Jeremy wrote:ok. you've been turned into swamp thing. you have to fuck a cow or a llama. if you fuck the cow, everclear will put out a new album. if you fuck the llama, rapeman will put out a new album.
so which is it? rapeman or everclear?

Is it wrong that my choice personally depends on whether i would rather fuck a cow or a llama, and that i find the end result incidental?

Go banana!

there is much talk on here about nirvana being a "gateway" to good music, and some people here appreciate nirvana for that, others think the "gateway" is a matter of circumstance and shouldnt reflect artistic integrity on the part of the gateway artist.

ok, all these arguments against the "gateway" idea are valid and while i appreciate the music that nirvana introduced me to, i like nirvana first and foremost for their own music which imho stands on its own very well. perhaps you disagree but to each his own.

now, returning to this "gateway" idea, its worth noting that although you shouldnt automatically champion these gateways for their heuristic value alone, there seem to be many people on these forums who pride themselves in being able to find fault in the "gateways" of their youth. how many times on these forums have you heard a post along the lines of "well, i used to love band X when i was younger, but now im a seasoned connoisseur of avant-garde post-punk, so i can now see through the whole facade of band X. gee, i sure have become wise over the years, thank god i am no longer the naive poseur who listened to band X." (band X, in almost all such cases, is either nirvana or soundgarden). buddy, your tastes reflect the artistic gimmicks that you fall for; your tastes DO NOT reflect some supposed "truth" that enables you to see beyond other artistic gimmicks.

ABBA is way better than Soundgarden.

kerble wrote:ABBA is way better than Soundgarden.

in your view that may very well be the case. in my own, i much prefer soundgarden to any disco. to each his own.

lets have a little pluralism here, guys. dont idealize the "democracy" of the "crap/not crap" forums.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:I don't know how many other people here relied on Nirvana as a sort of "gateway" band, but I certainly did; without them I wouldn't have gotten into the Jesus Lizard, Melvins (the as always obvious connection) or even Fugazi.

I've heard versions of this argument a hundred times on this board, and it's time to dispense with this weak logic once and for all. Just because something constitutes the "gateway" to a bunch of good things, that doesn't necessarily make it a good thing in and of itself. The first "new wave" music I got into was The Cars; does it make them good simply because they indirectly led me to Die Kreuzen and Bad Brains? Hell, no. And while I've had many beautiful and satisfying sexual experiences, my "gateway" was boning some fat redneck chick in the woods down by the Ohio River. Should I go back and revise that experience now based on the mind-numbing sex that came after? Probably not--I was at the brink even as I slipped the condom on.

Look, I'm glad you got turned on to cool music, but there's no need, really, to romanticize the path you took in getting there. Just be glad you got there one way or another.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Fugazi.

My response was based off of the whole time-travel scenario: If I destroy one band, I don't experience the other. That was all. I wasn't testifying to either band's qualities. Maybe in the name of geek fun I took the time- travel/destruction thing as a literal part of the question.
In terms of who is the better band, well, I reckon it's probably been around a year since I last put on either one's record, so I can't really judge. [EDIT: Well, yes, I could judge and I'd more than likely say Nirvana, but I think the real answer to any and all questions should be Motorhead, and that's just because I've bee going through a pretty big Motorhead phase lately.]
Yep, I was really just being a big nerd answering a time-travel question.
Sorry for any confusion.

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:My response was based off of the whole time-travel scenario: If I destroy one band, I don't experience the other.

Oh! But what if another gateway band would have taken Nirvana's place? For example, my gateway band was Faith No More, but i think had they never existed, i still would have discovered Fugazi via Nirvana or Pearl Jam or someone else.

DrAwkward wrote:But what if another gateway band would have taken Nirvana's place?

Good point.

kerble wrote:ABBA is way better than Soundgarden.

i listened to a bit of Badmotofinger the other day, and, WOW, the music really was pretty lousy. didn't appeal to me at all. but there are some good Soundgarden songs here and there (most notably "Head Down" and "Fourth of July").

ABBA though... i can't get into ABBA at all. i would probably have to be on a lot of drugs to listen to ABBA.

bad drugs.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

Shotgun-Charlie wrote:I don't know how many other people here relied on Nirvana as a sort of "gateway" band, but I certainly did; without them I wouldn't have gotten into the Jesus Lizard, Melvins (the as always obvious connection) or even Fugazi.

I've heard versions of this argument a hundred times on this board, and it's time to dispense with this weak logic once and for all. Just because something constitutes the "gateway" to a bunch of good things, that doesn't necessarily make it a good thing in and of itself. The first "new wave" music I got into was The Cars; does it make them good simply because they indirectly led me to Die Kreuzen and Bad Brains? Hell, no. And while I've had many beautiful and satisfying sexual experiences, my "gateway" was boning some fat redneck chick in the woods down by the Ohio River. Should I go back and revise that experience now based on the mind-numbing sex that came after? Probably not--I was at the brink even as I slipped the condom on.

Look, I'm glad you got turned on to cool music, but there's no need, really, to romanticize the path you took in getting there. Just be glad you got there one way or another.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Fugazi.

Post of the year.