Ever Been Hoodwinked By A Band?

AlexC

By this I mean - have you ever bought music by or heard an act that you thought were going to be totally different? In this age of YouTube I know that there’s no excuse, but I still get caught out. 20 years plus ago I was always buying records on hearsay rather than actual listening experience - sometimes it worked out. many times it didn’t.
The Grateful Dead - read so much about what a great player J Garcia was and how they used to do these long jams. Bought a couple of albums (at the same time) and ended up with some hippy styled country stuff. Not what I was expecting. My Chemical Romance... goth rock, thinks I. Guitar based pop as it turns out. Pleasant enough. I assumed The Killers were grungy alt rock. Turns out they sound like The Cure.
I appreciate that it isn’t the artist’s fault, just a consumer misunderstanding on my part.
Over to you and your examples...

prowla

Eric Clapton was supposed to be God.
He wasn't.

EricTheWeary

I think I’ve told this story before but it seems relevant here:

maybe 35 years ago the BBC showed a series of concerts broadcast live from Germany ( may have been in the Rockpalast series, dunno). Part of the idea, IIRC, was to demonstrate the technology that allowed them to do it. Anyway, due to the time difference it meant these things started at about midnight. So, waiting up on a school night , yawning, and watching the various shows until the early hours. One night this process was repeated for The Grateful Dead . I’d seen pictures - long hair, guitars, skulls; looked like my kind of ( rock) thang. Yep, hippie country noodling. Hated it. 

Grangousier

The album that sounds like what I always thought Grateful Dead really should sound like is John Oswald's Grayfolded (which is stitched together from something like thirty years worth of recordings of Dark Star). Actually, Live Dead as well. 

On another forum a long time ago there were fervent admirers of Cardiacs, who I was convinced were a sort of Cramps-like punkabilly outfit, which isn't really my cup of snakebite. When I found out that this is not the case, I became one of the fervent admirers. 

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

I think I’ve told this story before but it seems relevant here:

maybe 35 years ago the BBC showed a series of concerts broadcast live from Germany ( may have been in the Rockpalast series, dunno). Part of the idea, IIRC, was to demonstrate the technology that allowed them to do it. Anyway, due to the time difference it meant these things started at about midnight. So, waiting up on a school night , yawning, and watching the various shows until the early hours. One night this process was repeated for The Grateful Dead . I’d seen pictures - long hair, guitars, skulls; looked like my kind of ( rock) thang. Yep, hippie country noodling. Hated it. 

I remember watching that.  I'd always been fascinated by The Grateful Dead - I had a book called West Coast Story which had a chapter on them, I loved their '60s posters and had them all over my room at university, even had a couple of T-shirts... but when I heard the records they did nothing for me.

That said, I loved that show on the BBC.  I was fascinated by the closeups of Garcia's guitar and just watching him playing, even though it wasn't my kind of music.  A bit like jazz - I can't listen to it on record but I like watching it played live.

Megii

ICBM

Skunk Anansie.

On the basis of three singles I heard on the radio I thought they were good.

On the basis of the two albums I bought I thought they were shit...


The only album I can remember buying without ever hearing the band was the first Tangerine Dream album I had - I'd always heard them mentioned in the same context as Kraftwerk, so it was quite a surprise to find there were no vocals at all. I loved the music though, and still do.

UnclePsychosis

AlexC said:

. I assumed The Killers were grungy alt rock. Turns out they sound like The Cure.

-hold on a second. This means there's either two bands named The Killers or two named The Cure. Which is it??? 

munckee

Steely Dan, one of the legendary bands, heard a great song in a music shop by them and bought their greatest hits, one of my biggest disappointments.  Same goes for Led Zeppelin can't get over Robert Plant's shrieky girl voice.

All my mates raved over Kasabian when they first came out and never really got into them either.

Neill

This has happened to me loads of times. Years ago there was so little "rock" music on TV and radio so what you got into was a bit of a lottery depending on who your friends were and what bands played in your town.   

I remember buying a ticket to see Thunderclap Newman back in the 70's, they had a big hit with "Something in the Air" in the 60's and I had seen footage of the band on TV so I thought better than just sitting in the pub.  It was surreal, there was just two of them, a big hairy fat bloke sat at a piano and I can't remember what the other guy did.  The highlight of the set was a version of "The Old Bazaar in Cairo".

The most boring hour and a half of my life was a concert by the ironically named band Renaissance who I had been persuaded to see by a mate whose judgement I trusted.   I renamed them Loadanonssance thereafter.

I've also been hoodwinked by concert organisers many times. Back in the punk rock days it was quite something if the bands on stage actually matched the names on the poster/tickets.  Sometimes this was a blessing and sometimes it was weird.  I went to see Clayson and the Argonauts once and found myself listening to Alvin Lee.  Nothing against Alvin lee but he's about as far from Alan Clayson as you can get.

 

 

 

Phil_aka_Pip

prowla said:

Eric Clapton was supposed to be God.
He wasn't.

Give him his due, he never claimed to be and tried to back out of the limelight when other people were putting him on the pedestal.

AlexC

Just thought of another one - Kiss. They look like they’re going to be the heaviest band ever. They’re not. Met a guy who said to me “to really appreciate how brilliant they are you need to hear Destroyer.” When I told him it was Destroyer I’d listened to and thought it was crap he was dumbfounded.

EricTheWeary

AlexC said:

Just thought of another one - Kiss. They look like they’re going to be the heaviest band ever. They’re not. Met a guy who said to me “to really appreciate how brilliant they are you need to hear Destroyer.” When I told him it was Destroyer I’d listened to and thought it was crap he was dumbfounded.

