Just General non band specific Music Chat Thread !

[Kotowboy]

So I love Metallica mastodon Green Day...

But last night I was listening to Rasputin by Boney M  That chorus is so good.

After that I listened to Super Trouper by Abba. Another amazing chorus.

[DoctorAction]

 

Both awesome tunes.

[Kotowboy]

The spoken word on Rasputin sounds exactly like Principal Skinner

[soupytwist]

What style of music to you think of when you hear the word Grunge?

I ask because all the 4 big Grunge bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains & Soundgarden) generally sound nothing like each other.   Nirvana were generally a mix of 80's college rock + punk, Pearl Jam more akin to classic rock, Alice were closer to metal and Soundgarden were kind off their own thing.  So is grunge more about the time/place and fashion of the bands, rather than the music itself?

[Stadler]

What style of music to you think of when you hear the word Grunge?

I ask because all the 4 big Grunge bands (Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains & Soundgarden) generally sound nothing like each other.   Nirvana were generally a mix of 80's college rock + punk, Pearl Jam more akin to classic rock, Alice were closer to metal and Soundgarden were kind off their own thing.  So is grunge more about the time/place and fashion of the bands, rather than the music itself?

Grunge, musically, is just recycled Kiss, Zeppelin and Sabbath.   Throw in some ripped jeans, a sweater, Chuck Taylors, maybe some board shorts and Doc Marten's, and you're there.   

For the record, I love Alice and Soundgarden; I like Pearl Jam when it was still Stone and Jeff's band, and you can have Nirvana.  One of the top three overrated bands of all time, IMO.   

[DoctorAction]

I don't think of a specific musical style. Always felt the tag was fairly meaningless. More about a tribe / identity thing, maybe, but then the clothing style was ubiquitous before those bands were about (in the UK anyway). Odd, really.

[Ben_Jamin]

I'd like to think the media created that label.

[Stadler]

I don't think of a specific musical style. Always felt the tag was fairly meaningless. More about a tribe / identity thing, maybe, but then the clothing style was ubiquitous before those bands were about (in the UK anyway). Odd, really.

Not here in the states.   Grunge was in many ways a reaction to the sheer ridiculousness of the sort of traditional rock music image (look at any pictures of Axl Rose around this time). 

[Adami]

I'm not a huge grunge guy, but I feel like a lot of it was a raw visceral response to what was perceived as rock becoming an overly polished product that focused more on glam and inauthentic presentation. Grunge could just come along and be a bunch of guys in ripped jeans playing sloppy basement rock, to contrast leather and spandex and big hair and such. Sure other sub-genres such as thrash metal were doing that to some degree, but this was a different style of music along with it. Kind of a back to the basics concept.

Maybe I'm off though.

[King Postwhore]

I think you're dead on Adami.  It was anti hair metal.  Anti glam.

[Stadler]

But the MUSIC wasn't all that different.  There was a LOT of UFO, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Aerosmith in grunge; the same MUSIC that fueled a lot of the West Coast glam scene to begin with.

[Adami]

But the MUSIC wasn't all that different.  There was a LOT of UFO, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Aerosmith in grunge; the same MUSIC that fueled a lot of the West Coast glam scene to begin with.

And there's a lot of punk in metal. And there's a lot of blues in rock. And there's classical and/or jazz in prog. It took those elements and spoke to a different audience with it.

I don't think anyone is saying that Grunge invented a wholly new type of music that bore no resemblance to anything before it. I'm just saying their image, their style, their overall message was in response to a lot of the 80's stuff. I'm not sure why this is a disagreement.

[Stadler]

But the MUSIC wasn't all that different.  There was a LOT of UFO, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Aerosmith in grunge; the same MUSIC that fueled a lot of the West Coast glam scene to begin with.

And there's a lot of punk in metal. And there's a lot of blues in rock. And there's classical and/or jazz in prog. It took those elements and spoke to a different audience with it.

I don't think anyone is saying that Grunge invented a wholly new type of music that bore no resemblance to anything before it. I'm just saying their image, their style, their overall message was in response to a lot of the 80's stuff. I'm not sure why this is a disagreement.

No disagreement. 

[wolfking]

But the MUSIC wasn't all that different.  There was a LOT of UFO, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Aerosmith in grunge; the same MUSIC that fueled a lot of the West Coast glam scene to begin with.

I mentioned it a few times in the UFO listening party of Tim's but I was astounded how many times listening to some old UFO that Pearl Jam popped into my mind.  There's quite a few sings that can't help Pearl Jam and Eddie Vedder popping into my mind.

[wolfking]

Soundgarden was also the most obvious metal/grunge crossover band in the early days.  I hated calling them grunge, but they never could escape that tag.

[Anguyen92]

To me, my impression of Soundgarden was always a mixture of Led Zeppelin meets Black Sabbath and that they are different than Alice in Chains and everyone in that group along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana don't really have much in common other than they were from Seattle and they did have similar circles of musician friends, but soundwise?  They don't have much in common with each other.

