Who were the most underachieving band of the 1990s?

[nick1181]

the mystics. that's who it was.

Never heard of em.

When I was there the music scene consisted largely of:
The Anyways
Shake Appeal (who became Swervedriver)
Ride
The Wild Poppies
Arcane Dawn
The Biros
Satan Knew my Father

In the next three or four years
Radiohead
Supergrass
5.30

also turned up, but by that point everyone in the first list had more or less fucked off to London. Ride kindof destroyed the Oxford scene - there were all these bands driving around in transit vans, doing little gigs and putting out their own records etc... then Ride turned up and were going on tour with two big double decker buses. It kindof fucked the vibe.

 

[g force]

Ah Swervedriver...coulda been huge...

 

[Dubversion]

Never heard of em.

When I was there the music scene consisted largely of:
The Anyways
Shake Appeal (who became Swervedriver)
Ride
The Wild Poppies
Arcane Dawn
The Biros
Satan Knew my Father

In the next three or four years
Radiohead
Supergrass
5.30

also turned up, but by that point everyone in the first list had more or less fucked off to London. Ride kindof destroyed the Oxford scene - there were all these bands driving around in transit vans, doing little gigs and putting out their own records etc... then Ride turned up and were going on tour with two big double decker buses. It kindof fucked the vibe.

and to be honest, we were all down the Co-Op Hall watching Blyth Power, Chumbawamba and the like anyway.

 

[scarecrow]

The Stone Roses

By twenty furlongs.

 

[nick1181]

and to be honest, we were all down the Co-Op Hall watching Blyth Power, Chumbawamba and the like anyway.

And the Cardiacs. And RDF. There were all these gigs there that appeared to be packed out, but if you looked closely, about 20% of the audience were in fact dogs on pieces of string.

I saw Giant Sand there though - fucking good gig.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

Primal Scream - they peaked with Screamadelica, then fell back on being Rolling Stones copyists

Only for one album... The one after that Rolling Stones one was quite good, and XTMRNTR was very good.

 

[nick1181]

Generation of Peace were pretty good. Very good actually - london-based, kindof big-band dubby dancy thing. I saw them do a gig that had a power-cut 1/2 way through - they managed to keep the crowd dancing using only accoustic stuff. Really charismatic front man.

 

[Dubversion]

And the Cardiacs. And RDF. There were all these gigs there that appeared to be packed out, but if you looked closely, about 20% of the audience were in fact dogs on pieces of string.

I saw Giant Sand there though - fucking good gig.

So did I .

now did i get a promotional yoyo or frisbee, it was one or the other

 

[Cloo]

Maybe Veruca Salt – ‘Oh, they sound like the Breeders’. Because they were American women with guitars … who sounded nothing like the Breeders. Much more melody, harmony etc, much less lo-fi.

‘American Thighs’ was a storming album, but never got the recognition it deserved. Subsequent albums were also pretty good, with some fantastic moments, but they never topped that first one.

Also Earthling – an album (‘Radar’) that everyone I loaned it to has loved on account of it’s general fantasticness. But it came out at a time when everyone was going ‘Yawn, trip-hop, yawn’ etc because it was stoner rap, so didn’t make much of an impact. Shame, as the album’s a real beauty – I mean, no album can beat the opening lines ‘I’m rock, I’m roll, I’m Nat King Cole/ I’m Shostakovich, jammin’ in a fishbowl’ and hiphop reffing Planet of the Apes, the Pixies, Peter Sellars and Iceberg Slim. The win as most underachieving, I guess, as AFAIK they never managed another album.

Right, I know what I’m listening to when I get home!

 

[sam/phallocrat]

Cecil

 

[bluestreak]

Jacob's Mouse. They were so great, why did they not reach greater success?

because only you, me, and my mate mark ever bought their records?

