how would you improve some of your favorite groups/bands?

[Comic_Mobsta]

Have you ever wished that you could some how warp reality or go back in time to save and or fix your favorite group/band.You know like make some small adjustments here major alterations there.If you would, whom would they be and what would you change?

[twilight]

Sonic Youth-Less random feedback
The Who-Prevent death of Keith Moon
My Chemical Romance-Get rid of shit vocalist

[Adam C]

Sonic Youth-Less random feedback


Which somehow seems to miss the point of Sonic Youth.

[parrish]

I would have stopped the Beatles from releasing "Revolution #9" in any format ever.

[twilight]

Which somehow seems to miss the point of Sonic Youth.

Is that actually the point?

I like them a lot and they make good songs but on some of the records there just seems to be huge chunks of undecipherable feedback.

[Jonathan Bogart]

I would have stopped the Beatles from releasing "Revolution #9" in any format ever.
And I would have had them do a lot more stuff like "Revolution #9."

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

interesting question.............

TLC-make them improve upon their urban style from the first 2 cd's instead of trying to do pretentious alt/pop crossover crap

NWA-kept the group together but still allow them to have solo careers,and keep Arabian prince around,and stop the d.o.c. from getting into that car wreck so his vocal chords won't get messed up.

Faith No More-improve upon angel dust,and experiment more with hip-hop/R&B/Soul

Bone Thugs-N-Harmony-keep bizzy in the group,and make him keep his eternal style in ADDITION to his style from "the gift" record.make the whole group keep their cohesion from eternal,improve their lyricism.keep their production solely in the hands of dj uneek,tony-c,romeo antonio,and jimmy z.and have them experiment more with dark and unique samples................Oh and make them faster :evilsmile

Triple-6-Mafia-add the other members that was kicked out.

[Ilash]

I would have stopped the Beatles from releasing "Revolution #9" in any format ever.

Agree with this. Also, the Keith Moon thing.

I would also tell the Stones to pretend that CDs can only store as much music as vinyl records and to never hire Don Was. Without going back in time, I would tell them to have all their new albums be similar to Stripped. In other words, keep the sound paired down and live, play loads of old R&B and blues songs, do a few remakes of old songs with significantly different arrangements and throw in one or two of the very best new material that they can come up with. On second thought, just do blues and R&B covers.

Get Led Zeppelin to cut the crap and stick to what they're good at. See Zep 1 for reference.

And to paraphrase Twilight, get the Velvet Underground to cut down on the random feedback and noisemaking. They're interesting enough without it.

[DrewTheXenocide]

Create a non-douchebag potion, go back in time, and shove it down Axl Rose's throat.

[Reptisaurus!]

Sonic Youth - Less pop crossover, more feedback. :D

(Which was NEVER random.)

Although maybe not. Haven't listened to it in YEARS, but I dunno it I'd have ever gotten into the band if it wasn't for "Dirty." And I think I even liked the one with the long name when I was a teenager. (Now: Completely unlistenable.)

[Adam C]

Is that actually the point?


As Reptisaurus! points out the feedback isn't necessarily random. Sonic Youth were a part of the late 70s/early 80s No Wave music scene of New York City. They were deeply influenced by the Velvet Underground, punk rock, and avante-garde composer and fellow No Wave scenester Glenn Branca. In fact Lee Renaldo played in one of his bands. Their playing techniques owe a lot to Branca and other such experimental composers, where they don't play proper chords or notes on the guitars so much as extract sound and texture from them.

This is why their guitars are set in all sorts of alternate tunings and why the band members run their hands over the necks of their instruments in a lot of strange ways, even on more conventional songs like "Sunday" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PhDhz4GaTI). Listen and watch to how Thurston just drives along the rhythm while Lee squeezes these ambient thrums out of his guitar as the song progresses. The point of the band is to make guitar rock based on the manipulation of guitar feedback, often bringing elements of modernist composition into the mix...much like their predecessors the Velvet Underground. (Though Sonic Youth carry it even farther in my opinion.)

