Your Pick for Most Overrated Rock Singer of All Time

[KCKUKFan]

How are The Butthole Surfers not all in straight jackets?

HA. Underrated band. The average fan remembers "Pepper" and write them off as a one-hit wonder with a silly name. But that was a wicked band with a varied discography. Lots of crazy-ass tunes.

[George]

Speaking of Scott Litt, anybody here dig R.E.M.

Obviously, they're a revered band, but I also think they're greatly underrated. They cranked out a staggering number of great albums in a row. One of the best bands of their era that kind of gets forgotten in the ether.

You know, I've told myself a dozen times that I should give R.E.M. more attention, but I've yet to do it.

[KCKUKFan]

You know, I've told myself a dozen times that I should give R.E.M. more attention, but I've yet to do it.

I think that's a pretty common opinion. You should. They made some of the best rock albums of their era. Songwriting was great, playing was solid, lyrics were usually always fantastic.

[George]

HA. Underrated band. The average fan remembers "Pepper" and write them off as a one-hit wonder with a silly name. But that was a wicked band with a varied discography. Lots of crazy-ass tunes.

Absolutely. I had their whole discography for a while before that particular laptop crashed (and, like a doofus, I'd failed to back up my library). They could get super weird in a hurry, but then they could turn around and write something like "Jet Fighter" that I'll play from time to time and spend the rest of the week singing non-stop.

Mr. Bungle's another one like that. Didn't have near the catalog, but they were very eclectic and wrote some incredible arrangements wrapped in the purest weirdness.

[KCKUKFan]

The Bay Of Pirates can fix that discography problem in about twenty-five seconds (depending on your internet speed), Downes.

[George]

I think that's a pretty common opinion. You should. They made some of the best rock albums of their era. Songwriting was great, playing was solid, lyrics were usually always fantastic.

I'm off for the summer, so maybe I'll finally do that.

[George]

The Bay Of Pirates can fix that discography problem in about twenty-five seconds (depending on your internet speed), Downes.

Oh, I know. That's how I got it all the first time around. I still use it for the stuff I can't listen to through Apple Music (which, for the student price, is a great deal per month). BTW, which torrent app do you use?

This might sound stupid or dramatic or both, but that crash kinda took something out of me as a music collector. Before that, it was a huge part of my life, and I like to think I'd built a pretty good library. But once I lost it all, I just never could muster up the gumption to rebuild.

[KCKUKFan]

I use Vuze, but I try to avoid regular torrenting as much as possible, for various reasons. Private trackers, seedboxes, etc. are more reliable and safer.

[KCKUKFan]

I've got my music library backed up, but I've stopped digging for older stuff as much as I used to. Just don't have enough hours in the day to listen to all this stuff. And when I do have time, I usually go back to the same 100 albums I've always listened to.

I'm sort've 50/50 on Apple Music and streaming music services in general. They're convenient and their libraries are staggering, but I've always been a strong advocate for personally having a copy (digital or hard) of my media. It's silly, but when I'm listening to an album on Apple Music or Tidal I feel like I'm just "borrowing" it. That might not make sense, but it's just how I feel.

I also like to make my own mash-ups, mixes, and I manipulate audio as a hobby, and obviously you can't do that unless you have a hard copy to work with.

[George]

An aside: I always viewed "In Utero" as a hissy-fit from Cobain and not much more. It's a good record, but it's best moments aren't that much different than "Nevermind" - "Serve The Servants," "Frances Farmer," "All Apologies," "Dumb," "Heart-Shaped Box." It's abrasive, sludgy noise songs were more misses than hits; "Milk It," "Scentless Apprentice," "Very Ape," "Tourettes," "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" were all more loose sketches than fully-formed songs. It's like he wanted to make an all-out "F you" noise record to the posers and fake fans, but either didn't know how (hence hiring Albini) or he just didn't have his heart in it.

Kurt Cobain always had his heart in the melodies -- he was much more sentimental in his musical senses than most people understood. He wanted so badly to make a Pixies record with Beatles melodies. "Nevermind" was the closest he ever got, although that record was flawed.

I think most people (not all) view "In Utero" as better than it really is because it was Cobain's last sound-off before he sprung his mortal coil. To say nothing of the funereal tone of many of the tracks.

"Unplugged From New York" is how Nirvana was supposed to sound. Their best record, and it's not really close.

Just seeing the edits. I agree about the Pixies/Beatles album, and about "Unplugged". Would've been interesting to hear a studio album with Pat Smear as a full-time member.

I've been listening to "Doolittle" a lot lately. Not sure how you feel about The Pixies, but I think that album is phenomenal.

And what's your stance on Sonic Youth? I'll go ahead and say that they've always been hit-or-miss for me. They wrote some interesting stuff, and I always dug their textures, but on the whole I always found the shoegazer movement to be awfully pretentious.

[George]

I use Vuze, but I try to avoid regular torrenting as much as possible, for various reasons. Private trackers, seedboxes, etc. are more reliable and safer.

I need to talk to you about this.

[KCKUKFan]

Don't know if you're an Outkast guy, Downes, but the new Big Boi album, "Boomiverse" came out this morning. Loved his first three solo records, but this seems sort've... safe and underwhelming so far.

[George]

I've got my music library backed up, but I've stopped digging for older stuff as much as I used to. Just don't have enough hours in the day to listen to all this stuff. And when I do have time, I usually go back to the same 100 albums I've always listened to.

I'm sort've 50/50 on Apple Music and streaming music services in general. They're convenient and their libraries are staggering, but I've always been a strong advocate for personally having a copy (digital or hard) of my media. It's silly, but when I'm listening to an album on Apple Music or Tidal I feel like I'm just "borrowing" it. That might not make sense, but it's just how I feel.

I also like to make my own mash-ups, mixes, and I manipulate audio as a hobby, and obviously you can't do that unless you have a hard copy to work with.

Same, but I need to get back into the search, because I've been pretty bored with those albums for a while now. I like having hard copies, too, but it's tougher and tougher for me to justify these days. I also like the idea of vinyl, and its return is something I can get behind in terms of the sound quality and artistic aspects of the physical form of the album, but I just don't have it in me (neither effort or funds) to start all over with yet another library rebuild. I have enough trouble getting around to downloading stuff.

[KCKUKFan]

Just seeing the edits. I agree about the Pixies/Beatles album, and about "Unplugged". Would've been interesting to hear a studio album with Pat Smear as a full-time member.

I've been listening to "Doolittle" a lot lately. Not sure how you feel about The Pixies, but I think that album is phenomenal.

And what's your stance on Sonic Youth? I'll go ahead and say that they've always been hit-or-miss for me. They wrote some interesting stuff, and I always dug their textures, but on the whole I always found the shoegazer movement to be awfully pretentious.

Didn't like Sonic Youth, for many of the same reasons I don't like Steve Albini productions. For whatever songwriting gifts they possessed, their albums were usually unlistenable. Sloppy production, obnoxious and unnecessary sonic detours. They seemed to usually take the "being difficult because we can" route, and that annoys me as a listener if the songs themselves aren't good, and more often than not, Sonic Youth's songs weren't very good.

Shoegaze as a genre was pretty banal and annoying fad. "Loveless" by My Bloody Valentine is the obvious exception, but as a general rule it's a really dated and annoying sub-genre.

[George]

Don't know if you're an Outkast guy, Downes, but the new Big Boi album, "Boomiverse" came out this morning. Loved his first three solo records, but this seems sort've... safe and underwhelming so far.

I heard about that earlier. I liked them when they were together, thought the dual album was just okay, and haven't given them too much thought since. Interesting musicians, though. Talented.