 

[Dubversion]

Maybe Veruca Salt – ‘Oh, they sound like the Breeders’. Because they were American women with guitars … who sounded nothing like the Breeders. Much more melody, harmony etc, much less lo-fi.

‘American Thighs’ was a storming album, but never got the recognition it deserved. Subsequent albums were also pretty good, with some fantastic moments, but they never topped that first one.

Also Earthling – an album (‘Radar’) that everyone I loaned it to has loved on account of it’s general fantasticness. But it came out at a time when everyone was going ‘Yawn, trip-hop, yawn’ etc because it was stoner rap, so didn’t make much of an impact. Shame, as the album’s a real beauty – I mean, no album can beat the opening lines ‘I’m rock, I’m roll, I’m Nat King Cole/ I’m Shostakovich, jammin’ in a fishbowl’ and hiphop reffing Planet of the Apes, the Pixies, Peter Sellars and Iceberg Slim. The win as most underachieving, I guess, as AFAIK they never managed another album.

Right, I know what I’m listening to when I get home!

see, i thought both of those acts were HORRIBLE

 

[bluestreak]

Cecil

now that's a band that should have been huge. they started out as rubbish shouty punks and melted into melodic rockers that actually were good.

hostage in a frock, and red wine at dead time are superb singles. the album was excellent. could never understand why they weren't massive.

re: UNDERACHIEVERS, some of you have fucking awful notion of underachieving. promise me those of you that think selling thousands of records, achieveing critical and commercial success, and carrying on for a decade or more in a notoriously fickly industry won't have kids.

"look son, you're a total failure, i can't believe you only managed to sell out a thirty night tour, you're disowned you useless cunt"


oooh, i just noticed i spelt fickle with a y. how cute.

 

[Dubversion]

yeh, i agree with the above, bluey. To me, underachieving is not living up to your creative potential. After that, it becomes about the vicissitudes of the market and fashion, which is both irrelevant and beyond the band's control

 

[saucisson]

yeh, i agree with the above, bluey. To me, underachieving is not living up to your creative potential. After that, it becomes about the vicissitudes of the market and fashion, which is both irrelevant and beyond the band's control

So do Guns n Roses count? promising first LP (although it was 80s wasnt it)...then rubbish. ditto Oasis....er an lots of other bands that just did one promising debut lp and then imploded.....see also LAs etc?

 

[pk]

Doo the Moog

 

[bluestreak]

innit dub. to me the stone roses and primal scream were in no way underachievers, nor rocket from the crypt.

the stone roses produced one damn good (but seriously over-rated) album but that was all they had in them, but if regularly cropping up in critic's best albums' ever lists (even if they're not in mine) is underachieving then blimey...

primal scream have always done it their way, and have managed to make albums that i love that other fans hate and vice versa.

rocket from the crypt have also achieved their reputation without cmpromising. i saw them at reading in 2000 (or 2001) and you culdn't get near the tent for people, many of them kids who'd have been about 10 or 11 the first time i saw them (which was fairly late in their career, being SDS era). that's not underachieving. go to one of the regular carter, neds or whatever gettogethers and there's no-one who'd have been under 16 when the band split. yet young kids were getting into RFTC.

 

[upsidedownwalrus]

So do Guns n Roses count? promising first LP (although it was 80s wasnt it)...then rubbish. ditto Oasis....er an lots of other bands that just did one promising debut lp and then imploded.....see also LAs etc?

Nah, GnR just shot their load with their debut, much like DJ Shadow. Appetite... and Endroducting are benchmark albums in their respective genres, ones that transcend the sort of music. They were never going to top that.

 

[Dirty Martini]

there was a band (from oxford?) that i've got a bunch of 7" singles by, that were formed by some guy who used to produce supergrass (i think) but i'm at work and can't for the life of me remember their name. anyway, i thought they were ace, but they seemed to vanish into thin air. haven't listened to them for years though, they're probably actually shit.

You're not thinking of The Jennifers are you, who were more or less an early incarnation of Supergrass iirc?

