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Matt Lee: November 6, 2011

Chewing on your sacred cows.

OK, let’s take a look at a few popular bands and albums and let me throw some subjective darts their way. Some of us are lukewarm on the Ramones, sorry.. we mostly have to keep the dissension to ourselves, because some of these “sacred cow” type bands have virulent fans, they’ll take you out if you dare lay a “meh..” on their favorite band. Well, fuck it I say, taste is taste.. such a subjective endeavor that I don’t believe in the concept of bad taste any longer. Oh, don’t worry, next week I’ll have a list of some of my surprising sonic proclivities and you can all poke fun at me then. Not that I’ll care, but you can get back at me for hatin’ on the Ramones!

  1. The Ramones

    Single-handedly responsible for most of Converse’s shoe sales since the 70s, I don’t mind a couple tunes here or there, but honestly.. it’s all the same song to me. (to which I get the invariable retort “Yeah and it’s SUCH a good song man!”). When I vocalize my Ramones-meh, people look like they want to punch me. C’mon y’all, idiosyncratic taste is the essence of punk, isn’t it?

  2. Pink Floyd – The Wall

    Over Saucerful, or Piper ? Come ON! I’m the only guy in Quebec who hates this album.

  3. The Pixies

    OOOOOOHHHH now we’re getting sacrilegious. Last couple tours, this horrible boring music kept coming up on the ipod’s shuffle, and every time I checked to see what this caterwauling horror was, it was The Pixies. Hate me yet?

  4. Nirvana – Nevermind

    At this point I feel like I should be hiding under the bed, but my Nirvana loving wife will find me there and shove a copy of Nevermind up where the daisies don’t grow. Now LOOK, you raging Nirvana fans.. I recently gave In Utero a deep listen and I emerged thinking that’s it’s a masterpiece of rock and dwarfs this their most famous album, which really just puts me to sleep. Something in the production (it’s too good?) makes it a drag for me.

  5. Eric Clapton

    I know most hipsters and punks will agree with me on this one, but you know I’m a blues fanatic as well and I have to say, can we arrest someone for playing such insipid, wanky, horrible guitar-vom. At least he should be charged with assaulting the legacy of both JJ Cale and Bob Marley

  6. Led Zeppelin

    John Paul Jones and John Bonham were the best elements of Led Zeppelin, but the screeching endless solos of Jimmy Page romping with the nasal whine of Plant have always made my ears cringe.

  7. Daniel Johnston

    I’ll give you Wesley Willis, but I just can’t get behind the Daniel Johnston thing.. let’s face it, he would have remained a 4-tracking weirdo in total obscurity forever but for Kurt Cobain‘s t-shirt..

  8. David Bowie

    I always suspected Bowie of being a follower. Having replaced most of his body mass with cocaine for decades of his career, his deftest skill seems to be copping something almost immediately after someone else thought of it. Like glam rock in the 70s and drum & bass in the 90s. I’ll at least allow that he has a few kick-ass riffs.. “Rebel Rebel” springs to mind…
  9. The Smiths

    My experience with this limply horrible preachy band is blissfully limited, but I’ll say this: best t-shirt I saw all summer read: “Meat Is Murder (tasty, tasty murder…)”

  10. The Grateful Dead

    Have you ever been trapped in a rank Westfalia somewhere with a guy who has every bootleg of The Grateful Dead from the Fillmore ’66 shows to Hampton ’89 (right there in the van on tape), & he’s explaining the minutiae of Phil Lesh‘s bass mix while your lugs grasp for air in the turgid stench of BO and patchouli? I have. For like, 9 hours. 9 hours of hearing the Dead, while someone talks about the Dead, is enough to make you want to be dead. Then there’s the fact that the Dead go camping with Henry Kissing and George Bush . Seriously, what’s up with that?