So true.

Nobody born after about 1985 has any idea what a huge band is.  Guns N Roses was absolutely huge.  For 3-4 years they were bigger than everything else put together.  Nothing going on now in pop culture is anywhere near as interesting as that time period.

So true, Jake.

 

I think younger people think groups are "big" today because they play in front of big festival crowds every year like Cochella or Bonaroo.  The fact is stadiums full of people came out back in the 80s and early 90s just to see Guns N Roses, all over the world. That band could have packed a stadium somewhere in the world literally every night of the year at their peak. 

 

 

The stuff you learn over the years.  I was big into New England during the late 70s, and have been listening to them again lately.  I also definitely liked Alcatrazz during the early 80s.

 

Thirty years later I find out they are 50% the same band.

LMAO...Rabbit Hash.  You might be too old to know how the edit feature works on forums. 

Nobody born after about 1985 has any idea what a huge band is.  Guns N Roses was absolutely huge.  For 3-4 years they were bigger than everything else put together.  Nothing going on now in pop culture is anywhere near as interesting as that time period.

 

4th grade, 88-89: ALL the kids at school talked about was GnR, BMX and NES

Nobody born after about 1985 has any idea what a huge band is.  Guns N Roses was absolutely huge.  For 3-4 years they were bigger than everything else put together.  Nothing going on now in pop culture is anywhere near as interesting as that time period.

 

4th grade, 88-89: ALL the kids at school talked about was GnR, BMX and NES

 

I admit I still have a crazy surge shoot through my being when I read youtube comments and see somebody remarking that they first heard a song on Guitar Hero or Tony Hawk's skateboarding games. 

 

 

Nobody born after about 1985 has any idea what a huge band is.  Guns N Roses was absolutely huge.  For 3-4 years they were bigger than everything else put together.  Nothing going on now in pop culture is anywhere near as interesting as that time period.

So true, Jake.

 

I think younger people think groups are "big" today because they play in front of big festival crowds every year like Cochella or Bonaroo.  The fact is stadiums full of people came out back in the 80s and early 90s just to see Guns N Roses, all over the world. That band could have packed a stadium somewhere in the world literally every night of the year at their peak. 

 

A lot of the reason for this is the fragmentation of popular culture triggered by the ‘net, which is not necessarily a bad thing.  People don’t have any need to shape their tastes towards what is readily available. 

 

Guns and Roses could have been 85% someone’s ideal band, but they were their “favorite” because it took a lot of effort to find and hear those bands that scored in the 90% range.  Now that’s not true.

 

There’s less success to be had, but more of it to go around.  It’s likely talent now has more to do with success than it used to, and persistence or “who you know” less.  Also, musicians don’t have to put their lives on hold to be heard.

I'd argue that the fragmentation happened years before the net got popular. Metal had already split into a million pieces by 1989, with Hair and Death as the dumbell ends. Modern Country began to turn into the extremely controversial, overly-specific lifestyle-oriented nu-country by the early 90s.

Guns N Roses to play The Jungle on July 6:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2016/03/25/guns-n-roses-play-cincy-summer/82279616/

 

I was too young to see them on the notorious co-headlining tour with Metallica.  I was so envious of this guy I knew who got to go because his dad owned a boot shop and sold snakeskin boots to Slash. 

 

I saw "Guns N Roses" in December 2002 in Chicago.  This was with Buckethead, Brain on drums, the dude from Nine Inch Nails, etc.  They played only Appetite and GNR Lies material, which made me think they weren't legally allowed to play the Illusion songs.  Anyway, the playing was perfect, but almost too perfect.  It wasn't dangerous.  The opening act was Mix Master Mike, which put the crowd in a bad mood.  I saw him twice.  At this show he remixed White Zombie's first album for most of his 30-minute set, and it was pretty damn impressive. 

Guns N Roses to play The Jungle on July 6:

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2016/03/25/guns-n-roses-play-cincy-summer/82279616/

 

I was too young to see them on the notorious co-headlining tour with Metallica.  I was so envious of this guy I knew who got to go because his dad owned a boot shop and sold snakeskin boots to Slash. 

