Two articles about "dad rock"- both dis prog

[Scrotum Scissor]

^

[Baribrotzer]

......an absurd tax on the same cultural/temporal dynamic, due to a manichaeic dichotomy of power-reasoning between ardent positivists and post-modern marxists as generated by a highly prominent maoist movement......

JEEZ!

The difference between Far Right Populism (AKA Neo-Fascism) and Far Left Marxism:
You can understand what the Far Right Populists are saying, and recognize it as guff.
But when it comes to the Far Left Marxists, you can only suspect that what they say is guff - because you can't understand a %^&$# word of it!

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Alright, John. Let's rephrase it; the discourse between the supremacy of immediate action towards that of 'complete' understanding - as in the discrepancy between practical politics and theoretical principle.

In Norway, it's perfectly OK to name a small bay 'Bolsjevika' - as a hipster pun on "bolschevik", seeing as 'vik' means "bay" - if you're a part of an accepted leftist political community. It doesn't affect anyone within that fold that "bolschevik" in historical terms implied extreme death numbers and immense suppression. Because the relativity of language always triumphs the proximity of real-life when it comes to theoretical lore, even though the latter may entail the worst kind of alienation you'd ever see.

[SunRunner2]

Scrotum Scissors said:

Being someone who wasted all too much of his life on three futile endeavours - women, radical leftist ideals, and "prog"


Okay, the latter two life endeavors may end up in futility, but one always has the first (and foremost) one to fall back on ...

[nosebone]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/18/a.../dad-rock.html

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/06/...han-meets-ear/

Nothing wrong with those articles imo.

My 21 year old son loves a mix of old and new music.

"Dad bands" though,are mostly atrocious

I'm talking about 40-50 something year old dads playing in classic rock bands while their wives and friends get toasted and start dancing to Sweet Home Alabama thru cheezy digital guitar amps.

[GuitarGeek]

The tragedy is that many will believe that Prog is rubbish because they have been told it so many times but without ever hearing it.

Well, at least they don't be subjected to "Phil Collins ruined Genesis, Frida Lingstad, Marilyn Martin AND Phillip Bailey" threads on disreputable music snob websites.

[Progatron]

When I hear the phrase "Dad rock", I think of Stephen Stills doing that snapping, seated dance move in the American Dream video by CSNY.

[3LockBox]

Calling it Dad Rock is fine by me, if that's what floats their boat. I never bought into "prog" as a lifestyle and agenda anyway, so it doesn't bug me if someone doesn't like it.

[Frankh]

In retrospect, what I find amazing is that prog was ever popular at all.

[arturs]

"Dad bands" though,are mostly atrocious

I'm talking about 40-50 something year old dads playing in classic rock bands while their wives and friends get toasted and start dancing to Sweet Home Alabama thru cheezy digital guitar amps.

Yes I think we have to distinguish between Dad-rock and Dad-bands. Dad-rock seems to be just a synonym for classic rock, based on the articles.

But the dad-band fad is its own beast. You describe it perfectly. One such band played at my kid's elementary school fundraiser about a decade ago, which is when I first became aware of the phenomenon. Anna said one of her friend's dads was the singer as we walked by them attempting a rousing rendition of "The Joker". They were fine, musically, but I noticed no one at all was paying any attention to them despite there being well over 100 people there for all the other carnival stuff. I asked whether her friend thought it was cool to have her dad singing in a band. "Oh my God, no. She's so embarrassed about it. Please promise me you'll never play in a band at my school". I have kept that promise...

[nosebone]

Yes I think we have to distinguish between Dad-rock and Dad-bands. Dad-rock seems to be just a synonym for classic rock, based on the articles.

But the dad-band fad is its own beast. You describe it perfectly. One such band played at my kid's elementary school fundraiser about a decade ago, which is when I first became aware of the phenomenon. Anna said one of her friend's dads was the singer as we walked by them attempting a rousing rendition of "The Joker". They were fine, musically, but I noticed no one at all was paying any attention to them despite there being well over 100 people there for all the other carnival stuff. I asked whether her friend thought it was cool to have her dad singing in a band. "Oh my God, no. She's so embarrassed about it. Please promise me you'll never play in a band at my school". I have kept that promise...

I played a few gigs with a couple of Dad bands.

One was an elementary school fundraiser and the other was at a local "pow wow" ( early summer carnival), and guess what?

No one payed attention!!

[Wah3]

Is there a modern band that doesn't wish they were as good and as timeless as Steely Dan?

[arturs]

I played a few gigs with a couple of Dad bands.

One was an elementary school fundraiser and the other was at a local "pow wow" ( early summer carnival), and guess what?

No one payed attention!!

I hope you at least managed to embarrass your kid(s) a little!

[Splicer]

I stopped bothering about what critics have to say when I realized there was no point in getting angry about either Robert Christgau or Stanley Crouch.

[JKL2000]

What's the problem? Both these articles are very positive - and entertaining. It IS dad rock. So what? My kids groan when they hear the 'Radio Gnome, Radio Gnome' refrain from Gong. But they, too, were forced to listen to Gong while they were in the back of the car on long drives. They don't want to hear it now, but then they have their own musical tastes. I scorned the music that my dad was listening to when I was in my teens. I sometimes listen to it now (witness the recent Vera Lynn thread) and sometimes think it is quite good. Possibly my children will one day listen to my Love From the Planet Gong boxset and marvel at how good Gong were. Maybe not. If they don't, that is their loss. But not mine. Dad rock is only a label, and quite an appropriate one IMO.

