Post-Rock sucks and is stupid. Mogwai rules

[echodeluxe]

mmm yeah, rock my post baby.

[Dungus]

Played with Mogwai in 1995 with my first band, you could tell they were onto something special, but we didn't know what post-rock was back then so it might have been the one and only time they've ever been likened to an 'instrumental Smashing Pumpkins'. They liked my Sebadoh t-shirt, but then didn't talk to me after we played (because they obviously thought we were shite - which we were, I was 15. Alex from Franz Ferdinand was the sound guy that night, too haha), which was kind of sad. (((Someone mentioned Ganger earlier, too! Jesus, haven't thought of them in a long time!))) Anyways, post-rock became so formulaic that I grew very tired very quickly. You get the quiet bit, you get the loud bit, basic rock has more tricks up its sleeves these days. The thing that truly set Mogwai apart for us was how their loud parts sounded compared to all the other bands. Listen to Christmas Steps or Like Herod, I didn't hear a lot of bands growing up who went to those sorts of extremes.

Bands like Do Make Say Think and Godspeed will alway have a special place in my pants because they didn't feel compelled to trot out the same old tricks with every song. & Yet & Yet is a stunning album with such a beautiful and very subtle attention to detail (Winter Hymn probably even more so) that you don't hear very often. Where are all the post rock bands recording to tape with a few mics in a house somewhere? Everything is so clinical and delay pedal and boring.

[D.o.S.]

Yeah I think that's kind of the problem with a lot of these easily flooded genres is that the formula is so fucking pervasive that you don't need to listen to a band to figure out exactly what they sound like. If Millions Now Living came out today some dickhead with a blog would spend 1,000 words explaining why it wasn't post rock in the slightest.

[Dungus]

Yeah I think that's kind of the problem with a lot of these easily flooded genres is that the formula is so fucking pervasive that you don't need to listen to a band to figure out exactly what they sound like. If Millions Now Living came out today some dickhead with a blog would spend 1,000 words explaining why it wasn't post rock in the slightest.

Imagine a band today writing Glass Museum. Full vibraphone shit, rock-out tempo change mid-section that sounds like Rodan or something and everything else. You don't really expect much when you hear a post-rock band these days.

[D.o.S.]

I WANT MY DOTTED EIGHTS AND I WANT SWELLS AND I WANT IT NOW

[Eivind August]

Dotted swells.

[spacelordmother]

Dotted swells.

Fucking genius!

[tremolo3]

Agree.
Somene put some white text to a U2 picture

[gunslinger_burrito]

I've been so jaded about music lately. I get so tired so quickly of hearing bands imitate those that did something new. I have yet to hear a "new" doom or post-rock band that doesn't sound like a rehash of something else. I'd rather listen to post-rock than many other things, given the choice, but when I see a local post-rock band I kind of want to roll my eyes. In a way, I could see pop music in all its incarnations being the only genre that's unapologetic about having repetitive motifs.

All that being said, I still like a fair amount of Mogwai and Godspeed. Although I do think Mogwai repeat themselves a bit much.

I'd like to see a day (in a fantasy/ideal-universe) where good songwriting is good songwriting, regardless of genre, and gets recognized as such.

just be stationary envelope!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK

I see what you did there.....

[Faldoe]

I've been so jaded about music lately. I get so tired so quickly of hearing bands imitate those that did something new. I have yet to hear a "new" doom or post-rock band that doesn't sound like a rehash of something else. I'd rather listen to post-rock than many other things, given the choice, but when I see a local post-rock band I kind of want to roll my eyes. In a way, I could see pop music in all its incarnations being the only genre that's unapologetic about having repetitive motifs.

All that being said, I still like a fair amount of Mogwai and Godspeed. Although I do think Mogwai repeat themselves a bit much.

I'd like to see a day (in a fantasy/ideal-universe) where good songwriting is good songwriting, regardless of genre, and gets recognized as such.

just be stationary envelope!!! FUCK FUCK FUCK

I see what you did there.....

It's true and with lots of bands on the local level. At my practice studio its a lot of people doing stock death metal, some post rock, punk. There have been some bands that sound interesting though and that always pleases me a lot.

[daseb]

I've gotta say I've been playing shows for nearly 20 years at this point and it's always been like that to some extent. There's just more of everything now because the internet makes it easier for you to adopt a whole new look and sound in an evening.

But you know...my band plays shows with three bands full of people in their very early 20s mixing a whole heap of disparate shit into new takes on the old things and it's awesome. It makes all the formulaic, insincere, playing it to get big stuff look shitty by comparison and then you become that dude who apparently hates everything because you don't like mediocrity. But still. There's always gonna be good music if you search it out.

[casecandy]

LOL, POST rock bands pushing the ENVELOPE.

I geeeeeet it

[jrmy]

There's always gonna be good music if you search it out.

Quoting because I feel like I say this every damned day to all of my friends who have given up on doing just that.

Stupid old people. Feh.

[D.o.S.]

Say what you will about the power of independent music, shit was way easier when the only easy way to find out what was new and rad was by what was getting played on the radio.

[jrmy]

Say what you will about the power of independent music, shit was way easier when the only easy way to find out what was new and rad was by what was getting played on the radio.

Easier, maybe. But I feel like I've discovered so much more since I started finding stuff online. Sure, the old stuff I discovered through the radio and raiding my dad's tape collection had primacy, but I really enjoy hunting new (or new to me) stuff down.