Music: The Smiths vs. R.E.M.

Jeff White wrote: There ya go, keep that chin up, Nate!
Maybe REM fan isn't milquetoast...

This is TRASHDOME!!

Don't think I've forgotten that They Might Be Giants crack, Jeff. There will be hell to pay, such wrath as can only come from a TMBG fan.

The best thing about this thread is that it's reminded me to go listen to The Queen Is Dead. Such a good album.

I've never taught a Smith song in 25 years of teaching guitar. Why? Because no one fucking listens to them outside of people who were just the right age when they came out. They will not last anymore than REM will. REM I have taught. Some younger kids want to learn REM songs, probably because of their parents. Morrisey's lyrical skill are way over rated. He's an ok B grade Oscar Wilde wannabe with passably clever lyrics and over dramatic Kermit the Frog style singing. He's a joke (although I think a movie about his life could be fun) and that whole band, minus Johnny Marr, is a joke. I don't understand how they became so famous.

REM sucks too. They were interesting until they stated putting out stuff like Shiny Happy People... just interesting. Peter Buck gave a shit and tried to write interesting chord progressions. Some of the tunes on Eponymous are honestly cool tunes from a chord progression stand point. Unfortunately Michael Stipe is a shitty lyricist and a really bad singer. I like out of tune singing but his approximation of in tune with zero commitment to what his voice wants to be is a waste of my time and sounds very, very weak.

Both of these bands have weak singers with bad lyrics and no power or faith in what their saying. Both had interesting guitar players for awhile.

Vote: Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention for making fun of this garbage years before it existed.

..as for Radiohead OK computer is an allright album. But they have to be the most insufferably pretentious band around. They aren't offering nearly as much in the way of new sounds as they think and the best thing any of them has ever done is the soundtrack to There Will Be Blood. They're either glorious shit as a band, or very low grade art. Their attitude makes it low grade art... no one wants that.

Vote: Captain Beefheart for meaning it.

I LOVE BAND X. YOU LIKE BAND Y? FUCK YOU, YOU'RE DUMB.

SaMoKo wrote: I wouldn't go so far as to compare REM or Radiohead with U2. That's just too harsh. U2 was in their own league of bland music.

So this has me thinking...

U2 scored a cheeseball musical about Spider-Man. What superhero would REM make a musical about? I assume Radiohead would do Black Orchid or some other, similarly annoying Vertigo thing.

New game:
Pick a band, then say what superhero musical they will inevitably score (and explain your reasoning).

Gary Sax wrote: I LOVE BAND X. YOU LIKE BAND Y? FUCK YOU, YOU'RE DUMB.

Yeah. I thought the was the whole point of Trashdome.

I've never in my life heard a single musician worth a shit say "I was really influenced by REM". I've heard lots of great bands hail the Smiths as influential.

REM, U2, Wilco, Radiohead, and all of those other bands that people THINK are great rock music won't be forgotten, I'm not saying that. They WON'T be forgotten, because people will still be listening to their songs in the grocery store in 20 years, remembering how they got mildly high and drove around in their parent's 1995 Ford Taurus listening to "Fake Plastic Trees".

U2 is absolutely in a different class of shitty altogether. I believe Ian McCullough of Echo and the Bunnymen said it best in the mid-1980s- "U2 are music for plumbers and bricklayers". Big, meaningless statements about things that are real bad, man. Never wrote a single song again as good as "New Year's Day". Now, they SHOULD be regarded about as cool as Steely Dan and the Eagles are.

Wilco, jesus wept. Is there ROCK AND ROLL got us, crap like that?

Radiohead tricks people into thinking they're arty. They're not. I can't imagine listening to more boring music. But then they listened to a Can record and thought they could do the Krautrock thing. I worked in a record store when Kid A came back, and I think Kid A was the single most resold CD I ever saw- I took back more of those than Britney Spears, Sisqo, Master P, or any of that shit that was popular back then.

Coldplay is probably worse than all of the above, honestly. Nothing says "I've given up on life, I will never be cool or with it again" like listening to a Coldplay record.

But the Smiths will always be cool and with it, because great music is timeless and it doesn't end with your high school glory days.

I think we've earned this...

hahaha...this is great.
I miss the days of our boardgame trashdomes being this heated...

JonJacob wrote: I've never taught a Smith song in 25 years of teaching guitar. Why? Because no one fucking listens to them outside of people who were just the right age when they came out.

Not true. The Smiths got all popular again with the 00s post-punk revival.

Juniper wrote: New game:
Pick a band, then say what superhero musical they will inevitably score (and explain your reasoning).

Hüsker Dü - Judge Dredd: Tough as nails, but actually gay.

Morrissey is like the Frank Sinatra of our generation. Michael Stipe is like this whiny, frail, akward prat.

OK, you don't like REM. But I fail to understand how Morrissey isn't also a whiny, frail, awkward prat. I could never stand listening to him, but I haven't tried since college.

Edit: I still like Flowers of Guatemala and Nightswimming by REM (the latter for nostalgia) but I left the rest of them back in high school.

Jesus Christ. R.E.M. has only one good song? You're out of your fucking minds. Admittedly, they went WAY downhill over time, but still.

Nonetheless, it's got to be The Smiths.

Although I have already voted for R.E.M., thinking about the song What's the Frequency, Kenneth fills me with regret. I disliked that song so much that I have ignored every subsequent R.E.M. album.

R.E.M. worth listening to! Including the bombastic horn remix of "Finest Worksong!"

spoti.fi/147SAyy

//edit, nevermind, I could only take 20 minutes. Man, they like that country key.

"Get Up" is their best song.

I still listen to the first two REM albums and the Chronic Town EP on a regular basis. I haven't listened to The Smiths in years. Probably because I have an adolescent daughter and the last thing I need in the world is more self involved whining.

Vote: REM