I have little to no idea what “skunk rock” or “grebo” are, but I like the The Guardian’s query about musical genres that need to be resurrected. After the jump, a list of some forgotten styles I think the young folk of today would be wise to embrace–sounds and aesthetics that could bring this country back from the brink.
1. ’80s bar rock. Don’t mistake this for what ACTUALLY plays in bars these days, i.e. beer-bellied David Cooks wishing someday they could make it big like Default did. I mean that bastard child of blue-eyed soul that comes alive whenever Huey Lewis plays a corporate gig. The genre that inspired ’70s blowhards like Stevie Winwood to roll with it. Is Adam Levine the last rocker on earth who wants to make women (not teens, women) dance before he nails them backstage? Did Lenny Kravitz scare everyone out of the room? I’ve never willingly heard a song by Taylor Hicks, but I get the feeling he could be the 21st-century Robert Palmer if he’d just put this type of music in his system.
Turn the amp up to eleven, and the genre becomes 1a. Feel-good arena rock, which is also sorely lacking. There are so many bands trying to write “Dreams,” but no one is bothering to write “Panama.” This is why I sometimes think Kurt Cobain was the worst thing to happen to rock, as his PC “hey, check out the Vaselines” attitude came and went, leaving hard rockers only with the wisdom that there’s no need to sound like you’re having any fun at all.
2. Hip-hop based on funk drum loops. I know snap is cheaper. I know it’s all been used before, that you’d be referencing earlier rap hits rather than actual funky drummers. But have you thrown on a Digital Underground record lately? I miss the good foot. Plus, it would force guys like Rick Ross to wake up or get out of the way.
3. Songs that reference the movie they soundtrack. As videos go the way of the dinosaur, if music is going to successfully cross-promote itself with a more popular form of media, it’s going to have to do it lyrically. Few remember Rick Moranis smiling at Bobby Brown’s dancing ass in the “On Our Own” video, but everybody knows that if Vigo, the master of Evil, tries to battle his boys… that’s not legal! Side note: Seth Rogen’s getting Huey Lewis to tackle this and genre No. 1 for Pineapple Express, because Seth Rogen knows what time it is.
4. Unkempt riffy indie-rock. Even more than the sound of “Slack Motherfucker,” I miss how everybody used to dress down. I’m tired of looking my best at night. I want to leave my button-down plaid shirt open again, so you can see the charming t-shirt underneath. I’m tired of either/or! I don’t want you to see my belt! I was happy dressing baggy! Waahh!
5. Cornershop. Even in the pop-rock-soul casserole of the ’90s, this band was a genre of its own–who even made some bar-rock! You could argue that plenty of Pitchfork-popular psych-folk mixes beats, drones and grooves, but if Panda Bear has anything resembling “Brimful Of Asha,” I haven’t heard it. More people need to imitate Tjinder Singh’s detached, droll vocal style. Hell, Tjinder Singh should do it more often.
What forgotten genres do think have some untapped juice? Emo-free pop-punk? Trumpet-led instrumentals? Whatever the Spin Doctors were doing? Make your voices heard, and maybe Taylor Hicks will hear you.
Rummaging in the Musical Dustbin [The Guardian]
I really don’t think number 4 went anywhere as it’s still pretty status quo in the midwest, meanwhile whatever Morphine was doing, more of that please.
The problem on No. 5 is that 2002’s Handcream for a Generation sold like ass, which basically destroyed Cornershop’s coolness. Which is too bad, because that album’s mad underrated. I still put it on, which is more than I can say for most of what I played in ‘02.
I miss trip hop and funk metal.
Tjander? Tjinder, surely.
Anywez: Whatever happened to The Big Music? ’twas all the rage in ‘86-’87: then the Waterboys went all Oirish, U2 discovered irony, the Alarm turned into pub-rock, and suddenly starry-eyed soaring cathedrals of sound went out of fashion.
@Jack Fear: Try the Helio Sequence.
Grebo? P-W-E-I! PWE - I! I loved that shit when I was in high school.
@Jack Fear. Eep! My apologies to Tjinder. And re: The Big Music, there is always the Arcade Fire.
1. pub-rock. sure brinsley schwartz were just on some grateful dead/the band tip but there was something distinctly british to their approach, same with duck’s deluxe and their ’50s rock’n'roll/r&b filtered through ’70s glam. howlin’ rain can’t carry that torch alone.
2. limp power-pop. shoes, pezband, dwight twilley band, the quick, 20/20, bram tchaikovsky, they all seem to be working their way out of the dollar bin into the pricier racks above (though what vinyl isn’t these days) but ain’t nobody making shit like that anymore. i want shaggy hair and skinny ties and shamelessly cliche lyrics about girls.
I would like to see a return of the kinds of bands who would call
themselves Holly & The Italians, Martha & The Muffins, but I’m
the only person who liked Morningwood.
I saw Huey Lewis play a corporate gig a few years back. It was actually pretty fun, all irony aside.
New Jack Swing FTW.
1) bubblegum, honest-to-god bubblegum of the late 60’s/early 70’s Kasenetz-Katz variety.