 

I saw "Guns N Roses" in December 2002 in Chicago.  This was with Buckethead, Brain on drums, the dude from Nine Inch Nails, etc.  They played only Appetite and GNR Lies material, which made me think they weren't legally allowed to play the Illusion songs.  Anyway, the playing was perfect, but almost too perfect.  It wasn't dangerous.  The opening act was Mix Master Mike, which put the crowd in a bad mood.  I saw him twice.  At this show he remixed White Zombie's first album for most of his 30-minute set, and it was pretty damn impressive. 

 

As this announcement spreads, it's going to be extremely unpopular in NE Ohio, which was one of the first areas they caught on.

 

Eff Pittsburgh.

Well GNR is back.  I don't get how Axl and Slash are carrying around those guts.  Not as bad as Vince Neil at Rock in Rio a few years back but still unacceptable.  They're in LA and have access to the best personal trainers and chefs.  Duff got off drugs in the late 90s by getting into mountain biking.  It really would be insufferable if there was a fat Duff up on that stage.  What's crazy is that Izzy and Adler are still thin but aren't doing this, or at least Adler is said to be out for back surgery.  At least it's not for a gut. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGYCAoF-54g

Also, the Asian chick visible at 2:29 is totally into Slash.  It's like you go away for 20+ years, put on 40 pounds, but the 22 year-old girls are waiting for you when you get off the couch. 

Also, the Asian chick visible at 2:29 is totally into Slash.  It's like you go away for 20+ years, put on 40 pounds, but the 22 year-old girls are waiting for you when you get off the couch. 

 

That's basically a given.  Of the four or five jobs where normal age/appearance criteria do not apply, musicians lead the list.  Check out Breakfast Club's fans sometime.  (Edit:  check them out a few years back when Dave Brooks was still active).

 

A few years back Holly (my own example of non-applicability of said criteria) was watching "Rock of Love" and I had to explain to her who Brett Michaels was and that the basic point of the show was to let him do in his 40s what he was doing in his 20s.

So Axl broke his foot at the LA gig on April 1 and played both Las Vegas last weekend and Coachella this weekend sitting in a chair.  Plus, he's potentially still sitting in the chair for the AC/DC tour dates in May.  This is absolutely ridiculous!

 

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/video-acdcs-angus-young-joins-guns-n-roses-on-stage-at-coachella-valley-music-and-arts-festival/

It would somehow be perfect if Axl was permanently confined to the chair, and gained a ton of weight but kept touring for another few years.  It would be analogous to Elvis's decline. 

That's what happened to Paul di'anno, iron maiden's singer on their first two records.

That's what happened to Paul di'anno, iron maiden's singer on their first two records.

 

Actually I heard it once commented, quite astutely, that Axl Rose is the Marlon Brando of rock & roll. 

 

In other news, I listened to most of a 10-hour simulcast of Coachella yesterday on Serius XM channel 18.  I guess the highlight, or really the only acts I thought were worth endorsing in the slightest, were Gary Clark Jr. and some other group called The Arcs or something like that.  But both people have a genre imitation that is their "sound" and any deviations from that one little niche of rock history which they emulate tends to flounder.  It's as if they suffer from the Lenny Kravitz Syndrome but aren't as good at imitating as he was. 

 

The electronic bands completely sucked.  Reminds me of the time I got kicked out of a party in 2002 at the 4th & Plum Apartments in Cincinnati for making fun of the electronica soundtrack, which I believe was a VHS tape of the Berlin Love Parade amplified through a Bose surround-sound system with the little cubes.  So here we are 15 years after that, when electronic music cliches were already 15 years old, and people are still somehow making money and gaining notoriety for this crap. 

