Monday, May 2, 2011
HERE WE ARE NOW, ENTERTAIN US: I was out with friends on Friday night and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on at the bar, prompting a discussion of how it still sounds fresh and modern despite being recorded 20 years ago. That fact makes the utterly unnecessary Miley Cyrus cover of the song perhaps even more disturbing.
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Oh, I dunno -- that looked like the audience really enjoyed it. Did she record it and release it, or just do it as an encore for fun? Saying a Miley Cyrus song is unnecessary is like saying the same of an appendix.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet... it's still not as bad as Casey Abrams' version.
ReplyDeleteSide note, a topic that came up before the Pixies' concert the other night: What bands who debuted in the late-80s will get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the next few years, as they become eligible? I figure that Pixies and Nirvana are both no-brainers... but who else? I actually first thought about this at a Melissa Etheridge concert a couple of months ago. She's got the longevity, the Oscar, the Grammies, the triumph-over-cancer and out/proud lesbian stories... but is her musical legacy enough to get her in?
The Paul Anka version is fun.
ReplyDeleteFuture Rock Hall is our all-purpose source. Seeming locks:
ReplyDelete2011: Guns 'N' Roses (interesting--Soundgarden, Lyle Lovett, Salt N Pepa, They Might Be Giants)
2012: Pixies, Public Enemy (interesting--NWA, Jane's Addiction)
2013: Nirvana (interesting--Phish, Morrisey)
... and of course, there's a website to easily track this info. (Much easier than me looking at wikipedia's "Musical groups established in 198x" pages...) Also, I can't believe I didn't think of GnR.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Phish is getting in. I don't personally like them, so it doesn't break my heart, but it just feels like they fall prey to the same reasoning and biases that's kept Rush out.
ReplyDeletePhish is beloved by the Wenner/Rolling Stone crowd in a way that Rush isn't, though. The Grateful Dead are in (who are the closest comparable in many ways), so I see them going in.
ReplyDeleteThere must be something in the air today. I heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time in ages this afternoon and thought the same thing. Then I thought maybe I was biased because it meant so much to me in the early '90s. But my 13-year-old nephew is currently in an early Green Day/anything AC/DC/Led Zeppelin phase. He looked stunned when I told him I had the Green Day CD--like there was no possible way I could like the same thing as him 15 years before he actually heard it. Maybe I have to turn him on to my college favorites. A little Soundgarden or Smashing Pumpkins can't hurt, right?
ReplyDeletePixies aren't getting in unless they expand the definition of "influencers" to include more contemporary groups. Huskers and the Minutemen haven't exactly made a shortlist, and I just don't see it happening given that it's all Critic's Darling, zero on Sales.<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteThe Pixies are beloved by the people who matter--folks like Jann Wenner and his cabal. I think they probably get in, though honestly, I'd like to see Cheap Trick in there. For all the snark, there's some really good songcraft.
ReplyDeleteNever quite understood what Wenner has against Rush.
ReplyDeleteThat's a little like saying "I don't understand what people have against King Crimson" or "I don't understand what people have against Captain Beefheart" or "I don't understand what people have against Of Montreal." Perfectly defensible artists if you like them; inscrutable if you don't. And I say that as a person who likes one of the four bands referenced. You are a Rush fan or you aren't. I don't know that there is such a thing as a casual Rush fan.
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean that Miley Cyrus is a common cause for emergency surgery?
ReplyDeleteExcept that Rush was a staple of AOR radio in it's waning days of the '80s the way those other bands never were. Tom Sawyer and Limelight, at least, are Classic Rock staples, where "Court of the Crimson King" for example, isn't.
ReplyDeletew/r/t the Pixies, they were a much better (at least bigger) singles band than either Husker Du or the Minutemen, and that probably makes them seem like a more influential band today. The relevant comp here might actually be Grandmaster Flash (influential in a new genre, with a couple monster singles but a small output of albums that weren't sales behemoths).
ReplyDeleteI was in 7th Grade when that song came out -- a little too young to get the significance of Nevermind displacing Michael Jackson at the top of the charts, but old enough to appreciate the theme and loud guitars.
ReplyDeleteI was at a Bar Mitzvah where door prizes included cassingles of smells like teens spirit and good vibrations by marky mark.
I've been waiting for this moment all my life. Hold on.
ReplyDelete