uk rock versus us rock

STN

sou'wester
I treat Julian Cope's rex with suspicion, especially since I had a dream where I invited him to my house and he turned up with a load of Danish neo-nazis...
 

mms

sometimes
Two bands I checked out after hearing Julian Cope rant on about them so much.

They're absolutely shit :eek:

julian cope has a weird thing about proto metal he goes on about moody blues as well, would agree sir lord baltimore are rubbish
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
can anyone uk post-1990 beat nirvana though? i thought million dead, the first idlewild ep, and some of ikara colt's stuff was quite good as a teenager, but british rock has been a bit fragmented since the golden age, has it not?

Ya know what? I can't think of anyone.

Keep wanting to mention Billy Childish here, but he's more of a rock n roller than than a rocker.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
you haven't, ahem, rocked til you've heard mogwai fear satan at close quarters. i second the nomination of cream, also.

who knows about budgie's 'breadfan'??

can anyone uk post-1990 beat nirvana though? i thought million dead, the first idlewild ep, and some of ikara colt's stuff was quite good as a teenager, but british rock has been a bit fragmented since the golden age, has it not?

Supergrass' 2nd album :p

And seriously, fuck off with Mogwai. The shittest, most overrated band of their time.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
julian cope has a weird thing about proto metal he goes on about moody blues as well, would agree sir lord baltimore are rubbish

Good writer but he follows Lester Bangs a bit too closely I think. Sir Lord Baltimore have no redeeming features whatsoever. Talking about proto metal, it really only starts with Black Sabbath for me. Even the MC5 are pretty overrated aren't they?
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Well part of the Cope philosophy of rock I think is about switching off the higher brain functions to access a higher yet lower form of consciousness by getting in touch with the primal animal / god self.

To these ends sometimes the most useless, inept and badly produced rock and roll can be considered the greatest.

Something like that anyway. You need to get really wasted for it to make sense, but I think it does.

There's also a sense in which rock and roll is about more than just the music, so bands that instinctively inhabit those mythological rock archetypes are also held in high esteem, whether they are actually any good or not.

I mean basically you can't really think or talk about this stuff, you just have to get loaded and rock so we should all shut up now.
 
Last edited:

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
To these ends sometimes the most useless, inept and badly produced rock and roll can be considered the greatest.


T

Yes, some of the best rock n roll records ever are badly produced, played ineptly etc. But for it to be any good there has to be something else in there to thrill to. And to me thats usually within the sound of the record itself. A cool, fucked up serrated guitar solo or something...

I think this is why all those shambly inept C86 style indie bands from the 80s onwards all just sound so pathetic now, compared to something like the VU or alot of 'nuggets' stuff from which they drew their inspiration . They forgot to make sure they had a cool guitar sound ;)
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
Cope has championed a lot of amazing stuff too. Mainliner, Simply Saucer, Rallizes, Von LMO, Flower Travellin' Band... Come On!

But I can't believe people can name so few decent contemporary British rock bands (Electric Wizard and...?). What about the stuff on Riot Season, Shit & Shine? Does rock always have to tend towards extremity to be worthwhile these days?
People always say this; I think that first LP is blinding. The rest is pretty ordinary if memory serves...
That MC5 movie is amazing.
 
I treat Julian Cope's rex with suspicion, especially since I had a dream where I invited him to my house and he turned up with a load of Danish neo-nazis...

aaaaaaaahaha!

this somewhat functions as a metaphor for his writing- much as i appreciate it he will try and smuggle in the odd wrong 'un when yr not looking.

so who does rock?

Electric Eels (Cleveland).

Mainliner.

Rapeman.

Zep.

DC.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
People always say this; I think that first LP is blinding. The rest is pretty ordinary if memory serves...

I think they're one of those bands that were probably amazing to see live at the time, but never left behind a recorded legacy to match up. I quite like the fact that they decided to put out a live album as their debut, but its still not all that great. The stooges pissed all over em...
 

STN

sou'wester
Cope has championed a lot of amazing stuff too. Mainliner, Simply Saucer, Rallizes, Von LMO, Flower Travellin' Band... Come On!

Does rock always have to tend towards extremity to be worthwhile these days?

You're right on Cope.

Extremity question is very interesting and I'd sort of tend towards 'yes', I recognise that this is regrettable and will have a think about why that is and try to post again.

In my dream (sorry, I know they're boring and you should only have to listen to your girlfriend's/boyfriend's) I tried to chuck these nazis out of my house but they surrounded me and started pinching me in a bid to make me say racist things. Most peculiar.
 

vimothy

yurp
People always say this; I think that first LP is blinding. The rest is pretty ordinary if memory serves...

IMHO, the endings of just a few MC5 tunes are better than whole discographies of lesser rubbish.

But I can't believe people can name so few decent contemporary British rock bands (Electric Wizard and...?). What about the stuff on Riot Season, Shit & Shine? Does rock always have to tend towards extremity to be worthwhile these days?

It all depends on what you mean by Rock, doesn't it?

(I do like Shit & Shine -- though they're probably more extreme than Electric Wizard).
 

STN

sou'wester
The stooges pissed all over em...

Agreed.

I used to think the first MC5 LP was really overrated so it's possible that I now like it because of my own lowered expectations and the fact that Ramblin Rose is the first track and is an absolute killer.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Cope has championed a lot of amazing stuff too. Mainliner, Simply Saucer, Rallizes, Von LMO, Flower Travellin' Band... Come On!

But I can't believe people can name so few decent contemporary British rock bands (Electric Wizard and...?). What about the stuff on Riot Season, Shit & Shine? Does rock always have to tend towards extremity to be worthwhile these days?

Nah, Copes alright really. If anything he's enthusiastic and makes you want to listen to the records he drools over.

Not heard of the Riot Season/Shit and shine stuff you mention. Any tips? I think I basically stopped bothering to look out for good UK rock bands ages ago
 

noel emits

a wonderful wooden reason
It all depends on what you mean by Rock, doesn't it?
I could have said that myself, but I think it depends more on what one considers to be worthwhile?
(I do like Shit & Shine -- though they're probably more extreme than Electric Wizard).
Extremity is good. I'm just wondering if it's possible to do decent rock that isn't noise overload / twenty minute songs etc. Or would that just be the D*****ss?
 

STN

sou'wester
I actually really like Nebula, depsite the horrendous lyrics, and they are pretty traditional 70s style blues rock with a bit of spaciness and contemporary production.

Anyone feel one way or the other about The Groundhogs/Ten Years After?
 
Top