 

One of the greatest parts of Welcome to the Jungle is that when it comes back from the spaced-out bridge, there is a tiny rush in the tempo and Axl's voice has a heightened sense of alarm and celebration about it.  It's like when somebody warns somebody about something, the warnee (is that a word?) takes a step toward doing it anyway, and then the older and wiser figure raises their voice and quickens their phrasing just a little.  I just watched this clip from last night and it's pretty amazing that that the energy is still in that song.  It's the kind of detail that is completely missing from virtually any new music.  What's weird is that Axl can still scream on key but he can't just sing normally, as evidenced by November Rain. 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlaKwC7eAtw

 

 

 

 

Here's Di'Anno live from the chair now that I'm not on my phone:

 

What's so ridiculous about the whole situation is that Axl wouldn't have broken his foot if he had done anything at all to stay in shape over the last few years.  The guy has just been sitting on the couch watching home improvement shows when he hasn't played the occasional "Guns" mini-tour.  I sense that it was Slash and Duff who came to him about doing some big shows since the two of them might have been running out of money.  Why Izzy wasn't involved is, of course, a total mystery.  Or why they didn't get Gilby Clark. 

 

The really weird thing about this week is that Guns N Roses with the unknown black drummer (he appears to have played with "Guns" at least as far back as 2012 from what I can tell) played last night, but the opening act at their Mexico City gigs this week is...The Cult.  Yes, Matt Sorum's band.  So is Sorum going to do double-duty and also drum for Guns N Roses?  If so, will Guns play the second Coachela headlining gig with their second drummer instead of their third?  Or is Matt Sorum just going to sit idle and watch Guns N Roses in Mexico City from stage left? Or is Matt Sorum not even playing with The Cult anymore and they booked the band to disrespect him?

 

Also, tonight they replayed Saturday night's performance of Welcome to the Jungle several times on satellite.  Axl of course is a ridiculous, frustrating visage in that video I posted, and distracts from what is going on.  But the raw audio was incredibly compelling.  The band didn't just sound impressive, it was overwhelmingly good.  Assuming that the sound was good at that show, I think a lot of people (especially people too young to remember when MTV played videos) walked away from that performance with their minds blown.  To go from never having heard anything like that to have having heard the very best example of that era is something those of us who were there when this band broke didn't experience.  In the 80s there were still a lot of 60s and 70s bands puttering around and then Van Halen and a few other good 80s bands that immediately preceded Appetite.  But for a young person this is just coming out of nowhere.   

 

 

Thing is, if you saw GnR back in the old days, there's a good chance they'd be very sloppy from being so f-ed up. Most of the live video I've seen from that era has all different types of mistakes from off time stuff to them all playing in different keys to riffs in the wrong position to bad solos. Meanwhile Axl is usually the most sober and shoots dirty looks at the rest of the band with each major mistake.

 

^That isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  If you listen to the end, Slash apologizes to the crowd for having to leave to put on different clothes after splitting his pants before the clip started.  Axl was pissed at the beginning because Slash disappeared and he had to tell a story to fill the time.

 

In other news, at least one news source trashed the travesty that is EDM:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/18/taylor-swift-s-boyfriend-closes-out-coachella-with-a-wimper-not-a-bang.html

 

I thought we were at the bottom when Girl Talk got big 10 years ago, but it seems that pop tastes are doomed to get dumber and dumber. 

 

 

 

 

^That isn't as bad as I thought it would be.  If you listen to the end, Slash apologizes to the crowd for having to leave to put on different clothes after splitting his pants before the clip started.  Axl was pissed at the beginning because Slash disappeared and he had to tell a story to fill the time.

 

In other news, at least one news source trashed the travesty that is EDM:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/18/taylor-swift-s-boyfriend-closes-out-coachella-with-a-wimper-not-a-bang.html

 

I thought we were at the bottom when Girl Talk got big 10 years ago, but it seems that pop tastes are doomed to get dumber and dumber. 

 

The music industry’s “success pyramid” has flattened dramatically over the last decade or so, there’s much less opportunity to be a superstar but much more to be moderately successful.  The mainstream media has failed to catch onto this, and they are egged on by the extraneous parts of the business that prefers a few huge stars to many smaller ones.  They love to hype the Meghan Trainors of the world, people who in the past would have been one or two hit wonders but have strong publicists and/or powerful connections (Calvin Harris being the latter).  They focus on the “mainstream” of music which is declining due to diversification rather than disintegration.  And keep in mind that even during the greatest parts of the rock era, a lot of the “popular” stuff was pretty mediocre.

