The subgenre known as "garage"

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

Yo, I've been playin' a bunch of my older CD's and perhaps this is 3 years too late, but I've noticed a lot of writing about the so-called subgenre known as "garage rock" or "neo garage" and some very negative connotations with it.

For instance, the Mooney Suzuki's "Electric Sweat" is a killer album, chock full of rockin' tunes that kick ass.  Yet, I've read several negative reviews of it as "derivative".  Isn't all music made after 1954 "derivative"?  

Secondly, I've long loved The Hives, but see no love (other than Dave Grohl  ;)) for them either.

My question is, what gives?  Why knock this entire category so badly?

[TheLink]

prob cause all the critics feel like shit that even they cannot put together a very simple rock song and make it sound good.  they want more.  how can you analyze something that is so pure and just rock?  i don't know, that is why i think it gets a bad name.  plus, it did flood the scene for awhile and everything sounded the same.  just a little change and i think some critics may have been easier on em.  huh?

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

prob cause all the critics feel like shit that even they cannot put together a very simple rock song and make it sound good.  they want more.  how can you analyze something that is so pure and just rock?  i don't know, that is why i think it gets a bad name.  plus, it did flood the scene for awhile and everything sounded the same.  just a little change and i think some critics may have been easier on em.  huh?

see, that's just it.  I'm confused as to how they could overanalyze what "rocks" and what doesn't.

[Specialist]

I love the Hives and TMS, but have only heard bad things about The Hives.

I don't really pay attention to reviews, but from what people have said to me, the most common insult is "they sound like The Strokes," which pisses me off. The Hives are more of a "kick in the teeth" type band, and have been making music for a longer period of time.

Even though i like the Strokes, once they became a commercial band, alot of bands started sounding similar, but i try to not judge bands on what their influences are, i just listen to what i think "rocks."

[TheLink]

even Clinic got the garage genre treatment.  Then, thye put out an album that did not progress, thus critics jump all over it.  main theme with them is bands beign safe.  Garage can't be safe, it is what it is, just rock.  it can get repetetive, but a lot easier to keep hearing then the same DCFC album over and over.  who knows.  i agree with the Strokes thing and perhaps these bands could take a lesson from MMJ and actually tell a label to go screw.  Unless they have no new ideas...and do they really need em.  that is all opinion and taste to me. Rock eh good!

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

I love the Hives and TMS, but have only heard bad things about The Hives.

I don't really pay attention to reviews, but from what people have said to me, the most common insult is "they sound like The Strokes," which pisses me off. The Hives are more of a "kick in the teeth" type band, and have been making music for a longer period of time.

Even though i like the Strokes, once they became a commercial band, alot of bands started sounding similar, but i try to not judge bands on what their influences are, i just listen to what i think "rocks."

And that my friend, is why I will buy you a round of bourbon some day!

All art is subjective;  if it "rocks" to you, it might not "rock" to someone else.  But all of the aforementioned bands certainly "rock", so my quandry is about why critics can't just see that.

The Strokes, for instance:  saw em live in 2001, and they certainly wiped the floor with the labels that had already been festooned upon them.  Sure, it's so-called "commerical" music (which I also don't get...go listen to some crunk shit like All American Rejects or Nickleback and call me in the morning about what is "commerical") but it still "rocks".

Maybe I'm being too literal.  

[waxy]

Just wait till you guys hear the band "The Sun"...they're gonna blow your doors off.  Trust me.

[TheLink]

There ARE big differences in commercial and "commercial".  i think you just pointed out it best.  I may not call in the morning if I had to listen to Nckelback album from start to finish.  But, others would disagree with us.  Why?  they are boring.  Nah, all taste.  We just have better. ;)

[HorkoLad]

Just wait till you guys hear the band "The Sun"...they're gonna blow your doors off.  Trust me.

I couldn't agree more, cousin.

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

There ARE big differences in commercial and "commercial".  i think you just pointed out it best.  I may not call in the morning if I had to listen to Nckelback album from start to finish.  But, others would disagree with us.  Why?  they are boring.  Nah, all taste.  We just have better. ;)

maybe we could use that as torture...Nickleback all night long...hmmmmmm

[primushead]

maybe we could use that as torture...Nickleback all night long...hmmmmmm

Nickleback all night long...don't you think that's a little too cruel?

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

Nickleback all night long...don't you think that's a little too cruel?

hey, that BTK guy could have Nickleback for the rest of his days, inside a bee hive, fed through a feeding tube laced with adrenaline, and that wouldn't be cruel enough for him.  oh wait, he could be buried up to his neck in hot tar, inside the bee hive.

[TheLink]

correct me if i am wrong, but doesn't one of their choruses go "yeah, yeah, yeah, something".  That is torture if your cd skips on gets stuck there. ;D

[dragonboy]

Slightly off topic - sorry.
Has anybody seen the Hives live? They're coming to my city in Oct. I had Your New Fav Band but couldn't get into it. Also thought that RFTC did the suit-&-ties thing better first.

[wellfleet]

Not that I find Nickleback tolerable, or even amusing but... even lame-arsed, ham-fisted "rockers" deserve mad props for at least putting it out there. Hey, I don't dig their sound, the music doesn't make my heart all bouncy with sweet joy. But, I have a friend named Jimmy who swears the song that goes "this is how you remind me" saved him from suicide. So, who am I to judge? I tend to agree with Conaway that we've been reproducing the same sounds since the sixties, but so what? Authors have been using the same storylines since Shakespeare. And yet people still enjoy the Backstreet Boys and Danielle Steele. There's a giant chasm between music that is blatantly produced for to reap financial rewards and artists who have enjoyed tremendous commercial response.
As for "garage" used as a pejorative, you must consider the source. Music critics (and I write as a former one for a daily paper), tend to be frustrated musicians, or people not cool enough to hang with musicians. Music critics LOVE to playa-hate. If the Beatles had released an album today, the critics would call them a bubble-gum boy band. Nuff said!

[peanut butter puddin surprise]

good points, indeed.  

[TheLink]

wellfleet, at least you are cool enough to hang with all us way cooler folks that think they cool but ain't and all that shit!  peace.

[wellfleet]

wellfleet, at least you are cool enough to hang with all us way cooler folks that think they cool but ain't and all that shit!  peace.

yeah! what you said!

[Chills]

Garage Rock is, and will always be, cool!

The Hives are a fun band, with a sense of humour and some rockin' tunes. I can't see why anybody would have a problem with them.