Posted 11/06/2006 - 08:48:51 AM by fleezer: | |
fuck u2, they were good what... 20 years ago? although dickwad bono was still having sex with desmond tutu then. they dont deserve a stitch of exposure. anyone who calls themselves 'edge' with a straight face needs to die or at the very least punched in the face repeatedly, same with bonovox. god i hate them. remember when loser 'edge' (anything but) said 'we're not afraid of technology' during that super gay POP tour (what an awesome name douchebags) well edge, fuck you. same to you stylus, nice f'in feature this week. f off and die | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:16:21 AM by : | |
Fleezer has ripped my trapdoor right off of its hinges. It's like that post-treadmill walking on floaters feeling you get when...you...hear REM playing Driver 8 live on a Super 8 homemade video performance you compiled in Saucyland age 13 with Mummy & Daddy Stipe wearing Converse basketball boots and you didn't even play basketball. But, fleezer aside, and getting less disassociative, I have to state that a posthumous Bono Vox would take his pejoratives from Boy, arm himself with a can of insecticide and spray the whole of Achtung Baby until it stopped spinning from the licorice stacked up unlucky polyliquidates clicking its stuckly lacquered up spider's bait, and hail GOD from his hell's throne to move in a new and more original Mysterious Way. REM on the other hand have Stipe's Gollumania to unravel their slimy osculations to the world of 90s chimera; their Monster growling in the open-sesame perpetuity, a hidden Pandora's Box of falsified Documents that left the highway on the cover of Pearl Jam's Yield in their Automatic dust. This is also pandering of me to say but HG Wells wrote in his first version of that scifi classic, no, he left it there between the lines as a twinkling eye I should say, an alien music so profound that our biggest and second biggest bands and their families and friends the world over should join in a prayer of holy communion and relinquish their debts, bombastic or introverted as they may be, to an endless radio-friendly stream of "Atomic Bombs; Revealed" the Manual. Easy of me to say, and an easy target nonetheless but. And on and on it goes, the buts, and butesses that announce behind my post that they will follow. YOU WILL FOLLOW. Just please don't invade the villainous increment above me with your Brobdignanian (yes it's a word, look it up drama-queens) spittle, fleezer has measles and he's feeling queasy. Unterberger, you deserve a month's break from Stylus, you have clearly wrung your brains through a back catalogue's worth of unquestionables and self-immolations. You're hurting, everybody's hurting, even the Edge hurts sometimes. He cut himself on your killer ripcord. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:20:50 AM by : | |
Winner: Pearl Jam | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:25:00 AM by PCabrelli: | |
well, who can i stand more, Bono or Stipe? Stipe is creeping around like some tarty 19th Century ghost whilst bono constantly crucifies himself on the Geroge Bush tree of woe. I think i'll go for Bono. In their decline, U2 will make better pop than REM, who will not do a thing of note. Radiohead watch out! | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:36:59 AM by blackrooster: | |
It is ridiculous to compare the class of REM with the jokers from U2. You are a fool for dismissing Murmur and also seemingly ignoring anything else they released on IRS. One of the reaasons I dislike U2 so much is that they are so middle of the road and will never try anything different because they know that they will still sell loads of records. This now seems to be the blueprint for many bands these days, be boring, rubbish and try to sound like U2 and sell loads of cr@p records, see Coldplay, Razorlight, Killers, Keane. Please banish these clowns from the music world. REM - class, p!ss all over anything U2 have ever done. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:58:12 AM by : | |
Bono over Stipe. There's some irony there. Like, when you're campaigning for third world debt relief, and keep moving your franchise to another country to evade taxation. That sort of deeply conflicted complexity is what geniuses are made of, I would guess. Plus Michael Stipe's voice makes me want to punch babies and kick your cat. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:00:55 AM by : | |
we've all read Gulliver's travels, i hope. no need to look up Brobdignanian | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:03:14 AM by : | |
and I will take your Pearl Jam and raise you Collective Soul | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:19:18 AM by bassman08: | |
Great stuff here. Except that you forgot to mention that the version of "Radio Free Europe" on Murmur sucks, the single version is evern better. Oh, and I think that "Automatic for the People" is alright, but really I prefer "Green" or even "Fables." | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:48:56 AM by jmp123: | |
