IIRC, the lazer was the best radio station (out of lawrence) during high school for those of that "knew" what good music was. then, maybe my senior year or so they switched to more contemporary/poppy hits and really annoyed people.
I find the death of the CD troubling in the sense that it's part of our seemingly permanent move to a world where we don't actually own our entertainment items.
Is oxidation of CDs really a thing? Not long ago I put a 20-year-old CD in a player and it worked fine.
not sure if this could be made into a different topic but i was just curious about GRB's thoughts on where a band peaked and with what album they peaked.
i was listening to the new Bloc Party and i couldnt get over how much it sucked after the first song. So i was poking around avclub and the general consensus is that they peaked after their first album, Silent Alarm, which i dont disagree with because that album owns all the way thru, BUT they do have good stuff sprinkled throughout their entire catalog.
anyway, immediately off the top of my head, a band that comes to mind is The Lumineers. They peaked with their first and only album The Lumineers.
I know ill prolly get roasted for saying this but that album is a masterpiece imo. It dropped right before "Americana" (hate that term) became mainstream and since then that whole genre has exploded. It's great all the way through and has some all-time classics.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) during their hiatus, the genre has pretty much run its course.
they dropped a new single today and while i liked it, i just cant see their new album or another future album topping their first album.
with all that said, since GRB has a wide range of ages and musical tastes, im curious to know where a band peaked.
go birds wrote:not sure if this could be made into a different topic but i was just curious about GRB's thoughts on where a band peaked and with what album they peaked.
i was listening to the new Bloc Party and i couldnt get over how much it sucked after the first song. So i was poking around avclub and the general consensus is that they peaked after their first album, Silent Alarm, which i dont disagree with because that album owns all the way thru, BUT they do have good stuff sprinkled throughout their entire catalog.
anyway, immediately off the top of my head, a band that comes to mind is The Lumineers. They peaked with their first and only album The Lumineers.
I know ill prolly get roasted for saying this but that album is a masterpiece imo. It dropped right before "Americana" (hate that term) became mainstream and since then that whole genre has exploded. It's great all the way through and has some all-time classics.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) during their hiatus, the genre has pretty much run its course.
they dropped a new single today and while i liked it, i just cant see their new album or another future album topping their first album.
with all that said, since GRB has a wide range of ages and musical tastes, im curious to know where a band peaked.
Why do you hate the term "Americana." I think it pretty much perfectly sums up what the genre is, an amalgamation of bits and pieces of many of the genres that developed in America (jazz, blues, country, rock, and folk, which last is obviously not just American.)
A while back, I found myself randomly remembering the briefly popular 1990s pop band Belly. "Feed the Tree" and whatnot. This was entirely random, but six months ago I found myself popping the CD of "King" that I've been toting around for 20 years into my computer and then ripping it to iTunes.
go birds wrote:not sure if this could be made into a different topic but i was just curious about GRB's thoughts on where a band peaked and with what album they peaked.
i was listening to the new Bloc Party and i couldnt get over how much it sucked after the first song. So i was poking around avclub and the general consensus is that they peaked after their first album, Silent Alarm, which i dont disagree with because that album owns all the way thru, BUT they do have good stuff sprinkled throughout their entire catalog.
anyway, immediately off the top of my head, a band that comes to mind is The Lumineers. They peaked with their first and only album The Lumineers.
I know ill prolly get roasted for saying this but that album is a masterpiece imo. It dropped right before "Americana" (hate that term) became mainstream and since then that whole genre has exploded. It's great all the way through and has some all-time classics.
Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) during their hiatus, the genre has pretty much run its course.
they dropped a new single today and while i liked it, i just cant see their new album or another future album topping their first album.
with all that said, since GRB has a wide range of ages and musical tastes, im curious to know where a band peaked.
Bloc Party's first album was great. I bought the followup and haven't played it since then - totally forgettable. I'm getting a lot of facebook ads for a new Bloc Party album. No way I'm spending money to find out.
Lots of bands have a great first album and then go on to meh. It may even be the most common outcome. Think of it this way: You have your whole lifetime up to that point to come up with the musical ideas and lyrics for that first album. But then only a year or two to come up with something new for each subsequent one -- and now you've perhaps used up the best ideas you had in the first place. Another reason to admire bands like REM, Radiohead, U2, etc who constantly delivered new and inventive music.
