrett-Floyd Vs. Waters-Floyd Vs. Gilmour-Floyd
Malcolm McLaren Vs. John Lydon
Black Dog Vs. Plaid
Tony Wilson Vs. Derreck May
Howard Jones Vs. Nik Kershaw

Take yer pick...
 
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martin

----
What about the Period Pains vs the Spice Girls? 4 public school , 14-year old posh-os taking on the solidly prole SGs, back in 1997, with their anthem "Who do you think you are?". It was well violent - they called Geri a 'moo' and told her to 'get a life for Christ's sake' on track. Whatever happened to the lot of them? Where are they all now, eh?
 

hint

party record with a siren
martin said:
What about the Period Pains vs the Spice Girls? 4 public school , 14-year old posh-os taking on the solidly prole SGs, back in 1997, with their anthem "Who do you think you are?". It was well violent - they called Geri a 'moo' and told her to 'get a life for Christ's sake' on track. Whatever happened to the lot of them? Where are they all now, eh?

One of them is now in Pure Reason Revolution

I have abslutely no idea how I know this, but there you go...
 

martin

----
What about living dead members of the notorious, murdered in the '70s, non-US approved, HELL'S ANGELS WINDSOR CHAPTER, re-animated as part of a far-fetched sex magick ritual..

VS

Tatu?
 

Melchior

Taking History Too Far
martin said:
What about living dead members of the notorious, murdered in the '70s, non-US approved, HELL'S ANGELS WINDSOR CHAPTER, re-animated as part of a far-fetched sex magick ritual..

VS

Tatu?

Now THAT is a question.

Jamacian Ska vs English Ska vs Southern Californian 'ska'?
 

zhao

there are no accidents
The Smiths Vs. New Order - shit I can't decide.

Spectrum/E.A.R. Vs. Spiritualized - Spectrum

Amon Duul II Vs. Hawkwind - fuck I can't decide on this either.

Front 242 Vs. Laibach - Laibach. because 242 stole almost everything from Fad Gadget.

Barrett-Floyd Vs. Waters-Floyd Vs. Gilmour-Floyd - Barrett (if you think otherwise you're out of your mind)

Malcolm McLaren Vs. John Lydon - not the same category are they?

Black Dog Vs. Plaid - neither

Tony Wilson Vs. Derreck May - Derreck May
 

zhao

there are no accidents
Mingus VS. Monk - Mingus

Anthony Braxton VS. Evan Parker - Braxton

Eric Dolphy VS. Ornette Coleman - no comment
 

stelfox

Beast of Burden
i'll do the kershaw howard jones one, if you like.
i'll need to do some downloading and listening, but i'll come back on it when i've spent some time with a few records.
from what i remember, they were pretty much on a par at their best.
however, there are few songs i like more than kershaw's wouldn't it be good, a shining nugget of great pop in an otherwise pretty ordinary career, which i rate way up there with alphaville's strongest moments.
i'll only do it between a very abitrary period of time, when i consider them to have been most relevant, though.
i say this mainly because jones has been quite prolific in his post-warner years and i 1) don't have time to listen to it all 2) really don't want to because i have a feeling most of it will be utter shite.
 
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stelfox said:
i'll do the kershaw howard jones one, if you like.
i'll need to do some downloading and listening, but i'll come back on it when i've spent some time with a few records.
from what i remember, they were pretty much on a par at their best.
however, there are few songs i like more than kershaw's wouldn't it be good, a shining nugget of great pop in an otherwise pretty ordinary career, which i rate way up there with alphaville's strongest moments.
i'll only do it between a very abitrary period of time, when i consider them to have been most relevant, though.
i say this mainly because jones has been quite prolific in his post-warner years and i 1) don't have time to listen to it all 2) really don't want to because i have a feeling most of it will be utter shite.

Crikey! Don't put yerself out on my account Stelfox! You've already gone beyond the call of duty with that whole Macca Vs. Collins thang. For what it's worth, I agree with your initial feelings virtually word for word. I certainly couldn't be arsed to actually go back and relive it all though.
 

treblekicker

True Faith
The Smiths Vs. New Order

New Order. A long time ago I posted a rant about The Smiths saying...
"IMHO they represented the sort of white boy indie miserablism that was
everything that was wrong with the 80's. Fuck experimentation, fuck any
sesne of progression when we can whine behind our cardigans. " Although I like The Smiths more than I used to and was possibly a bit harsh, I still stick with New Order's superiority and I still think the Smiths left a terrible legacy of awful bands.

Black Dog Vs. Plaid

Black Dog. Although Plaid were better than Ken Downey by himself. I'm sorry, TBD just had something that once the split wasn't there.