In other news, at least one news source trashed the travesty that is EDM:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/04/18/taylor-swift-s-boyfriend-closes-out-coachella-with-a-wimper-not-a-bang.html

 

Oh no! Are you going to be okay Jake? Is your fragile existence threatened by other people having different tastes than you? Can you get through this travesty? Whatever will you do if there's music out there that you don't personally enjoy?!

 

It's impossible to enter any topic on these boards these days without rolling one's eyes because Jake has continued to pour his personal brand of, "everything is beneath my impeccable taste and opinion" on essentially everything here.

^ At least his post was actually relevant to music and the topic of this thread. Don't like someone's post? Keep scrolling. I find many of Jake's posts funny, fwiw.

Well I came here to actually partake in discussion but quickly realized it's not going to be possible, just like in many threads, because he craps all over anyone and anything that isn't his personal taste. It makes threads difficult to join which is the exact opposite of the point of a forum.

 

The "keep scrolling" attitude is problematic since his continual "I'm superior and everything that I don't like is a strain on society" attitude screws up the ability for people to actually join in a discussion in any meaningful manner.

Not that this is a new song, but I can't stop playing Calvin Harris' "We'll be coming back." It's a catchy beat.

Don't you guys get that Calvin Harris and the rest of them are basically hitting "demo" on an old Casio keyboard?  And people are paying big money to see him push "play" and then act like he's into it?

 

There was a band that was around for 10 years making fun of EDM before the term EDM even existed, Gil Mantera's Party Dream.  I saw them like 6 or 7 times.  It was totally, totally hilarious.  All of us who grew up in the 80s thought all that synthesizer stuff was over.  No, since the demise of Gil Mantera's Party Dream around 2008 or 2009, it's come roaring back, and people somehow take it completely seriously.  I'm at a total loss.  This was from around 2004 or 2005:

I've probably talked about this before, but even that was a whole genre itself. Other acts included Totally Radd!!, Mr. Pac-Man and I Hate You When You're Pregnant.

 

And if you don't know already, now Axl has signed on to sing for AC/DC on a bunch of dates right in the middle of the GnR tour. This is nuts.

I've probably talked about this before, but even that was a whole genre itself. Other acts included Totally Radd!!, Mr. Pac-Man and I Hate You When You're Pregnant.

 

And if you don't know already, now Axl has signed on to sing for AC/DC on a bunch of dates right in the middle of the GnR tour. This is nuts.

 

There was also another one called The Flavor Savers from either St. Louis or Chicago.  They were nowhere as good as Gil Mantera's Party Dream because there were too many of them and they couldn't keep a straight face. Also, one of them who actually looked a bit like Ultimate Donny got married to a girl who one of my socially-incompetent friends had a major thing for, and so The Flavor Savors are not spoken of in our circle. 

 

 

 

Damn, now Prince is gone. Terrible. Sign O' the Times was his best.

 

Youtube has an awful selection of videos. Can't even find anything decent to post.

Damn, now Prince is gone. Terrible. Sign O' the Times was his best.

 

Youtube has an awful selection of videos. Can't even find anything decent to post.

 

I'm predicting (hoping for) a Minneapolis memorial concert featuring Morris Day, Appolonia 6 and Sheila E.

Damn, now Prince is gone. Terrible. Sign O' the Times was his best.

 

Youtube has an awful selection of videos. Can't even find anything decent to post.

 

Every once in awhile someone uploads Batdance, and then it's gone a day later. 

 

In honor of Prince, I hope someone hits a buzzer beater in the NBA playoffs and then calmly looks at his opponent and says - 'blouses'

Looks like Youtube is letting some stuff in just not original music. Get his first 9 albums and you'll be all set.

 

When Super Bowl half time shows were live and interesting.

 

He's pretty good at that guitar thing

 

FF to 3:29

 

 

best of all - 1983 house video of the very first public performance of purple rain

its the full performance at the first ave club that was edited for the movie - w/extra verse, etc.

 

http://m.startribune.com/watch-prince-s-greatest-live-music-videos/376595241/

 

thx star-trib & korean youtube clone or whatever!

 

Well I just can't wait for all of the clumsy Prince tributes we'll see this weekend at Coachella week #2.  Will Guns N Roses do a Purple Rain/November Rain hybrid?