I think my main issues with the tags of them and Alice in Chains being labeled Grunge is that I think that certain music circles thinks that Grunge musicians are not "proficient" musicians which far from the truth.  Do you want to say that guys like Kim Thyail, Jerry Cantrell, and Chris Cornell are not great top-notch musicians that knows how to structure compelling songs?

[Adami]

But the MUSIC wasn't all that different.  There was a LOT of UFO, Black Sabbath, Kiss, and Aerosmith in grunge; the same MUSIC that fueled a lot of the West Coast glam scene to begin with.

And there's a lot of punk in metal. And there's a lot of blues in rock. And there's classical and/or jazz in prog. It took those elements and spoke to a different audience with it.

I don't think anyone is saying that Grunge invented a wholly new type of music that bore no resemblance to anything before it. I'm just saying their image, their style, their overall message was in response to a lot of the 80's stuff. I'm not sure why this is a disagreement.

No disagreement.

WHO THE HELL ARE YOU

[wolfking]

To me, my impression of Soundgarden was always a mixture of Led Zeppelin meets Black Sabbath and that they are different than Alice in Chains and everyone in that group along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana don't really have much in common other than they were from Seattle and they did have similar circles of musician friends, but soundwise?  They don't have much in common with each other.

I think my main issues with the tags of them and Alice in Chains being labeled Grunge is that I think that certain music circles thinks that Grunge musicians are not "proficient" musicians which far from the truth.  Do you want to say that guys like Kim Thyail, Jerry Cantrell, and Chris Cornell are not great top-notch musicians that knows how to structure compelling songs?

Can't say I've heard that said about grunge musicians truthfully.

[Kotowboy]

Oh look - a Kotowboy Hot Take...

Nirvana were the worst of the big Grunge bands.

[King Postwhore]

Not a hot take. I agree. I never liked them. 

[TAC]

Nothing wrong with Nirvana.

[ReaperKK]

Oh look - a Kotowboy Hot Take...

Nirvana were the worst of the big Grunge bands.

Oh the big 4 I agree with you but I've heard worse from that era.

[Ben_Jamin]

If I were to rank them...it'd be like this...

Alice In Chains
Soundgarden (Lower than AIC only because I haven't heard their albums much, but the songs I have heard are better than the following...)
Pearl Jam
Nirvana

Alice In Chains, has some great guitar. And the album I actually prefer is there EP Jar of Flies. I like how these are all acoustic based songs and require Layne to utilize his voice. Which this album does by showcasing how good his vocals are.

Soundgarden did the same as well.

Pearl Jam, I mainly only got into Ten and that's all. Some great songs on that one too. And I like the bass tone on that album.

I only like a couple songs from Nirvana, the rest I don't really care for much. Mainly cause of Cobain's vocals and just their droopy sound they had.

[soupytwist]

To me, my impression of Soundgarden was always a mixture of Led Zeppelin meets Black Sabbath and that they are different than Alice in Chains and everyone in that group along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana don't really have much in common other than they were from Seattle and they did have similar circles of musician friends, but soundwise?  They don't have much in common with each other.

I think my main issues with the tags of them and Alice in Chains being labeled Grunge is that I think that certain music circles thinks that Grunge musicians are not "proficient" musicians which far from the truth.  Do you want to say that guys like Kim Thyail, Jerry Cantrell, and Chris Cornell are not great top-notch musicians that knows how to structure compelling songs?

Can't say I've heard that said about grunge musicians truthfully.

Yeah me neither.  Aside from a lot of dismissing of Cobains Guitar ability, the other three bands (and Grohl is a great drummer) are stocked with great players.

[wolfking]

To me, my impression of Soundgarden was always a mixture of Led Zeppelin meets Black Sabbath and that they are different than Alice in Chains and everyone in that group along with Pearl Jam and Nirvana don't really have much in common other than they were from Seattle and they did have similar circles of musician friends, but soundwise?  They don't have much in common with each other.

I think my main issues with the tags of them and Alice in Chains being labeled Grunge is that I think that certain music circles thinks that Grunge musicians are not "proficient" musicians which far from the truth.  Do you want to say that guys like Kim Thyail, Jerry Cantrell, and Chris Cornell are not great top-notch musicians that knows how to structure compelling songs?

Can't say I've heard that said about grunge musicians truthfully.

Yeah me neither.  Aside from a lot of dismissing of Cobains Guitar ability, the other three bands (and Grohl is a great drummer) are stocked with great players.

That's exactly what I thought the comment may be aimed at.  But apart from that, yeah great musicians.

[Kotowboy]

Bleach was ok. Nevermind is obviously great and In Utero was really nothing special. If Bleach was followed by In Utero nobody would be talking about Nirvana any more.

[ReaperKK]

My ranking would be slightly different:

AIC
Pearl Jam
Soundgarden
Nirvana

I think with Nirvana my favorite album was their unplugged album, I think it was one of the best unplugged sets to come from that MTV series.