Another way to look at them though is to see the band as following up on Hendrix's experiments with feedback and white noise, while leaving behind the soloing. (Just as Hendrix's followers in the seventies most followed up on the soloing, but didn't do that much with his experiments in distortion other than use it as textural flavouring for their guitar rock.)

And really, what is the white-noise breakdown in the middle of Silver Rocket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpU7q1d9lAU) but the guitar solo in the middle of the song? So in my estimation the feedback experiments are not only not random, but crucial to Sonic Youth's artistic purpose.

No whether one likes it or not is another matter. And while I LOVE the breakdown in "Silver Rocket" I also love stuff like John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, free jazz, and free improvisation. So my tastes are weird.


And to paraphrase Twilight, get the Velvet Underground to cut down on the random feedback and noisemaking. They're interesting enough without it.


(Which was NEVER random.)

[Ilash]

Hmmm, okay, you're right. The feedback was put there for a pupose, such as in Heroin. However, the thing that I like most about the band is their ability to create almost hypnotic moods with their music and the feeback, while I understand its purpose, gets in the way of that, more often than not. Others may dissagree and claim that the feedback is an abolutely essential part of the Velvet's greatness but from where I stand, they're better without it.

[Sanagi]

I'm hardly an expert on the band, but my impression of Sonic Youth is:
interesting chords: great
weird avant garde freak-outs: tolerable
rhythm: boring

[Valmore]

This one's easy: get Bill Berry back to drumming for R.E.M. and stop Michael Stipe from writing boring electronica songs.

[howyadoin]

The Ramones?

Still alive.

[Chiasm]

Radiohead - Take them back to their sound around the time of OK Computer or The Bends.

[Jonathan Bogart]

Radiohead - Take them back to their sound around the time of OK Computer or The Bends.
Again, that's pretty much the opposite of what I would do. They need to get even more avant-garde!

[Ghost]

*raises Freddie Mercury from the dead*

There, done.

I'm not sure what to do about Deacon, though.

[leonaozaki]

Ian Curtis, Joe Strummer, Warren Zevon, Freddie Mercury, and Chris Whitley all not dying.

rob

[G. Wayne]

Less-
remixes in general
remix albums with ONE NEW SONG!!! BOO! :evilangry
3 song or full album with 1 bonus track imports
digipacks
10 plus minute tracks, where the first 3 to 6 minute or so are the song, then there's like 10 minutes of dead space, then some "bonus" somethingerother at the end.

[mattx110]

Ian Curtis, Joe Strummer, Warren Zevon, Freddie Mercury, and Chris Whitley all not dying.

rob

YOU ROCK MAN!

i'd just combine random people.

ask oscar peterson to do a couple more slow songs.

go back and tell keith to fricken quit the who so that whole jeff beck jimmy page thing coulda worked out.

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

make janet jackson continue the direction of velvet rope,and the janet album.

make living colour,and fishbone have a longer career that would have a bigger impact on the industry.and from it rose more all black bands that added their own twist to rock/metal can you imagine that scene being black lol,with their own black sub-culture fanbase no less? thats seperate from the predominately white one? but a great counterpart to the hip-hop scene as as will.

give rap music from all regions a hip-hop scenes that had about as much exposure as east coast rap during the 80's (despite popular belief there were active hip-hop scenes outside of new york in the 80's).think about how cool that would be.

make the urban underground music scene become a thriving mainstream like entity opposite of mainstream urban music (kinda like the swac college teams of the music industry)

stop michael from having sleep overs with kids

stop bobby brown from doing drugs

speaking of drugs i'd probobly stop bizzy bone from drinking.

and stop layne stanly from doing drugs.

[mindcrime]

prevent the death of dimebag, so theres still a chance pantera gets back
together.
prevent the death of cliff burton. would metallica have took that same path if he were still here?
save randy rhoades. i can only imagine what ozzy would have done if he wouldnt have died.

[DonC]

As much as I dig Iron Maiden, I think they would be even better had Clive Burr not left after The Number of the Beast.

[jesse_custer]

So what we know from this thread is that we all wish musicians would become legitimate necromancers.