 

I was talking with some of my friends last night re: Is Prince Overrated? and the consensus was definitely.  For an "icon" he had relatively few hit songs, and none of them were smash songs that came to define a year or two like, for example, Baby Got Back, You Can't Touch This, etc. 

 

His hit songs were, if I remember correctly:

 

Let's Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

1999

Purple Rain

Diamonds & Pearls

Cream (was that even a hit?)

Seven (again, was that really a hit?)

Batdance (the video was hilarious but I don't remember it really getting played on the radio)

 

Again, none of these songs were huge, and there were a lot of one or two-hit wonders who had huge songs, and a lot of groups out there who had as many or more hits as Prince.  The Rolling Stones, for example, had at least 20 hit songs in addition to 5 that were absolutely huge, culture-defining, and totally creative songs (i.e. Sympathy for the Devil). 

 

 

Again, none of these songs were huge, and there were a lot of one or two-hit wonders who had huge songs, and a lot of groups out there who had as many or more hits as Prince.  The Rolling Stones, for example, had at least 20 hit songs in addition to 5 that were absolutely huge, culture-defining, and totally creative songs (i.e. Sympathy for the Devil). 

 

 

If only Keith Richards (or any single Rolling Stone) could come out of his drug-riddled haze, play all the instruments on the album (including virtuoso and heavily influential guitar), engineer it himself, mix his own live sound, produce his own movie, start his own label, write and produce DOZENS of hits for other artists, and change the traditional way albums and concert tickets were sold.  No offense to Keith or the Stones (I love them all), but have you ever listened to one of his isolated guitar tracks?  There was brilliance happening all around them.  Prince chose to do it mostly by himself.

 

I'm sure everyone's seen this, but I find it a striking example of what an amazing player the guy was, soloing on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (skip ahead to 3:28):

 

^ Point well taken. Prince had Brian Wilson-esque production abilities when he was on top of his game. But just to stick up for Keith R. a little bit, I really dig the recent album which he co-wrote and co-produced.

 

 

up until a couple of weeks ago if someone had played a Justin Bieber song for me and asked me to identify who was singing, I probably wouldn't have had a clue. Now I can't stop listening to this song. It's a sickness. There must be a 12-step program. Favorite line: "my mama don't like you and she likes everyone" Just shoot me! :shoot: (maybe if I listened to one of those F-yourself parodies it would solve the problem :laugh:)

 

Well I just can't wait for all of the clumsy Prince tributes we'll see this weekend at Coachella week #2.  Will Guns N Roses do a Purple Rain/November Rain hybrid?

 

I was talking with some of my friends last night re: Is Prince Overrated? and the consensus was definitely.  For an "icon" he had relatively few hit songs, and none of them were smash songs that came to define a year or two like, for example, Baby Got Back, You Can't Touch This, etc. 

 

His hit songs were, if I remember correctly:

 

Let's Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

1999

Purple Rain

Diamonds & Pearls

Cream (was that even a hit?)

Seven (again, was that really a hit?)

Batdance (the video was hilarious but I don't remember it really getting played on the radio)

 

Again, none of these songs were huge, and there were a lot of one or two-hit wonders who had huge songs, and a lot of groups out there who had as many or more hits as Prince.  The Rolling Stones, for example, had at least 20 hit songs in addition to 5 that were absolutely huge, culture-defining, and totally creative songs (i.e. Sympathy for the Devil). 

 

 

 

wow this just might be the worst post in uo history. its definately the worst kind of post tho. i hope its just some kind of hipster mocking, in which case its only in serious bad taste. i mean the guy's body is barely cold for fks sake. otherwise, well...you should probably just leave the popular pop music alone.

 

but speaking of pop, i am housesitting and visiting a friend's apt lately to feed their new cat, iggy pop, which i actually named. its some rare breed midget cat that scratches and pukes, so his name is fitting. as anyone reading this thread regularly knows iggy's your boy, so you might approve, but i dk if cats are a thing on pitchfork these days, so maybe not.

Well I just can't wait for all of the clumsy Prince tributes we'll see this weekend at Coachella week #2.  Will Guns N Roses do a Purple Rain/November Rain hybrid?