[Stadler]

Not a hot take. I agree. I never liked them.

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Soundgarden/AIC
Stone and Jeff's Pearl Jam (Ten, Vs.)
...
...
...
...
Eddie's Pearl Jam (Vitalogy and everything after...)
Nirvana

[soupytwist]

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Who are your other 2?

Seems a good a place as any to do this...

Most overrated rock band :-

Oasis for me - god awful unoriginal dad/pub rock dirge, lead by the brothers grimm.

[WilliamMunny]

Not a hot take. I agree. I never liked them.

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Soundgarden/AIC
Stone and Jeff's Pearl Jam (Ten, Vs.)
...
...
...
...
Eddie's Pearl Jam (Vitalogy and everything after...)
Nirvana

It's so funny how perspective shifts over time. Ten years ago, I'd be with you there word for word, but in recent years, 'Eddie's' PJ has been some of my most listened to music. I now consider Binaural and No Code to be near-flawless albums and freaking listened to that Avacado one for three months straight.

And Nirvana, a band I had little use for 25 years ago, has been a pleasent surprise as well. Bleach and In Utero have gotten some serious play in recent years.

That all being said, Soundgarden has ALWAYS been a top-5 band for me, and I still consider Superunknown the bestmy favourite album of the 90's.

[Stadler]

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Who are your other 2?

Seems a good a place as any to do this...

Most overrated rock band :-

Oasis for me - god awful unoriginal dad/pub rock dirge, lead by the brothers grimm.

Dammit, I love Oasis! 

I have to think about this a bit... contenders are Red Hot Chili Peppers (but I resist that because Flea and Chad as such good musicians), Ratt, Motley Crue, Radiohead, Green Day, The Ramones.   

[Stadler]

Not a hot take. I agree. I never liked them.

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Soundgarden/AIC
Stone and Jeff's Pearl Jam (Ten, Vs.)
...
...
...
...
Eddie's Pearl Jam (Vitalogy and everything after...)
Nirvana

It's so funny how perspective shifts over time. Ten years ago, I'd be with you there word for word, but in recent years, 'Eddie's' PJ has been some of my most listened to music. I now consider Binaural and No Code to be near-flawless albums and freaking listened to that Avacado one for three months straight.

And Nirvana, a band I had little use for 25 years ago, has been a pleasent surprise as well. Bleach and In Utero have gotten some serious play in recent years.

That all being said, Soundgarden has ALWAYS been a top-5 band for me, and I still consider Superunknown the bestmy favourite album of the 90's.

Binaural and Yield are the two best of the "Eddie Years".  You can have No Code.  For me it's No Bueno.   

I tried with Nirvana, I really did.  I bought the box set for $5 online, figuring once I got past the commerciality of Nevermind, maybe there'd be something.   Acoustic is always good (I LOVE the Unlplugged record), but... nope.    Some decent songwriting, but a lot of average playing, and sorry, but Kurt's snarky too-cool-for-school attitude is supremely off-putting.  I consider him one of the bigger hypocrites to come out of that era.  I hate speculation, and usually chide others for assuming they know what someone else is thinking, but I'll cop to believing deep down that Cobain knew it; he craved the very thing he purported to reject, and the snide, snarky snobbery was his shield to hide that.   

[ReaperKK]

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Who are your other 2?

Seems a good a place as any to do this...

Most overrated rock band :-

Oasis for me - god awful unoriginal dad/pub rock dirge, lead by the brothers grimm.

Dammit, I love Oasis! 

I have to think about this a bit... contenders are Red Hot Chili Peppers (but I resist that because Flea and Chad as such good musicians), Ratt, Motley Crue, Radiohead, Green Day, The Ramones.   

I've been going through the RHCP discography slowly over the past few months and I think they are pretty overrated. There are some great songs here and there but the rest of the stuff is largely forgettable in my eyes.

[King Postwhore]

Not a hot take. I agree. I never liked them.

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Soundgarden/AIC
Stone and Jeff's Pearl Jam (Ten, Vs.)
...
...
...
...
Eddie's Pearl Jam (Vitalogy and everything after...)
Nirvana

Yield
(Self Titled)
Backspacer

Those are my three favorites from the later era.

[soupytwist]

Me too; one of my top two or three most overrated bands in rock. 

Who are your other 2?

Seems a good a place as any to do this...

Most overrated rock band :-

Oasis for me - god awful unoriginal dad/pub rock dirge, lead by the brothers grimm.

Dammit, I love Oasis! 

I have to think about this a bit... contenders are Red Hot Chili Peppers (but I resist that because Flea and Chad as such good musicians), Ratt, Motley Crue, Radiohead, Green Day, The Ramones.

LOL Sorry!

If it's any consolation I like Nirvana, Chili's, Radiohead and Green Day - But Motley Crue can f**k right off!