2) Cowpunk, ala Flesh Easters, Tex & the Horseheads
3) whatever you’d call the ‘genre’ represented by two tracks on Sir Mix-A-Lot’s Swass LP, “Buttermilk Biscuits” and “Square Dance Rap”
I miss ethereal pop like Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, Pale Saints, etc. I know people still make it (I’m in a band like that myself) but seems like at least once it was closer to the mainstream.
Oh and I’ll give you #2 and raise you Native Tongues hip hop, jazz samples and basically anything that isn’t about drugs, shooting people or conspicuous consumption.
@whoneedslight: If you like Huey Lewis, odds are you’re retarded.
@dippinkind: Cowpunk = Rubber Rodeo
and
@dippinkind: Bubblegum all the way!
@DavidWatts:
Whatever, it’s hip to be square.
@radio1: i always considered Rubber Rodeo more “New Cow Wave”… which would also be a fine thing to resurrect!
@PopIsNotDead: FTW indeed.
Also, Miami bass. Time for a Quad City revival!
@iantenna: I’m with you on both counts, though here in Toronto people like Twilley, the Shoes, the Records or the Rubinoos are still a staple of the dollar bins I frequent (which makes me happy to have a turntable).
I still dig out my old grebo discs from time to time. Ned’s Atomic Dustbin, we miss you.
PWEI’s “Can U Dig It?” is one of the nerdiest songs ever recorded. I love it.
I also miss the madchester sound. Perhaps I am hopelessly mired in the early 90’s.
@DavidWatts: Yeah it was, like, totally in the San Francisco Weekly or something. No Joke. “A Very Special Concert: The enduring bond between Huey Lewis and the developmentally disabled”
http://www.sfweekly.com/2005-08-03/news/a-very-special-concert/1
Horrorcore, pls?
Oh and can I mention, I just downloaded The Definitive Newcleus and I completely forgot how much I LOVED electro-hip-hop back in the day. How about digging up Egyptian Lover for a record Kanye?
I know it’s all been used before, that you’d be referencing earlier rap hits rather than actual funky drummers.
Unless you’re Ghostface and you’ve got some fairly recent El Michels Affair records. (See also: Kanye looping Sharon Jones’ “Pick It Up, Lay It in the Cut” for Rhymefest’s “Brand New”.)
I’d almost nominate Big Beat as a genre that needs a comeback, but I think Justice sort of halfway beat me to it.
@jmb112485: that’s like, totally what i was referencing, for realz.
I really miss late 70’s, early 80’s pop.
BTW, I do like Taylor Hicks music, even though the music on his self titled CD released after he won Idol is for the most part NOT his type of music. He was told by the powers that be with AI what to record.
His own songs on 2 previously recorded CD’s are more soul like, not ‘pop’ like his newest release.
I do wish some of the songs on his new CD would ‘fit’ into some type of genre on radio, some of the songs are really good like
1. The Runaround
2. Dream myself awake
3. Heaven Knows
4. Give me Tonight
@Thierry: sounds like i need to add toronto to my ever growing list of places to travel to for record shopping.
I’m ready to let Speed Garage and Happy Hardcore back in the clubs.
@Bob Loblaw: You beat me to this.
OH, and i totally overlooked the #1 under-utilized genre: Dickie Goodman-style cut-in records (e.g., Mr. Jaws, Energy Crisis ‘74, etc.)
dude there is so much more to Cornershop than Brimful of Asha, and it was and still is on a whole other level than Animal Collective kin… that i quite frankly prefer:)
@whoneedslight: Their earlier work was a bit “new wave” for my taste…
@Dick Laurent is dead.: Please direct me. I need to hear bands that own Dinosaur Jr. records.
@whoneedslight: Though even Huey Lewis has bastardized this. I heard a live track on Pandora, and now he sings “Too hip to be a square”, which just friggin’ KILLS me inside.
Bring back acid house. As soon as I scared up about $10,000 for a vintage 808 and TB-303, I could score some club hits. And my musical “skills,” frankly, suck ass.
Can’t that song DIE, and leave a man in peace with his drink?
Maybe. Does the Maytals’ version get an exemption?
I agree with the Taylor Hicks/Robert Palmer statement. I also think Michael Johns could tear up some Robert Palmer and step it up another notch.
MOAR GREBO! although viewers in the west midlands can still buy tickets to see Carter, EMF and half of PWEI playing the birmingham academy later in the year (not that carter were grebo, obv, but y’know shorts and hair and stuff).
also speed garage is totes back, have you lot not heard any bassline yet?
+ Watch video
I’d welcome the return of 4 for 1, cheap Long Island Teas, the smoke machine, and space-rock like:
Note the young Rick Derringer playing guitar… Mopey drunken excess like:
And of course, with the smoke theme:
One of my main gripes about bars in the 1970s was walking in, and at least half would crank up “a-Louie-Louie! Oh, yeah. We gotta go now..” Indeed. And unfortunately, it is STILL happening in 2008. Can’t that song DIE, and leave a man in peace with his drink?
wait isn’t the hold steady shitty 80s bar rock? I thought it was alive and well thanks to those shlubs….
@DavidWatts: Yeah, it’s cool to take advice from people who use the word “retarded.”
@SuperUnison: Download NPR’s podcast of Broken Social Scene Presents Kevin Drew at DC’s 930 Club. Not only do they cover Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. back-to-back, they even regularly buddy around with J. Mascis (sp?).