Barking Spiders

On 19/11/2022 at 21:08, TheGreek said:

IMO EW&F would have more of a following if they didn't have the falsetto vocals. 

It took me some time to get used to Phillip Bailey's falsetto before I eventually did, well at least on the uptempo tunes like Serpentine Fire. I still skip those ballads where he's the principal vocalist. I'm not a fan of ballads in any genre and for me these tend to spoil those albums where they account for around half the number of tracks. Funk-wise EW&F, War and the Ohio Players praps did more slower unfunky tunes than most other funk mobs.

On 17/11/2022 at 17:32, clarkpegasus4001 said:

I love this track.

 

Nice! Takes me back to the Half Moon in Putney where I saw them twice back in the mists of time. Used to have Badness, Life on the Wire and It's About Time on vinyl. Must try and get hold of any CDs

1 hour ago, fretmeister said:

The Black Album isn't a metal album. It sounds like a pop record with guitars.

The degree of metal-tude is down to perception. For the non-metal fan I'd say the black album is 100% metal. To the average fan of Norwegian black metal it probably is pop with slightly louder guitars

And yet........they're still better than Megadeth, Slayer, Avenged Sevenfold, Slipknot, Alter Bridge, Shinedown and any other metal/hard rock band I've heard who were formed this century. At my stepdaughter's last weekend she insisted on playing a Shinedown track to her mum. I had to go to the end of garden to get out of earshot. Short haired Metallica at their worst are preferable to the best Shinedown has to offer.

Bo Derek👇

Axl Rose 👇

6 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

 

Heavy metal isn't really about nice tunes you can hum along to. Heavy metal is supposed to be challenging to listen to, it shouldn't be easy listening background music. 

I've been a metal fan for a very long time and I have never listened to some Crowbar or Suicidal Tendencies and thought "if only this had a more catch tune and maybe a major key to cheer it up a bit". If I ever have those thoughts then I'll trade in my record collection for Michael Buble's greatest hits.

 

Back in the 80s-90s there were quite a lot of metal singles hitting the UK and or Billboard top 20; Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law, Run to the Hills, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Number of the Beast, Ace of Spades , Dr Feelgood, Welcome to the Jungle, Paradise City, Enter Sandman.... And they all had pretty memorable catchy sing-along choruses!

13 hours ago, thodrik said:

However, I do actually like Load and bits of Reload more than most. 

I'm no Metallica fan but TBH I don't get all the noise about them 'selling out' when the black album came out. In fact I'd say they got better, moving way from the tune-free first 5  albums etc to writing actual songs, you know the stuff that people can actually hum/sing along to. Load and Reload both have some good tunes and if they'd been combined on one album, this would by some way have been their best effort.

Been on an Orb trip of late. Here's a particular fave track, a massive stomping slice of dubtronica

I'm paying for my missus to go to Download this year with one of her daughters and son-in-law primarily because they're big Metallica fans. I kind of owe it to her as I took her to Sonisphere 2014 and by the sunday morning i couldn't stand it any more and we left so she never got to see them. On the plus side Chas n' Dave were great. Watching this vid I'm glad not to be going with her. Love has its boundaries ya know!

48 minutes ago, Dan Dare said:

Kind of odd to have an all-time favourite anything. It presupposes that one's tastes are frozen at a certain moment. At the time the Beatles were around, it was a toss-up between them and the Stones for me (I'm that ancient) as to which was my favourite. A few years later and things were very different, as my musical and educational horizons broadened. That's been a continuous process in my life and I hope it remains that way.

Then maybe I'm odd as over many years I definitely have formed some all-time #1 faves e.g. band, album, sitcom, alcoholic beverage, city, country to visit, motorcycle, novel. 

4 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

Maybe it's just me, but I really don't 'get' this stuff about what other folk think of X, Y or Z. We're all different, of differing ages, from different backgrounds, and have listened to, and liked or not, different stuff over the decades. What earthly point is there in this sort of comparing, or looking in the rear-view mirror..? Maybe it's just me. 

yep it's just you 😁 I see nowt wrong in asking. Makes a change from talking about tonewoods, bridges, pickup configurations etc. It's about being interested in others tastes and opinions. Makes the world go round. My question is quite pertinent IMO as it's kind of accepted wisdom that The Beatles are the GOAT. If that's so, among the 30,000+ music fans on BC what % would say the Beatles are their own #1 fave and how does this stack up against accepted wisdom.

I sort of accept what you say about age and background. I'm a child of the 80s and for me Kraftwerk have had a far more informative impact on my music tastes than the Beatles, Stones etc

Just an idle wondering as no one of my acquaintance ever listens to them , or the Stones and the Who for that matter. Obviously they're touted by the music establishment as the greatest pop/rock band ever but is this reflected in what people actually listen to rather than what they might glibly reply when asked 'who's the greatest rock/pop band ever'? They're possibly in the lower reaches of my personal top 500 though I've never actually bought anything by them....👉

In the past I placed several ads on Join My Band looking out for Nile-type guitar players, Zigaboo-type drummers and horn players but never got many looks let alone likes and anyone bothering to message me. Unless you're looking to join/form a metal, Emo, blues-rock or punk band JMB isn't a good place to look. In the end I gave up looking and chose to jack it all in.  I also find that pub landlords don't care for the funk

3 hours ago, solo4652 said:

....or do all guitarists want to play long, indulgent solos no matter what the song genre is? I ask this because I've just jammed/auditioned with three pub covers bands and in each case, the guitarist only really wanted to play Clapton, SRV, Gary Moore. Where have the funk, soul, ska guitarists all gone, please?

