Highly overated bands....

[????]

Can I also add New Order and.....*gulp.....Joy Division.......what is it about the music press' love with Manchester?

In FACT, the best band to come out of Manchester (by a mile) is The Smiths.....other than that it seems a place that produces bands that follow the zeitgeist rather than make it.......Oasis, New Order, SR, Happy Mondays...all pretty average in my book....

Simply Red are good though....;-)

[macroban]

> In FACT, the best band to come out of Manchester (by a mile) is The Smiths

Oh no it wasn't, it was The Hollies.

[taper]

The Clash did enough stuff for a decent best of album, but an awful lot of their stuff was very lame. I've always thought of them as a punk band people who don't like punk can like. I would also say the Beach Boys are overrated. They're good for sure, but not as good as is sometimes claimed. You got Pet Sounds you got the lot. And Slash isn't fit to change the water in Tony Iommi's bong.

[Jeremy]

Oasis classed as "Brit Pop"? It's not really a musical genre is it? More like a fictional movement invented by the media to describe the boom of 90s British rock. Seriously, they're just a conventional rock band... listen to their sound, you'll hear Slade, Rolling Stones, Beatles, maybe Sex Pistols. They're not bad in my opinion, there are some cracking tunes on the first two albums. I don't like Liam as a front man though... his mannerisms, attitude, appearance and singing voice all get on my nerves.

[snorky]

clash

awful awful awful toss

[PeckhamRose]

PiL

[mockney piers]

I recall this thread being done before and I'm sure we suffered the same problem that to be overrated you need to be rated in the first place, so strike Marillion, Phil Collins, the Kooks, Simply Red and most definitely Craig David from that.

The Clash and Joy Division are held up like some sort of Religious idols, and would have to be able to raise the dead to live up to their ratings, so totally agree with that.

Oasis, one good album, a couple of anthemic songs on another, a whole bunch of lazy, flabby, shite and a slight return to form. If they formed today they wouldn't be nearly the superstars they purport to be, so big big candidates for being overrated whether or not you think they're great.

Radiohead are very good, they've pushed envelopes and changed the fabric of modern rock, but god how I tire of the endless plaudits thrown their way by obsequious journos. Especially as they all hate anything vaguely prog, and miss the irony that Radiohead is as prog as it gets!!

So Radiohead get a big fat vote from me.

[ruffers]

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip's Thou Shalt Always Kill comes to mind.

"The Beatles.

Were just a band.

Led Zeppelin

Just a band.

The Beach Boys.

Just a band

Sex Pistols.

Just a band.

The Clash.

Just a band.

Crass.

Just a band

Minor Threat.

Just a band.

The Cure

Just a band.

The Smiths

Just a band.

Nirvana.

Just a band.

The Pixies

Just a band

Oasis.

Just a band

Radiohead.

Just a band.

Bloc Party.

Just a band.

Arctic Monkeys.

Just a band.

The next big thing

Just a band. "

[????]

I can't agree on The Clash, if someone said play mean album that defines punk it would be the first Clash album "The Clash"...I think that London Calling is an OK album subject to too much hyperbole (ditto Petsounds as someone already mentioned) and then I think that they have enough decent other tracks from various other albums or singles (eg Stay Free, WMIHP, Clash City Rockers, Radio Clash)...I guess if you don't like punk then you won't like early Clash stuff

[mockney piers]

The Clash did some great songs, but I do think they're overrated for the reasons I gave above, but bloody good band they are.

On the birth of punk, and flipping to underrated, I'd say Television. It may not be quite the first punk album, but they really brought rock back to it's core elements from the overblown monster it had become, and I'm sure they were an influence on the likes of the Ramones, Blondie, the Pistols, The Clash et al.

[bon3yard]

The Smiths=The Schmucks. Oasis, humdrumhumdrumhumdrum. Yawn.

[donvanvliet]

There's a difference between not liking a band and saying they're crap for the sake of it. The Clash are fantastic and I think London Calling and their self title is pretty immediate and i'll go as far to say as relatively accessible. But at the same time alot of their work was pish (see sandinista) so it's fair to say they are awful in places

U2's earlier work is just brilliant and politically driven with an ethic (Boy, October, Joshua Tree) they did start to lose the plot with all that you can't leave behind and how to dismantle an atomic bomb but i think the new one will be fantastic!

