Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
RCHP just dropped their "Shiny Happy People":
Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!
- Thread starter Count_Vader
- Start date
Max Sterling
Well-Known Member
These days RHCP write songs that sound like middle aged youth ministers writing songs trying to sound like RHCP.
Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
This will double-down on the Hot Takeyness: RCHP are just like Led Zeppelin...If we could just replace the lead singer, they'd be great because the music/musicianship is great.
Diaper Baby Escape Plan
Well-Known Diaper Baby
Id jettison Flea too. More style than substance. Wouldn't put him anywhere near JPJ.
Chad Smith is tight though.
Tillman
Well-Known Member
interested in the comparison to "Shiny Happy People"with this.
I'm a fan of them, but upon first listen this is pretty mid, but it's also pretty run of the mill for them so I'm genuinely curious as to this being their SHP.
Nee Lewman
बैस्टर्ड
This is true of all rock bands ever.
Nee Lewman
बैस्टर्ड
There’s hot takes and there’s just wrong takes. Gaye and Wonder revitalized Motown. Gordy had already started to beat the dead horse.
Viking Dan
Well-Known Member
Within seconds of the extremely stylized art production for the video leading into the intro of "ya, ya, yaa, yaaa, ya, ya, yaa, ya, ya, yaaaa, ya" x 2, Kiedis' arm swinging dance moves and and the nasally "centuries' of over use / now I wear it nice and loose" my brain instantly went here:
bettim84
Well-Known Member
My take is that One Hot Minute is the last good RHCP album.
DownIsTheNewUp
Well-Known Member
Working on my top 50 artists for @Lee Newman, I got one (that I've been leaning towards for years).
The Throwing Muses are a better band than the Pixies and the only reason anyone under 35 believes otherwise is because Fight Club was way bigger for the zeitgeist than Empire Records.
For those that don't know, Throwing Muses were the first American band to sign with 4AD and the Pixies opened for them during one of their 1st national tours...
Later Hearsh and Deal would leave their respective bands to form The Breeders... and while the Pixies would immediately fall off a cliff, Throwing Muses rebounded with a second career arch full of underated gems... most especially 1995's University.
The Real Ramona would be my suggested starting point.
The Throwing Muses are a better band than the Pixies and the only reason anyone under 35 believes otherwise is because Fight Club was way bigger for the zeitgeist than Empire Records.
For those that don't know, Throwing Muses were the first American band to sign with 4AD and the Pixies opened for them during one of their 1st national tours...
Later Hearsh and Deal would leave their respective bands to form The Breeders... and while the Pixies would immediately fall off a cliff, Throwing Muses rebounded with a second career arch full of underated gems... most especially 1995's University.
The Real Ramona would be my suggested starting point.
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Max Sterling
Well-Known Member
I only know this song from Empire Records.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
First off, since this is the hot take thread and I feel like destroying something beautiful, Empire Records is very overrated. That movie came out at a time when I was just discovering both music and cinema and very excited about it when it was released and was completely underwhelmed after seeing it. Sometimes I feel like maybe I am not at the right age to appreciate certain films initially, for example I feel like I had to grow into Reality Bites as I couldn’t fully appreciate the Listlessness of being a 20 something adult. That being said when I went back and rewatched Empire Records it was worse than I remember.
Also, Throwing Muses is a fine albeit underrated band, but I don’t really understand why The Pixies have anything to do with TM being underrated. Personally I learned about The Pixies the same way I learned about a lot of cool Underground bands from the 80s, I learned about them via Kurt Cobain. Just because The Throwing Muses might have got there first doesn’t mean they did it the best. Personally I prefer any of the Pixies first 4 LPs over any of the TM albums that I have heard and that doesn’t have anything to do with either Fight Club or Empire Records.
LiamGallaghersBucketHat
Go on, geezer.
Endtro
Well-Known Member
I learned about the Pixies because of Pump Up the Volume.
LiamGallaghersBucketHat
Go on, geezer.
I used to date a girl who was obsessed with Empire. She also worked music retail, so I’m sure that added to the obsession, but I never really got that movie.
LiamGallaghersBucketHat
Go on, geezer.
I know you. Not your name but your game.