When I was getting into rock bands in the late 70s there were a number of established acts who's names I'd seen but turned out to be rather less rawk than I'd imagined. KISS and Styx come to mind. Barclay James Harvest FFS. 
When I readjusted my expectations I grew to quite like KISS as that sort of gumball party rocknroll type thing.
Ted Nugent was another - expecting savage heavy metal and got sped up Chuck Berry licks. Again, I quite liked it in the end but the initial listening experience was one of wondering when the actual rock bit was going to start. 
Even Led Zeppelin as the Godfathers of heavy metal and I had the dawning realisation that they did a lot of folk rock. By contrast Black Sabbath did exactly what it said on the tin. 

ICBM

EricTheWeary said:

When I was getting into rock bands in the late 70s there were a number of established acts who's names I'd seen but turned out to be rather less rawk than I'd imagined. KISS and Styx come to mind. Barclay James Harvest FFS.

I never expected BJH to be very rock - I assumed they were more folky, from the name. Then when I heard them I found I was right... folk-rock with the occasional fuzzy guitar. (And it is a great sound, I've always wondered what John Lees used.)

Neill

ICBM said:

EricTheWeary said:

When I was getting into rock bands in the late 70s there were a number of established acts who's names I'd seen but turned out to be rather less rawk than I'd imagined. KISS and Styx come to mind. Barclay James Harvest FFS.

I never expected BJH to be very rock - I assumed they were more folky, from the name. Then when I heard them I found I was right... folk-rock with the occasional fuzzy guitar. (And it is a great sound, I've always wondered what John Lees used.)

Sandwiched between Amazing Blondel and the Beach Boys I have three BJH LP's which haven't seen a turntable in some 40 years.  One of the tracks is titled "Poor Man's Moody Blues" which they intended to be ironic as that's the label they were tagged with back in the early 70's.  

I would guess they used an MXR fuzzbox there wasn't a lot of choice is those days was there. 

ICBM

Neill said:

I would guess they used an MXR fuzzbox there wasn't a lot of choice is those days was there. 

I don't think so - it's much more primitive-sounding than that, and I think he used it earlier than MXR existed. My guess would be something British - I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Colorsound or something, although I haven't found one that seems to get it yet.

Ironically I think it's better than the sound Justin Hayward in the real Moody Blues used, which was a rare Marshall stand-alone fuzz unit - slightly smaller than a 20W head with similar styling, although solid state not valve.

Philly_Q

EricTheWeary said:

AlexC said:

Just thought of another one - Kiss. They look like they’re going to be the heaviest band ever. They’re not. Met a guy who said to me “to really appreciate how brilliant they are you need to hear Destroyer.” When I told him it was Destroyer I’d listened to and thought it was crap he was dumbfounded.

When I was getting into rock bands in the late 70s there were a number of established acts who's names I'd seen but turned out to be rather less rawk than I'd imagined. KISS and Styx come to mind. Barclay James Harvest FFS. 
When I readjusted my expectations I grew to quite like KISS as that sort of gumball party rocknroll type thing.
Ted Nugent was another - expecting savage heavy metal and got sped up Chuck Berry licks. Again, I quite liked it in the end but the initial listening experience was one of wondering when the actual rock bit was going to start. 
Even Led Zeppelin as the Godfathers of heavy metal and I had the dawning realisation that they did a lot of folk rock. By contrast Black Sabbath did exactly what it said on the tin. 

I know what you mean.  The early Kiss albums do sound pretty feeble, not helped at all by the weedy production (without wishing to upset anyone, I've always had a similar problem with Thin Lizzy).

With Styx, the first song I heard was Renegade, which is actually pretty kick-ass... the albums are rather different, but there are some great songs and I do like the vocals (I watched some recent live clips on YouTube and Tommy Shaw still has one hell of a voice).

As for Ted... I think he's best when he's furthest away from that Chuck Berry stuff.  He may be an utter dick but Stranglehold will always be an awesome track.

Neill

ICBM said:

Neill said:

I would guess they used an MXR fuzzbox there wasn't a lot of choice is those days was there. 

I don't think so - it's much more primitive-sounding than that, and I think he used it earlier than MXR existed. My guess would be something British - I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Colorsound or something, although I haven't found one that seems to get it yet.

Ironically I think it's better than the sound Justin Hayward in the real Moody Blues used, which was a rare Marshall stand-alone fuzz unit - slightly smaller than a 20W head with similar styling, although solid state not valve.

I haven't bothered to google it but MXR was originally a British company AFAIK, and from that era, gosh though it seems such a long time ago I must look it up.

Philly_Q said:

As for Ted... I think he's best when he's furthest away from that Chuck Berry stuff.  He may be an utter dick but Stranglehold will always be an awesome track.

Everyone here knows that Spinal Tap was based on the Ted Nugent band don't they - have I just made myself look an utter dick..?

Philly_Q

Neill said:

Philly_Q said:

As for Ted... I think he's best when he's furthest away from that Chuck Berry stuff.  He may be an utter dick but Stranglehold will always be an awesome track.

Everyone here knows that Spinal Tap was based on the Ted Nugent band don't they - have I just made myself look an utter dick..?

So many bands have claimed Spinal Tap were based on them... even (very) ex-Saxon bassist Steve "Dobby" Dawson claims Derek Smalls copied his stage moves (which may even be true).

ICBM

Neill said:

I haven't bothered to google it but MXR was originally a British company AFAIK

No, definitely not.

richardhomer

Pink Floyd - heard ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ on the radio in the late 70s and and immediately bought WYWH - which remains one of my favourite albums. But what they made prior - or after - is at best ‘patchy’. I accept this may not be a popular opinion....