Rock dies and comes back all the time. Each generation shocks it back to new life. It will echo their frustration and pain; it will celebrate with them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah…that’s what I’d like to think but:
Nickelback was the greatest rock band in the worst era of rock music (the dreaded 0’s). They produced hit after hit and set the standard for commercial success while the music industry got derailed by the monster of file sharing. Like a sophisticated factory fishing vessel wiping out the last of the great whales, Nickelback harpooned and sliced their way to the top with mechanical precision. They took everything and reached a saturation point that made them the pinnacle of rock music.
Is that bad?
Every form of entertainment needs a good villain.
While the general average public was busy supporting their favorite band by buying tickets and CD’s and downloads-we serious types were doing way too much of thinking what good taste we had and not supporting quality music with our hard earned dollars. We can learn a lot from Nickelback fans.
It is simple and it works.
This band was formed for the sole purpose of making hits and making money. You have to respect them for getting away with it.
“Nickelback is prefabricated emotionless garbage, I need my music to live on the edge” -O.K fine, but isn’t it good to have a band that shows young people that even with limited talent and zero originality- you can still make a good living as a RockStar?
Someone needs to set the standard in order for all the haters to respond with stuff of their own.
And are they really that bad or are we just piling on? Admit it Rock Fans- if 5FDP does a version of “Follow you Home”…all the kids would love it.
Or if M83 all of a sudden were the biggest selling group in the world-All “serious music fans” would dismiss them as just “a bunch of over-important artsy monk-chanting mixed with atmospheric disco”.
So thank you Nickelback for helping me see that music for the masses has a place in this world.
Silversun Pickups with this song are psychotic-hypnotic-hipsterdisco-rock. Radiohead with a little sway; The Talking Heads from L.A instead of N.Y. This proves that Dave Letterman is still ice cool.
When I started doing this and all these great music bloggers were putting out a best of 2012 list-I had not listened to enough new music to join them- I am getting there and would throw this one on that list. (Yeah, a little late to the party but where are the plastic cups and I am good with whatever is in the keg, even if it is a little flat and warm by now, it still tastes great!)
The bloggers below all approach music with a passion that makes each a good visit. So I am spreading the joy of the ABC award to all of them. The requirements are to state something about yourself with each letter of the alphabet and nominate a few other bloggers. It can be as simple as one word or as complicated as you see fit. This is my crack at it. https://caveoffame.wordpress.com/2013/03/29/abcs-of-music-challenge/
I am hoping that the response is good because I can’t wait to read what these rabid music fans will have to write. And after going through this somewhat difficult but rewarding process myself-I completely understand if some choose to pass on this one.
And I know I probably left some deserving bloggers off this list but that is the dilemma in doing these things. So fear not and keep blogging and I may get you with one if the blogging gods keep sending them my way!
ABC’ s of Music I love to know what bands people like and don’t like. It is impossible to hide your personality if you are honest about it. So for the ABC’s I will give you one of each for each letter to help fill in my musical personality. First listed is the good one, I have to clarify because I could see someone having a complete opposite view.
A. Aerosmith the rock band /Aerosmith the pop band: One day these guys were “Back in the Saddle and Toys in the Attic” and all of a sudden they were “Love in an Elevator” and “Angel”. Hey! We all got to make a living and I know drug addiction is bad but damn you guys rocked when you were wasted! (sorry kids, drugs are evil but sometimes great art comes out of conflict and it may be a just a coincidence that they cleaned up and produced crappy music-the good thing is that they remained alive so they could still rock out to the good stuff in concert!)
B. Beatles/ Beach Boys: The Beatles are true icons and even if you don’t like them-you cannot argue about the influence on every single thing that followed them. The Beach Boys and endless youth and endless summer. Youth does not last forever and summer turns to winter, we all reach a point when a good day on the beach is finding a few coins and ring with the metal detector. C. Clash/Chicago: Saturday in the park I think I don’t care what day and the righteous preaching of my favorite band.
D. Death Cab for Cutie/Dead or Alive: Death Cab for Cutie is a great band name and my favorite hipster group. D’s are tough because it’s hard to find a bad band with this letter…so I picked this one because the dudes botched plastic surgery photos have given me at least 5 nightmares.
E. Everclear/ Eddie Money: Everclear makes it just because I love “Santa Monica” so much and Eddie Money makes it just because he looks so bad in that Geico commercial.
F. Foo Fighters/Foghat: Foghat may be the worst band name ever and yeah.. Fool for the City and Slowride…got it… anything else?…no didn’t think so. Foo fighters keep the fire burning.
G. Goo Goo Dolls/Genesis: The best thing to come out of Buffalo since hot wings against an over-artsy band with Peter Gabriel or an over-cheesy band with Phil Collins.
H. Heart/Huey Lewis and the News: Ann and Nancy Wilson know how to rock and Huey does not. I know this isn’t news to anyone.
I. Iggy pop/Iron Maiden: Iggy is all substance and no hype (or shirt!) IM is a name and artwork with little substance.
J. Jam/Jefferson Starship: “Pneumatic drill and ripped-up concrete, a baby wailing, stray dog howling” That is entertainment!…”We built this City on Rock and Roll” still causes countless migraines among serious music fans and has been ruled the source of at least one minor earthquake in the North Pacific.
K. Kinks/Knack: Ray Davies is a genius and “My Sharona” is “OO my little pretty one, my pretty one.”
L. Lumineers/Lifehouse: My new favorite band in the Lumineers and a band that I really tried to like but they would not take.
