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Originally Posted by noisereductions
I didn't think you were being a dick. I got what you meant. "Why be a music nerd if you're going to just like what everyone else says is good?" right? And I agree. Whatever. I like stuff you don't. You like stuff I don't. It really doesn't matter.
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To be clear. I don't think you actually like anything that I actively dislike. I don't
like the Pumpkins, but I don't actively hate the idea of their existence. I was a teen in the late '90s after all, and they felt important then.
** Plus, they made some undeniably good alt rock songs back in the early-mid '90s.
Weezer is another one I don't actively hate. I mean, shit dog, I'm exactly old enough to have experience maximum Weezer impact. Blue came out and was my soindtrack for awkward girl encounters, then a few years later I had matured just enough to appreciate the flippant and manic-depressive oddballness of Pinkerton. Those albums, for a while, felt as vital to the American indie/alt rock scene as Pavement's first two. Of course, I was older and smart enough to be *mostly* disappointed when the Green album came out, but I still caught them in concert that year and continued to buy their albums until... well... the next one, at which point I stopped buying Weezer albums forever. Who needed Maladroit in 2001? Those were Kid A/mesiac days, and I fancied myself far too sophisticated for a band that had turned into the aural equivalent of a "Revenge of the Nerds" movie.
And Pearl Jam? Man. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I was lucky enough to experience some of the benefits of the seattle sound explosion in real time (seeing Nirvana, thank the good lord, even if I was too young to remember much about it, catching Mudhoney for free at Pain in the Grass, etc.), so I will always be at least a part-time Pearl Jam fan. I waited in line for Vs. I saw them perform on a tour that recently made Rolling Stone's list of the 50 best concerts of the last 50 years. I don't think they've released anything of any consequence in quite a while, but Binaural had some flickers of hope. "God's Dice" was a banger and good live. I forget what else is on there, but this was the album where my interest began to wane.
Anyway, PJ has good songs and a few truly great ones speckled throughout their too-long career, and I'll always have a place in my heart for everything after TEN and before Riot Act. Vitalolgy is an underestimated album in '90s rock history. It was not as massive culturally as VS or Ten, but it was still HUGE. Their last truly HUGE album. And it predicted the return of vinyl. And it had some really interesting and bizarre tracks with a sound that I wish the band had toyed with more ("Tremor Christ," "Last Exit," "Spin the black Circle," "Not for You," .... but mostly "Tremor Christ," because that song just rocks like a White Album Beatles joint. Kicks the shit out of "Black Hole Sun," that's for sure).
Aaaaannnyway, I don't remember Binaural being a big commercial success. It sold less than Yield, which sold less than No Code, which sold less than Vitalogy, which sold less than Vs, which sold less than Ten. I remember reviewing largely tepid/so-so reviews of it. "Nothing as it seems" was a weird lead single. So slow. So I'm not sure where you're getting your intel on that, but whatever dog.
Point is, you like some bands that I may not
like, but it's not like you're into shit that I hate. And even if you were, it wouldn't matter because you are a cool dude.
** I still think a lot of the Pumpkins' singles had some serious firepower, and I voted for "1979" as the class song for my high school graduating class... it got some votes, and made it into the top 3 or whatever, but mostly it just puzzled people who insisted that, because it wasn't 1979, the song didn't make sense (idiots), but I voted for it because it was HUGE across cliques and classes when we first made the jump to high school form junior high, and, not only that, but it's a song about nostalgia, so.. yeah. I forget what won, but it wasn't that song. And I was *really* stoned during the ceremony, so if someone performed whatever song was chosen, my memories of it are blurred.