I think the Pearl Jam and Collective Soul people are right on here...I think many of us have been waiting for the moment when we could all collectively dismiss stylus as the biggest joke on the planet...well, it's shark jumping time. For all the assumptions that pitchfork attempts to emulate Rolling Stone, I can't honestly imagine that site publishing something as pointless, crass and truly antiquated as a "U2 vs. REM" article. I have an idea for next week's article: "Stylus vs. Rolling Stone vs. Spin: who's more out of touch" discuss. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:58:30 AM by : | |
you heard it here last: flaccid MOR major label franchise is slightly more or less ridiculous than other limper less forward thinking cult-milking four-piece | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 11:01:32 AM by Richie_A: | |
Good article... I've always found it interesting that the careers of the two bands parallel each other so closely. They both have unappreciated albums, percieved as critical and commercial failures at the time but actually containing some of their best work, and recorded at the same points in their histories just after their 'defining' high-sellers (for R.E.M. it's New Adventures In Hi-Fi and Up, for U2 Zooropa and Pop). U2 aren't going to get a proper evaluation on musical merit until Bono has ceased being a public figure, it's so cool to hate them at the moment.. And it's ridiculous to say they never tried to challenge themselves, there are numerous examples throughout their career of them taking the more difficult option: getting Eno in as producer on The Unforgettable Fire, for example, was a very leftfield move for a rock band at the time, and the incorporation of dance elements into their music in the 90s was daring for a group that could so easily continue to follow the stadium rock route. It makes it all the more disappointing that their output since 2000 has been so unchallenging.. An interesting question would be - which of these bands still has it in them to create a classic? I'm actually tempted to say R.E.M... at this point in their career it's either produce the goods or dwindle out entirely, whereas U2 are coasting along with a diminished formula that they look unlikely to break out of. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 11:37:38 AM by maximumperlich: | |
I guess I'm the only one that despises both bands. It might be a different story if they both broke up decades ago instead of dragging their careers out into their current Vegas-style self parodies. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 11:41:18 AM by : | |
nope, max. pretty much everyone but frat boys and people who were 35 or older in the 90s hate these bands. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 12:10:20 PM by : | |
FYI, it's "dissociative." As in, "the Di-Sexists seems to be suffering from a multitude of dissociative disorders, including Dissociative identity disorder, Dissociative fugue, and Depersonalization disorder." | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 12:21:45 PM by jmp123: | |
Well, here's one for the "you get what you pay for" department. Recent Features By This Author: Pop Playground - Here It Goes Again: The 2006 Video Music Awards Seconds - Icehouse: Electric Blue Staff Top 10 - Top Ten Hits That Prove That Originality Is Overrated 'nuff said. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 12:27:50 PM by theokcomputer: | |
Mention Bill Simmons and I'll read anything. Nice ploy! | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 01:33:17 PM by AKMoose: | |
Jesus Christ, Stylus does a fun article comparing two of alternative's biggest acts, and everyone acts like it's the end of the world. Lighten the fuck up. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 02:38:45 PM by garlad1: | |
Dang, someone mentions Collective Soul and the bland memories of that group made me forget what I was going to say. Aren't Jet kinda of the Collective Soul of the oughts? OH YEAH, I was going say that as far as side project go, Larry Mullen did some excellent drumming on a few Daniel Lanois tracks, and also the Edge collaborated on that Captive soundtrack, which earned him a custom made 'infinite note' guitar from Micheal Brooks that he ended up using on the next U2 album, Joshua Tree. Plus he broke Sinead before her debut. Quite an accomplishment for a soundtrack. I've always liked U2's side projects better than the band ittself(even the one with Holger Czukey). | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 02:51:18 PM by : | |
It's more likely the problem is that everyone did lighten up, so to speak. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 04:14:49 PM by saltlick: | |
I think the only U2 song I actually like is that "In the name of love" one. Everything else I've heard is too bland, middling, sanctimonious, platitudinous(?), etc... Made for the arena, by the arena. At least R.E.M. doesn't rub me the wrong way as often. Well, keep bitching, jive turkeys. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 06:25:56 PM by mtwill: | |
all i will say is that anyone who thinks automatic for the people (which is a great record) is the best rcord by REM is unqualified to make this silly comparison in the first place. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 06:56:50 PM by cwperry: | |
akmoose: right on. mtwill: he didn't say Automatic was the best, he said it was their masterpiece. There's a difference, if you ask me. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 07:42:04 PM by poflib: | |
