The Return of Ambitious Rock!

[Pyser]

I'm just listening to ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead's new album "worlds apart".

it's VERY different than their old stuff. they took a huge jump in ambition, both instrument-wise and overall sound-wise.

coupled with green day's "american idiot" album...is this the return of ambitious rock?

i'll admit i wont be sad to see the "the" bands go away (strokes, vines, hives, etc)....but im very excited at this return to big album rock that may be starting. here's to hoping it lasts (and i admit a 2 album sample isnt enough, but it's got to start somewhere).


edit: spelling

[Calis]

Heh, upon reading this I realized I had 14 "The" bands on my iPod right now.

The Arcade Fire
The Doves
The Fiery Furnaces
The Flaming Lips
The Honeydogs
The Killers
The Mars Volta
The New Pornographers
The Pogues
The Roots
The Shins
The Streets
The Thrills
The Walkmen

Not entirely sure what this has to do with anything, but reading that made me realize I listen to a lot of "the" stuff. So I guess I'd be sad to see it go.

I've heard good things on that CD though, I'll have to give it a listen sometime. As for Green Day, God help me I hate Green Day as much as anyone but I'm very close to buying it from all the hoopla and actually liking a couple of the songs I've heard. Not sure how long I can keep fighting.

[Qwikshot]

You have the Doves but no Elbow?

[AlexB]

I love AYWKUBTTOD! Wasn't sure of the release date, so will be down HMV tomorrow.

They're not that well known over here: down at Rock City after watching Kings of Leon just before Xmas, asked the DJ to put some Trail of Dead on - he just about creamed himself! 'No one's ever asked for them before!'

Came back about 10 mins later waving the 'Madonna' CD and... don't know if he ever played any it as my mates decided the small bar we were in was shit (there were only about two people there!) so we left, despite my pleas...

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Calis

Heh, upon reading this I realized I had 14 "The" bands on my iPod right now.

The Arcade Fire
The Doves
The Fiery Furnaces
The Flaming Lips
The Honeydogs
The Killers
The Mars Volta
The New Pornographers
The Pogues
The Roots
The Shins
The Streets
The Thrills
The Walkmen

Not entirely sure what this has to do with anything, but reading that made me realize I listen to a lot of "the" stuff. So I guess I'd be sad to see it go.

I've heard good things on that CD though, I'll have to give it a listen sometime. As for Green Day, God help me I hate Green Day as much as anyone but I'm very close to buying it from all the hoopla and actually liking a couple of the songs I've heard. Not sure how long I can keep fighting.

the rules. i love the.

[Bearcat729]

Originally Posted by Calis

Heh, upon reading this I realized I had 14 "The" bands on my iPod right now.

The Arcade Fire
The Doves
The Fiery Furnaces
The Flaming Lips
The Honeydogs
The Killers
The Mars Volta
The New Pornographers
The Pogues
The Roots
The Shins
The Streets
The Thrills
The Walkmen

Not entirely sure what this has to do with anything, but reading that made me realize I listen to a lot of "the" stuff. So I guess I'd be sad to see it go.

I've heard good things on that CD though, I'll have to give it a listen sometime. As for Green Day, God help me I hate Green Day as much as anyone but I'm very close to buying it from all the hoopla and actually liking a couple of the songs I've heard. Not sure how long I can keep fighting.

Yeah but you don't have any The The on there

[hhiipp]

Screw ambitious rock, bring back Fraggle Rock!

[chinaski]

i love their first 2 albums, i might have to check this one out.

[CamEdwards]

i didn't realize so many of the bands i've heard on the radio weren't ambitious.

Seriously, is "ambitious rock" a real term? I somehow got lost around the time "emo" started being used as a descriptive.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

Seriously, is "ambitious rock" a real term? I somehow got lost around the time "emo" started being used as a descriptive.

I thought "ambitious" was being used as just a regular (and random) adjective here, not as part of a proper name.

But, since I recall even hearing the names of far less than half the bands mentioned in this thread (and found Fraggle Rock to be the most familiar), I'll wait for a definitive answer too.

[Calis]

Yeah I'm assuming ambitious is just used in the adjective form as well, or I have no idea what it means. Of course even then I don't really get it.

I also still have no idea really what qualifies as emo or not, and not sure if it's a genre of music or an insulting term for music. So confused.

Qwikshot- I actually don't have anything from Elbow yet, but something I'll look into. To be quite honest I haven't listened to The Doves much yet, just one of those CD's I bought on a binge a while back, and haven't really listened to thoroughly.

[Qwikshot]

Originally Posted by Calis

Yeah I'm assuming ambitious is just used in the adjective form as well, or I have no idea what it means.

I also still have no idea really what qualifies as emo or not, and not sure if it's a genre of music or an insulting term for music. So confused.

Qwikshot- I actually don't have anything from Elbow yet, but something I'll look into. To be quite honest I haven't listened to The Doves much yet, just one of those CD's I bought on a binge a while back, and haven't really listened to thoroughly.

I'm assuming it's "Last Broadcast" and not "Lost Souls" concerning the Doves. LB is far more upbeat, while LS is more of a coming down album. LB has good hits like Pounding, There goes the Fear, Caught by the River.

Lost Souls has some anthem like songs: Catch the Sun, and Cedar Room, but the gem for me is The Man Who Told Everything. There are also 3 bonus tracks (at least from the one I purchased) and Darkness and Valley are pretty cool B-sides. Of course, Firesuite is an awesome instrumental intro.

Elbow now has two albums out too. Their first album "Asleep in the Back" has a good Pink Floyd like start with Anydaynow. Newborn is a good song as well. Bitten by the Tailfly is a rocker.

