While everyone twittered about seeing Kings of Leon last night, I was home. I am a huge fan of KoL too. Or should I say… was. Now, every douche bag who considers themselves an “indie rock fan” stole my moment of listening to one of my favorite bands live. Yes, Kings of Leon got too big for their britches — and too big for me to maintain interest. I’m not a fan of radio-friendly music – especially when radio KILLS potentially good music with overplay and over-rotation. I honestly do not remember the last time I tuned into a local station. If anything, I have on crazy programming on from those College Radio Kids.
I cannot love a band anymore when every one is listening to them. Yup, that pretty much labels me a music snob of sorts. If that’s not enough, I was sucker-punched with the news of KofL being added to the MTV 2009 Movie Awards lineup. Great. Now the “MTV Fan” (who never hear/see any good music courtesy of the network anyway) will be in concert attendance. Color me annoyed.
Kings were singing to me perversely about not being able to get it up for sex on account of alcohol, and four short years later, everyone (and probably your mother) stole “Use Somebody” for his or her own MySpace page song. And “Use Somebody” is nowhere NEAR a sell-out song either, which is why their mainstream invasion hurts me even more.
In all seriousness though, did Kings of Leon sing “Soft” in the Cleveland show?
You probably had no idea, hearing the song for the first time last night, eh?
No Doubt
Oh what a downward-spiraled Spiderweb you weave, No Doubt! From screaming “Total Hate” with big band-esque ska shows to… advertising on behalf of adding extra Potassium to your diet? Or Spelling Bees? Haven’t quite figured that one out yet.
Thankfully, I saw No Doubt before they started releasing crap-in-the-form-of-music (“Return of Saturn”…puke). Now to be fair, it was mostly Gwen and no faults of Tony & the boys. But here’s hoping that everyone will begin to hate them with the release of the new album (touring this summer – yippee! Not), and I can go back and “End on This.”
Goo Goo Dolls
Does anyone remember crowd surfing at a Goo Goo Dolls concert? NO? That’s because you didn’t start listening until they were creating songs for Nicholas Cage movies. One of the saddest sell-outs in music of my time. And yes, “Goo Goo Dolls” and “rock” will never be heard in the same sentence ever again. Ever.
So, where are they now? Released a Greatest Hits album. Check. Wrote another song for yet another crap-tastic movie. Check. “Currently recording.” Check. Blah. Blah. Blah. Check.
Matchbox 20
Ooh, look at me, I’m talented and suddenly get super-duper radio play. And now I sell out arenas! Puke.
Matchbox 20 was so much better playing in the old shitty Grog Shop. And I know you missed it. Well, maybe not Mr. ATV-himself.
And to this day, it pisses me off so much I cannot even write anything more about it.
No worries, I’ll be recovering in the wildernesses of PA for the weekend. Be thankful I did not subject you to “Songs That Remind Mel of ‘Deliverance.’” Yup. I hear the banjos too…
I don’t begrudge the Goos too much. They worked their asses off far too long for nothing but critical acclaim while on a crappy label. They deserved what they got, even if they needed to sell their soul to do it.
It’s like Todd Barry’s line about Fugazi.
“You ever think the drummer wants to say, ‘Here’s an idea, guys. Let’s charge $6 for a concert. This way, when I’m 40, I don’t still have a roommate.'”
MB20 with Cool For August and The Cunninghams – one of the most brilliantly awesome triple bills ever. Back when you used to go to shows, and get your ass turned on to a couple of other bands in addition to the band that you came to see….CFA and The Cunninghams were in that category, although I doubt that anyone besides you and I remembers “Bottle Rockets” by The Cunninghams.
They should however remember “Don’t Wanna Be Here” by CFA – that tune was cool.
Goos – “Jed” and “Superstar Car Wash.” ‘Nuff said. Or was SCW perhaps the beginning of the end? Dunno, but it had a cool album cover.
I still love “Tragic Kingdom” by No Doubt – one of the great albums of the 90s, although I couldn’t listen to it for quite a while after all of the radio play of “the hits.” I like Gwen Stefani, and I never count her out – can I point to their awesome cover of “It’s My Life” ? Or am I just blinded by my 80’s loving heart into thinking it’s good and better than the Talk Talk original?
I still think ND have something good left in the tank – we shall see….
The overplaying of artists/songs on the radio always ruins it for me. So does seeing musicians become part of all the tabloid drama (John Mayer comes to mind there). I lose interest quite fast.
Perhaps you are a bit insecure and care too much what others think about you. “What will they think if they hear me listening to the Goo Goo Dolls, they’ll not realize that I’m smarter than them.”
Here’s some advice – like it for how it sounds, not for who else likes it.
