Brandon Flowers

[MalaCloudy Black]

Rites of Spring > Brandon Flowers

What kind of faggy ass last name is that anyway.

[zero]

Anyone here who knows me knows my opinion of the Killers and especially Brandon Flowers, I hate them more than any band on the planet. However, he has a bit of a point here. The Fall Out Boy Generation has spawned a shit ton of horrible bands with only a few actually being listenable. Fall Out Boy, the Used, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights, Motion City Soundtrack and maybe a few others I'm forgetting from that scene are really the only ones I can tolerate. The rest is the same shit they do when any other fad takes off, record labels sign any band that sounds even remotely similar. Korn and Limp Bizkit hit it big and then we get an influx of nothing but shitty rap rock bands. You get a handful of decent bands (and many will argue the bands I listed aren't even decent), and then you get the same cookie cutter shit. Although I find it hilarious that Flowers is attacking that scene when the Killers aren't exactly aiming for a much different audience. 13 year old girls listen to Fall Out Boy, while their 17 year old sister listen to the Killers...

[Skummy]

The same can be said for any genre, really. A few bands make it big, the labels are going to go out and sign what they can that fits the mold. A large proportion of those bands are bound to be shite, and to sound even moreso when there's hundreds of them doing the exact same thing.

[Benji]

Fall Out Boy, the Used, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights, Motion City Soundtrack

Bar Hawthorne and MCR, IIRC all the other bands were around before FOB.

[Liam]

I assumed MCR had been around about the same amount of time as FOB, just because they only got big on their 2nd or was it 3rd album? Whichever.

Actually, allmusic.com has both their first releases as 2002.

[Cactus Drags]

I'm sure Motion City Soundtrack were around before FOB.

[zero]

Fall Out Boy, the Used, My Chemical Romance, Taking Back Sunday, Hawthorne Heights, Motion City Soundtrack

Bar Hawthorne and MCR, IIRC all the other bands were around before FOB.

That's not the point I was trying to make. They all have somewhat similar styles of music and got popular roughly around the same time with Fall Out Boy being at the top of the heap, that's why I called it the FOB Generation.

[livid]

What the fuck is Brandon Flowers and the people who agree with him going on about? He is NO way right, or justified in what he said. He simply states emo is dangerous, provides no insight and than makes fun of Fallout Boy (surprise, surprise). People are blowing this whole emo thing WAY out of proporition. Yes, there are some REALLY shitty emo bands, but there are some great emo bands out there. It is honestly like any other sub-genre out there. It is a musical trend.... it'll go away soon and something new will rise to take it's place (my bet is on progressive polka punk.)

[ROC]

Since we're on the subject of emo, am I the only one annoyed to shit by the screamo trend started by bands like Underoath and From First to Last? I mean, I understand screaming in songs and shit, but at least in metal, there's kickass riffs to justify it. In screamo, it's just pansy guitars. Then again, Tuscaloosa seems to be the capital of shitty screamo shit music.

[RPS]

Name one "great" emo band.

Ok. Some of these are arguable, but you could classify albums or bodies of their work as emo. And some of these can be considered emocore, screamo, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. And I'll give you some albums to check out.

Lifetime (Hello Bastards)

Sunny Day Real Estate (Diary)

Saves the Day (Through Being Cool, Sound the Alarm)

The Promise Ring (30 Degrees Everywhere)

At The Drive In (In Casino Out)

Weezer (Pinkerton)

Jimmy Eat World (Clarity, Bleed American.)

The Get Up Kids (Something To Write Home About)

Moneen (Are We Really Happy With Who We Are, The Theory of Harmonial Value)

Jets to Brazil (Orange Rhyming Dictionary)

Alexisonfire (Alexisonfire)

But really me posting this entire list was pointless. Every genre has great bands and every genre has awful bands. Nu-metal, grunge, pop-punk, disco, prog rock, hip-hop, jazz, r&b, garage rock, whatever... emo is the flavor of the month, but soon it'll fade away. Or at least, when the kids grow up.

[Liam]

Yeah, but very few of those bands even mentioned will be remembered past the next decade. I know that isn't the definition of great, but some form of longevity would help.

[Ananas]

Name one "great" emo band.

Ok. Some of these are arguable, but you could classify albums or bodies of their work as emo. And some of these can be considered emocore, screamo, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. And I'll give you some albums to check out.

Lifetime (Hello Bastards)

Sunny Day Real Estate (Diary)

Saves the Day (Through Being Cool, Sound the Alarm)

The Promise Ring (30 Degrees Everywhere)

At The Drive In (In Casino Out)

Weezer (Pinkerton)

Jimmy Eat World (Clarity, Bleed American.)

The Get Up Kids (Something To Write Home About)

Moneen (Are We Really Happy With Who We Are, The Theory of Harmonial Value)

Jets to Brazil (Orange Rhyming Dictionary)

Alexisonfire (Alexisonfire)

But really me posting this entire list was pointless. Every genre has great bands and every genre has awful bands. Nu-metal, grunge, pop-punk, disco, prog rock, hip-hop, jazz, r&b, garage rock, whatever... emo is the flavor of the month, but soon it'll fade away. Or at least, when the kids grow up.

