All my favorite bands broke up while I was in grade school

[SweetZombieJesus]

Well, not all of them, but virtually all of the ones I hold in the highest esteem. I really resent my generation for producing almost no music I can connect with. A lot of the time I find myself wishing bands that broke up when I was 7 or 8 would reform so I could see them play, because there are only a handful of bands that are touring now that I would spend the money to see.

Flame me for being an elitist snob if you want, but I can't find anything in mainstream music that I can listen to for three seconds without throwing up my arms and screaming "What is this shit?"

[latebloomer]

1. But you like Bruce, right?

Wasn't it you who started the "BRUUUUUCE!" thread?

[SweetZombieJesus]

2. Yeah, but the thing about Bruce is that his best days were when I was in

grade school. I like The Rising and all, and I'd still love to see him live, but when I think about all the great bands I'll never get to see live, it depresses the shit out of me.

The Stone Roses? Nope
The Dead Kennedys? Not a chance
Husker Du?
The Replacements?
The Minutemen?
The Smiths?
Black Flag?
The Gun Club?

And that's just for starters. There are probably 100 bands I'd sell my soul to see live, and maybe 10 of them are still together.

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

4. I'd love to see the Replacements

I know how you feel :(

[vi5]

3. How old are you?

I'm 33 and have seen most of the bands on your list of ones you'll never get to see, but there are still a ton of great bands out there. Yes, a lot of them have touchstones and references to bands past, but so do even the great bands I got to see when I was younger. Bands out there today doing great stuff like the Mars Volta, Sigur Ros, The Raveonettes, Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, Cave In just to name a few.

[SweetZombieJesus]

5. 23

And I like all the bands you mentioned, but none of them give me the thrill I get when I listen to the bands I mentioned, especially Husker Du and The Replacements. I got screwed out of growing up in Minnesota in the mid 80s, instead I grew up in Nebraska in the late 80s and early 90s. I consider it a miracle I was even exposed to Public Enemy, because without that exposure, I'd probably still be a MTV Zombie today.

[vi5]

6. Honestly, even when the bands you listed were new in the 80's......

They were biting off of older bands styles and I was having to hear it from guys 5 to 10 years older that those bands were nothing compared to the Stooges, the Velvet Underground, the MC5, the Sonics, the Buzzcocks, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Joy Division, etc. etc. etc.

I agree that mainstream music today is much worse than it ever has been in the past. But the fact is that the bands creating new music today are just as vital as Husker Du or the Replacements or the Smiths or any of the "classic" bands. I grew up on all of them and still love them to this day. But I don't ever want to fixate on the past.

[SweetZombieJesus]

7. I try not to obsess about the past

But I think there are maybe a handful of "current" bands that I get excited about, and the rest of the albums I listen to are at least ten years old. The last album I bought when it was first released that knocked me for a loop was Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot", and before that it was OK Computer, so there's something like a five year span between albums that make my jaw drop.

I mean, I love the Flaming Lips, but twenty years from now, they'll still be largely unknown by the mainstream, and will reside in the annals of history as one of those "ahead of their time" bands like the Meat Puppets or the VU. People like you and me will always appreciate them, but they'll never achieve the kind of stratospheric success they deserve.

[Tom Kitten]

9. Interesting...

I think it's been too long since I've heard a good song by a "new artist" and I attributed it to the a few reasons...

Rock 'n' roll is almost 50 years old, maybe there's only so much you can do with the genre (the big band era lasted maybe ten years by comparison?)...Plus I've gotten older (over 40 now), and truthfully I have a harder time relating to a different, newer bands rehashing the same few chords over and over. Plus there is still the airplay question, I really doubt any present day band with the originality of, say, Pere Ubu, Gang of Four, heck even early Camper Van Beethoven (I could go on and on) would stand a chance getting on the air even today. Plus, a lot more people are into the hip-hop and electronica scenes nowadays, it's something different soundwise and there's still a chance of doing something creative there. After growing up through the punk/hardcore/garage years, and experiencing the birth and death of grunge (Rock's Late Cretaceous Era, young ceratopsians "pushing the extreme" oblivious to numerous small meteors mucking things up)...I just don't think there's anywhere left to go, except to find a niche in a sub-genre (surf, rockabilly, garage, metal, etc.) And yeah, Wipers were great!

