The resurgence of awful bands (Panic at the Disco, Fall Out Boy, The Academy Is)

IceBus · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:07

Prepare yourself for a rant.

I can tolerate a fair bit of bad music but I've finally had my fill of this new crud and I'm beginning to realise how lucky we were when the worst we had to worry about was Coldplay.

I've chosen to group these three bands together as they all suffer a lot of the same maladies, but they're not alone.

What is it with the absolutely dire quality of lyrical content that seems to lapped up by adoring teenage fans at the minute? Panic At The Disco are particularly awful in this respect as they seem to think that two sentences repeated ad infinitum constitute a chorus. Metaphors stretched to absolute breaking point also seem to be the "in" thing. i.e. "You kiss me like an overdramatic actor, who's starving for work with one last shot to make it happen... You won the role, you've played your part, you've been cordially invited but I'm not impressed, and I'm definately not excited cause the film has a shallow budget and the writer's subject script isn't any deeper" For those of you who forgot what we were talking about, the original subject matter was in fact a kiss. Crazy eh?

The thing that gets to me more than anything though is the complete inability to write a good vocal pattern and stick to it. The only rule is to cram as many multi-syllabic words into as few lines as possible to the point where they're practically reciting a dictionary definition of every hackneyed sentiment they're trying to get across.

The most annoying thing are the bands who have a tiny piece of talent, or one good song... A song kicks in and you think "Hey this album might be worth checking out..." then you get the album and the song you liked is completely unrepresentative and you're left with an expensive coaster. More emotionally damaging are the times you think a song is going to be great, the intro kicks in and sounds great then immediately gets destroyed by the most contrite chirpy verse/chorus imaginable (particular offenders here are Yellowcard).

I absolutely despise this scattergun approach to songwriting and album releases. It seems to be a manifesto of "If we put a little bit of everything on the album, then we can maximise the number of saps who think it might actually be worth buying!".

Thank **** the new Tool album comes out in under a week.

<deep breaths>

jakeke · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:15

hah i may agree a little, i know i shouldn't - but i enjoy some P!ATD and FOB songs, they're so damn catchy

make me want to dance!
another thing that's kinda annoying is the length of the song titles, what's going on there : (

Nitefly · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:23

Not sure about any of those bands, but I'm bored sick of this new 'garage; rock movement....

Some bland riff recorded poorly with a rubbish singer singing in that 'franz ferdinand / kaiser chiefs' way about nothing in particular with a one chord chorus.....

Sorry, it was never great and now its just boring....

Move along please, nothing to see here....

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:26

OmGz I sO HeArT Panic. <3 xxxx

BrEnDoN iS sO hOt <3 <3 <3 ~-'

'-~

nD I tOtAlLy bUm FaLl OuT BoY. PeTeR iS GoRge, I bUm HiM So HaRd.

DoN't DisS FOB AnD PaNic! ThEy r beSt bAnDs EvA <3 <3 <3 <3

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:28

jakeke said:
hah i may agree a little, i know i shouldn't - but i enjoy some P!ATD and FOB songs, they're so damn catchy make me want to dance!
another thing that's kinda annoying is the length of the song titles, what's going on there : (

Heaven forbid lengthy song titles. They shouldn't be allowed should they :mad:

jakeke · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:31

hah, i'm trying to tell whether that was sarcastic or not

either way i am not too fussed, but they do seem un neccesserily long
'There's A Good Reason These Tables Are Numbered Honey, You Just Haven't Thought Of It Yet', par example

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:35

1. Alone and unaware, the landscape was transformed in front of our eyes.
2. Buildings began to stretch wide across the sky, and the air filled with a reddish glow.
3. The soundless dawn came alive as cities began to mark the horizon.
4. Mechanical sounds cascaded through the city walls and everyone reveled in their ignorance.
5. A brief moment of clarity broke through the deafening hum, but it was too late.
6. Our happiest days slowly began to turn into dust.
7. The sixth extinction crept up slowly, like sunlight through the shutters, as we looked back in regret.

Red Sparowes - At The Soundless Dawn.

Doesn't really annoy me though, if they want to name their songs that way, they are welcome to.

SideWinder · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:37

Mm. They're part of the new 'scene emo' that is rising in popularity with FoB as the main headline. They have released over 3 albums now, the 'right' people had heard of them before TOTPs etc got their claws into them.

If my memory serves me right, i believe it was down to one of the guys in Panic! that got The Academy Is... signed onto the same record label - friends etc.

