Franz Ferdinand

[Shovel]

But how is that remotely affected by how popular they are? We've had a perfectly proper conversation about FF right here... or did I dream it?

 

[misspentlines]

i meant its pretty hard to have a decent conversation about a really famous band/artist with it going like 'yes, i like britneys new hair'. maybe i am an indie snob, maybe ive been influenced by my friends who feel the same as i do, but all i do is care about music, and if i wanted to listen to music in the charts/in magazines/on tv, i'd listen to westlife.

 

[Xtro]

i meant its pretty hard to have a decent conversation about a really famous band/artist with it going like 'yes, i like britneys new hair'. maybe i am an indie snob, maybe ive been influenced by my friends who feel the same as i do, but all i do is care about music, and if i wanted to listen to music in the charts/in magazines/on tv, i'd listen to westlife.

This thread has turned into comedy gold. At least you have the balls to admit to being an indie snob. Fair play. You fit the niche so PERFECTLY though its astounding...

 

[Nos]

i meant its pretty hard to have a decent conversation about a really famous band/artist with it going like 'yes, i like britneys new hair'. maybe i am an indie snob, maybe ive been influenced by my friends who feel the same as i do, but all i do is care about music, and if i wanted to listen to music in the charts/in magazines/on tv, i'd listen to westlife.

You = queer

 

[misspentlines]

ok so im an indie snob, i care about music and refuse to listen to copied cds. does this make me a bad person?

 

[Xtro]

ok so im an indie snob, i care about music and refuse to listen to copied cds. does this make me a bad person?

Hmm, smack a few of your mates and then come back to us for an answer.

 

[mank!]

I'd prefer bands I like not to get big for the pure and simple reason that I like to control how often I listen to something. I don't like Mad World as much as I did before it got to number one for the simple reason I've overlistened it and had no choice about it.

Yes, it's totally selfish.

 

[misspentlines]

you know ive just worked it out, you dont really care about music, you just listen to whatever comes on the radio, thus you wanting to make franz ferdinand famous so you wont have to go to any effort to listen to them...

 

[misspentlines]

i agree with mank

 

[Shovel]

Nope. I don't own a radio

I do see what Mank means, but that's all about choice? If you choose to listen to popular radio then yeah, you'll hear the playlist. I have MTV2/VH2/The Amp on almost permanently when I'm at home (not at the mo, since I'm at uni), and yeah, I like them to play songs I like.

But the popularity of a band I like doesn't make that band any less exciting or excellent. I'm a snob yeah, I look down on boy bands and I fucking hate Maroon 5 cause the vocal harmony sounds like nSync, but if I see/hear a great band then I bloody well want them to make it. I have undernourished dreams of bands like FF taking back the charts liberation style - not because it would make the charts mean anything - but cause it would be cool. No more, no less.

I learned the hard way that music is music: I once argued with someone on the subject of Gomez vs. Savage Garden. I argued that guitar trios were better than guitar solos. Classic.

But when it comes to it: Music is there to be enjoyed. Sometimes you get lucky and get you get bands emerge like Franz who happen to be made up of immensely talented, natural entertainers. They're exactly the kind of people who *should* be on the most lavish fucking stage with the most overblown announcer and thousands of people there to overinduldge in the spectacle.

What else, well: maybe you prefer small gigs to big gigs. So go see them now. They'll change, they'll make different music, maybe one day they'll play arenas, who knows. Enjoy them now and just let what comes next wash over you. That's what music is good at.

 

[mank!]

I do see what Mank means, but that's all about choice? If you choose to listen to popular radio then yeah, you'll hear the playlist. I have MTV2/VH2/The Amp on almost permanently when I'm at home (not at the mo, since I'm at uni), and yeah, I like them to play songs I like.

