😤 LET’S ARGUE! 😤 (June 2023 Thread)

Jim Ross is as important to the wide acclaim of the attitude era as The Rock and Stone Cold

Drake Parker

Exmilitary should be the last DG album people should listen to

Andrew Shaktah

Kendrick's newer stuff is better than anything he put out, before and including TPAB. I loved DAMN, and Mr Morale and the Big Steppers is my favorite record of his. I just feel that sonically, Damn and MMATBS are more polished and satisfying to the ear than his older stuff.

FuturisticPat

The parental advisory sticker and the nutrition facts label have the same energy

Drake Parker

There's also great jazz like Dave McMurray, Sons of Kemet, Groundtruther/Charlie Hunter are great artists I can think of

Kai (From KaisTestKitchen)

I think King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard would be a good band to introduce him to. Obviously not the entire discography from front to back but something like: Rats Nest, Ommeriun gatherum, or PetDragon. Even other bands/artists like: Rancid or King Krule. There's so much more to rock than the classics (no disrespect)

Kai (From KaisTestKitchen)

Hey Anthony, here is a question. My dad has been listening to the same songs for years (specially Highway Star by Deep Purple), which it isn't a problem, but i am tired of hearing it at full volume all the time when i don't want to. Do you have some more modern bands and/or albums recommendations for someone like him from who have a similar sound to Deep Purple or even Led Zeppelin (obviously not Greta) so we can listen together to something? I am not someone who knows much about music and almost everything i show him, he kinda ignores it, and i wanna connect with my father through music. He also likes Jazz artists like Monk.

Brown sugar holds up well. It’s disgusting to listen to and intentionally so. The song points out the sexual hypocrisy of racists and their willingness to look at others as lesser while still wanting them sexually. While I understand the want to revaluate artists from the past, brown sugar is as pertinent and important today as other Rolling Stones songs such as mothers little helper and 19th nervous breakdown. The song showcases a lyrical edge and social insight to Mick Jagger that wasn’t apparent in many other so called hippies and revolutionaries of the time and I think it’s a shame that the band thought it necessary to pull the song from live shows after recent(ish) backlash. I’m much more in line with Keith richards take in it being about the horrors of slavery. Just because a song makes you uncomfortable with it’s subject matter doesn’t mean it’s bad to me.

Brendan

Influence is a bad way to judge an album/artist. I find the concept of influence to be very vague and hard to judge for one. Influence with a good foundation and backed evidence is hard to come by. To a further point there are an absurd amount of brilliant albums with no attention and little apparent influence that are no less important than many so called, “influential albums”. While influence can have cool historic context, I think it’s as meaningless to an albums /artists overall quality as sales figures or popularity.

Brendan

Janet Jackson's Velvet Rope is much better than any Michael Jackson album. This is not a controversial take, MJ never went truly deep and personal in his songwriting and dance bops are fine but emotional gratification is much more rare to find. Janet was brave enough to go there, MJ not so much.

Hendrix

I prefer the Breeders over the Pixies. Sue me. I think there's an argument to be made in favor of Pod and Last Splash compared to Doolittle, Surfer Rosa,... Kim Deal's vocals are God tier, I respect Frank Black but the Breeders have a playful, charming and fun vibe and their music exhilarates me more than the Pixies, sry.

Hendrix

In many if not most cases, the people who have hatred (not just impartiality) for Hobo Johnson are likely just uncomfortable with male vulnerability. While some may defend themselves and point to artists like Kendrick or IDLES to prove that they have no issue, they are missing that fact that toxic masculinity culture has permitted certain methods of expressing vulnerability when paired with a masculine delivery or aesthetic. It’s okay if Hobo Johnson is not your cup of tea, but the hatred and anger towards him rarely comes from a valid place.

Nick Denhalter

I am not sure how tough of a question this is, but it is one I have been really wanting to ask you: When you listen to an album on vinyl that has the tracks in a drastically different order than on the CD or digital versions (Such as The Seer by Swans) do you listen to it in the order it is in on the vinyl, or do you manually play each track in the order they were released in outside of the vinyl release? And would your answer differ for an album where only 2 adjacent tracks are switched (Such as on To Be Kind)?

If you could get any two artists to collaborate and guarantee they would produce a 10/10 album, who would you pick? Would you go for a complimentary pairing or something chaotic just to see what happens (i.e. Merzbow + Taylor Swift)?

Florencio

One of the more baffling decisions on Billboard's Disney songs list is the fact that they didn't put Pink Elephants on Parade in the Top 25. The track sounds a good 25-30 years ahead of it's time with it's dark, psychedelic undercurrents, non-Western influences, cacophonies and all around total weirdness as Billboard describes it. Sure, you were never going to see The Beatles, The Velvets, Frank Zappa or Pink Floyd cite the track as influential on them. Despite this, you can definitely pick up on certain aspects of the song that they would all flirt with during the late '60s.

Nick

brazil's baile funk scene is producing the most unorthodox and interesting dance music in the entire world right now

jeff

“The way out” is the books’ best album

I think it's actually grown on him a bit. He put on his 200 favourite albums of the 2010s list.

Nick

In the grand scheme of things, while I think Billboard is still known as a prominent name, I don't necessarily think it has a huge influence on the world of music anymore. These days, I mainly view those charts as a way for hardcore internet music fans to try and one-up each other with stats about who has more number ones and trying to make the statistics on streaming or physical releases more bloated in order to give their favorite artist a boost. When, in reality, or at least my own, I don't see the charts as highly influential, for a good portion of people have their own music tastes and don't really let the charts dictate what they should listen to. I mean, looking at the top of the streaming charts on Apple Music, and only half the songs in the current Billboard Hot 100 (as I am writing this take) is represented there. Plus, on a more personal note, the only time I really pay attention to them is when a song that I really enjoyed does surprisingly well on the charts. So yeah, while it's still a big name, I don't really see Billboard as having a huge influence as I once thought it had a few years back, especially with streaming in the game now.

ToadMan101

Loveless is the only stone cold classic shoegaze album. I love the genre but it ultimately didn't really catch on in the mainstream because it was too weird and it died with a whimper, thought it's influence can still be heard today in for instance Tame Impala. I still listen to Slowdive, etc. but I'm not convinced that the average normie knows what shoegaze is and that's a shame. Loveless is unique, it sounds both blistering and loud and incredibly soft and tender and there's arguments to be made that it's the most creative album of the '90s. The power of the album is such that you never comprehend a word of the lyrics and it's still emotionally crushing just through the genius instrumentals and the expressive production.

Hendrix

Underrating Carrie & Lowell = being dead inside. Who hurt you Melon? It's okay. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

Hendrix

Sleep Token Good Melon Bad

What is you favorite music documentary of all time? Or do you prefer concert films to music docs? I think music docs should focus on the music and not the drama. The recent Velvet Underground and Bowie docs do this well: they take an impressionist approach and just pair images with songs. It's also exhilarating to watch the creative process of songwriting up close, like in the recent Beatles doc.

Hendrix