Weirdest Band You Love
The King Prawn ·
April 30, 2012 at 3:05pm
Lance does an amazing job putting music up for us to all enjoy. A lot of it is out of my taste range, but sometimes I wonder why. There was a band I listened to in the '80s that is just plain strange. Even now I pull up the youtubes when I need a fix of "Don't Be a Hippie" or "All the Pretty Girls." The band is The Judys. These guys, The Dead Milkmen, and other off beat bands created the sound track for my teenage years. When I saw Elizabeth's post about Jim Jones and Kool Aid this song immediately started playing in my mind:
Anyone else have strange music from the past that just keeps cropping up?
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Comments:
Nov '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
My best friend from high school frequently serenades me with "Monkeys vs Donkeys".
Apr '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
To bring politics into everything:
Misthiocracy:
I've always felt strongly ambiguous about TMBG. I love their love of history; Polk has done more for the President's recognition than any historian has managed, and I like that they did (even a non-great version of) Tippecanoe. I hate the contempt for ethnic cleansing expressed by Istanbul (not Constantinople). "Nobody's business but the Turks", indeed!
The only time I've been called a Nazi in a considered tone was when I was in an LLM class in Cologne and playing Kraftwerk and Rammstein's Du Hast to a Mexican to explain what I thought of as German music. A German (sorry if this sounds too much like a Friedman column) remarked with surprise, but seriousness that she hadn't known that I was a Nazi, but that that made sense of my views (particularly regarding products liability compensation and about the Alien Tort Claims Act). Apparently, to this German, working in Paris, Rammstein was a Nazi only enthusiasm. I should note that this wasn't hostile; she was a friend, who suddenly "understood" my bizarre right-wingery.
Mar '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Sugarcubes and Bjork! Wow, I'd forgotten about that phase, probably because I left those tapes in the back window of my car one summer and they melted. It wasn't a deliberate oversight, but was probably for the best at the time...
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I just want it stated for the record that I find precisely none of these bands to be weird. But, then again, I was having trouble putting anyone else I like in the weird category. I kind of feel like the late, great Poly Styrene could get that descriptor? But there are so many better descriptors. Wild Man Fischer was kind of weird. I always kind of wondered if Sex Pistols were weird or just really funny. I remember the first time I heard Gang of Four I thought they were super out there. Sugarcubes might have changed my life when I first heard them at the age of 13 and I know I'm supposed to think Bjork is weird. But I don't.
Honestly, what I find weird is stuff like Celine Dion or Maroon Five or stuff like that. It just weirds me out so so much. · 10 hours ago
Dec '10
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.: I just want it stated for the record that I find precisely none of these bands to be weird. But, then again, I was having trouble putting anyone else I like in the weird category. I kind of feel like the late, great Poly Styrene could get that descriptor? But there are so many better descriptors. Wild Man Fischer was kind of weird. I always kind of wondered if Sex Pistols were weird or just really funny. I remember the first time I heard Gang of Four I thought they were super out there. Sugarcubes might have changed my life when I first heard them at the age of 13 and I know I'm supposed to think Bjork is weird. But I don't.
Honestly, what I find weird is stuff like Celine Dion or Maroon Five or stuff like that. It just weirds me out so so much. · 11 hours ago
Mollie, I never pictured you as the type of person I would have found common cause with in high school. Either we are all really strong people, or music doesn't have as much influence on one's world view as some think.
Apr '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Insane Clown Posse?
Dec '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
I dont know much indy music. I just listen to the radio when I drive.
I listen to the radio and have very strong tastes tending towards fast tempo and aggro-y.
If it doesnt make it to the radio I probably wont come across it.
I think the irish rovers are pretty fun if you are asking me to be obscure.
I think Rage against the machine is with many of their radio hits a band who fits my political temperment perfectly when treated with a very shallowly and allegorically.
Dec '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Nice. Give me some tilt-a-whirl any day.
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Weird ... and they ask excellent questions about how magnets work.