But Gong wouldn't qualify as Dad Rock to either of those writers - I'm pretty sure they've never heard it. Also, CSN is NOT Dad Rock. And Warren Zevon? He's only really had a few songs on th radio - most of his songs were pretty defiantly non-mainstream, and IMO most of his best work came later in his career than any of his few hits.

I'd have a pretty hard time defining DSOTM and Astral Weeks as Dad Rock either. It's weird that more MOR-type music didn't get pegged in these articles. I agree that they're not using Dad Rock as an insult, but they're pretty unclear on what Dad Rock is. And I don't believe that Thick as a Brick story for a second.

[nosebone]

I'd have a pretty hard time defining DSOTM and Astral Weeks as Dad Rock either. It's weird that more MOR-type music didn't get pegged in these articles. I agree that they're not using Dad Rock as an insult, but they're pretty unclear on what Dad Rock is. And I don't believe that Thick as a Brick story for a second.

OK boomer

[Dan Maske]

I prefer “Great Grandpa Rock.”

[spacefreak]

Already exists here in Norway. Unfortunately it's an all-female, radically feminist enterprise in the spirit of post-Valerie Solanas and contrarian to Judith Butler'ian defiatist moderatism. It's called The Hoarse Horseriding Hordes of Hoarding Moron Whores from Mordor.

Could easily be a title for an all-female black metal album. Solidifies my belief that modern feminists are satanic ruthless creatures from hell.

[spacefreak]

In Norway, it's perfectly OK to name a small bay 'Bolsjevika' - as a hipster pun on "bolschevik", seeing as 'vik' means "bay" - if you're a part of an accepted leftist political community. It doesn't affect anyone within that fold that "bolschevik" in historical terms implied extreme death numbers and immense suppression. Because the relativity of language always triumphs the proximity of real-life when it comes to theoretical lore, even though the latter may entail the worst kind of alienation you'd ever see.

True; one of the most "hip" bars in suburbian Athens was named Stalin and decorated like a NKVD interrogation bureau. Nobody seemed to freak at the connection.

[miamiscot]

The Times article was written by Lindsay Zoladz, a well-known hater of good music and long-time reviewer for Pitchfork. That should clear that up.

[aith01]

The Times article was written by Lindsay Zoladz, a well-known hater of good music and long-time reviewer for Pitchfork. That should clear that up.

Just went and looked her up. I don't recognize a lot of the albums she reviewed on Pitchfork, but she gave a good rating to St. Vincent's self-titled album from 2014 so she can't be all bad.

Pitchfork isn't all bad either. They've even said nice things about Magma in the past.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Pitchfork isn't all bad either. They've even said nice things about Magma in the past.

And about Hatfield. And Robert Wyatt, obviously. But also of Henry Cow, KCrimson. And of Yes!

All due to the same handful of reviewers, of course - and Dominique Leone in particular. A musician and artist in his own right, obviously (and once a PE member, I believe?) - and partial to fairly radical endeavours of the likes of Swans, TPlague, 5UU's, Cheer-Accident, Shub-Niggurath and anything he'd might find contemporarily vital in any sense/interpretation of the term, including a feature of Yes titles about which I agree to a certain extent but not quite exactly.

He apparently ceased producing reviews for Pitch when his own works were submitted for recension there, or at least it appears that way. I may be wrong.

[aith01]

And about Hatfield. And Robert Wyatt, obviously. But also of Henry Cow, KCrimson. And of Yes!

All due to the same handful of reviewers, of course - and Dominique Leone in particular. A musician and artist in his own right, obviously (and once a PE member, I believe?) - and partial to fairly radical endeavours of the likes of Swans, TPlague, 5UU's, Cheer-Accident, Shub-Niggurath and anything he'd might find contemporarily vital in any sense/interpretation of the term, including a feature of Yes titles about which I agree to a certain extent but not quite exactly.

He apparently ceased producing reviews for Pitch when his own works were submitted for recension there, or at least it appears that way. I may be wrong.

You're right! I completely forgot they reviewed several Robert Wyatt albums, which is embarrassing considering I read them not that long ago.

Didn't realize they had ever said anything about Hatfield or HCow. Consider me impressed.

Sad to hear that Dominique Leone is no longer writing for them. I recall one article he wrote about one of Bob Drake's CDs that was quite interesting. I've also got one of Leone's albums actually (Abstract Expression), and I like it! Haven't seen him around PE in a long time -- probably was 2015 when I last saw a post from him. Hope he's doing okay; seems he's still making music at least.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ Leone was a major Bob D. fan back even during the early 90s when they did Hunger's Teeth, and I also believe he was responsible for one of the earliest published articles on In This Life by TPlague when that album was still firmly warm.

Later, in '95 when Chris Blackworth wrote his pivotal review of Crisis In Clay in The Wire and even delegated it to his top-10 annual list, Leone was there to back him up against a harrowing flock of nitpickers; these were the days when it was still an edgy thing to present decidedly "progressive" titles with a) a sense of historical worth and b) a contemporary one by a contemporary artist.

Of course, Blackworth was also the one to offer panegyrical criticism of Magma's mid-2000 performances in London and later (many years on) had them featured as a FrontPage attraction for The Wire. I assume impressions were in at that time that they had finally become as esoterically viable as needed for the mag to Accept them.

[smcfee]

All due to the same handful of reviewers, of course - and Dominique Leone in particular.

I met Dominique in 2003 in Texas, and he is responsible for getting me into Cardiacs. It was a lonelier activity to evangelize for them on prog boards back then .