I find these and ALL other blues-rock lead players and all those 80s shred merchants boring and uninspiring as f***, always have done. Give me the likes of Nile, Leo Nocentelli and Paul Jackson jr any day. Check out the latter, after Louis Johnson killing it, on this belter of a George Duke track, at 5.00. I play this vid endlessly it's so uplifting.

11 hours ago, Kiwi said:

I have fairly narrow tastes in music which include Abba, Chic, Freemasons, Stonebridge, The Sunburst Band, Incognito, Roykksop, Ulrich Schnauss, Planet Funk ...etc.  These bands don't define my tastes and the later stuff is definitely not notable for bass playing but they generally suit most of my emotional states in some form or another.

Huzzah...another who likes Ulrich Schnauss and has heard of Planet Funk and Sunburst Band. Reminds me to dig out the excellent Non Zero Sumness. I'm a big fan of Dave Lee is all his many guises; Jakatta, Joey Negro, Z Factor, Sunburst Band..

2 minutes ago, MichaelDean said:

You say that, but hardcore KISS fans will buy almost anything branded or endorsed by the band - or at least they used to. I remember watching a TV programme years ago where Gene was marketing a KISS kasket (it is apparently still a thing). You wouldn't make that unless you think you'd be able to sell it! 

As well as being one of the worst bands ever, to me KISS stand for everything that's rank about crass, unfettered consumerism on this planet. Gene Simmons is a colossal t0$$3r. I can objectively see one or two merits in most bands I can't stand but not KISS.

And please no more run of the mill bassists' Signature models just because they're in famous bands. Gene Simmons anyone? Do people really buy Signature basses just because of the bass player in a fave band?? Extraordinary. 

Mayones - stop with those stubby Cali 4 basses. They may be fine for Tyrion Lannister but ugh!

Non Fender manufacturers - stop churning out endless P and J basses. 

Bass and amp manufacturers - I second what another said about black amps, which I'll extend to basses. 

Bass effects manufacturers - please come up with a unit that emulates the Roland TB303.

Bass manufacturers- stop with the sunburst finish. It's a look that belongs in the 60s.

Bass manufacturers  - enough with ERBs please. They're a gimmick that's past their rightful expiry period. And they're mostly fugly.

Warwick - why do you still design basses with body parts that look like marital aids?

12 hours ago, TheGreek said:

Don't we, as musicians,  listen to more diverse stuff? 

 

I'm done with rock as a genre, especially the stuff that's drilled into your head by radio stations which is why I enjoy the "what are you listening to now " thread and many of the videos @bubinga5 posts. 

Opens my ears to new music and quite often my wallet to amazon. 

well, I don't call myself a musician 🙃. I'm most definitely a hobbyist. As I get older and time gets more filled up with other stuff I'm not bothered about looking for new sounds . If I come across some great band by chance that's another thing. I was done with classic rock and metal decades ago. To me, most rock coming out since the end of Grunge is moribund, with 99.999r% of bands I've heard just rehashing the same old riffs, solos, drum sounds and vocal styles of the 70s. To my ears, since the late 80s all the invention is coming out of leftfield electronica and hip hop. 

2 hours ago, Nail Soup said:

I'd have to say the same as you.

My tastes are not mega-obscure... it's stuff that gets regular plays on 6 Music.

But they are typically at venues with capacity of couple of hundred.

But just go on my own in general.

 

Mrs Soup is OK to come to some gigs that fall outside of my core tastes.... e.g .folk festival or a covers band of AC/DC and the like.

 

While I mostly listen to a broad range of 'electronica' ranging from full-on hard house and drum n' bass to ambient and world fusion I have a lot of stuff by German and Scandi producers that not even most Swedish, Norwegian and German speaking people are likely to know so what chance have I in Blighty? Ugress, Robag Wruhme and AES Dana anyone? 😁. Mrs Spiders loves Bluedot festival but she clearly didn't share my huge enjoyment of the likes of Leftfield, Orbital, Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada, 808 State and The Orb when they've been there in recent years. We'll go together to some stuff like ahem ... Coldplay..... On the other hand, for my part I had to suffer Download twice and Sonisphere 2014 and couldn't really share her delight at seeing Metallica and System of a Down.

Do you ever feel kind of isolated if no one you know shares your taste in music?  In my case not only don't I know anyone in the real world who does - and that's out of a good 100+ people I know currently - seems there aren't many on BC who do either.  My previous missus was about as close as it got.  Such is the case I did use to go to gigs on my Jack Jones but without being able to share the experiences they weren't as enjoyable as if I'd gone with someone. Guess I could try and get into Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, U2 or Metallica and see who turns up? I'm guessing most here - who are in bands anyway - don't feel the same?

two of my fave American bands joining together on this slamming track

280

On 14/11/2022 at 09:45, tegs07 said:

The problem with this stuff is it’s all subjective. My daughter is going to see Pixies live. I wouldn’t bother seeing them live anymore as I saw them several times during the Surfer Rosa and Doolittle years and for me that is what they look and sound like.

 Another generation just get to enjoy the current line up warts n all and don’t have the same expectations.

Pixies are possibly my fave rock band, based on their first four albums and I too saw them live back in their Kim Deal days. I don't want to tarnish the memory by seeing them as they are now. I was actually quite disappointed when they reformed and started releasing albums again. 

1 hour ago, Ralf1e said:

My gast is seriously flabbered. I hope I never get spiked with whatever he may have been on.

Now I know why I don't want to learn slap bass

 Don't let that fkin woeful 'solo' be a reason to hate slap bass. I can't remember ever seeing such a s****y attempt. The 'slap' part is everything it shouldn't be, a wild, random, uncontrolled right hand and poor fretting with the left. His finger technique isn't any better either