Tony Wilson Vs. Derreck May

What's Tony Wilson like at programming a 909?

Animal Collective vs. Tower Recordings
Superpitcher vs. Rex the Dog
Interpol vs. Editors
 

john eden

male pale and stale
Nick Gutterbreakz said:
Crikey! Don't put yerself out on my account Stelfox! You've already gone beyond the call of duty with that whole Macca Vs. Collins thang. For what it's worth, I agree with your initial feelings virtually word for word. I certainly couldn't be arsed to actually go back and relive it all though.

I used to be in the Howard Jones fanclub. They still write to my Mum and Dad's house occasionally :)

So I never like Nik Heyward cos it was all rival tribal rebellism 'round our way. If I could be arsed I would mount a defence for some Howard Jones tunes like "Pearl in the Shell" (cos of the brass section) and the instrumental b-sides he did. But it is actually painful remembering how it all probably sounds.

A far better discussion to have is Divine vs Dana International.
 

bassnation

the abyss
treblekicker said:
The Smiths Vs. New Order

New Order. A long time ago I posted a rant about The Smiths saying...
"IMHO they represented the sort of white boy indie miserablism that was
everything that was wrong with the 80's. Fuck experimentation, fuck any
sesne of progression when we can whine behind our cardigans. " Although I like The Smiths more than I used to and was possibly a bit harsh, I still stick with New Order's superiority and I still think the Smiths left a terrible legacy of awful bands.

i think the smiths piss all over new order for the following reasons:

1) humour - most people don't appreciate just how funny mozzers lyrics were. the juxtaposition of the dourness of "girlfriend in a coma" over a ridicolously jaunty melody is one of the funniest moments in music for me.

2) smiths lyrics actually mean something whereas everyone knows barney just writes a load of rubbish that means nada.

3) on the innovation stakes, ok, new order blue monday wins out. but i'd still argue that the smiths changed the face of the music landscape forever, they were unique both in terms of the discourse surrounding them, their image plus the music. its unfair to denigrate their music because of all the plagarists that followed them.

you can't really look at new order the same way, it felt much more workmanlike from them. plus "how soon is now" still sounds sonically fresh to these electronica-saturated ears in a way that 90% of new orders output doesn't.
 

monsterbobby

bug powder
john eden said:
Divine vs Dana International.

divine every time, but perhaps more for the John Waters films than the actual 'singing' career..

rather than the smiths vs new order i'm tempted to pose joy division vs. new order but perhaps only because i'm probably the only person in the world who prefers new order and am in the mood for some sort of virtual punch up...

how about:
>>Spector vs. Meek
>> xenomania vs. richard x
>>milton babbit vs. steve reich
>>arvo part vs. henryk gorecki
>>James Chance and the Contortions vs. James White and the Blacks
>>devo vs. sparks
>> frank sinatra vs. nancy sinatra
>>john cage vs. la monte young
>> elvis presley vs. lonnie donegan
>> monkees vs. banana splits
 

treblekicker

True Faith
bassnation said:
i think the smiths piss all over new order for the following reasons:

1) humour - most people don't appreciate just how funny mozzers lyrics were. the juxtaposition of the dourness of "girlfriend in a coma" over a ridicolously jaunty melody is one of the funniest moments in music for me.

2) smiths lyrics actually mean something whereas everyone knows barney just writes a load of rubbish that means nada.

3) on the innovation stakes, ok, new order blue monday wins out. but i'd still argue that the smiths changed the face of the music landscape forever, they were unique both in terms of the discourse surrounding them, their image plus the music. its unfair to denigrate their music because of all the plagarists that followed them.

you can't really look at new order the same way, it felt much more workmanlike from them. plus "how soon is now" still sounds sonically fresh to these electronica-saturated ears in a way that 90% of new orders output doesn't.

Point taken about Barney's lyrics, although I would argue that although the content's a bit rubbish sometimes, he could read out a shopping list and it would emote. Morrissey's lyrics are top but that's my point, unfair or not.

It's the classic boring music, interesting lyrics dichtomy - that was their legacy and Morissey's solo work definitely fits into that category. If I want interesting words I'll read a book. Good lyrics are a bonus not a raison d'etre. Many of the things New Order did - working with dance producers, 12" remixes etc we forget how these things weren't normal then. No one else really did it back then.

Therefore they changed the landscape just as much as The Smiths. I guess ultimately though the same thing happened to them as happened to Kraftwerk. Everyone else caught up which is why they don't seem so innovative now.

Peter Saville New Order sleeves vs. The Smiths sleeves.
 
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