Stuff You Just Don't Get.

[Bored Of Education]

While I can sort of see the 'Pink Floyd'-comparisons, to me that sounds more like the kind of commonplace opinion given by people who don't really listen to either band.

Yup.

[Bored Of Education]

Which I think I used - far more accurately, IMO - to describe Muse, upthread. Yes, Radiohead could absolutely do 'overwrought', but they've also shown throughout their career the skill and depth not to do it. (Muse do nothing but, and in a rather derivative manner that seems to exist mainly to get their audience to whoop all the louder.)

There are two 'overwroughts'

1. in a state of nervous excitement or anxiety, high in drama and lacking any emotional restraint

Radiohead (my usage)


2. too elaborate or complicated in design or construction.

Muse (your usage)

I would say both definitions are accurate for the bands we describe in turn.

[steveeeeeeeee]

Felt, My Bloody Valentine and Belle & Sebastian are all closed books to me, which in Indiepop City marks me down as distinctly eccentric.

They're basically my 3 favourite bands.

[Furtho]

<fistbump>

[Haddock]

The Strokes. Band of the noughties, apparently, which says a lot about the period

[ad hoc]

The Strokes. Band of the noughties, apparently, which says a lot about the period

I actually bought the Strokes album based on the single Last Night, which I liked. The rest of the album was so bad and plodding and pedestrian that it actually turned me against the only song that i did like. They appeared at the same time as, and were compared to, the White Stripes, who had more ideas in one song than the Strokes did in their entire career.

[Jah Womble]

Were Coldplay not 'the band of the noughties'? Which says even more about the period.

The Strokes, at least, had a bit of attitude about them.

There are two 'overwroughts'

1. in a state of nervous excitement or anxiety, high in drama and lacking any emotional restraint

Radiohead (my usage)


2. too elaborate or complicated in design or construction.

Muse (your usage)

I would say both definitions are accurate for the bands we describe in turn.

Yep, I'll go along with that.

[WOM]

Best thread in Music in a very long while, this.

[WOM]

They're basically my 3 favourite bands.

I love B&S but don't know a thing about the other two. Haven't even heard of Felt.

[Jah Womble]

Felt is/are basically highly-prolific UK musician Lawrence Hayward, who also went on to record as Go Kart Mozart and Denim. Being the young bedsit miserablist that I was during the mid-eighties, I was very much into Felt: this is probably his/their best known tune, with Liz 'Cocteau Twins' Fraser on vocals:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jtejnvza2U

Denim were altogether more arch, humorous and seemingly-obsessed with seventies nostalgia.

[WOM]

A bit surprised to learn that MBV (as they calls 'em) have a grand total of three (3) albums in 30 years.

[Jah Womble]

Most of MBV's releases came within a six-year spell between 1985 and 1991: they split up for some while following these.

[Bored Of Education]

Were Coldplay not 'the band of the noughties'? Which says even more about the period.

I know they were gone by 1994 (and I am not a fan) but Nirvana surely? Well, as far as guitar bands were concerned anyway.

[WOM]

I wasn't a fan then, but I'd give them two thumbs-up now. But then, they avoided the inevitable decline and everything that it sucks into its wake.

[ad hoc]

I know they were gone by 1994 (and I am not a fan) but Nirvana surely? Well, as far as guitar bands were concerned anyway.

You appear to have misunderstood the word noughties

[Hot Pepsi]

I actually bought the Strokes album based on the single Last Night, which I liked. The rest of the album was so bad and plodding and pedestrian that it actually turned me against the only song that i did like. They appeared at the same time as, and were compared to, the White Stripes, who had more ideas in one song than the Strokes did in their entire career.

That's about how I see it.

The White Stripes and certainly Jack White's later work are examples of somebody finding a way to do something cool and exciting without ever pretending that what they're doing is really "new." Perhaps that's why I assumed The White Stripes were British when I first heard them. They seemed to be so unapologetic about showing their influences - 60s garage rock and old-timey blues especially, that they reminded me of how the Yardbirds, Animals, and early Stones were trying so hard to do American blues.

[Furtho]

Denim were altogether more arch, humorous and seemingly-obsessed with seventies nostalgia.