[livid]

Name one "great" emo band.

Ok. Some of these are arguable, but you could classify albums or bodies of their work as emo. And some of these can be considered emocore, screamo, or whatever the kids are calling it these days. And I'll give you some albums to check out.

Lifetime (Hello Bastards)

Sunny Day Real Estate (Diary)

Saves the Day (Through Being Cool, Sound the Alarm)

The Promise Ring (30 Degrees Everywhere)

At The Drive In (In Casino Out)

Weezer (Pinkerton)

Jimmy Eat World (Clarity, Bleed American.)

The Get Up Kids (Something To Write Home About)

Moneen (Are We Really Happy With Who We Are, The Theory of Harmonial Value)

Jets to Brazil (Orange Rhyming Dictionary)

Alexisonfire (Alexisonfire)

But really me posting this entire list was pointless. Every genre has great bands and every genre has awful bands. Nu-metal, grunge, pop-punk, disco, prog rock, hip-hop, jazz, r&b, garage rock, whatever... emo is the flavor of the month, but soon it'll fade away. Or at least, when the kids grow up.

[Only In Dreams]

Pete you forgot to mention Jimmy Eat World's EP as one of the albums to check out.

That EP "Stay on My Side Tonight" was probably the very first EP I actually listened to that made me crave for more. That EP itself showed the maturity of Jimmy Eat World as individuals, and as a group as a whole.

From that EP all the songs Bar the remix of Drugs or Me is excellent.

--

But on the Flowers deal, as I do like The Killers myself, as I find them a different type of rock band with the glam sounds and what not, he's a idiot. That's all I can say, I even hate Fall Out Boy, but when someone enjoy's your record, don't be a dick about it because they are "Emo".

Ah, I don't know.. Maybe he's has a big head because Hot Fuss was such a great album in the minds of the Academy. Just produce a follow up for Hot Fuss, it's been a long time already.

[Guest KoRnCHiLD]

Unless you are looking at the older stuff, cos I can dig me some JEW.

[Skummy]

But how can you argue that a band's great when half the population that don't listen to that genre have never heard of them? You don't have to like Led Zeppelin, but you know who they are. You don't have to like Metallica, but you know they are. Get the drift here? None of these bands in the current era of music (all of music, possibly), like Liam said, will be remembered and that is a bar of success at times.

I completely disagree with that argument. Just because one band's more popular or more well-known doesn't mean it's greater. By that logic, all these emo bands like FOB and MCR are "great", because more people have heard of them then have heard of some of the (much better) bands that PRP just listed, when that's clearly not true.

In my opinion, Carnival In Coal are one of, if not, the greatest metal band in the world. Yet not even the tiniest fraction of people who have heard of Metallica will have heard of them, does that make Metallica better? Fuck no, it doesn't.

[Liam]

But how can you argue that a band's great when half the population that don't listen to that genre have never heard of them? You don't have to like Led Zeppelin, but you know who they are. You don't have to like Metallica, but you know they are. Get the drift here? None of these bands in the current era of music (all of music, possibly), like Liam said, will be remembered and that is a bar of success at times.

I completely disagree with that argument. Just because one band's more popular or more well-known doesn't mean it's greater. By that logic, all these emo bands like FOB and MCR are "great", because more people have heard of them then have heard of some of the (much better) bands that PRP just listed, when that's clearly not true.

Not exactly, because Livid is suggesting that its not only how many people who are aware of them, but its some form of longevity (like I suggested). If a band doesn't have that, then rarely is a band held up as being "great", unless they came in, changed the music scene somewhat/threatened to be huge and then crashed and burned before truly reaching their zenith (At The Drive-in, Nirvana....I'm sure there are others). It isn't always going to be agreed on, as you suggested with your Carnival In Coal/Metallica comparison, but then the general consensus would disagree rather than agree with you, I guess.

I know how many people who know and like someone isn't a bar for greatness, but the fact that there is a huge possibility that very few of the big emo bands will last, let alone be remembered, is indicitive of what I percieve as a lack of it. It's a shit way of putting it, but yeah...

Edited June 29, 2006 by liamwannabe

[Skummy]

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't really see longevity as any kind of measuring stick. There's a lot of shite bands that are well known just because they've been around so long, while some of the best bands I've ever heard never really made an impact, and weren't around very long, or haven't been around very long.

[Liam]

Well, since there isn't a measuring stick for talent or how good a band is, I guess those who have been around for long enough must be doing something right, whether I like them or not. Not always the fairest way to look at it.

[YI]

I'd have one hell of a hard time calling Alexisonfire and Weezer emo. Alexisonfire's music sounds a hell of a lot different than the U.S. mainstream shit that Flowers is talking about, and I don't find anything profoundly emotional about their music either.