Seems like the production work by Michael Stipe (Vic Chesnut) and Peter Buck (Uncle Tupelo, The Feelies) is worth mentioning under work outside the band. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:03:36 PM by : | |
In reapply to JG, it appears I have mispropriated a disorder in my unbridged rant above through apparent nontentivenss to the letter a. I preassume you would like me to refirm exactly what it was I meant too. I fold, I only have a handful of Hootie and the Blowfucken fish. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 09:48:13 PM by dioxido: | |
Oh well, R.E.M. wins for me. Anyway it's always fun to read these kind of articles, even if I don't agree with some of the things written. | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:09:56 PM by bassman08: | |
I'm fairly certain that JessGraves only reads Stylus because he enjoys hating everything that other people even remotley like. He says he hates Stylus yet he still reads it just to make fun of what everyone else likes once again. But then, he still reads it, so we have this strange sadomasochism thing going on. It's all very strange. As for jmp123, who the fuck knows? | |
Posted 11/06/2006 - 10:53:45 PM by gregarious: | |
This article was bad. It might worthy of discussion, but when its written out like this, it comes off exactly as it is: a pointless debate based on one's subjective attachment to a particular band. The fact that Mr. Unterberger notes that his own personal connection ultimately determined his view validates my point. What was the point of printing this? | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 02:15:14 AM by cinatyte: | |
Andrew had to know that when he wrote an article like this, the haterz would come out in full force. The reason this got printed is because this is something we've all done at some point or another (not necessarily with these bands): compared two bands you love and tried to rationalize choosing one over the other. A few years ago, I got stuck having to choose between Bruce Springsteen and Van Morrison in a similar fashion. Everyone would obviously write the article differently ("Boy" over "Murmur"?? wtf?) but I still thought it was a lot of fun. The only times I find myself logging in to comment is when I found an article to be decent, but then it's getting absolutely savaged in the comments. So I don't mean any of this as a means of fellating Mr. Unterberger, merely to say that I don't think the article is utter shite. Lastly, I appreciate the well-deserved props to "Imitation of Life" and "All I Want Is You". | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 06:01:05 AM by bj_randolph: | |
Cute piece. I happen to like both bands and believe that their legacies are indeed worth comparing, but ultimately this is just a blog post, not a feature article. Not to slag off blog posts, mind you. Two other questions:
| |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 08:01:59 AM by ESTEBAN_BUTTEZ: | |
DEAR STYLUS YOU SUCK AT THE MUSIC COMMENT AGAIN Guys guys guys. Srsly, ranking U2 over REM for *anything* let alone overall is nothing short of reckless stupidity and a severe lack of taste. I'm going to speak to Southall about this. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 09:11:54 AM by Richie_A: | |
Re: Gregarious: "a pointless debate based on one's subjective attachment to a particular band." - this is a pretty good description of a large chunk of music writing.. If every article about music had to be written from a wholly neutral standpoint there wouldn't be much interesting reading in the subject. And screw the ultra-hipsters, they'll get over hating REM and U2 when it stops being trendy. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 09:35:11 AM by : | |
I win. All Meatbreak's got is Dishwalla. The a's thing: It's kind of like how you don't have to know how to spell tryptamines to enjoy them. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 09:37:03 AM by : | |
Bassman, I'm a she. And when did I say I hated Stylus? I said I hated U2 and REM. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 09:37:34 AM by : | |
either way, I am a sado-masochist | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 11:27:26 AM by meatbreak: | |
What the hell is Dishwalla? I'm not getting involved in this. I wasn't even going to comment until I got mentioned by name. I am very disappointed to have my name associated with these two corporate stadium fillers. I like these juvenile articles though, but I was expecting a different one everyday. Blur Vs. Oasis, The Damned Vs. The Cult, Pantera Vs. Anthrax, Spice Girls Vs. Take That, Sly Stone Vs. George Clinton, Sun Ra Vs. Lee Perry, Graves Vs. Disexists. You know, that kind of thing. P.S> Richie-A. I don't hate these bands because it's trendy (wtf is 'trendy'?). I don't even hate them, they're just pointless AM tedium. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 11:30:49 AM by : | |
tell me all your thoughts on God/cuz I'm on my way to see her/tell me am i very faar nooow. that one is Dishwalla. | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 11:32:01 AM by : | |