 

I was talking with some of my friends last night re: Is Prince Overrated? and the consensus was definitely.  For an "icon" he had relatively few hit songs, and none of them were smash songs that came to define a year or two like, for example, Baby Got Back, You Can't Touch This, etc. 

 

His hit songs were, if I remember correctly:

 

Let's Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

1999

Purple Rain

Diamonds & Pearls

Cream (was that even a hit?)

Seven (again, was that really a hit?)

Batdance (the video was hilarious but I don't remember it really getting played on the radio)

 

Again, none of these songs were huge, and there were a lot of one or two-hit wonders who had huge songs, and a lot of groups out there who had as many or more hits as Prince.  The Rolling Stones, for example, had at least 20 hit songs in addition to 5 that were absolutely huge, culture-defining, and totally creative songs (i.e. Sympathy for the Devil). 

 

I can't agree with the overrated consensus.  I'd say that is more a reflection on your particular crowd and their musical tastes.  And with your reference to Baby Got Back and U Can't Touch This as some kind of standard bearers, I don't know what to say. Given the outpouring of praise from musicians of all genres, I doubt they agree with the overrated label either. 

 

Your list is also woefully short.  There are several songs I would add, most notably Kiss (how could you miss that?), Rasberry Street, U Got the Look, The Most Beautiful Girl in the World, Sign O' The Times, Little Red Corvette, I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man, Thieves in the Temple, Pop Life (one of my personal favs), I Would Die for You, and Alphabet Street.  Several others too but I don't want to write a novel here.

 

He was iconic not just for the songs he sang, but for the songs he wrote.  For instance, did you know he wrote Nothing Compares to U?  I actually like his version (particularly the live version with Rosie Gaines) better than the one that bald Irish b*tch sang and went to the top of the charts with.  https://vk.com/video1692287_168060759.  He also wrote Manic Monday (the Bangles), Round and Round (Tevin Campbell), Jungle Love (Morris Day & the Time), I Feel for You (Chaka Khan), How Come You Don't Call Me (Alicia Keys), and many others.  And when Prince wrote something, he wrote it..... lyrics and music.  He was a musical genius/savant.

^ please tell me he is mocking the guy like he did mj and you didnt really need to do that?

I think Batdance didn't make the radio since it sounds like it has the F word in it often.

I think Batdance didn't make the radio since it sounds like it has the F word in it often.

 

And...it was terrible lol.

yeah it is terrible, but i used to hear it played on the radio a lot at the time. maybe there is an edited version.

For You

 

Prince - all vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, Orr bass, bass synth, singing bass, fuzz bass, Fender Rhodes electric piano, acoustic piano, Minimoog, Polymoog, ARP String Ensemble, ARP Pro Soloist, Oberheim 4-voice, clavinet, drums, syndrums, water drums, slapsticks, bongos, congas, finger cymbals, wind chimes, orchestral bells, wood blocks, brush trap, tree bell, hand claps, finger snaps.

 

That was his first album.  The man pioneered "free music," tackling record labels, wrote countless songs, and had his own sound that was emulated by many.

 

Overrated?  No.  Iconic?  Yes.

Ben Folds Five might be the most unappreciated band of all time. It's crazy how my nieces and nephews, all young adults, don't recognize the group.

So Guns N Roses, after a 20+ year hiatus, reappears to play in front of 300,000+ people in one week.  Coachella Weekend 1, Coachella Weedend 2, and two huge midweek stadium shows in Mexico City:

 

How many people are in this crowd? 100,000+?  FFW to 2:00 when this guy pans back. 

 

I watched a few of the clips from Mexico City, and couldn't help but get a little upset thinking back to when the United States used to export all kinds of badass music that millions of people admired all around the world.  Even if they didn't speak English, they got it.  Now it's just guys who press play on their laptops. 

 

I watched a few of the clips from Mexico City, and couldn't help but get a little upset thinking back to when the United States used to export all kinds of badass music that millions of people admired all around the world.  Even if they didn't speak English, they got it.  Now it's just guys who press play on their laptops. 

 

It's not, really.  But that who gets the mainstream media attention.

 

My brother's metal band is signed to a label that was originally Latvian.

Metal may be an exception, especially the hard core stuff.  Does it really matter what language they are singing/yelling?