*** Post-1979 Album Draft - Commentary Thread ***

[Mithrandir]

Votes are 2 to 1 in favor of Jill so far. You're losing.

Mith losing a vote on RJ.....who'da thunk it

[BuckyBuckner]

Forgetting 16-year-old kids for a minute, I'm always amazed at how critical response to bands and albums changes over time. Live was a huge band in the 90's alt-rock explosion, now they're sneered at like an embarrassing joke. If you had told me in 1994 that Throwing Copper would be dismissed as an unworthy sh!t record in 20 years, I never would have believed it. Stone Temple Pilots is another one. They were monsters in the early 90's - critics praised their albums, and rock fans bought their records in droves. Now they get lumped in with talentless post-grunge copycats like Bush and Creed. You never know.

I always thought Live was a terrible band. I assume that means I'm better than you. j/k STP is an interesting one, I was never a big fan, though I think Interstate Love Song is a great song (even if the guitar riff is a total ripoff of I Got a Name by Jim Croce; YouTube it if you don't believe me). But they really did just disappear and have been forgotten about.

I like the Hoodoo Gurus pick, btw. Did not expect them to be picked in this draft.

[Controller Jacobs]

Glad to see Hoodoo Gurus and Matthew Sweet both go. They were in my next 25.

[senorsheep]

I can't stand STP...but I always thought they and Pearl Jam were the better bands from that category.

Maybe it's what bands continue to do (or not do) that make critics and fans alike look back and say..."God, that was crap too!"

If Scott Weiland had sucked on a shotgun after Purple, rather than devolve into an embarrassing heroin junkie cliche, STP's legacy might have been very different. Who knows?

[senorsheep]

I always thought Live was a terrible band. I assume that means I'm better than you. j/k

I confess to liking them back in the days of Mental Jewelry and Throwing Copper. :bag: Yes, the songwriting made you cringe - a case of ambition outstripping talent - but I did like their sound on those records, and they were a good live band. I turned on them fiercely when they released Secret Samadhi - utterly horrible, pretentious sh!te. I don't know why I saw it so clearly on that album and not before, but I hated it so much, I never listened to anything new from them afterwards.

[DMT]

Forgetting 16-year-old kids for a minute, I'm always amazed at how critical response to bands and albums changes over time. Live was a huge band in the 90's alt-rock explosion, now they're sneered at like an embarrassing joke. If you had told me in 1994 that Throwing Copper would be dismissed as an unworthy sh!t record in 20 years, I never would have believed it. Stone Temple Pilots is another one. They were monsters in the early 90's - critics praised their albums, and rock fans bought their records in droves. Now they get lumped in with talentless post-grunge copycats like Bush and Creed. You never know.

I hated Live from the moment I heard them, and, other than 'Dead and Bloated' and 'Sex Type Thing' (the first two songs on their first album), STP did nothing for me. So ha!

[DMT]

Stoneage Romeos and Mars Needs Guitars are must-owns; Blow Your Cool! and Magnum Cum Louder are good, too. I think the Hoodoos would appeal to a pretty wide cross-section of tastes here, and Bob Mould fans would be right at the top of that list.

I have Mars Needs Guitars on vinyl, been meaning to check out their other records.

[ManCalledFoot]

I was gonna wait to address STP, but I was definitely wondering why no one picked them. Of all those big first-wave grunge LPs I thought 'Core' was pretty good, and I liked their other stuff like 'Sour Girl'. Not that I ever owned anything of theirs or would pick them, but I thought one of you would certainly go there.

[senorsheep]

I hated Live from the moment I heard them, and, other than 'Dead and Bloated' and 'Sex Type Thing' (the first two songs on their first album), STP did nothing for me. So ha!

Yeah, but I didn't pick a Live or STP record in this draft, Mr. 311. Ha HA!

[DMT]

Yeah, but I didn't pick a Live or STP record in this draft, Mr. 311. Ha HA!

Left that one over the plate!

[senorsheep]

I was gonna wait to address STP, but I was definitely wondering why no one picked them. Of all those big first-wave grunge LPs I thought 'Core' was pretty good, and I liked their other stuff like 'Sour Girl'. Not that I ever owned anything of theirs or would pick them, but I thought one of you would certainly go there.

I have Core, Purple and Tiny Music, and still like them all. I wouldn't try to convince anybody that STP were brilliant or revolutionary, but they made some good rock records. I'd rather listen to Purple than a lot of other albums picked in this draft. :shrug:

[Mithrandir]

Bob Marley was far and away the most universally loved artist in my world travels. I'm not sure who #2 is but they're an extremely distant 2nd. People love the shit out of ol' Bob pretty much everywhere you go. I smoked weed with an Indian dude in Goa with Bob Marley tattooed on his arm.

There doesn't seem to be any reason to dislike Marley. As a musician or person.

[BuckyBuckner]

I have Mars Needs Guitars on vinyl, been meaning to check out their other records.

I have Blow Your Cool!, Mars Needs Guitars and Stoneage Romeos on vinyl.

[Erik]

STP is just blah to me. They are much better than the Creed/Nickelback bottom-feeders, but they fall short of their early '90s peers (Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, even AIC) in both songwriting and musicianship. Core has some decent songs but also some embarrassing filler (e.g. Wet My Bed). Purple and Tiny Music showed some artistic growth, but not enough to make me care, given all the other exciting new developments that were happening at the time. After that they became a parody.

Though the songs were nowhere near of the same quality, Live had an almost U2-ish vibe about them at their peak. There was a sense of spirituality and connectivity there that really turned some folks on. But that kind of sincerity fell out of favor by the '00s, and they are considered a joke now. Throwing Copper is a decent record, but the overexposure of about half its songs (including the worst one, "Lightning Crashes") did it no favors. Mental Jewelry is three strong singles ("Pain Lies on the Riverside" is arguably their best song) and some very weak filler. Secret Samadhi did nothing for me, and then I stopped paying attention.

Basically, divorced from their "moment," most of Live's songs just don't hold up.

[DMT]

Bob Marley was far and away the most universally loved artist in my world travels. I'm not sure who #2 is but they're an extremely distant 2nd. People love the shit out of ol' Bob pretty much everywhere you go. I smoked weed with an Indian dude in Goa with Bob Marley tattooed on his arm.

I was going to post the same in response to Mith, but then I realized we were exposed to a very specific subset of those populations (people who serve Western travelers). I'd guess MJ would still win a global popularity contest, but hopefully I'm wrong.