download it, you won't be sorry | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 12:01:14 PM by : | |
Sun Ra > Lee Perry | |
Posted 11/07/2006 - 11:20:33 PM by Hone_Heke: | |
cinatyte, Bruce vs Van? what a weird combo. hope you chose van! u2 vs rem? REM for me. as someone else says, a new one of these each day wouldve made this a great weeklong feature, i second that. how about stylus starting its own faux debate like the blur/oasis thing with a couple of recent bands. akron family vs animal collective say. prefix 73 vs four tet. joanna newsome vs cat power. yeah get a bitchfight happening. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 10:17:37 AM by diemythtruth: | |
..and yellow swans vs. wolf eyes (victorous swans) nowt more to be said except i think the writer forgot the u2 'passengers' album, the fake soundtracks to fake movies thing with miss sarajevo and pavarotti? | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 11:15:56 AM by meatbreak: | |
Yup, goo done - though I'd vote Wolf Eyes . Marilyn Manson Vs. Eminem might be a good one. They're a hell of a lot more similiar than some might imagine. Cradle Of Filth Vs. Dimmu Borgir might be good for a laugh too. And how about Divine Vs. G G Allin? | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 11:44:08 AM by : | |
I'd probably write a feature about The Counting Crows versus The Wallflowers. We all know Stylus would have The Wallflowers win, by sheer force of the presence of Bob Dylan's Y chromosome within one of its members. Me, I'm not so sure. Especially when I consider Adam Duritz' resiliance--e.g., the CC's comeback video for "A Long December" featuring Courtney Cox in a career-pinnacle cameo as Adam's former love interest. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 11:54:51 AM by : | |
resilience. dammit. that would've been funnier with the proper spelling. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 01:49:38 PM by Zarklephaser: | |
So, let me get this straight - you hate U2 and REM, but enjoy the Counting Crows? | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 01:51:04 PM by : | |
Yeah, Zarklephaser. Why yes, I do. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 01:52:18 PM by : | |
I also like going to flea markets with your creepy Uncle Morty and huffing glue while weaving baskets underwater. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 02:37:45 PM by bassman08: | |
What about a triple threat match with RHCP vs Jane's Addiction vs RHCP? Then you have the tension between Kiedis and Mike Patton, as well as the "Navarro Factor," ie, which band Navarro fucked up more. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 02:49:56 PM by bassman08: | |
The answer, of course, is Jane's Addiction, because they suck in general. Plus, "Aeroplane" is actually a cool song. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 03:03:37 PM by vohpoh: | |
We should put U2, REM & RHCP in a room and let them kick the shit out of each other. My guess is that in their current incarnations they'd be more likely to bore each other to death, while drinking herbal tea loaded with sugar just like their songs. Argh! As much as these bands make me choke today, I have to agree with Mr. Unterberger on the U2 over REM pick, although both bands would've been much better served had their careers ended at their peak in 1992 after Achtung+Automatic were made, or even gracefully in 1994 after Zooropa+Monster were made, sparing all of us from the neverending agony of the past decade or so. Same goes for post BloodSugarSexMagik RHCP. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 03:23:36 PM by : | |
Vertical Horizon versus Matchbox 20 would be good, too. | |
Posted 11/08/2006 - 11:43:41 PM by nyabinghi: | |
Almost anybody with anything valid to say about either of these bands would have to be either "fratboys or over 35 in the 90's". For one, REM pretty much made their place in the music scene by touring the country in vans and making the college circuit during the early 80's so they had amassed a following of "fratboys" before they hit it big with "The One I Love". I would venture to say both bands were more interesting before you could understand what the singers were saying or what the songs were about. I enjoyed "Boy" and "Murmur" as kind of mood pieces. Unfortunately for U2, by the time "War" came out I had lost interest in them although I recall listening to this album ferociously, and was enamoured of the e's guitar stylings and kinda thinking to myself maybe they had something important to say but the bombast!, the big stadium Rock!, the self-importance! Argh! need I say more! REM actually got more interesting with each album, "Reckoning" was great, so was "Fables" and I think "Life's Rich Pageant" was their high point. But alas, they started with the important messages and coherent lyrics and my attention waned. Sadly, they had a magnificent tour with that record, a truly great stadium rocking sound. Gone was those tinny jingo-jangly guitars and cryptic lyrics. My friends accused me of snobbery, since REM had become "Bad and Nationwide". After that it was a constant dissapointment with each new record purchase with "Automatic" being an exception. However, hands down and by far, REM the greater band! | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 08:43:39 AM by : | |