I love Oasis but their lyrics don't 'speak to me' i just like the music, the melodies plus Noel Gallagher is just amazing.

and Brit pop was just a term invented by journalists, along with the term WAGS. Pulp, suede and Blur are nothing like Oasis so it's annoying they're lumped in the same box

The only artists i can think of that have released consistantly good music are radiohead, queens of the stone age, jay-z, kanye west, pink floyd, captain beefheart, roxy music and frank zappa.

I only got into the beatles last year, simply because i was never interested by the who lardy la-la melodies and holding your hand rubbish but then i listened to abbey road/white album and that all changed

[RosieH]

bon3yard Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> The Smiths=The Schmucks.

The Smiths=PurePopPerfection

[macroban]

The Smiths only had one good musical interlude. That's when they did a brief stint as Sandie Shaw's backing band.

I know. I have the video.

[snorky]

PeckhamRose Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> PiL

is wrong answer Im afraid

the correct answer is: The Clash

[donvanvliet]

I love the smiths, Meat is Murder- Barbarism begins at home yeah!

[????]

I love The Smiths....and I'm essentially a late 70s southerrn soulboy who generally is not all in to that angst driven stuff.....(though I like The Cure too!).

Back to the overated....Bruce Springsteen anyone?

[donvanvliet]

I'm just getting into bruce springsteen! listening to Born to run - i've never been big on janis joplin, patti smith or bob dylan for that matter!

[PeckhamRose]

???? I know what you mean about Broooooce (as my USA Springsteen-loving mate has it on her car's number plate) but he does a few songs which are songs of my life and I can't let go of him. I am so glad no-one has said Billy Joel for the same reason. I never really got Siousxie Sioux then heard MELT which completely changed my attitude.

I'll name one though that I REALLY thought was overrated artyfarty nonsense - and I know because I sat through America Parts One Two Three AND four at Hammy Odeon in the eighties - Ladies and Gentlemen I give you (and PLEASE take her) LAURIE ANDERSON. Oh Sooooooooooooperman my arse.

[bon3yard]

Funnily enough the only Springsteen I've ever heard before is his cover of The Seger Sessions, rollicking good fun...oh, and my jibe at The Smiths was meant in jest although I've never been close to developing the near mania of a large section of Smiths fans. Gladioli anyone?

[ruffers]

???? Wrote:

though I like The

> Cure too!).

>

Speaking of whom I went to see at Wembley last year as a pressie from a friend. I always liked them but they played a 3 hour plus set which was just about the best gig I've ever seen - made me realise how underrated they are.

[RosieH]

bon3yard Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

Gladioli anyone?

My pocket money didn't stretch to gladioli but I did used to steal daffodils from roundabouts and hang those out of my pockets

I like the Bruce, Thunder Road's a particular favourite (you ain't a beauty but hey you're alright - nicely)

[EDOldie]

If you were lucky enough to see The Clash live you'd know they were one of the best bands of the 20th century. Overated? Yes (the band of that name that is) fantastic musicians but no songs and no stage presence

[donvanvliet]

Did anyone watch that prog program on bbc 4? Yes were featured quite a bit. King Crismson sounded good.

[mockney piers]

Yeah I watched that. Nice overview on the birth of prog, and some good interviewees but it was really pretty lightweight and didn't really deal with it's development or revival (Decemberists, Mercury Rev, Flaming Lips, Sigur Ros list goes on) just claimed that punk killed it off (admitted many of the bands went HUUUUGE when they reinvented themselves though) although it it did allude to Radiohead being prog, which I've been saying ever since their reinvention with OK Computer.

As for U2, agree donvanvliet that their earlier output was fantastic, but when balanced off against the piles of average/rubbish music coupled with the self-aggrandisement overload they've come out with since, I'm pretty sure they're not in kudos credit.

I'd concur with Cure being underrated, I could take or leave their 'angsty' stuff (it was paint by numbers angst lets face it, I think the toughest Smith's life ever got was when he lost a flutter at the Epsom Derby) but they really did have exquisite pop sensibilities.