M.Mumford and Sons/Marilyn Manson: Mumford and Sons grow on you and like Johnny Depp says “they are sublime”. Marilyn Manson has two M’s.
N. New Order/Nazareth: New Order always the serious commentator that was telling the truth in the confused dance crazed 80’s…Nazareth is on my bad side because “girl you’re messing with a son of a bitch” has been stuck in my head for about 30 years…I can hear it now (I guess that is the upside of being music insane instead of regular insane-songs instead of voices play in your head!) O. Oasis/One Direction: Wonderwall is reason enough for one. Boy Band is reason enough for the other.
P. Pretenders /Paul McCartney: I know that I am talking about Sir Paul and rock royalty but if you can imagine Wings and the solo stuff without all the work he did with his first band…I could see him being billed with Eddie Money and Al Stewart for a “three crooning whiners of rock tour” coming to a hockey rink near you. The Pretenders were not pretending to be friggin’ awesome with Chrissie Hynde, who deserves to be knighted as first lady of Ohio.
Q. Queen/ Quiet Riot: Queen is growing in statue ever since Freddie Mercury passed on to become a legend but even when he was around this band had the respect of all different kinds of music fans. Not easy to accomplish. Quiet Riot ripped off Slade to become a quick success. Even if Slade made some serious money off this deal, they stay on this list because there are not many “Q” bands.
T. T.rex/Triumph: Did Marc Bolan invent glam rock? I don’t know but I love this band. I am sure there is a power pop trio from this great northern land that I like but it’s not these guys and it’s not Rush.
U.U2 /Uriah Heep: U2 is classy. Great live band and stewards of peace and freedom. And it is getting tough to find new reasons why I don’t like bands with silly names.
V.Vampire Weekend/ Van Halen with Sammy Hagar: V’s are tough so I know the SH thing is a bit of a stretch but man that hurt when Dave was flung out of the band. Vampire Weekend are intelligent and quirky- two things that seem to go together.
W. Weezer /White snake: Weezer is like a joke so good that it keeps going and going and somehow transforms into true quality somewhere along the way. WhiteSnake is a chick on a car in a video and probably other stuff but I can’t even remember the song…just the chick on a car.
X. X/Xtc: O.K if you made it this far, I can admit that I like both these bands. I could not find a band starting with X that I did not like.
Y.Yaz- Yazoo/ Yes: Yaz is a guilty pleasure from the early eighties and I always think it is cool when a band has to change its name to play in a different country. Yes is no pleasure at all, just another over self- important vintage art band.
Z. Frank Zappa/ Dweezil Zappa: I love Frank and I love all those that are also fans of the comic cynic and original character. I have trouble with sons carrying on the legacy of famous parents and this is a “me” problem, not a Dweezil problem, who is by his own right a very talented and respected musician. I hit the same wall with the Bob Marley children. Both these stars were so bright and influential -it is too much for us as fans to ask the kids to carry that weight.
My new favorite song from The Lumineers…I swear I can feel that cold wind from the North Sea when I hear this and that somehow makes it comforting. I know- both this band and me are a long way from that body of water so this makes no sense. This new folk is good for the soul in troubled times. It takes me back to places locked up and forgotten. Yeah…music has that power.
Five Finger Death Punch is everything you want in a metal band. They are honest, self-righteous and melodic- as a bonus you can understand the words. They are less interested in changing the world and more about how things are as they see it. You may not like them but at least you know where they stand…it’s refreshing in a hammer to wall kind of way.
Listening to “Snow” on the iPod got my brain working .The Red Hot Chili Peppers have been around a long time. The catalog of albums show growth as artists and human beings. This is the exception rather than the rule.
Case in point and coming to a hockey rink or basketball arena near you is the “Midwest Rock N’ Roll Express” featuring R.E.O Speedwagon, STYX and Ted Nugent. I don’t know the exact line-up of each band, but I would guess you are going to get Kevin Cronin from R.E.O, Tommy Shaw from STYX and Terrible Ted himself at a minimum. As rock fans we sometimes don’t want the artists to mature and evolve. We want to hear Cat Scratch Fever and Come Sail Away over and over again. “Roll with the Changes” is a great song and I want to hear it in the cave but I’m not sure I want to hear it without Gary Richrath playing it. The original versions of these bands used to fill stadiums and now it takes all three of them to ¾ fill a hockey rink. This is stardom being sent down to the minors to live off the glory days. This is Spinal Tap in real life. The ugly side of nostalgia; there will not be many young people at these shows. You never want to see your heroes eating day old egg salad sandwiches at the bowling alley late at night when once they were gods. But there you go….get your tickets now or wait ‘till next year when you can catch them opening up for a puppet show at the county fair.
Disclaimer:
I am quite aware of the irony of me, a nobody, taking shots at these guys when I am not qualified to scare wildebeests out of the bush so Ted can take a shot with his machine gun and opening for a puppet show at the fair would qualify as my best day of the year!
Coming off a birthday weekend- here is another relic from the cave. I saw this band many moons ago in their natural habitat of a bar. Cracker is kind of “angst in a plaid shirt” for guys that still like stuff like beer and football….And by football; I mean football on both sides of the Atlantic because it is the same type dude that likes whatever version is played in their country. Football hooligans in Europe are close to football nuts that paint themselves in team colors in the U.S.A. (Maybe not exact replicas but definitely falling out of the same fanatical tree). And the guy that yells at the T.V and grumbles about personal moves like he could run the team better is exactly the same in any country. I think in Canada this guy is probably a hockey fan? So here’s to Football, the N.F.L, Cracker and me for my birthday.
Cave of Fame 