Why don't we start an online zine of our own and have a comments box that ONLY zine contributors have access to, so that we would not only be writing our own articles but also our own comments and comments on each other's articles, and then we actually make suggestions to each other about the kinds of articles we wish were on our zinesite we could simply make those articles appear a day letter by simply writing them kind of like Bill & Ted deciding they need some handy piece of equipment and it suddenly appearing because they plan to use their time machine to place it there at some future date, and when we disagreed with each other about our shitty tastes and awful lists we could just alter the list to suit ourselves so that our music site would be the best on the net because it would be all the music that we loved and only us and nobody else could interfere. Yes, and we could have like, The-Disexists vs JessGraves or Barbarian vs Meatbreak or bassman08 vs Zarklephaser as headlining articles in which the other contributors discuss which of us is the greater fuckwit or the greater public masturbator and the greater at forcefeeding his or her opinions (I am subliminally programming you by the way) to the other writers in our zine so that eventually the most powerful of us would rise to the top and all the others would always agree with us (you love Joshua Kadison). Got you at a weak moment when your defences were down. Or did all of this happen already, last year, when you weren't looking. Got you again. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 09:15:12 AM by meatbreak: | |
It happened last year. I won. I'm the greatest fuckwit. Who's my wingman? | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 10:29:43 AM by : | |
Where can I go to read this? Now I'll likely never read Stylus again. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:12:59 AM by : | |
If I were a little more bored at work, I would go make that site, as it existed last year, and post articles and comments in everyone else's style complete with idioms particular to country of origin and even those sideways apostrophes like Disexists and the Europeans have. It would be like Borges' "Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote", only funnier. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:15:29 AM by : | |
It would be like the Mona Lisa of trolldom. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:23:39 AM by : | |
wait i've got another one. Travis versus Muse. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:28:30 AM by diemythtruth: | |
how about moby vs. a cube of air?? | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:34:39 AM by : | |
Semisonic versus Chumbawamba | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 01:37:55 PM by grandbanks: | |
"... cacophony that is a symphony of broken records." Congratulations, you are all fuckwits! Dipshits heal thyselves. Fleezer, anyone who champions a band that collaborates with "The Dude of Life" should not be critiquing anyone for their creative choices. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 02:02:39 PM by : | |
Finally! The troll quorum has been met. Thanks for stopping by, Banks. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 05:50:07 PM by : | |
The Disexists use perfectly normal apostrophes "'" <-- check it out. How is that sideways? Is it a racist comment because we are Chinese (rogue net operators, work for the govt) and use a translation program to simplify our English? We are glad to have latched onto the "american" sense of humour. We have all read Pierre Menard. But have you read "Zinghao Wong; Author of Labyrinths?" Or "grandbanks; author of JessGraves comments?" Getting back to the point, REM's inflated gay period when Michael Stipe was in rehab began immediately after Murmur and lasted until Life's Rich, at which point The Unforgettable Fire was burning a hole in Bono' back pocket so bad that he jumped ship, swallowed his pride and fabricated the U2 phenomenal from the ivory towers of a certain worldy magazine. REM were the backbenchers whose coup left a certain distaste in the mouths of the gay community. Bill Berry got written out by Borges who died in 1986. This is all metaphorically speaking, but a simple thread unravels the whole thing. These bands ARE worth this article. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 06:42:41 PM by : | |
Your apostrophes show up slanted on my work PC, Paper Tiger. That could mean that you type them in Word first then cut-and-paste in this field here. Could that be for spell-check purposes? Hmm. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 07:23:24 PM by Hone_Heke: | |
So, I use word. Big deal. Bet you do too but you`ll never admit it. Not for spelchekker purposes. I have to print all my comments out first and get `em checked by my boss before I`m allowed to post. Sometimes he gets me to change a word or two like later to letter or adjectify a noun to disgrammatise my comments to make decoding, tracking and tracing that much more difficult. But by using words my opinions are that more juster and sterilised. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 07:30:20 PM by terrorist: | |