Spud21 · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:45

Makes life easier though, your listening away to FOB (god knows why) and someone else with equally dismal taste in music comes along and asks what the song is, normally it may be on word like parabol, or if you unlucky something like the astonishing panorama of the end times, but no with bands like that it takes you as long to tell someone what the song is called as the song it's self lasts

I have to deal with the wonderful tones of FOB on a regular basis at work and my god it's *****.

nero120 · 24 Apr 2006 at 13:51

Oh how I agree! But remember friends, this music is easily digestable, bitesize chunks for the youth of today. Not for sophisticated people such as ourselves!

Personally I love Foo Fighters style rock, and am surprised that there are not more bands around playing this kind of straightforward melodic rock. I would have thought it would be very comercially applicable right now.

Sic · 24 Apr 2006 at 16:56

Carzy said:
1. Alone and unaware, the landscape was transformed in front of our eyes.
2. Buildings began to stretch wide across the sky, and the air filled with a reddish glow.
3. The soundless dawn came alive as cities began to mark the horizon.
4. Mechanical sounds cascaded through the city walls and everyone reveled in their ignorance.
5. A brief moment of clarity broke through the deafening hum, but it was too late.
6. Our happiest days slowly began to turn into dust.
7. The sixth extinction crept up slowly, like sunlight through the shutters, as we looked back in regret.

Red Sparowes - At The Soundless Dawn.

Doesn't really annoy me though, if they want to name their songs that way, they are welcome to.

just reading those song titles makes me unreasonably moist. it's true

Big Chris · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:30

Sic said:
just reading those song titles makes me unreasonably moist. it's true

Their not 'arf bad songs either.

lemonkettaz · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:35

arent they all 13 these bands....

all the little girls and gay boys wet them selves at any oppertunity when a "punk" pop band come out.

worst thing is about it all... they are useless on the guitar... a lot of bands are really pap when it comes to guitar and bass.

P.S. its the whole miserable "emo" youth culture that is bubbling to the surface all of a sudden... its becoming increasingly rare to see a chav nowadays, so isnt the chav the new "cool".. i thought being punk/emo/indie was all about breaking from the norm....not joining the biggest social group in the history of the world ever

Also all this carp reminds me of one thing.. myspace

Doohickey · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:45

Can someone explain to me what part of Fall Out Boy is emo?

And before anyone gets the wrong impression, I'm not defending FOB, just questioning genre-lisations (Edit: that worked quite nicely) these days. I've seen Razorlight branded as 'punk' recently :rolleyes:

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:48

Doohickey said:
Can someone explain to me what part of Fall Out Boy is emo?

And before anyone gets the wrong impression, I'm not defending FOB, just questioning genre-lisations (Edit: that worked quite nicely) these days. I've seen Razorlight branded as 'punk' recently

They aren't. People just think they are

lemonkettaz · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:48

all the "emo" kids like them... unfortunate for them. but they are very kiddyfied anyways.

personally i think "emo" is a load of tosh... if it means emotive then surely everyone is emo because the music we all listen to makes us feel something... but i dont know.. no doubt some emo will flame me

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:54

lemonkettaz said:
all the "emo" kids like them... unfortunate for them. but they are very kiddyfied anyways.

personally i think "emo" is a load of tosh... if it means emotive then surely everyone is emo because the music we all listen to makes us feel something... but i dont know.. no doubt some emo will flame me

Proper emo isn't a load of tosh. This new bastardised version of it is though. And Panic! + FOB don't fall into that category anyway. Plus there's no such thing as an "emo". It means emotional because it tends to be sung or shouted in a vocal style that sounds more emotional than your standard vocals and lyrically it's often pretty raw. There is a difference, just compare U2 to any proper emo band.

lemonkettaz · 24 Apr 2006 at 17:59

so every singer is emo really.. besides them out of kraftwerk... cant really define that as emotional vocals

edit:

These bands might not want the labels.. but its only the people that following them... loads of "punk"pop kids like Panic! and FOB

Carzy · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:04

lemonkettaz said:
so every singer is emo really.. besides them out of kraftwerk... cant really define that as emotional vocals

edit:

These bands might not want the labels.. but its only the people that following them... loads of "punk"pop kids like Panic! and FOB

There's more too it than just my post above, in terms of the guitar sound of emo bands etc etc. But I can't be bothered to explain it in full when it's easy to find out about it.

Arcade Fire · 24 Apr 2006 at 18:05

www.fourfa.com