Least pretentious band

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the ramones!

just putting an answer out there

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:24 (twenty-three years ago)

Run-DMC.

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 17:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Sugar Ray.

See what I mean? A little pretension is *healthy*.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Wouldn't you say that feigned unpretensiousness is a little, uh, pretentious?

I hate the word too.

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 17:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, obviously it is. We want genuine unpretention here!

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Right, by which standard Sugar Ray are better qualified than the Ramones.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:42 (twenty-three years ago)

Waitjustadoggonesecondtherepardner - you think the Ramones feigned unpretentiousness?

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 17:44 (twenty-three years ago)

listen: 53rd and 3rd

― Jonathan Williams (ex machina), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Run-DMC? Least pretentious? They were certainly great, but any artist who records paeans to their own skills (a staple of hip hop) could never really be called "least pretentious".

I wouldn't say I've ever found the Ramones pretentious, but surely there are humbler than even they.

I don't know.....how about the Feelies?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 17:52 (twenty-three years ago)

But Alex, Sucker MCs should call him sire!

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 17:54 (twenty-three years ago)

When did humility come to be the benchmark of unpretentiousness? Strictly speaking, pretentious is PRETENDING to be something you're not. By that criterion: OLD DIRTY BASTARD.

― Paula G., Monday, 9 December 2002 17:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I mean, of course, least pretentious = ODB.

― Paula G., Monday, 9 December 2002 18:02 (twenty-three years ago)

I think ODB's crazzzeeeee persona is a bit of a put-on. I always thought of him as a brilliant actor, not very far from Jerry Lewis when you think about it.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:09 (twenty-three years ago)

What about 2 Live Crew?

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, Amateurist, see ODB appearing now in the long-running revival of "The Prisoner" (a kind of "installation" piece, if you like).

― Paula G., Monday, 9 December 2002 18:15 (twenty-three years ago)

ODB and JL share the megalomania and scarifying descents into comic incoherence, the sexism, the pottymouth, and the interest in flatulence. Both (well, Jerry in his early days) seem unusually limber. Both stray beyond the realms of accepted good taste (again, Jerry in his early days). Both have been championed by Jean-Luc Godard.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:21 (twenty-three years ago)

Ian Dury?

― phil jones (interstar), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:22 (twenty-three years ago)

AC/DC, unless writing multiple songs about the topic "balls" counts as pretentious. (quasi-concept album territory with Ballbreaker, here? ....Nah.)

― original bgm, Monday, 9 December 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Hiring a soundalike singer after your lead singer dies = pretentious.

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 18:24 (twenty-three years ago)

"Hiring a soundalike singer after your lead singer dies = pretentious."

For a start, just how is that pretentious?

Secondly, if you're asserting that Brian and Bon sound anything alike, you're gravely mistaken.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:29 (twenty-three years ago)

The Brothers Ween pop to mind instantly.

I can't possibly associate the word 'pretentious' with the band famous for such songs as "Spinal Meningitis Got Me Down" and "Mr. Richard Smoker" and the immortal hit "Waving My Dick in the Wind".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Lolly

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 9 December 2002 18:49 (twenty-three years ago)

yngwie malmsteen and rising force

― Tad (llamasfur), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:00 (twenty-three years ago)

CCR

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

For a start, just how is that pretentious?

I dunno, it's not like there's any criteria for pretentiousness anyways, just thought it'd be funny.

Secondly, if you're asserting that Brian and Bon sound anything alike, you're gravely mistaken.

Correct, because Bon Scott-era AC/DC is good.

Killing Joke is the most unpretentious pretentiously pretentiousisnessystematically supercalifragilisticexpealidocious band ever.

― hstencil, Monday, 9 December 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

Killing Joke are indeed the most pretentious band in the world (when they choose to be).....`cos they've earned it, dammit!

http://www.an-irrational-domain.net/images/jaz/jaz82armup.JPG

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:08 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know why you're saying that about Killing Joke. Are you one of those people who thinks ALL goth is automatically pretentious?

― Paula G., Monday, 9 December 2002 19:09 (twenty-three years ago)

KILLING JOKE ARE NOT GOTHS GODDAMMIT!!!!!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:20 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm not a goth, I just crush a lot.

I love it when they call me big poppa.

― Jaz Coleman, Monday, 9 December 2002 19:29 (twenty-three years ago)

KJ claiming not to be goths = denying their roots = ultimate pretension surely?