Hey Dreamtigers. You`re surrounded now. The Stylus conspiracy is about to unravel inside your head. We use word to get around that because cutting and pasting disallows for typo-reversal and spelchekker reconstitificating. The Chinese apocalypse is on your horizon. How tiny you must feel now Jesster. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 07:41:42 PM by : | |
I will play Amon Duul II's Phallus Dei when the Minotaur comes up on my surveillance. Actually, I'm listening to Spankrock. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 07:43:30 PM by : | |
You think I'd post something with "resiliance" in it if I used Word? I'm not that burnt out yet. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 07:45:48 PM by bassmanO8: | |
And I`m listening to Tangerine Dream. It`s all I`ve ever listened to. They suck but at least they`re not called Lemon Dream. Or Lemon Jelly. Which is worse? My Lemon Jelly smacks your Amon Duul with a breezy waft of air because I am everywhere. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 08:00:32 PM by : | |
Don't you mean Green Jelly? As in, Green "Three Little Pigs" Jelly. Cereal Killer. In 1984 Green Jellö released Let It Be, an 8 song 7-inch 45 EP, on their own label, American Jello Parti Productions, Inc. The cover artwork (designed by Manspeaker) was a parody of The Beatles' Let It Be album cover. Recorded in Bill's bedroom and at a local band reheasal hall, the album featured the theme song "Green Jellö Theme Song" (the band's initial manifesto/call to arms), as well as early songs "I've Got Poo-Poo On My Shoe" (later "Shitman"), "Whip Me Teenage Babe" (later "House Me Teenage Rave"), "Hill, Hill", "Do the Howie" (a song about the bumbling rent-a-cop at the band's High School Alma Mater, Kenmore West High School, sung to the tune of Van McCoy's "The Hustle"), the 1-second long "Icrog", "The Ice Cream Song", and "I'll Buy You Any Major Appliance You Want Baby, Ooo Ooo". Let It Be was limited to a release of 500 and only released locally. The first 100 copies were housed in a deluxe hand-glued hard-cardboard picture sleeve, with front color photo (printed on real photographic paper by Manspeaker). Later picture sleeves were simply a green tinted photocopy of the original cardboard sleeve. The original hard-cardboard sleeves are now highly sought after by collectors. The record also included a multi-panel lyric sheet (designed by Manspeaker). The back cover of the picture sleeve features an actual endorsement from Kiss member Paul Stanley, who Green Jellö had met during that time. The Let It Be EP was also given away at a record release party in which fans had to climb a "Green Jellö Tree" in front of the club to claim a free record. The band actually taped a large amount of 45s up in the tree in the front of the club. The band's high propensity for absurd, illogical stunts such as this soon became the norm. For Green Jellö, every action could and should be a potential publicity stunt: 100% hype, with absolutely no social or musical redeeming qualities. Around this time, Green Jellö started turning up for gigs in multiple stretch limos. The band just thought it was an absurd, funny thing for an admittedly horrible band to do. Other weird things Green Jellö used to do on stage during early Buffalo shows included making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on their chests, and ironing clothes on stage while singing. The band began to get more and more (faux) outrageous onstage, eventually involving fake torture, whipping and women. Often the band would play new songs, so that the audience wouldn't know how bad they were messing up. Crazy stage names were adopted, multiple members joined, and in 1987 Green Jellö appeared on the TV show The Gong Show. Trying hard to sound bad, the band was "gonged" quickly, but had achieved its goal of national TV exposure. In 1988, Bill and the band met GWAR, who showed the band how to make the papier maché and foam rubber suits which became their trademark. With characters such as "Shitman" (a giant, walking corn-filled poop monster), "Cowgod", "Rock n Roll Pumpkin", and "Toucan Son of Sam", the band's live show became an over-the-top adventure in absurdity, now consisting of 13 members. They began picking up steam and decided to relocate from the Buffalo area to Hollywood, CA in 1987. In 1989, Green Jellö released its second album, Triple Live Mother Goose at Budokan, on February 29th Records. It featured a much more defined sound, as well as far better production and songwriting. The band began to tighten up musically, enlisting drummer Danny Carey (later in Tool), as well as guitarists Marc Levinthal (Pippi Rockstocking), Steven Shenar (Sven Seven), C.J. Buscaglia (Jesus Quisp) and Bernie Peaks (Bernie Vicious), along with bassist Rootin' Bloomquist. By this time the band also had 6 vocalists, including Bill Manspeaker (Moronic Dictator, Shitman, Marshall "Duh" Staxxx), Joe Cannizzaro (Dunderhead), Keith Matherne (Keni Logginz), Gary Helsinger (Hotsy Menshot, Piñata Head), Greg Raynard (Reason Clean, Toucan Son of Sam) and Maynard James Keenan (Billy Bob). The band also had two female backup singers/floor tom drummers, Kim O'Donnell (Sadistica), and Caroline Jester (Jella Tin). Kim O'Donnell also designed and created all