DownIsTheNewUp
Well-Known Member
Empire Records is indeed a very mediocre movie that is mostly remembered for its charismatic cast and killer soundtrack.
As to the Pixies v. Throwing Muses side of things... the comparison always floats in my head because of their direct history via label, genre and side projects.
I'd start by saying that Nirvana was also my reference point for the Pixies... and I like them a LOT. I keep moving them in and out my top 50 list over on that other thread. I personally think Trompe is quite overrated but the other 3 are stone cold classics... And yet, I don't actually listen to Surfa that often because the way Black's voice meshes with its flavor of abrasive guitar requires a very specific mood.
In contrast, since discovering Throwing Muses, Hersh has become one of my favorite vocalists of all-time. Her voice is powerful yet fragile and whiskey soaked (ala Frances Quinlan). And I appreciate the way her and Donnelly always have an element of melody beneath their swirling guitars. As to how I came across Throwing Muses-- it was via Thom Yorke who mentioned them and Talk Talk as influences in an interview. Both bands are now all-time favs.
I do think the Pixies VERY clearly have a better greatest hits. But if I were ranking the albums as far as my tendency to put them on and listen all the way through:
(I'm gonna list the All-Music star rating)
1) TM: The Real Romona (1991) 4.5
2) P: Doolittle (1989) 5
3) TM: University (1995) TM 4.5
4) P: Bosanova (1990) 4.5
5) TM: Throwing Muses (1986) 5
6) P: Surfa Rosa (1988) 5
Basically all 6 albums are critically acclaimed and masterpieces of college rock in my book. I just lean a bit more towards the post-punk and folk meets alt-rock sound of TM than the surf-rock meets grunge sound of the Pixies.
And if we were to keep going with albums that are still interesting and in my rotation:
7) TM: Purgatory // Paradise (2013) 4
8) P: Trompe De Le Monde (1991) 4
9) TM: House Tornado (1988) 3.5
Limbo (1996), Red Heaven (1992) and Throwing Muses (2003) also have some really interesting moments and are generally well regarded which is more than anything you can say about post-Deal Pixies.
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Anyways, I was being pretty tongue and cheek about the Fight Club thing. Music junkies of all-ages already knew who they were. But I do think it turned them into a house hold name among millenials for the first time... which was then perpetuated by savvy use of other songs in soundtracks over the next ten years and that reunion tour.
In comparison, the Throwing Muses album that AllMusic gave 5 stars to isn't even up on Spotify. I thought for sure it would happen after Pitchfork did it for one of its retrospective Sunday reviews and gave it a 9.2 but here we are. And I've pretty much given up hope on any of them being re-issued on vinyl. Which is, frankly, sad because the band and their legacy deserve better.
Lastly-- this was definitely a long-winded response but you're one of my favorite people to chat music on here with and I'm hoping some people will check them out if they stumble across this tangent.
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TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Aw shucks!
Seriously though, I appreciate the kind words. Chatting about and debating music is fun and something I get to rarely take part in real life.
I still really like Empire Records. Maybe it is as @Ginormousthumbs said because I was in retail for so long as a teenager/early 20 something. I still love it for it's special brand of after school special innocence. Also, I wanted to be Lucas when I grew up.
I had no idea that the snake song was from TM so now I get a new discography to dive into.
Fight Club is one of those movies that impacted me a lot more when it came out but once I rewatched it as a 40 something, I think it's full of macho hubris that it beats over your head. While I enjoy a good "fuck the system" movie, I find FC to be visually stunning, but I feel its not subtle enough to impart the truth that it's attempting to show.
TenderLovingKiller®
Well-Known Member
Fully agree in regards to Fight Club. It’s a movie, along with Requiem For A Dream and Donny Darko; that I personally put too much weight behind being some sort of profound statement, that now, if I were to watch them 20+ years later; would see them for the heavy-handed, self-important messes they all sort of are. All three are still wildly creative and visually stunning, it’s just that they are mostly empty calories.
I will say, regarding Fight Club; it is one of the first movies that really tackled the concept of toxic masculinity, but it’s so stylized, that for many, it almost glorifies the very things that the film is trying to critique.