I listen to Radio 2, it's hardly the pinnacle of brilliant music and I don't mind that. I just hate silence and I can't play my own choice of music at work. I don't bother watching music television because I find most music videos boring and a lot of the stuff I listen to never ever gets played, not because it's obscure but because it's old. Anything current that I might like I avoid because it'll be played constantly and I'll get sick to death of it.

I don't see anything wrong with liking a band and wanting to keep them to yourself so you can treasure them and listen to them how you want and when you want.

 

[Doomy]

I think FF are perfectly average. At least from the single, doesnt make me want to go and buy their album.

Cherry Blossom Girl by Air in the charts is totally fucking excellent tho

 

[Xtro]

you know ive just worked it out, you dont really care about music, you just listen to whatever comes on the radio, thus you wanting to make franz ferdinand famous so you wont have to go to any effort to listen to them...

This comedy gold gets even better.

I want to buy you one of those LA LA LA I'm not listening hats.

I leave you in your state of ostrich like bliss warm with the knowledge that I can spell "Nottingham".

Remember, kids are starving in Africa man!

 

[misspentlines]

yeh im going to see FF i got tickets a few months a go, and im glad its at a small venue, i dont bother going to see bands playing larger places because theres no atmospher, i minds well save the money and watched it on tv. and when the gigs more intimate you dont just feel like 'another audience'. i cant see anything wrong in that or wanting to treasure a band either. a band acheiving real fame is like you being given this new amazing toy, then being told you have to share it with the annoying kid next door and you know its gonna come back broken.

 

[Shovel]

yeh im going to see FF i got tickets a few months a go, and im glad its at a small venue, i dont bother going to see bands playing larger places because theres no atmospher, i minds well save the money and watched it on tv. and when the gigs more intimate you dont just feel like 'another audience'. i cant see anything wrong in that or wanting to treasure a band either. a band acheiving real fame is like you being given this new amazing toy, then being told you have to share it with the annoying kid next door and you know its gonna come back broken.

Having been one of 15,000 people to see Radiohead in Manchester last year, I dispute the idea that big venues automatically mean "no atmosphere".

I do sympathise with the idea of "keeping a band", but I can't understand it any more. If there's a band who's great, tell the world. And his dog. Twice.

 

[mank!]

I do sympathise with the idea of "keeping a band", but I can't understand it any more. If there's a band who's great, tell the world. And his dog. Twice.

Why though? What is it going to give you? Nothing.

 

[misspentlines]

Why though? What is it going to give you? Nothing.

so true

 

[echo]

Agree really - I'm a complete music snob in most people's eyes (I begrudge getting a CD when I could get a record, and almost totally avoid mp3), and I love going to see a band in front of [sometimes literally] a few dozen people and feeling like you've been a PART OF AN EVENT, not just a spectator..
I've been to 'big' gigs in arenas and whatnot, and to toilet venues and I vastly prefered the intimacy of, for example, Herman Dune playing with the drummer on the edge of the stage playing on a saw (making some rather sexy noises), one guy at the back of the hall and one at the front of the stage with a guitar, made for a fantastic musical experience - something you couldn't have had if there were 10,000 people there.

Flame away, it's only my opinion.

 

[shanks]

why do you want franz ferdinad to do really well? why spoil the magic? dont you enjoy listening to really good bands that no one other than people like yourself have heard of? franz ferdiand are gonna be in every crappy magazine and on every teeny music show from now on *sigh* another band ruined, fame/over exposure is the death of most decent music...

Heh, being what we call a underground buff (although not indie im more of a extreme metal kind of guy) I hear this argument alot in discussions where conservative thought is thrown out. One fine example is black metal and the whole grim(original black metal) and the symphonic(newer more melodic black metal) battle. In this argument lays that the grim metal being here the more conservative part with the blastbeats, ice cold, almost clinic guitars and poor production whilst in recent years the more symphonic black metal bands have gained commercial success. Examples at a successful one is Dimmu Borgir. The argument from the conservatist being that black metal is something that should be played a certain way. The symphonic camp usually takes a more broadminded open view on the whole thing and thinks diversity is good and embrace it. I guess what im trying to say is that, just because a band happends to get public exposure does'nt necescarily mean it will get worse from there.