[Infra-Man]

The Smashing Pumpkins - Make Billy Corgan write songs more like Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and the high points of Adore and less like the middling, self-indulgent, so-so stuff on Machina and Zeitgeist.

Matthew Sweet - Go back in time to right after 100% Fun and tell him to break his contract, release albums independently, and keep Richard Lloyd and Robert Quine on lead guitar on his next albums.

Elliott Smith - Go back in time to help him clean up his act, get his life back on track, and release an album produced by Jon Brion.

The Beach Boys - Go back in time to make sure Brian Wilson's life stays on track and that he remains the creative force behind the band, beat up Mike Love.

The Jam - Go back in time to convince Paul Weller that The Style Council will just be okay at best and that he should really just stick it out with Rick and Bruce for at least another album or two.

Thin Lizzy - Go back in time to keep Phil Lynott alive and get him off the heroin and alcohol.

[Adam C]

So what we know from this thread is that we all wish musicians would become legitimate necromancers.

Indeed. And in the end, isn't that (and hoverbikes) the way the world should be?

Here's one. Pair Tom Verlaine with a suitable vocalist. His straggled yelp worked in early Television and his solo career, but I have to admit it's become a bit too weak and cracked for its own good, which is really just his fault for smoking.

Also have him release at least one instrumental album of textured guitar pieces a year.

[Spike-X]

Drag Amy Winehouse's skinny ass into rehab, no matter how much she says no, no, no.

[ImpulseUCF]

For the love of God, Jimi, don't take those sleeping pills!

James, Kirk, Cliff, Lars, cancel that show tomorrow night...the roads are too icey to drive this big old bus down tonight.

Dimebag, whack that dude sneaking up on you with your guitar real quick and then call Phil, tell him to get his ass off drugs, and put out a new Pantera record.

Aerosmith should say F to their MTV career and put out a balls-to-the-wall blues and rock-inspired album that is everything they want it to be and not what they think would be successful.

Tell Zeppelin to cut it with the reggae and experimental crap, kick the drugs, and remain one of the legendary classic touring bands and minimize new material.

[The Mirrorball Man]

I wouldn't want to improve some of my favorite bands. You can keep that nostalgia crap: I don't want things to be like they used to be. I want to be surprised, and if my favorite bands can't do it anymore, I'll find new bands to do it instead.

[Adam C]

Aerosmith should say F to their MTV career and put out a balls-to-the-wall blues and rock-inspired album that is everything they want it to be and not what they think would be successful.

http://wc10.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dnfyxqqaldte

[ImpulseUCF]

http://wc10.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:dnfyxqqaldte
Well, duh. :) I have that album and love the shit out of it. It's argually the best thing they've done in 20 years. I just want them to take the same inspiration and do some original material.

[jessecuster3]

Count me in with the raise the dead-ers:

Shannon Hoon back with Blind Melon
Layne Staley back with Alice in Chains
Bradley Nowell back with Sublime
even keep Doug Hopkins in the Gin Blossoms

Of course, Jerry would still be alive, as well.


Oh and I need to bring almost the entire Aeroplane band back to life, Hartford and Clements, for sure.

[Tish-the-Scorpion]

Count me in with the raise the dead-ers:
that would cause a zombie out break,it would be better to just prevent the deaths in the first place.

[howyadoin]

that would cause a zombie out break,it would be better to just prevent the deaths in the first place.I dunno, Zombie Skynyrd sounds like an interesting idea.

[Jonathan Bogart]

I dunno, Zombie Skynyrd sounds like an interesting idea.
Isn't that more or less what the people who are touring under the Skynyrd name are?

[mattx110]

I'd retcon all blues musicians to have had classical training as children so I don't have to deal with any musician past 1960 who takes pride in not knowing anything about music because "robert johnson didn't know theory".

Same thing with all the "punks".

Then they'd all be my favorites. Why am I gonna say "hey, Earl Scruggs, you should practice more!" when I can elevate everyone else to his level and give him a reason to?

[howyadoin]

Isn't that more or less what the people who are touring under the Skynyrd name are?True. But I'm picturing Ronnie Van Zant and the others looking sorta like an Iron Maiden album cover.