Then I got an email saying Incubus was coming to town. Whenever I hear that band's name, I always think back to my Family Values Tour 1998 sampler with them doing the song New Skin live. It was awesome. But then I hear a new song of theirs, and I shake my head. What happened to the heavy, funky awesomeness you guys once had? You guys sound just like you look like:
(from www.livenation.com)
So without further aduba, I present to you the:
Top 5 Bands I Used to Really Enjoy Until They Decided to Start Sucking the Life Out of Rock Music
1. Nickelback - I admit, I really like the first song I ever heard of theirs on the radio. It was not that song about never making it as a blind man. That song was alright, as was their follow up song from Spiderman. The song was called "Leader of Men". It had a slow build, catchy chorus, and was just good for new rock music. However, what followed has paved the way for many once powerful bands to become the Masters of Suckitude. The only other thing I like of theirs is the song the Eagles use when they come onto the field. But then, the Eagles try to fire you up again with that song and you realize you just got pumped up to Nickelback while your home team is about to lose to the John Skelton led Arizona Cardinals. Nickelback, your formula for music has killed off rock radio.
2. Breaking Benjamin - Anybody ever a fan of these guys? Their first album Saturate is one of the most refreshing, unique, and rocking new albums I heard in a long time back in 2002. I heard Polyamorous on the radio and was hooked. I saw them play in the parking lot of th X Games in Philly that year prior to this album coming out. When it came out, I do not think I listened to any album more than that one that year. Then their follow up came out. It was half like the album Saturate then half odd-taste-in-my-mouth music. The music would start out fast and heavy and then slow down into a droning, slow, boring chorus. The singer, oddly enough named Benjamin, would try to spice his songs up with his growl and screaming, but not so much. Their third album was completely forgettable, and I remember actually being bummed out that a once potentially powerful and great band had become the Nickelback of hard rock. That is why they are #2 on my list. They let me down big time and it actually hurt.
3. Staind - Sigh. Fred Durst (who I will get to next) ruined you with that acoustic version of the song Outside. That was a really great song, but then you decided to gay it up on one of your records taking away what was so great about it. Your shows and albums prior to this era were unmatched. Mudshovel is still one of my favorite songs of all time. Then you started with that "It's Been A While" nonsense that made me want to chop off my man parts and trade them in for a french poodle. It has indeed been a while since you last did anything I cared about. Every song on your first real studio release was priceless, albeit a little monotonous - but in a style that I enjoyed. I hope you enjoy your mansions, fancy tattoo designers, and asshole tough guy fans every time you play your new Monster Ballads style music.
4. Limp Bizkit - Yes, I was a fan. Who could not like the song Faith? It was genius. So was that whole Three Dollar Bill Y'all album. The songs Counterfeit, Pollution, Faith, and Leech are still in my iPod. Your next album got a little weaker. As the good (I only call myself "The Great") Jim Lipski would say, "He rhymed the woord 'nookie' with, uh, 'nookie'...it is sheer talent". Also, a song strictly made for college frat party fights - Break Stuff - showed the beginning signs of them losing their creativeness. Musically, they always sound great. Lyrically, your crappy lyrics were too prevalent as bad boy mish mosh that you would hear between two school yard bullies. You were to music what Dane Cook is to comedy. The only saving grace for you on that second album was the song you did with Jonathan Davis (Korn) and Scott Weilland (STP - who rules, by the way). My Way or the Highway? Maybe only the Hershey Highway, boys.
5. Buckcherry - Man, the summer of 2000 for me was set to "I'm all, lit up again!" That song, although I certainly did not party as the lyrics would suggest, pumped me up and so did all their other songs on that album. Even the slower songs found their proper spot on the radio and the record. After all, every bad boy does have his soft side. And the guy was top notch rock - drug addict, tattooed, people constantly worrying he was going to die. Even their second album, not as great as the first, was pretty great in my opinion. I think you guys would have been better off falling off the face of the Earth rather than make music that I have seen my friends actually laugh at in a bar.
There you have it! Little ol' me talking to famous people like I know them and have any say. I guess as a fan I do indeed have my say. And I say, I will never listen to or go out of my way to see you guys. You had your windows, and you blew it. I think these five bands, that once helped grow the popularity of modern radio, are also responsible for the drivel rock that comes on the radio now on the one classic/current rock station left in Philadelphia and the alternative whiny Coldplay fueled station we have.
Tune in to my facebook page as well, like me, and keep an eye out for a contest where you can a blog written about yourself. Even if I do not know you, I can find something out. I am creepy - uh - good like that.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/jimdubablogspotcom/362072873820577
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