Can you spot a winner - sorting the wheat from the chaff..

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I was gazing in the window of missing in Gt Wester Road today which they have filled with the rash of new American rock bands. Y'know, all them that sound a bit like Rocket From the Crypt..

I don't know much about this scene, but obviously I can leap on a bandwagon and claim to have liked all these bands months ago as much as the next pop-pundit. So I was carefully assessing the covers of these Detroit Cobra's, White Stripes, Murder City Devils etcetc albums wondering which of these was going to last when it occurred to me that I am singularly useless at spotting the band that emerges from a scene and stays the distance.

In the late 70s early 80s I was living in Edinburgh, you couldn't step out the door without stumbling over a seminal performance by The Fire Engines, Josef K, Orange Juice, Associates and many more. And my tip for the top were The Scars, a teen-horror-glam explosion that haven;t even warrented a CD reissue so far and also The Freeze who sounded a bit like Hawkwind if they read Kafka rather then Moorcock.

Slip forward a few years and I wash up in Glasgow in the mid 80s, there is a splash-1 psychedelic pop explosion going on and instead of the Primals or the Mary Chain. I am seriously in love with a band called the Honeymooners.

Dance influenced indie-funk of the late 80s? Well I was awfully keen on 400 Blows and Hula rather than the Factory output- though recently listenings have shed little light on why I so opined.

Show me a grunge scene and I'll pick Mudhoney over Nirvana - which I did... Mock Turtles vs Stone Roses? Well I know which one I'm putting my money on as a seminal influence.

Its not just that I seem to actually prefer these also-rans personally (though I do) its that I seriously think I can spot the superstar from the one hit wonder and always get it wrong.

― Alexander Blair and Family, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the murder city devils sound as if they have a few terminals records. but they don't have stephen cogle.

― keith, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I pegged the Offspring and the Fugees fairly early on. My friend M. used to like to tell the story of the latter -- sometime in 1994 or whenever it was that the "Nappy Heads (Remix)" video came out, I saw said video on MTV or BET, and I told him something along the lines of "Hey, keep an eye out for this band called the Fugees." He pooh-poohed me at the time, but a couple years later -- and you know the rest.

On the other hand, I completely missed the mark with Beck -- when I first saw "Loser", I thought it was a new Vanilla Ice video! And when I heard about this new show called Seinfeld, I thought to myself, "Yet another show based around a stand-up comedian? Oh, that'll never work."

Of course it shouldn't have worked, but that's another question entirely...

― Phil, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That is, I pegged them as commercial successes. Whether they're artistic successes is, again, a question for another day...

― Phil, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Amazing, Missing! Gt Western Rd! I know all these places, I go to uni just up the road. God, the internet really has made this a very small world. Isn't the missing on Gt Western Rd especially receptive to american indie anyway? Sorry to be so off-topic.

― AnasFK, Sunday, 26 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah but John Smiths in Byres Road was the indie kids shop. Pity it's now a Starbucks though grrr.

― Billy Dods, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Time' magazine, circa 1984 (?), "Cyndi Lauper will go the distance, Madonna will be forgotten in six months"

― dae q, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Forget spotting superstars, I just mispelled my own name.

― dave q, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I always thought Bogshed were going to be massive - them, and Tad

― Jerry, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

At least now John Smiths has closed it means I can avoid having to try and get a word out of Stephen Pastel. Still annoying, though. Fucking Starbucks, it's perfect isn't it?

On a side note, apparently one of the Missing staff from Wellington street had a heart attack and died at a Motorhead show recently. Perhaps this is a new question; is there an age when you should stop going to rock shows for the good of your health?

I never really think of bands in terms of whether they will be big or not, just whether I like them or not.

― Ally C, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

John Smith was OK. That stephen was a really nice chap, he gave me a £3 discount off a CD just cause the case was a bit dirty. It had a pleasant atmosphere, but its selection wasn't amazing considering the number of record stores in the area. Echo a few metres down the road has a lot more obscure and interesting stuff. Still, bloody starbucks, I guess the students were more interested in coffee than buying records. Plus, whether you're too old to go to gigs. What in comparison to the artists actually performing (Lemmy!)? Stephen Pastel was pretty old too, I wonder, are the only people into proper cider drinking twee student indie about 30-40 nowadays? And the missing death, didn't know about that but was in the store today and it seemed a bit glum, well more than usual anyway.

― Anas FK, Monday, 27 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Alexander, I sympathise completely. I used to travel long distances to watch (what is still) my favourite guitar band ever, The Claim. In the process I have laughed or sighed in pub back rooms at such no- hopers as Pulp and the Manic Street Preachers.

The best band on Factory? The Stockholm Monsters, of course. Creation? Why, the Jasmine Minks.

I stand by my judgement on all of the above absolutely.

And I only ever heard the Honeymooners off that "Another Fit Of Laughter" single, but I wouldn't swap that for the entire recorded output of Primal Scream and JAMC put together. Did they do anything else?

― Tim, Tuesday, 28 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I guess I'm biased about John Smiths coz my sis in law worked there and so I got 33% discount. Echo/fopp/missing all cool, I'm glad I don't get to Glasgae too often otherwise I'd be bankrupt.

― Billy Dods, Wednesday, 29 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When I lived on Ruthven St I'd go into that John Smith's and had NO IDEA who Stephen Pastel "was". Eventually he told me he was in a band. I think I offered him encouraging words or something like "cool, do you play out anywhere?"

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 30 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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