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Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 10:22 am
by VideoGameCritic
A coworker of mine was a HUGE Clutch fan. I feel like I should give them a try since they are from Maryland. They have a lot of albums - which would be recommend starting with?

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: June 14th, 2020, 1:40 pm
by velcrozombie
VideoGameCritic wrote:A coworker of mine was a HUGE Clutch fan. I feel like I should give them a try since they are from Maryland. They have a lot of albums - which would be recommend starting with?


The 1995 self-titled album is usually where most people start. This album created the style of heavy, blues-based grooves that was the band's bread-and-butter for nearly a decade and it has "Spacegrass", the band's signature song (although Clutch has at least one or two fan favorites from every album - they don't have one album that defines their career the way some bands do).

Other albums to check out would be 2005's Robot Hive/Exodus (where the band got a full-time organist/keyboard player and delved a bit further into funk and blues), 2013's Earth Rocker (where they became a more driving, energetic rock band after touring with Motorhead and Thin Lizzy) and 1993's Transnational Speedway League (the rawest, angriest thing they ever put out). One thing that all Clutch albums have is a sense of humor - the songs aren't jokes exactly but they are often about absurd topics. For instance, the new album has a song ("Hot Bottom Feeder") where the lyrics consist of a recipe for Maryland crab cakes. The song "Elephant Riders" is an alternate-history story of the Civil War where the Confederacy uses elephants as cavalry mounts. There's a strong Southern flavor in general.

Try to see them live if this COVID-19 business ever clears up. I saw them in Pittsburgh with Primus a few years ago and their energy and onstage chemistry took me by surprise. Neil Fallon sounds just as good as he does on the albums and has an amicable, blue-collar sort of stage presence.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: November 27th, 2020, 7:17 pm
by jon
One thing I’ve noticed is that any time I hear a car with music it’s always rap. I don’t think I’ve heard anything but rap blaring out of people’s cars in forever. Sometimes I’ll be playing rock music in my car loud enough that people could probably hear and I’m almost embarrassed that I listen to rock. Every once in a while there will be a sports bar that doesn’t play rap on the playlist and it’s embarrassing almost. It’s like we’re from a different galaxy and not hip or something. I’ll hear rap and it’s all kinds of different people listening to it in their car. I can’t even remember hearing rock from anyone’s car.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: November 28th, 2020, 6:43 am
by Zack Burner
I loved listening to guitar rock songs from "Bohemian Rhapsody" (my all-time favorite rock song), Nirvana's "Smells like team spirit", and 3 Doors Down "Kryptonite" I'd rather listen to that than all the rubbish that's on the radio today.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: November 28th, 2020, 8:13 am
by VideoGameCritic
Timely! I just ordered the new AC/DC album "Power Up" from Amazon, which is getting pretty high marks for a band well into their 60's.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: November 28th, 2020, 9:25 am
by Zack Burner
I can't forget about this legend: Carlos Santana, from "Smooth", "Maria Maria", and "Black Magic Woman". In fact, last year I went to a concert with him and the Doobie Brothers, he's in his 70's but he can still play hard! The crowd was jam-packed!

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: November 28th, 2020, 10:12 am
by Den
Man, there's a lot of snowflakes in this thread. Vampire Weekend is incredible.

That said, if you like guitar rock, Weezer's next album, due out in May, is influenced by 70s and 80s hard rock bands.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: December 2nd, 2020, 11:03 am
by BlasteroidAli
I have noticed no change. The bands are still out there and new ones are appearing

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: December 2nd, 2020, 4:20 pm
by Voor
Any incubus fans? That was my favorite band in the 2000s, but those CDs are long gone. Just bought one of those “essential” albums to listen to them again.

Re: What happened to guitar rock?

Posted: December 2nd, 2020, 5:12 pm
by jon
Zack Burner wrote:I loved listening to guitar rock songs from "Bohemian Rhapsody" (my all-time favorite rock song), Nirvana's "Smells like team spirit", and 3 Doors Down "Kryptonite" I'd rather listen to that than all the rubbish that's on the radio today.


Those songs are awesome. I love those Mississippi boys 3 Doors Down. As far as something I just got into, in Cop Land they were playing Burnin’ For You and I started checking out a couple of the Blue Oyster Cult songs.