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I'm sure the majority of people comprising this forum have spent many years and thousands of whatever currency you use in your country listening to as much music as possible. This very often involves buying records by bands who you have heard about, but whose music you've never actually heard (or at least heard very very little of). Many times, I've purchased records that I thought were going to be great based on reputation, but were in fact complete crap. This thread is devoted to those bands you were most disappointed with. There may be worse bands out there (you just expected less from them), but I want to know who you were most disappointed with and why. I'll go first. In no particular order:

Minutemen- I'm sure I'm going to be ripped apart for this one, but I just don't get what is so great about these guys. I was expecting one of the greatest bands of all time and what I heard was a weak garage funk band with bad lyrics and 45 second songs.

June of 44- I was expecting a band that was going to sound something like Tar (don't ask me why) and I heard a band that sounded more like Chicago.

Nick Drake- I thought this was going to be some dark folk a la Leonard Cohen, but it was just some acoustic jazzy lounge singer music. I bought all 3 of his albums and I thought only "Pink Moon" was listenable.

Tim Buckley- same expectations as for Nick Drake. This guy's singing voice is terrible, his lyrics were ridiculous and the record just sucked overall. I couldn't sell that one quick enough.

Royal Trux- For some reason, I expected these guys to be a little bit tighter of a noise rock outfit, but all I heard on the first record I bought by them (the second self titled album) was a bunch of trashily recorded 80's style riffs backed with a drum machine. It was anything but tight. I do think "Edge of the Ape Oven" on Twin Infinitives is really great though.

Devendra Banhart- I just thought this was going to be good, but he sounds like some wailing ghost elf. Horrible.

Sunburned Hand of the Man- I bought "Rare Wood." Maybe that was the wrong album to start with. I am at a loss for words as to how bad it was. I thought it was going to be like No Neck or something, but it sounded like hippy stoner metal with growling vocals.


There are many more. I've had to sell at least 300-400 or so cd's and records that I've bought since '97 so there has been many surprisingly bad albums. I don't begrudge anyone else liking these bands, I just don't get it. I don't fault my buying method either, because without buying music unheard, I wouldn't have found so many great records either.

The Faint's Blank Wave Arcade was great, i thought, and then they shat out a pair of turds called Danse Macabre and Wet From Birth. I was disappointed by the first, and just laughed at the second.

The Dismemberment Plan's Change was phenomenally disappointing after they got my hopes up with "The Dismemberment Plan gets Rich," which was their best song ever.

There are things/moments I can appreciate about the following artists, and I don't actively despise them (as I do, say, The Eagles or Jewel or Stevie Ray Vaughan), but really I just don't get it. These are the bands that, to me, have reputations that clearly exceed their merits:

The Who--more pretentious than Patti Smith and in possession of the worst singer ever to front a "major" band. Who's Next is the most overrated turd of all time.

The Pixies--AKA Revenge of the Nerds. Never having been a nerd myself, I am unsympathetic to their plight. And they ripped me off once.

REM--mumble jumble, mangle jangle. Any chance I might have given them was killed off by that "Shiny Happy People" video.

Sonic Youth--passable, at times, when Thurston's singing, unlistenable when Kim is. But pretty boring across the board. The indie Grateful Dead.

Bruce Springsteen--the poor man's Bob Seger. Or Meat Loaf. If John Cougar was from Jersey...

Tom Waits--a novelty act who should sing in blackface.

Nirvana--feels more like samsara to me.

Jeff Buckley--sure he was pretty, but he made one record--one!--that is as histrionic and indulgent as your average American Idol contestant. Let the poor bastard rest in peace.

Joy Division-Can't stand the guys voice (not to disrespect the dead...). I like a lot of bands that people claim rip these guys off, so I bought Closer and...whew, man it sucks. They sound bored.

The Rolling Stones-Couldn't hack it after Brian Jones died...weren't all that great while he was alive.

Husker Du-I actually kind of like the records I have, but they're way overrated.

Those three would top my list.

first side of closer is awesome...

sonic youth def have thier better releases, try stuff around the sister and evol era

DrAwkward wrote:The Faint's Blank Wave Arcade was great, i thought, and then they shat out a pair of turds called Danse Macabre and Wet From Birth. I was disappointed by the first, and just laughed at the second.

The Dismemberment Plan's Change was phenomenally disappointing after they got my hopes up with "The Dismemberment Plan gets Rich," which was their best song ever.

hrmm. I like Danse Macabre, but to my defense I'm not familiar with the album before it.

Only bands I can think off-hand that I never really understood all the hoopla about--and I know I am going to get jumped all over for saying this-- is GBV and SuperChunk. Also, there's been quite a few local bands that friends told me were great but I was very disappointed after going to see a show.

Does anyone else find as a musician you tend to me more critical of local bands than your friends who aren't musicians??

hellyes!! wrote:Does anyone else find as a musician you tend to me more critical of...bands than your friends who aren't musicians??

yes. i do. and they all think i'm an asshole for it.

thought archers of loaf were gonna be good but they were fucking shit

the fall

Radiohead
The Clash
and The Rolling Stones all over-rated in my book.