 

[bluestreak]

So do Guns n Roses count? promising first LP (although it was 80s wasnt it)...then rubbish. ditto Oasis....er an lots of other bands that just did one promising debut lp and then imploded.....see also LAs etc?

no, because some bands only have one good album in them and prove it, despite success. ones that only did one and them disintegrated so we never got to find out if they going to be better can be included i reckon!

 

[Orang Utan]

Only for one album... The one after that Rolling Stones one was quite good, and XTMRNTR was very good.

I disagree - Screamadelica is the only good thing they've done

 

[fishfingerer]

yeh, i agree with the above, bluey. To me, underachieving is not living up to your creative potential. After that, it becomes about the vicissitudes of the market and fashion, which is both irrelevant and beyond the band's control

Yes but if a band still finds themselves broke after 3 or 4 albums and countless gigs sometimes they'll be pressured to compromise in order to get a hit. I think RFTC did this on the RFTC record that followed SDS. Ditto Fatima Mansions on their last album.

Soul Asylum were underachievers I suppose, started out as a sloppy punk band, became an excellent swaggering bar band around Hangtime then went shit shit shit and have been consistently so since. Runaway fucking Train ugh.

 

[bluestreak]

I disagree - Screamadelica is the only good thing they've done

heh, i think screamadelica is dull and unchallenging. i think they didn't get wrth listening to until vanishing point.

 

[chriswill]

Cecil

Bomber diddler was a great album.


No excuses rocked.

 

[bluestreak]

oooh, the crocketts. they were ace, had loads of fans but eventually split because they just couldn't afford to carry on. davy sings for the crimea now, still making intelligent and dark guitar pop to critical acclaim and almost complete public apathy.

 

[chriswill]

Kerbdog released a great debut also.




Whatever happened to them???

 

[Iam]

Yes but if a band still finds themselves broke after 3 or 4 albums and countless gigs sometimes they'll be pressured to compromise in order to get a hit. I think RFTC did this on the RFTC record that followed SDS. Ditto Fatima Mansions on their last album.

Yeah, and again on Live From Camp X-Ray. For me, those are their weakest records by some distance... SDS is also their major label debut, so you have to wonder if they were under some pressure to create something of a product, rather than just the next Rocket record.

I still like SDS, but it's pop-Rocket. Still better than RFTC, which is a bit Rocket-by-the-numbers, imo.

Course, Reis has always had his other bands to do the creative artist bit (or whatever it was he happened to be feeling at the time). DLJ, Hot Snakes, Sultans, the 'Cudas, Back Off Cupids... and there's Swami, too... it's not like he's allowed himself to be choked by any seeming necessity of the mainstream...

Hard (for me, anyway) to see them as underachievers on that basis.

 

[Orang Utan]

heh, i think screamadelica is dull and unchallenging. i think they didn't get wrth listening to until vanishing point.

I hate that too.
Their new one is a fucking joke - can we agree on that?

 

[fishfingerer]

Yeah, and again on Live From Camp X-Ray. For me, those are their weakest records by some distance... SDS is also their major label debut, so you have to wonder if they were under some pressure to create something of a product, rather than just the next Rocket record.

The liner notes of SDS claim that it was supposed to be one big body of music with interludes linking all the songs but the idea was scrapped for commecrial reasons. It's not a significant compromise I suppose. It might even be one of his lies.

Another one. I love the Young Gods but they went all Eno and made a record of sounds from the fucking Amazon. Nooo.

 

[Dubversion]

oooh, the crocketts. they were ace, had loads of fans but eventually split because they just couldn't afford to carry on. davy sings for the crimea now, still making intelligent and dark guitar pop to critical acclaim and almost complete public apathy.

to be fair, davy and the others have their sights very firmly set on the States and Ireland, and i think that's paying off in the US at least.

I like them as people, i want to like their band but i find it all very earnest and almost David Gray-esque