[Tom Kitten]

10. Oh by the way!

I thought you'd enjoy this humorous link...

http://www.theonion.com/onion3919/90s_punk.html

Plus I did a few posters in the late 80s, early 90s, here is a link to my home page at gigposters...

http://www.gigposters.com/designers.php?designer=16594

I'm not trying to be egotistical, just thought you'd be interested...by the way, the first high school dance I went to, the band that played was the Phantoms...the guitarist was Greg Sage and the bass player also was in the Wipers...they were the back-up band for the pro wrestler Beauregarde's album! I have a single, "Testify", that got airplay on the old Portland Wrestling tv show...I saw it the LP at a record store recently, they wanted a hundred bucks for it!

[Squeech]

8. The times get the music they deserve

It's no accident that music ten years ago seemed to have a lot more sense of adventure and elan to it. Because so did real life! In the early '90s we'd just gotten rid of a vile stupid pernicious repuke regime, and inaugurated an administration that, while not perfect, was nevertheless determined to try and run things as if citizens mattered at least as much as money.

This is of course not news to you. But the point I'm getting at is that part of the way Karl Rove wields power for the Unelected Buffoon is by cranking up fear and malaise. And this ghastly vibe pervades everything, specifically including popular culture. Even creative artists end up propagating the same dismal message, because they absorb the same message from society at large. It usually expresses itself as conformism, with a few sarcastic little barbs to try and assure your audience that you don't really buy into it, but you don't see a way out just now. Because even to reject it explicitly, say by making a purely aggressive kind of punk in the mold of, for example, the Clash, will end up sounding reactive and retro, not liberating like you need it to be.

Me, I used to listen to carloads of progressive rock from the '70s. I've lost interest in it, but it took me a long time to realize why, and it certainly isn't because I've grown to believe that the normal forms of rock music are truer to the human spirit or any of that nonsense. It's because, to relate to progressive rock, you have to believe in progress! And I can't any more, I can't imagine how the 21st century could possibly improve on the 20th (at least not until the BFEE is banished from the planet).

Does any of that resonate with you? Nearly everything I want to listen to is 30-40 years old.

[DBoon]

11. If Progressive Rock = progress then

it's no wonder Devo may be the remote ancestor to much current music. We evolve backwards.

[0rganism]

12. Look on the bright side: when you hit 40, they'll be doing reunion tours

There's nothing quite like seeing a former stadium-rock band reduced to playing for loose change in a backwater saloon!

"Judas Priest and WASP tonight, at Ed's Bar & Grill! $5 cover!"

[SweetZombieJesus]

14. There's only one band I mentioned who I'd like to see back together:

Husker Fucking Du. All three guys are still alive and well, so there's really no good reason they shouldn't get back together and make good music again. It's not like the Replacements, where Bob Stinson is dead and Tommy's in Guns N Roses.

Husker Du should reform, god dammit.

[mvd]

13. We both like Bruce, and I like some indie music, but..

I don't think the mainstream is that bad. The mainstream could be better, but I have found quite a few artists to buy. There are a decent amount of styles represented. Now there is a lot of hip-hop I don't like, many Greatest Hits albums, and some stale rock, country, and pop - but as a pop liker, I'm liking what's offered more than before. To just list some, I enjoy Michelle Branch, Avril Lavigne, Coldplay, John Mayer, Weezer, Vanessa Carlton, Pink, Shakira, Shania Twain, new Mandy Moore, and Evanescence (not a fan of Evanescence, though.) And there are pop/rockers not in the charts that I enjoy. I'll never criticize you, because music is individual - you either connect or don't. I'm not as punk oriented and don't focus on creativity as much, so that's some of why we differ. I did hear parts of London Calling by The Clash after you mentioned it, and I liked what I heard. Not quite as much as you do, but it's worth buying. London Calling's not the strictly punk record I thought it might be.