Amazing bands that turned amzingly shit...
 

The first that comes to mind is SPK. Jesus, they were incredible! The first three eps and "Information Overload Unit" are some of the best dada freeform electronics noise ever created, and with beats to boot! People called them industrial or post punk because there really wasn't any better term to describe them with. But SPK were the original in the lineage of bands that includes Runzilstern and Gurgelstock, Nautical Almanac, Rubber O Cement, Crank Sturgeon, and others. But damn, they then became a motherfuckind disco band? Not even a decent disco band with a couple catchy hits, but just iredeemable trash. Aklnos tarnishshes the SPK name.

that's right, i went there

Throbbing Gristle. I think they're just embarrassing themselves now.

hahahha.

right on man.

I find the early industrial work kind of boring in hindsight. I still have
Zamia Lehmanni: Songs of Byzantine FlowersLP 1986 which has amore Cocteau Twins favor and is closer to his contemporary work as Graeme now does studio film soundtracks. I go to see action movies and then get surprised to see Graeme listed. I don't see SPK in the same lineage as you do, they were on Industrial records which puts them in the TG/Cab Voltaire world. They were a late 70's band! Those other bands are followers, 3rd generation.

You just can't have enough dada freeform electronics noise in your life.

xiu xiu.... from knife play to women as lovers.......

Dinosaur Jr.

Yeah, Industrial was just a term used to describe late 70s/early80s electronic music that couldn't be playe in a club. The bands were drastically different. I'm actually glad TG is still touring, as long as its touring and releasing unreleased material and not recrding new full lengths I'm cool with it. But, they don't compare to the level of lameness that SPK acheived.

Unfortunately, there's this hunk of shit:

Butthole Surfers

the endless not sucked but they have a new tour disc that's pretty good.

i wouldn't say cat power is amazingly shitty now, but she's definitely taken a turn for the worse (musically) once she sobered up and quit being so loopy.

C'mon, Chan.
We want our lush back.

I think with a lot of 'alternative' bands, once they've lost it, they've lost it. Anyone who's heard Johnny Cash 76-90 knows how drastic the turnaround can be. That goes for Dolly 86-97 as well. All about country, I tells 'ee.

Strict.

This happens alot in hip-hop/rap. Almost everyone eventually turns to shit and becomes a parody of their former selves.

Yeah, right.

aw hells naw son, you take that back.

radiohead.

I thought they were really onto something with kid a. In Rainbows was one of the worst albums of all time though.

I've always liked her stuff.
When do you think she 'lost it', like album-wise.

Yes.
Although, I wouldn't say one of the worst of all time. But really, it's worse than all of their other stuff, even Pablo Honey.

Maybe not the worst of all time but definitely the most boring. I have more trouble sitting through that record than any other at the top of my head. Just nothing interesting or exciting about it whatsoever. Yeah I like Pablo Honey better than In Rainbows... at least Pablo Honey, in a big dumb rock way, has some energetic moments.

The Cure
Pink Floyd
Verve ("A Storm In Heaven" is easily among my favorite psychedelic LPs of the 1990s, but what they turned into.....is not)
Ride (see above, replace with "Nowhere")
Flaming Lips
Laibach
Hawkwind
Metallica

Yes, on In Rainbows I feel like turning it off when I reach Bodysnatchers.

That's EXACTLY how I feel. Finally, someone who feels exactly like I do!!

Obvious one but Smashing Pumpkins circa 96/97.

Gish = Amazing album
SD = Amazing Album
MCIS = Overrated shit
Adore = Amazing Album
Machina = Over produced shit
Machina II = Pretty good
Zeitgeist = Political shit

Every Hardcore band that didn't break up after 2 albums max (except for Black Flag who went on to make excellent hard rock records like Slip It In). Same thing goes for Death Metal & Grindcore.

-Rolling Stones
-Napalm Death
-Death
-Christian Death
-Meat Puppets
-Cabaret Voltaire

She just lost it with the Greatest.
Also, In Rainbows is a very fine album, a firm step in the right direction again after Hail to the Thief (which was indeed shitty). Kid A on the other hand (while being an interesting transition record) isn't the magnum opus the American press tried make it.

The Cure is probably the most dramatic example. Other cases include Sigur Ros (there was a time when it wasn't just Coldplay with Icelandic lyrics), A Silver MT. Zion (if only he didn't sing) & REM.

I've only heard 'Lived In Bars' from The Greatest, and I fucking love that song. I haven't heard Jukebox or her new EP yet either.

Before or after Bodysnatchers? 'cause Bodysnatchers is a jaaaaam.

after moon pix. that is to say it was after moon pix that her music started to move away from the qualities i found enjoyable to listen to.

I'm not sure how "amazing" these bands were/are, but I still lament them turning shitty: Verve, Mercury Rev, Monster Magnet and The Apples in Stereo.

Mercury Rev has been a huge disappoinment since "Boces". "See You On the Other Side" was a huge let down for me, but I learned to like it. "Deserter's Songs" was okay, but things just weren't the same.

I really dug Monster Magnet's "Spine of God", "Tab 25" and their S/T ep, but I can't listen to anything after that. "Superjudge" has some okay tunes, but everything after that is pure shit.

The Apples lost me with "The Velocity of Sound" and I haven't bothered to check out "New Magnetic Wonder".

I thought velocity of sound was great!

Really? Maybe I should revisit it. At the time it reminded me too much of the radio-friendly pop-punk that was going on at that time.

Metallica of course
Flaming Lips
Mercury Rev
Sunny Day Real Estate (but they're back now with the original lineup)
Smashing Pumpkins are another obvious one

100% agree with that. How can a band that wrote Nod Scene or Zodiac Lung become so awful so quickly?

Frank Black?

wasnt she always shitty??? (ducks under nearest rock)...

(sticks head up above rock to shout out)
butthole surfers - everything after hairway is rubbish
mercury rev- everything after boces with the exception of see you is boring twaddle
flaming lips- everything after clouds is boring twaddle and yoshimi coupled with at war are possibly the worst 70 minutes of music ive ever had the mispleasure of enduring....
interpol- stunning debut, ok second album, appalling third album

and you will know us by the trail of the dead- first 2 or 3 releases were damn fine and then they dissappeared up their own artyarses..the new one is ok tho....

the cure- friday im in love vs pornography...enough said.....
therapy?- amazing debut (babyteeth) turned into converse squeltching stadium rockers or a poor mans ac.dc very quickly, now just pantomime....

new order- they should have never gone to ibiza...that killed them....

lush- superb dayglo showgaze to ultra hip indie pop.....

Weezer