the artwork, covers, comics, and logos for the band. In 1991, the band was signed by indie label Zoo Entertainment. Because of Green Jellö's strong visual presence, the band opted to be the "World's First Video Only Band" and released its 3rd album, Cereal Killer, on longform video only. Consisting of music videos for each song, as well as a behind-the-scenes feature, the video album quickly became an underground hit, selling in excess of 100,000 copies. Due to overwhelming demand, the band released the EP Green Jellö SUXX in 1991, consisting of four songs from the Cereal Killer video album. Eventually in 1992, the band re-signed with Zoo Entertainment and released the full audio album Cereal Killer Soundtrack. In early 1993, the single for "Three Little Pigs" was released. The video, directed by Fred Stuhr (who also directed Tool's "Sober" video), featured a claymation rendition of the classic fairy tale with modern twists, such as pot-smoking pigs, an appearance by Rambo, and a Harley Davidson-riding wolf. The video was an instant hit on MTV in the US and received both a MTV music award and Billboard music award nomination. Meanwhile in the UK the song entered the singles chart at the high position of number 5, though this proved to be its peak position. As a result of the "Three Little Pigs" video, the Cereal Killer Soundtrack album went gold in the US, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as platinum in Australia, eventually selling over 2½ million units worldwide. Green Jellö spent the better part of a year touring the US and Europe in support of the Cereal Killer Soundtrack. | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 10:43:39 PM by bassmanO8: | |
ugh. couldn`t you have just cut n pasted the link? | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 10:49:59 PM by : | |
nope | |
Posted 11/09/2006 - 11:37:51 PM by : | |
Firatly I seem to be influencing a whole generation of Stylus commenters to identity theft and charisma flouting to a neighbourhood quarterly magazine called “Metacritc in the Redzone” which has been suffocating silently ever since Ian Mathers last posted a reconnaissance spiel about urging more readers to discuss the modal interventions of iconoclastic jazz warriors that burned the midnight oil in 1959 and shot out such dynamite paraphernalia trivia Styrofoam filler as Mingus Ah Um, A Kind of Blue and The Shape of Jazz to Come. Accordingly the more reasonable we were ferally induced to saturate his blather with extudinous choristry the more our sheep`s clothing became obvious to the Big Head of Music Journalism standing in the corner dripfeeding our theories into the wider melting pot of Central Africa and pouring the whole thing over Denmark like a hot caudron containing the entire output of Kenny G as rapped over by 50 Cent and fornicated to by Tanzanian tribespeople wearing nothing but their own skin, which it might be added, was later ripped to provide drum sheaths for the Tuvan throat singers of Tunisia. This crazy madcap mixing down of Earth Festivities to help the needy in these music forsaken countries led to a blind inheritance that both U2 and Paul McCartney fired up as New Earth Opportunities Unlimited and housed within its Bebop contraints a series of micro-concerts to disrupt the schedules of traveling politicians from most European countries that have not yet been allowed to join the community. Musically speaking Bjork and Rainier and a few other Beggars Banquet artists found themselves ripped off and plagiarized, arpeggioed and dramatized within a TV show that had been beamed back into Sky Channel satellites as Alien Pop Faster Reruns and left to blister. I guess I`m only imbibing a fluid journey through their little know histories because of some of the comments above mine that stultified the main point of this REM vs US article and sent a request to Head Office (the Head Orifice heheh) for more Documents to be delivered in time before Sunday evening comes around and a more ambiguous piece takes its place. Man, I`m sick of burning my brains out educating you people, but yeah, dig the italics thing. It makes me feel seasick. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 12:07:52 AM by deworms: | |
did anyone notice the similar themed article on slate "who was the best rock band of the 80s" http://www.slate.com/id/2153184/ the two aren't entirely the same, but perhaps the timing was just coincidental? | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 09:42:10 AM by : | |