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:31 (twenty-three years ago)

Seriously, the next person who calls the Joke a "goth band" is going to have their fire seriously dishonored.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:32 (twenty-three years ago)

Motorhead - not full of pretence

― Bruce Urquhart (Bruce Urquhart), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:33 (twenty-three years ago)

Being a pretentious band is in and of itself not necessarily a bad thing, I don't believe. The list of indisputably great bands who are insufferably pretentious is long and distinguished, from the Stones through the Stone Roses and beyond, but it's the crime of being ***UNDERtalented*** yet still pretentious that is the real crime.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Monday, 9 December 2002 19:44 (twenty-three years ago)

When Scanner did his thing with an Antonioni film the other month, the abiding impression I was left with was of unpretentiousness.

Why black and white? I find it more evocative.
How did you compose the music? I made it slow, because I find slow music sadder.
What about the found sounds? I used dialogue in Italian because then you can make up your own specifics if you don't speak Italian.

Lesser artists are always fearful of demystifying their work by giving such straight, on-the-audience-level answers. It only made me respect him more.

― Alan Connor (alanconnor), Monday, 9 December 2002 20:19 (twenty-three years ago)

Vengaboys. Especially "Boom Boom Boom Boom"

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Monday, 9 December 2002 20:24 (twenty-three years ago)

jandek or merzbow

― gygax!, Monday, 9 December 2002 20:25 (twenty-three years ago)

skinned teen

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Monday, 9 December 2002 22:16 (twenty-three years ago)

gygax : edgy electronics :: sundar : mainstream rock

Least pretentious record label: Disko B

― Tom Millar (Millar), Monday, 9 December 2002 22:34 (twenty-three years ago)

there are a lot of tom's here...

i felt guilty for mentioning both of these guys on the "most pretentious" thread a while back so i figured i'd put them on here for cosmic balance.

― gygax!, Monday, 9 December 2002 22:39 (twenty-three years ago)

I'll put my vote with AC/DC myself. Maybe Bryan Adams, pre-18 Till I Die or Richard Marx, pre-Rush Street.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 9 December 2002 23:20 (twenty-three years ago)

Some nameless hardcore band from the mid-nineties. Probably from either Florida or San Diego.

― Ian Johnson (orion), Monday, 9 December 2002 23:41 (twenty-three years ago)

Chas and Dave own this thread.

― Jacob (Jacob), Monday, 9 December 2002 23:50 (twenty-three years ago)

thoughtful answer: the ventures

― gygax!, Monday, 9 December 2002 23:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Chas n Dave == Pub Rock

Ian Dury == major talent who thinks he's pub rock.

Underpretend that suckaz

― phil jones (interstar), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Least pretentious? Um..... HELLO! Fischerspooner.

― maria b (maria b), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 04:32 (twenty-three years ago)

The Mekons. Can't sing their own praises without giggling.

― Douglas, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 04:53 (twenty-three years ago)

I agree with Anthony - the Mekons

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 07:34 (twenty-three years ago)

What could be more pretentious than a bunch of Brits pretending to be country?

― hstencil, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

btw, just realized meant to say i agreed with Douglas.
and i don't think Honky Tonk was pretending to be country, they were obviously having fun with the material. Are Brits supposed to only play within a certain style?

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:12 (twenty-three years ago)

add Fear & Whiskey (y'see this is what happens when i don't have enuf coffee)

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Are Brits supposed to only play within a certain style?

No, but as a former Chicago resident and official Son of the South^TM, I found it a little suspect and annoying to always read interviews with people from Leeds talking about "authenticity" (in not a "hey-let's-do-this-because-we're-inauthentic" way) and country music. I mean, if you're from Leeds, and you like Hank Williams, it shouldn't even be an issue! Just play the music you like, but don't claim that it's somehow "more real" than, say, Britney Spears.

That said, I do like the Mekons, they're great people, but I'm not so into their music, and like most of the alt-country/Bloodshot-affiliated scene, I have a hard time reconciling their statements about class and music with their very middle-class, urban lifestyles.

But whatever, Sally Timms used to swim at the same public pool as me, she seems nice.

― hstencil, Tuesday, 10 December 2002 15:17 (twenty-three years ago)

three weeks pass...

G.G. Allin is the most unpretentious musician ever. He was as fucked up as any fuck up could ever be. He didn't hide it, he didn't try to be more fucked up than he really was. He was just G.G. Allin.

― Frazer Johnson, Tuesday, 31 December 2002 09:41 (twenty-three years ago)

I wish GG Allin was still around. I'd love to introduce one of his performances...

"HEY! How's everyone doing? You guys like poop and vomit? Well, you're in for a treat..."

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 31 December 2002 15:30 (twenty-three years ago)

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