I don't get Felt at all, but Denim's Summer Smash is one of my absolute favourite pop singles.

[Jah Womble]

You appear to have misunderstood the word noughties

Yes, that had me scratching my head with its all-round oddness. (I mean, I'm sure BoE didn't also think that Coldplay and Nirvana were in any way contemporaneous?)

[Benjm]

Felt is/are basically highly-prolific UK musician Lawrence Hayward, who also went on to record as Go Kart Mozart and Denim.

He picked up some kind of lifetime underappreciation gong at the Q Awards yesterday. He always seemed bewildered when each, progressively more eccentric, project didn't find establish him as a firm fixture on the stereos and bedroom walls of the nation. I'm going to see him in GKM mode a week on Friday.

[Bored Of Education]

Oh, that was stupid. I think that my brain refuses to recognise the word "noughties" and auto-corrects it as "nineties". It feels like Coldplay has been around for ever. Probably the guitar band of the noughties was, surprisingly, Linkin Park. Released "Hybrid Theory" in 2000 which sold millions as did the subsequent albums throughout the decade. Also were a massive live act touring regularly throughout the decade. As they formed and emerged about the same time as Coldplay, I would say it is between those two. I suspect that Linkin Park sold more worldwide and played to more people worldwide but stand to be corrected.

[Jah Womble]

I think you may well have a point in terms of global sales between 2000-2009: Linkin Park shifted something like sixty million units in that time (and those early albums continue to sell).

However, sales for individual releases after Minutes to Midnight (the third album) dropped off significantly - while Coldplay's figures have been more consistent from the off. There's also little argument that the latter have been very much the 'everyman' band since they broke: if there's a non-specialist UK music station that hasn't played a Coldplay track over the past decade - from 6Music to Magic - then I'd be amazed. (One could certainly never have said that about Linkin Park.)

They know exactly what they're doing, basically...

[Simon G]

Linkin Park - another band whose first two albums I loved but then completely forgot about afterwards.

It felt like they were aimed right at me - them and nearly all the bands that were constantly on Kerrang at that time (circa 2000-2002) when I was 16-18 years old.

[Jah Womble]

I never understood the excitement about them, tbh. I get the timing, obviously - nu-metal and similar styles were suddenly big business - but Linkin Park always seemed very manufactured to me.

(It wasn't targeted at me obviously, but I can remember meeting Tony Wilson around that time, and he seemed to think that they were the best thing since sliced bread, which surprised me I must say.)

[Bored Of Education]

I never understood the excitement about them, tbh. I get the timing, obviously - nu-metal and similar styles were suddenly big business - but Linkin Park always seemed very manufactured to me.

I always compared them to the likes of Korn and Limp Bizkit very favourably and they certainly seemed less manufactured than the latter who were nu-metal's Mindfunk. When I saw Linkin Park live, I enjoyed them but that was it and never really thought of them after that. They seemed like nu-metal with much much better tunes but not really up my street. I was incredibly surprised to find out later that they became one of the world't biggest bands.

There's also little argument that the latter have been very much the 'everyman' band since they broke: if there's a non-specialist UK music station that hasn't played a Coldplay track over the past decade - from 6Music to Magic - then I'd be amazed. (One could certainly never have said that about Linkin Park.)

Well, that is, of course, a very Britcentric view and one that probably affects people in this country's view as, as big as they were, they never had the mainstream profile that they had in the States and, probably, in Europe. I mean, you could well be right and Coldplay were bigger - in terms of album sales and gig ticket sales - but I wouldn't assume it. As far as profile, Coldplay seem to be more widely popular but they do appeal to a much older demographic.

[Jah Womble]

Well, unlike Linkin Park, they appeal right across the board - that was the point I was trying to emphasise. The radio station comment was 'Britcentric', yes - I made that clear - but such comparison could not really be made with the US anyway, where music programming has always been genre-based.

To clarify what I was saying in terms of sales, Linkin Park have the far greater figures for those first few albums: Coldplay's numbers have remained steadier, however - which to me at least, suggests a greater longevity. And does indeed indicate a broader sales demographic. (My daughter's friends - although less-so her, thankfully - were all very excited about seeing Coldplay on tour last year - and they're all teenagers.)