>>pouring the whole thing over Denmark like a hot caudron containing the entire output of Kenny G as rapped over by 50 Cent and fornicated to by Tanzanian tribespeople wearing nothing but their own skin, which it might be added, was later ripped to provide drum sheaths for the Tuvan throat singers of Tunisia.>> On page 534 of Grandville’s Denmark, A History in Pictures we are told that in Denmark, all of the rivers, the rivulets, the streams and tributaries, flow south. When we came upon the Tunisians in the Plaza Piaxtla in Guatemala, General Bassman told us we might be wrong. That, in fact, King Christian VIII, stattholder whose election was confirmed by a constitutional assembly convoked at Eidsvoll on April 10, 1814, was never the discoverer of the heralded map and that, alas, we should return to Tanzania and apologize. >> to Head Office (the Head Orifice heheh) for more Documents to be delivered in time before Sunday evening comes around and a more ambiguous piece takes its place. Man, I`m sick of burning my brains out educating you people, but yeah, dig the italics thing. It makes me feel seasick.>> All of my letters to the Office have been sent back undeliverable. Including the text above. It really is something (I am glad you like it) but one must really read every word to truly understand. I didn’t even read one word of the article at hand--I scanned to the winner--because the General forbade us from reading, and his rage will not be contained if he sees this. Please burn immediately upon receipt. Greetings from Piaxtla, Let the ReHeaducation begin, Meatbreak | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 12:11:15 PM by : | |
cue: "In a Sentimental Mood." I'm playing it on Fleezer's Bösendorfer. Then I remember that Poulenc is more fun to play. And I buy a live reissue of Arthur Russell's infamous rendition of his Sonata for Cello and Piano. op. 143 on ebay only to find that, somehow, in the mail, it has been switched with a signed copy of Jessie. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 12:19:42 PM by diemythtruth: | |
yer all reading too much pynchon. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 12:35:23 PM by : | |
kleist | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 01:09:40 PM by Zarklephaser: | |
"U2 vs. R.E.M.: The Debate Gets Personal" on Rolling Stone http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2006/11/10/u2-vs-rem-the-debate-gets-personal/ | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 02:21:13 PM by mjfunell: | |
I was a teenager when these bands came out and I've always had a hard time picking a favorite. And I've been a fan through each stage of their careers and they've always had something interesting to say. To have then as the objects of some competition is ridiculous, particularly when the author of this piece has an obviously limited reference for either band. This asshole hasn't even listened to their most recent work, and still has the nerve to offer an opinion on their current states as bands. And it seems as though any music before 1990 just didn't matter. For what its worth, the Beatles were the best band ever, and U2 and R.E.M. followed right after in no particular order. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 02:26:00 PM by hbeardwb: | |
U2 Rules and I will fight anyone anyone anytime anywhere if I have to, to declare that U cant mess with U2! And trust me U would run way from me very fast if U saw me I am a 6'4 body builder that can bench 825 pounds! | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 02:57:55 PM by : | |
*guffaw* | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 04:18:20 PM by bassman08: | |
Question: why the need for bassman"O"8? I'm confused here. Please enlighten me, whoever you may be. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 04:24:33 PM by utzpinpin: | |
Back in the early 80s, the three biggest underground bands to watch were r.e.m., U2 and Metallica. The three of them were pretty much ignored by the mainstream until the second half of the decade when The Joshua Tree, ...and Justice for All and Out of Time made these bands gods. They had reached the top. But what next? This is the point where the rest of the bands simply implode. It is very interesting to note that U2 released the magnificent Achtung Baby, which won U2 respect and credibility that enabled them to stay at the top. Metallica released the Metallica album, which , became a cornerstone in metal, and r.e.m released automatic for the people.lush and beautiful. The three albums were released between 1991 and 1992. Just months apart. That was a majestic time to be around, these three monsters alive and dangerous, with fantastic albums that rivaled the new bands, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Then came Pop, Load and Monster. U2 have managed to stay on top, critically and comercially. Metallica is in therapy, (let's hope someone like Rick Rubin can exorcise the damage Bob Rock has done) and R.E.M. is not trying anymore. Should these bands quit? Maybe. Nevertheless their loyal fanbases are still there, willing to take anything, something that other big bands of the 80s wish they had. | |
Posted 11/10/2006 - 04:27:39 PM by : | |
do you really have to ask? | |
Posted 11/11/2006 - 08:03:14 AM by meatbreak: | |
It is now a fallacy to say that art is art. Should you be indecisive, act in the following manner: dig a hole about foor feet deep (depending on your height). This hole may be dug anywhere. Now stand perfectly upright in your hole, and consider why you have dug it. Fill it in. If you have not reasoned why you dug this hole, dig another. | |
Posted 11/12/2006 - 05:33:09 PM by : | |
meatbreak, are you showing at the biennale? because that would be as good as most of what's there this year. 'sex robots' is no 'amplification' U2SUXXORSSZZZ | |
Posted 11/12/2006 - 10:14:21 PM by KeithKawaii: | |
What a great article... | |
Posted 01/10/2007 - 10:47:14 PM by pushtouch: | |
Great analysis.I'd pick Achtung Baby over Automatic anytime. | |