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
The King Prawn
Mollie, I never pictured you as the type of person I would have found common cause with in high school. Either we are all really strong people, or music doesn't have as much influence on one's world view as some think. · 10 minutes ago
Well, I could argue that a proper understanding of punk and its inherent rebellion would have everyone becoming a libertarian or principled conservative ...
May '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
I'll go 60's free jazz and go with Eric Dolphy, Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Pharoh Sanders and Sun Ra. Also love the eclectic works of John Zorn.
Aug '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
As far as weird Christian bands go, it doesn't get much weirder than The Swirling Eddies. It seemed as if Terry Taylor wanted to take Daniel Amos into a more serious direction (well, relatively speaking) so The Swirling Eddies became his vehicle for being strange. And I think "Zoom Daddy" is probably the strangest. (Okay, "Sacred Cows" should probably take that honor, but that whole album is an inside joke that falls flat.) Of course, everything Terry Taylor does has its share of weirdness, even Lost Dogs.
May '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Also can't forget the great jazz iconoclast Thelonious Sphere Monk. He was always a little out there. John Coltranes' " Om" was recorded right after all the musicians dropped acid. Starts out with a meditative chant and then turns into a cacophony of screeches and screams. Not very coherent but it has great primal energy.
Edited on April 30, 2012 at 3:47pmMar '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Neutral Milk Hotel, The Magnetic Fields (and solo work by front man Stephin Merrit).
Aug '10
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
The Cramps, the Stranglers, Taylor Swift.
Dec '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
The King Prawn
Mollie, I never pictured you as the type of person I would have found common cause with in high school. Either we are all really strong people, or music doesn't have as much influence on one's world view as some think. · 10 minutes ago
Well, I could argue that a proper understanding of punk and its inherent rebellion would have everyone becoming a libertarian or principled conservative ... · 16 minutes ago
Weird
http://takimag.com/article/punk_rockers_make_good_conservatives_gavin_mcinnes#axzz1tWj6zQ7G
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Guruforhire
Mollie Hemingway, Ed.
The King Prawn
Mollie, I never pictured you as the type of person I would have found common cause with in high school. Either we are all really strong people, or music doesn't have as much influence on one's world view as some think. · 10 minutes ago
Well, I could argue that a proper understanding of punk and its inherent rebellion would have everyone becoming a libertarian or principled conservative ... · 16 minutes ago
Weird
http://takimag.com/article/punk_rockers_make_good_conservatives_gavin_mcinnes#axzz1tWj6zQ7G · 36 minutes ago
I may have just shouted "Yes! Yes! Yes" to a few of these points.
Dec '10
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
The '04 election saw a rise of punk conservatism. It pleased me immensely when I read about it. Perhaps the one of the reasons conservatism/libertarianism has punk and liberalism has pop culture is that pop culture is centered on a "look at me" toddler midset while punk is more of a late teen "leave me the [expletive] alone" vibe. Surely Joe Escalante has an opinon.
Jul '11
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
I wouldn't say they're a favorite band, but Institutionalized by Suicidal Tendencies is a classic tune. My wife and I still occasionally drop "Just get me a Pepsi" into otherwise run-of-the-mill conversations.
Aug '10
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Casey Taylor
Misthiocracy: In no particular order: · 2 hours ago
Edited 2 hours ago
With you, The King Prawn, skipsul, me, how on Earth did we end up doing the stuff and thinking the things that led us to Ricochet? I grew up on The Dead Milkmen, Skinny Puppy, Black Flag, The Misfits, They Might Be Giants, Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Pavement, et al. What the hell? · 15 hours ago
The Dead Milkmen and the Dead Kennedys have songs that can be described as "conservative". Examples: Let's Get The Baby High and Holiday in Cambodia.
Lots of punk from that era (late 80s/early 90s) had conservative elements to many of the songs, even if the bands themselves would not describe themselves as conservative.
Basically, they wrote songs about the absurdities in life that they see around them. Those absurdities are neither left-wing or right-wing.
They Might Be Giants just wrote silly songs. Their politics aren't generally in their songs, especially in the early albums.
Re: Weirdest Band You Love
Sometimes, when we run low on Diet Pepsi, I remind my husband about just how poorly things can go if I don't get the Diet Pepsi I so desperately need.