Their followup "Cast of Thousands" is a little more accessible and not as gloomy. Ribcage is a nice moody intro but it rises above the darkness with the help of a gospel choir. Fallen Angel is a rocker, and a good one at that. Fugitive Motel is a heartbreaking ballad about the loniliness of being on the road (every band has one song like this). The other songs are pretty good, but I really like Grace under Pressure which is a beautiful song.

And I recommend Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus" which is a smoking 2 cd set. Cave has placed my faith back in rock and roll, wish I had listened to him years ago.

[Calis]

I actually do have Lost Souls and not Last Broadcast, I'll try and check it out soon.

I'll look into the Nick Cave one, I know you'd mentioned it earlier and I managed to find a copy of Murder Ballads for cheap at a used CD place around here, and have enjoyed a couple songs on there quite a bit. It has Shane MacGowan on it also, which made it automatically worthy of my purchase.

[Pyser]

no, "ambitious rock" isnt any musical term i know of, but id be happy to take credit for the name if it catches on

i just mean that i feel bands are doing more than recording 3-4 minute songs. newer albums coming out have 8 minute songs with "parts" in them, for lack of a better word, tying back in to other songs. the albums have overtures, and complete themes. they are a concept album, but a bit more than that, too.

im just pointing it out as a new trend...perhaps a return to late 60s or 70s albums that are "complete" albums, not a bunch of songs. and i hope it continues.

[Leonidas]

The Mars Volta is supposed to have a new album out in March. I think some tour dates have been set in Europe as well, but I don't know about the states.

[Karlifornia]

I was actually going to make a post about the Worlds Apart record...I like it a lot, but it's definitely no source tags & codes. Maybe in time I will change my stance on that, though. The only two things that bug me about the new record are the chanting at the beginning, and that lady screaming "Don't go!!!" at the end of track 11.

I saw them at Coachella last year, and I remember them playing "Will You Smile Again For Me?" before knowing what the hell it was. That song is..uhm...immaculate. Hopefully they'll be there again this year!

Oh, and the arcade fire rocks as well.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Pyser

im just pointing it out as a new trend...perhaps a return to late 60s or 70s albums that are "complete" albums, not a bunch of songs. and i hope it continues.

Muse, tool?

[cthomer5000]

Ugh... turn the fucking radio off and stop insulting the hordes of bands out there who've always been making great albums.

[Pyser]

care to elaborate?

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by Pyser

care to elaborate?

if Me KeyboaRD No WorKing , so Not really.listen 2 Muse great albums

[Pyser]

i was referring to cthomer

i like muse a lot. i think they use radioheads producer....it sounds very similar. their new album is quite good.

[cthomer5000]

My point is that music exists outside of TV, terrestrial Radio, and whatever you happen to listen to. To say that real 'albums' ever went away is ridiculous. You just weren't listening to them, probably because they were not getting mainstream radio airplay.

[Pyser]

well, i happen to pride myself on not liking mainstream radio. and even though i havent gone out of my way to prove it here, id be hard pressed to find anyone call ...trail of dead mainstream.

and like i say, give me some examples that prove me wrong from the last 10 years or so, and ill gladly say i was wrong.

[Cydney]

I'd say trail of dead themselves fit the bill for the last ten years. Anything that could be considered post-hardcore (well most anything at least) in fact. And there's a lot of experimentation going on constantly within hardcore itself, like Circle Takes the Square and pageninetynine. Or am I misunderstanding something....?

[Suicane75]

Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born

[-Mojo Jojo-]

I'm with cthomer... there are loads of people making ambitious music all along.

Tool, Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Fates Warning, Savatage, Marillion, BT, Chroma Key, Liquid Tension Experiment, Pain of Salvation, Spocks Beard, Shadow Gallery, and probably 100 other bands like them. Ambitious music rules!

[Calis]

Ok, I'll bite the bullet here and say that I've been listening to American Idiot quite a bit the past few days.

As much as I've always disliked Green Day's music, this is pretty good stuff.


Another thing, anyone here like Fiery Furnaces? One of those odd CDs(Blueberry Boat) that I listened to a couple tracks, hated it and shelved it for a month or so. Now I find myself playing it all the time and loving it. It's so weird, and it's just fun. It would fit into the "ambitious" category also, though it wouldn't quite fit into the normal rock mode. But if you can't like a CD with a song about a blueberry laden cargo ship from Michigan being attacked near Taiwan by pirates, you just can't be pleased. An interesting and fun album though if you're not completely put off by the oddness of it all.

[jeff061]

Tool, can't wait for the next album. Their last one, as a whole, was their best yet. Though Aenima was better song by song. Easily my favorite band, and I dread the day they break up.

Also wish Primus was putting more stuff out these days. The last two albums from System of a Down have gotten me into to them. I'll have to check out some of these bands you guys are talking about, I never really seem to try to listen to other bands as often as i should.

Saw Trail of Dead a couple years ago on Conan O'brian, I'll check out their new stuff.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by -Mojo Jojo-

I'm with cthomer... there are loads of people making ambitious music all along.

Tool, Dream Theater, Devin Townsend, Fates Warning, Savatage, Marillion, BT, Chroma Key, Liquid Tension Experiment, Pain of Salvation, Spocks Beard, Shadow Gallery, and probably 100 other bands like them. Ambitious music rules!

I think I've found my new best friend. Love all of these bands, Devin Townsend and Pain of Salvation especially. Strapping Young Lad's new one is a monster. Spocks Beard isn't quite the same without Neal Morse, but I love Neal's new stuff, even if it is essentially "God Prog." Amazing stuff. I'd throw Ayreon in this list as well, as far as a band that is making ambitious music. The Human Equation is one of my faves from 2004 - what a concept album, and the list of guests is like a who's who of prog metal.