I can also understand your view on it, a band that has'nt gained commercial success is often more driven and interesting then others. That's why debut albums are often considered the best by alot of oldschool fans. Because the performer was hungry, the songs have often been around for years making the band add and remove elements to the songs to perfect it and the artists knows that they cant make a halfdecent record(demo) if they wanna get a deal for a album.

At the same time it's kinda wierd to wish a band to do half-well just for the sake of not being successful. If I like a artist alot I wish for them to be able to make music full time and truely focus on it. What I dont want is for them to get comfortable. Music needs drive and passion to not became stale and boring.

I also find the thought of selling out just because you happend to sell alot quite bizarre. There's a huge difference between selling alot of records and playing live on mtv infront of a bunch of screaming twelve year old's that probably never heard of the band before. What path they take is totally up to the band. Hope they are satisfied with only making music.

 

[shanks]

Why though? What is it going to give you? Nothing.

The satisfaction of bringing good music to someone else? Or am I being a "socialistic 70-s wannabe hippie flower-power thought" swede like always?

I love to tip people of about bands I like. Since I dont listen to anything that gets played anywhere (except maybe shoutcast) I just love to check thru the demo pile at my local cd store and find something I like. And if I do I tell people I know pretty much share my taste. I guess it's just my way of promoting underground bands.

 

[misspentlines]

if i hear a good band i tell my close friends, i dont jump about telling everyone i see...

 

[shanks]

if i hear a good band i tell my close friends, i dont jump about telling everyone i see...

If you read my post you might understand that im doing the same. It's not like im running around town yelling out my undying love for Septic Breed or standing around handing out flyers around school for some local band. I tell the people I know well enough to know they will enjoy it. Thus, my real life friends.

If someone ask's me however I might recommend something. But it's not like I seek to push new bands down people's throats. :touch:

 

[misspentlines]

yeah i do the same, i wasnt actually directing the comment at anyone in perticular, i was just sharing my er *thinks of word* situation(?) (yeah that will do)...

 

[Bodhi]

Tbh I think if no-one's heard of a band it's normally for a very good reason......



Not saying all underground music is poo but, well, most of it is.

 

[mank!]

Tbh I think if no-one's heard of a band it's normally for a very good reason......



Not saying all underground music is poo but, well, most of it is.

That is such complete and utter bollocks it's untrue.

 

[Bodhi]

Really?

 

[stubbyrulz]

theres a reason bands get big in the first place its ussually cos they've got tallent and theres ussually a reason bands go crap and thats got summet to do with courperate bullshit

 

[mank!]

Really?

Yes. How on earth can you make a claim so completely unfounded like that unless you've heard tonnes of 'underground' stuff? There are loads of bands who aren't huge that are absolutely fantastic. The fact they're not huge means absolutely nothing about their talent, just like being huge is in no way a reflection on their talent.

I will condede there are plenty of unsigned bands who are pure unadulterated wank and are unsigned for a very good reason though.

Just because you or anyone else hasn't heard of a band doesn't make them poo!

 

[Trem]

I do know what misspentlines means though, my heart has never sunk so low as when All Saints said they were going to cover a Pearl Jam song, after their utter pap cover of RHCP. They broke up though thank god.

Erm that was unrelated.............BUT, if I ever heard a Jeff Buckley song on an advert I would cry and then explode!!

Was that related?.....I JUST DON'T KNOW ANYMORE!

 

[mank!]

BUT, if I ever heard a Jeff Buckley song on an advert I would cry and then explode!!

Dunno why but you just made me think of something else. A lot of music is very personal to people and holds various meanings. There are songs that I find deeply personal and I would hate to hear them all over the place, partially because the songs don't carry good memories and also because I feel they are mine because of those meanings and memories.