Controversial Opinions

[Chankgeez]

Yeah, but at least we'll never figure out what's the best fuzz for doom.

[Dandolin]

Pll's and ring mods are the worst sounding pedals on the planet that both could easily be fixed by making them sound less shitty.

I don't know about that, jwar--it might be like candy coating cabbage
pll's gonna pll
One man's shitt is another man's mousse

Actually, I kinda agree with you on the sound of pll. Ring mod though? Just tune that shit low and Iommi it out, or trem it--it's one of the bestest, warmerest trem sounds evar.

Bah.
Moose.

[Lurker13]

Anyone in a German car, ordered in terms of asshole-ness from VW, which has a fair chance of being alright, through BMW, Audi and finally guillotine fodder Mercedes

imma have to disagree with you there...in my experience BMW drivers are by far the worst. Merc drivers seem to be a more staid lot, while BMW guys all appear to think they're road rally drivers somewhere in the annoyingly twisty part of the Mille Miglia. VW drivers are so generic as to be harmless.

i would definitely not touch a German car unless i was rolling in dough. in fact, given my experience over the last 30 years the likelihood of me choosing anything other than a Toyota is vanishingly small. every Toyota i've had has been dependable, well-designed, and durable af.

In my experience, BMW drivers are far and away the worst drivers in the history of the planet.

[dubkitty]

OK, this should be good:

New York punk is totally over-rated. most of that shit wasn't faintly transgressive even in 1976. Blondie were lame pop pretending to have an edge, no more "punk" than Tom Petty (who was also sold as "New Wave"; his first album cover portrait has him in a motorcycle jacket and studded bracelet); Television, who i quite like, were really only a left-hand-path take on Quicksilver Messenger Service right down to Tom Verlaine's warbly Cipollina vibrato work; Talking Heads, who i love, were essentially safe and didn't challenge anything greater than the personal ("Don't Worry About The Government," anyone?), and the rockist bands like the Dead Boys and Dictators were more or less KISS with even less competence, charm, or sex appeal. Patti Smith? please. i like some of her post-comeback stuff, but in her original guise she was a piss-poor poet, a very limited songwriter (did she ever write a decent song prior to "Dancing Barefoot"?), a singer whose attitude failed to compensate for the lack of a singing voice, and insufferably arrogant and thoughtless ("Rastafarianism belongs to us now"...she actually said that. don't ever read her liner notess for the Tapper Zukie reissue...you'll thank me later). say it with me, preferably in Mark E. Smith voice: P. O. S. E. U. R.

for that matter, NYC post-punk is also totally over-valued. nobody needed all that fake-jazz shit like James Chance and Arto Lindsey then and we sure don't need their soulless descendants now, the Nels Clines and so on. the best American punk and post-punk came not from the coasts but from the South and Midwest: Hüsker Dü, Pere Ubu, DEVO, R.E.M., Slint. and the New York avant-garde would have been far less bearable without the influence of Chicagoan Laurie Anderson.

to really go the distance, the Velvet Underground are also very over-rated. they influenced a thousand bands, and many of them were frankly far, far better. their playing was horribly limited, and the rhythm section was a joke. and i think they were a very negative input to the musical discourse. unsurprisingly as an old post-hippie, i think that Bill Graham and the San Francisco scene were right about the VU: they were bad-trip merchants, selling ugliness and negativity as reportage with no regard for responsibility or consequence. and i like the Velvet Underground.

[Chankgeez]

About all that warrants:

[dubkitty]

so non-controversial then.

[Chankgeez]

butterscotch pudding, dubs, butterscotch pudding!

[dubkitty]

some of this is a reaction to Brian Eno's Twitter feed, which typically arrives in periodic thirty-Tweet clumps which are usually at least 60% links to fawning internet pieces on the VU and New York punk. it's particularly weird to me that he's so obsessed with New York shit when British punk/post-punk was so much better and more interesting in literally every way.

[dubkitty]

oh, fuck, not pudding again! i still need to lose 25 pounds!

[Chankgeez]

Oh, in that case, chia pudding is the best pudding.

[dubkitty]

please let that not be pudding with weird little sprouts in it. i was a California freak, but sprouts make me turn green.

[Sonaboy]

playing in your church's P&W band is the Participation Trophy of gigging.

[dubkitty]

i've tried to imagine what it'd be like to play in a P&W band, and i just can't get to it. what do you do, wail on a soulful guitar solo over verse 5 of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"?

[friendship]

Trans-Siberian Orchestra is the only valid and acceptable P&W band.

[dubkitty]

i should also have gotten to the New York Dolls, who were utterly pathetic junkie poseurs from the boroughs who desperately wanted to be the Rolling Stones but lacked the requisite musicianship, material, discipline, and sex appeal.

the Ramones? i've said since the 1980s that the Ramones are an inside joke that does not amuse me. i didn't/don't care about their source material (Spector girl-group pop, mid-60s garage rock) or their deliberately stupid take on it, and find them reactionary in every way. given their approach, it's not that surprising that Joey turned out to be a crypto-fascist. it is, however, very surprising to reflect on how their 7/4/76 performance at the London Roundhouse jump-started London punk (but not the superior Manc version which took off from the Free Trade Hall Sex Pistols gig).