What Are You Listening To?

[Halloween_22]

Originally Posted by cloud

I much preferred the Thrash and Grunge fads of the late '80s and early '90s though. Wow, they were the days! Well from what I can remember, I was very young.

Yeah, early 90's grunge is great. Stuff like Alice in Chains (Dirt is an absolute masterpiece ), Pearl Jam, Mother Love Bone, Temple of the Dog etc. I don't mind some stuff by Stone Temple Pilots and Soundgarden but I'm not a huge fan.

One band I could never stand, and still cant, is Nirvana Possibly the most overhyped band of all time, total rubbish IMO. They're not a patch on Alice in Chains (or any of the other bands I mentioned above for that matter) but yet they get so much praise, I honestly dont see the appeal.

[cloud]

In my mind there is no doubt that Nirvana are and were an incredibly overrated band. I can respect the fact that they opened the floodgates with Smells Like Teen Spirit because up until then Grunge didn't have that much mainstream exposure. Thing is though there were many better bands around the time and my favourite was Alice In Chains. I was absolutely gutted when I heard Layne Staley had topped himself back in late 2001 early 2002 I think it was. He was such a wasted talent and should have given the music world years more but unfortunately he was another rock star who couldn't resist temptation, I understand he was barely recognisable in his final months because of all the heroin abuse. His voice was incredible and as far as great frontmen go I put him alongside legends such as Axl Rose, Maynard James Keenan, Dave Mustaine and Phil Anselmo.
By the way, have you heard Jerry Cantrell's two solo albums? The first one I thought was scratchy but Degradation Trip Vol. I & II was intense and was made in the aftermath of Staley's death.

Going back to Nirvana I regard their "BLEACH" album as a decent early effort, merging the punk sound adopted by a lot of bands of the time with their own touch that wouldn't really evolve properly until their NEVERMIND album. That album was good with some classics but the one album I've never been able to get into was IN UTERO, that was quite a slog I thought and was Nirvana at their most boring though there was the odd decent song like "RAPE ME". Their B-sides album INCESTICIDE was also rather pointless.
I did buy their BEST OF THE BOX album earlier this year (though I still need to get the box set) and it really showed a different side to Nirvana and changed my opinion somewhat. Some songs of there were genuinely beautiful pieces that they should have released a lot sooner. Their acoustic songs in particlar were very nice and should be listened to ASAP if you haven't already.

[Halloween_22]

Yeah, Alice in Chains really are something else, absolutely incredible band. I was gutted when I heard about Layne Staleys death aswell, he really was one of the greatest vocalists of all time. Dirt is, and always will be, one of my favourite albums, its an amazing piece of work, really beautiful but at the same time so dark, painful and tragic. 'Would?' is one of the most moving songs I've ever heard and still gives me goosebumps listening to it now.

I've heard Jerry Cantrell's Degradation Trip album, I dont own it personally but my sister does and it really is good. Theres some really powerful and quite moving tracks on there aswell. Was it that that Robert Trujillo (whose now in Metallica) played bass on?

Sorry mate but Nirvana do nothing for me whatsoever. My girlfriends always been quite heavily into them so I've heard plenty of their songs and I just cant get into them. She's got all their stuff pretty much so I've heard a good deal of it, they're just not for me I'm afraid. I'm glad you agree that they're highly overrated, for some reason, no one I know can seem to see that fact

[cloud]

Dirt is a great album I agree. I also love their self titled album that most others seem to hate. There is some crap on there but there are also some really good songs that show AIC at their darkest. Do you have their Music Bank box set? If not it's worth buying as it contains a few unreleased songs/demos etc and looks great on the shelf.

Yeah Robert Trujillo played on Cantrell's Degradation Trip album, I think he also played on at least one Ozzy Osbourne album too, so a real journeyman there . I don't listen to it very much unless I'm in a really bad mood because it's just too depressing! You ought to get the reissued set though that contains 25 songs instead of 14, a good collectors item.

What do you think to Pearl Jam then?

[Halloween_22]

Originally Posted by cloud

What do you think to Pearl Jam then?

I really like their old stuff. I own 'VS' and '10' which are really great albums. I also recently picked up 'Rearview Mirror' their best of collection but I found myself skipping a lot of the newer material, wasn't too keen on it. My sister lent me their newest album (I think it's the self titled one) which was alright, dont think I'd buy it though, it's not a patch on their early 90's stuff.

I got AIC's Music bank box set from Music Zone back before it shut down I liked their self titled album aswell I must admit and 'Facelift' was great too, I thought some of the stuff on the 'SAP/ Jar of Flies' EP's was really good, 'Nutshell''s another of my favourite songs by them. Did you ever hear Layne Staley's other band Mad Season? their album 'Above' is definatley worth checking out, although it's pretty depressing aswell, it's got a real dark and sombre mood to it.

[trench]

When people talk about grunge music, why does no-one ever mention the Screaming Trees? Only the greatest grunge band, although they transcended the genre to be fair. Kurt Cobain was a Trees groupie (and good friend of Trees vocalist Mark Lanegan), and Lanegan and Staley were incredibly close friends. As for Mad Season, they featured Barret Martin (Trees drummer) and Mark Lanegan on guest vocals. Apparently after the first album, the band were thinking of getting rid of Staley, replacing him Lanegan and calling themselves Disinformation.

[cloud]

Yeah, the only Pearl Jam album I've really liked has been TEN. But even that was overproduced. The songs live are 100x better than recorded. The rest of their work has ranged from good to middling to poor in my mind. Vs. was inconsistent, Vitalogy likewise, Yield and Binaural were average and in parts poor, No Code was terrible and Riot Act was fairly good. I ain't heard their 2006 effort yet though.

Regarding Screaming Trees. Well it's been a long time since I listened to them but don't recall ever being bowled over by them. I do like Mark Lanegan's work with Queens Of The Stone Age though.

Any Trees song recommendations? I might revisit them.

[Mojo]

My eardrums have exploded after seeing the fantastic Airbourne live in Newcastle last night. Awesome!!

[cloud]

Originally Posted by cloud

Any Trees song recommendations? I might revisit them.

Judging by the silence I'm guessing they mustn't have any good songs...


I'm just about to place my pre-order for Chinese Democracy . And it'll be the first time I've ever pre-ordered anything I think.

So who else is getting Chinese Democracy (aka the best album of 2008)?.

[TALL DUDE]

Originally Posted by Mojo

My eardrums have exploded after seeing the fantastic Airbourne live in Newcastle last night. Awesome!!

Glad u enjoyed it. They played at the glasgow barrowland on saturday the 15th.Pissed that i couldnt go,what with xmas coming up and all that bollocks.
What was the support band like? Stone gods were it not?
Heard a couple of tracks from their silver spoons and broken bones debut,and their really good,very consistent.

Im probably sticking my neck out here,but i prefer the airbourne album to the new ac/dc one.