ahead of their time
 

which bands do you think qualify in this often said phrase?

I would say the Velvet Underground (duh!) and the Monks

Jimi Hendrix

I think VU are the prime example of a band ahead of their time.

The Residents. But they're ahead of time itself.

I'd say more outside of time, cheesy synths stopped being synonymous with THE FUTURE a decade ago, which I'm kind of sad about actually.

Yellow Swans.
Arab on Radar.

Captain Beefheart
Michael Yonkers
The Fugs
Yahowha 13
Pentagram
Les Rallizes Denudes
VU
Residents
Throbbing Gristle
Kraftwerk
TVBC


I will think of some more later I'm sure.

Vyachaslav Mescherin's Orchestra of Electro-Musical Instruments

Kraftwerk definitely, yes.

Many have also already been mentioned, but I would also say Buddy Holly was.

Throbbing Gristle.

Psychik TV.

RED HOT CHILI PEPepers. duh.

Nah, seriously. No-one is ever really ahead of their time. There are just good, induvidual artists who are ripped off a decade or so later on.

Psychick TV were really onto something up until around 1986/87. Too bad about what happened after that.

jimi and the vu

Isn't being underappreciated in your own time only to be revered or influential later on the definition of being "ahead of one's time?"

The Carter Family


Countless other early American recording artists, that fall into the genres of blues, jazz, and folk.

John Fahey
Robbie Basho
The Stooges
Earth
Ruins (kind of, they really don't sound like they were around in the 80's)
Repulsion
Neurosis (doing a similar thing to Isis, Cult of Luna but years before)
Slugfuckers
Rocket From the Tombs
Electric Eeels
Suicide

Earth
Throbbing Gristle
KRAFTWERK (I dig these guys so much now)
Parliment-Funkadelic
Dr.Octagon
Bjork
Dalek
Velvet Underground

yeah yeah, we all know: "__________________ (insert favorite bands) are/(if broken up) were so ahead of their time"

so yeah, let's all hear how sebadoh and the strokes are ahead of their time. of course, we know sonic youth and my bloody valentine were ahead of their time.

stupid thread.

Devo were so ahead of their time, no one has even caught up to their maxi-turtlenecks yet.

D

E

V

O

DEVO!

Yeah, man.

One has to be able to apply objective standards though.

I don't like Throbbing Gristle. Yet I recognise them as innovative musicians.

So I am not merely "inserting" my favourite bands. And to be honest, I can't see that everyone else is either.

Threads are what people make them, I agree. But it's not a stupid question.

What about bands behind their time?

What about musicians outside their time,then?
Sun Ra,Moondog,Haino etc would all fall into that category.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Could possibly have been a good band if they could have devised something that was actually original sounding.

:D

Good call on sun ra!

I saw the Devo hats in the EMP museum in Seattle. They have Michael Jackson's rhinestone glove and some of Kurt Cobain's shitty t-shirts too. CHECK IT OUT next time you're there.

do you mean heino?

Nope,i meant Keiji Haino but Mr Heino himself certainly 'looked' outside of his time.He's been my desktop background for a long while now......

of course, i was only joking... but the sad thing is, i've never heard any of heino's records. but then again maybe it's better that way... the sleeves look so cool the actual music would most certainly be a disappointment.



as for keiji haino, he's of course totally timeless...

by the way, they're both always wearing shades... coinsidence?

A more important category. I was having an argument about the 'ahead of their time' category the other day. For me, having a song-structure which is analogous to a pre-existing form doesn't make someone ahead of their time. The Sex Pistols, for instance, weren't particularly ahead of their time, but were 'different' within the context of the late-70s, so long as that context is a very narrow one. Likewise VU. I like them a lot (less so these days perhaps) but that's not because they were ahead of their time, but because they were good. Very few, perhaps none, had used their devices within a rock context, but rock isn't the sine qua non of music. Their more radical songs (say Black Angel's Death Song, All tomorrows Parties and Sister Ray) were certainly not ideas of structures that were used within electric rock, but within a wider context (looking at things like Drones out of India or the Ashkinasi [sp?]/ Romany/ Spanish/ Fado guitar tradition) they are certainly not that radical. This isn't a criticism per se, because their music is good, but I don't think it's ahead of its time. For me, something is ahead of its time if there are no forbears (hehe) to whom they can be compared. So, some of John Cage's work, bits of Wagner or Stockhausen or Schoenberg or those sorts are 'ahead of their time' in so far as they operate at the avant-garde of music. There are a load more names I could throw in. I really like Throbbing Gristle, and for me they come the closest to someone being 'ahead of their time' within the rock context, but even so they still operate within a continuum of music, albeit one several times removed from the ambit of 'rock criticism'.

Charlie Parker
Lennie Tristano
Miles Davis
John Coltrane
John Lennon
Jimi Hendrix
John Cale
Syd Barrett
Frank Zappa
Laurie Anderson
Brian Eno

Harry Partch would definitely be one of the "outside of time" folks along with the likes of Moondog, etc.

This is so stupid, Hayden.

I would say Terre Thaemlitz cca 1996-7.

kraftwerk ofcourse

musicians/bands ahead of their time. This is hard to define. I would say it involves bands or musicians that are so out there that it takes years or a decade or more for music fans to catch up to what they were doing.

in that sense Kraftwerk was definitly ahead of their time.

I would say sonic youth around the confusion/bad moon rising era were ahead of their time and it took ove 15 years for everyone to catch back up.

I say the VU because they sang about stuff that is STILL taboo today. and best of all, a 60's band that hasn't been reduced to "classic rock" radio.

Like the Darkness?