After reading this post I thought to myself…”all of these bands sucked from the start”. So whether they are sellouts or not it doesn’t matter to me, because they always sucked. All of this made me wonder if I just might be a bigger “music snob” than you! 🙂
Craig, I think there might be a few “music snobs” hanging out here. Always interesting to read the different opinions generated by posts on this site!
Cheers!
I know…just tryin to stir things up I guess. We all know the old saying about opinions. Especially when it comes to music, and even more so when music is discussed on the internet.
As far as myself being music snob, I don’t know. I never really thought about it until now. When I stop and think about it, I don’t think there really is such a thing. It’s all about personal tastes, so I ‘m just making sure everyone understands that my comment was very tongue-n-cheek. 🙂 I tend to do that a lot!
BTW: I saw Goo Goo Dolls at a buzzard fest many moons ago…I liked Jewels yodeling better! LOL
-Craig
I was at that Buzzard Fest, I think. It was definitely in the midst of my big Jewel kick. For what it’s worth, I’ve always enjoyed the Goo Goo Dolls, even the wimpy stuff – They finally lost me a couple of albums back when I completely tuned out.
I think I was officially done when I saw them with Matchbox 20 at Blossom, a bill that also featured Sugar Ray. Sugar Ray and GGD were almost unwatchable on that evening. I was completely bored.
Matt, I apologize on account that I didn’t get into Kings of Leon till a friend of mine play “Sex on Fire”. That said, I’ve also gone back and collected their entire catalog, and am sufficiently hooked.
I agree with you on the Goo Goo Dolls. Totally squandered whatever rock credibility they had between “Iris” and the schmaltzy “let Love In” record.
I saw KOL at The Beachland a few years back and was hooked. But that’s the only show I need to see. I don’t usually see bands over and over. I’m glad to see bands “make it.” I really don’t consider KOL in the same vein as MB20 or the others mentioned.
Never cared for MB20, No Doubt or Goo Goo Dolls. I do however own a MB20 concert shirt courtesy of a High School friend who is their roadie. He made me take it.
If any of this makes me a snob. So be it. I’m fine with that.
Sadly this happens all the time to bands. I remember when Chris Cornell was cool…
i guess i’m a bit of an anomoly. when i “discover” a band before others, I get kind of possessive of them when they go mainstream. i think of okgo, when i saw them open for the kaiser chiefs at the stone pony years ago and then a few years later they were on their treadmills on the mtv awards. at first i selfishly and childishly thought, “no, you’re mine! you don’t belong to the screaming tweens!” but then i thought, “good for them. they are living their dream and that’s what matters.”
sometimes i am good at finding great music before it hits the masses and other times i don’t know about them until they “blow up.” either way, i’m just glad to pump great music into my ears.
All that said…. go see The Spring Standards at Wilbert’s this Wednesday. I saw them open for Glen Tilbrook. They’re a girl and 2 guys and they put on a very high energy show. Also if the Mooney Suzuki ever come back they rock all over the joint.
I warned ya.
that’s so sad. Kings of Leon’s new record definitely wasn’t TRYING to get everyone to like it, it just happened and I’m still confused why. Youth and Young Manhood is such a fantastic album.
I still love them.
Have you ever heard/saw the Goo Goo Dolls live? If you listen to their top40 songs you might call them sell-outs, but their liveshows are better then most rockartist today. If you think rock and goo goo dolls shouldn’t be in the same sentence.. just wait till the new album comes out, it’s going to be much more rock then they have been in a long time.
Ronnie,
I would look forward to that. I have a lot of Goo Goo Dolls on my Ipod!
Remeber when Wal-Mart and Target started selling flannel shirts with torn off sleeves during the grunge era? That is when the mudslide started and all bands that were teetering on the edge of integrity fell back into pit where the masses were waiting for them with clenched fists and gnarled fangs. And then Gwen Stafani got a handful of Asian girls to sell her wares and everyone else is scrambling for relevancy….and B.B. King still draws a packed house.
there are two kinds of music, good music and bad music. i don’t care if my grandma knows every word to “use somebody” or “just a girl” – they are both good catchy songs.
i say good for them for making their music reach as many people as possible.
i guess i just don’t listen to music for the sake of it being “indie”.
but having started listening to ND about 14 years (!) but KoL only 4 years ago i’d like to consider myself being ahead of the curve on both those acts.
as for the other bands, yeah – i never got into them.
The KOL show was really good. But the whole time I was thinking why didn’t I go see them when they played HOB in Cleveland. It would of been even better.
I enjoyed the concert but I was slightly annoyed by screaming 17 year old girls who only knew the words to Sex on Fire.