Strength / Weakness
 

This is pretty straight forward.
Just list a few of your favourite bands & list what you think their strengths & weaknesses are.

Primal Scream
Strengths: Embracing many different genres without bandwagon jumping or sacrificing their own sound. An unselfish attitude to working with other people , if they think someone outside of the band can make it work better they bring them in.

Weaknesses: Bobby Gillespie's vocals are a little on the weak side , especially on ballads. Plus they do raid the Rolling Stones songbook a little too much sometimes.

Stereolab
Strengths: A totally unique sound. I can't think of too many bands that mix guitar pop with krautrock and 60s lounge music.Lætitia Sadier is one of my favourite female vocalists , i'd happily listen to her sing all day.

Weaknesses: Far too prolific , 9 albums & 17 EPs in the space of 15 years plus dozens of side projects means that their records contain far too much filler material. Only their Emperor Tomato Ketchup album is really solid from start to finish.

The Clash
Strengths: The single mindedness to do whatever they wanted. They remained down to earth no matter how many records they sold. Moved punk forward by showing there was more to it than playing 3 chords & shouting a lot. Topper Headon , one of the most underrated drummers ever. In a live environment he's one of the tightest drummers I have ever heard.

Weaknesses: Over-indulgence. See side 4 of London Calling and half of Sandinista , do we really need to hear a bunch of kids singing Career Opportunities? What are you , Pink Floyd?

Alice Cooper
Strengths: People seem to forget the original Alice Cooper band were protégés of Frank Zappa and wrote some of the finest twisted trashy rock songs ever. Alice doesn't really get the credit he deserves for his lyrics either which are quite cleverly written with a subtle sense of humour.

Weaknesses: 30 years of **** solo albums (give or take a couple) & gimmicky stage props have tarnished the above. Especially his comeback in the late 80s.

The Fall
Strengths: Mark E Smith

Weaknesses: Mark E Smith

I did my top 10. This was surprisingly hard.

Elliott Smith:
Strengths: Created some of the most interesting experimental pop songs of his day after perfecting his intimate acoustic sound.

Weaknesses: Died too early making a mess of most his post-humus material particularly the stuff during his later day. Don't think that's a problem? Look at the mixing on From a Basement on the Hill which had the potential to be without a doubt his masterpiece.

Patrick Wolf:
Strengths: He's made some of the most unique pop ever with his last album and the two before created some of the most unique things for what he was trying to do with them and he's super talented and super hot<33

Weaknesses: Sometimes it seems like he takes himself too seriously which doesn't so much affect the album as his stage presence live.

The Magnetic Fields:
Strengths: Stephin Merritt is one of the most talented lyricists ever and an excellent producer who can construct songs/albums very well.

Weaknesses: Kind of like with Stereolab he's far too prolific. He's done albums with various side projects (under his own name, Gothic Archives, Future Bible Heroes, The 6ths etc) and the Magnetic Fields releases, while they've been spaced out, if you look at Stephin Merritt's other stuff including they're not too spaced out and sometimes you wonder why he put a certain song on here. But oddly enough that isn't a problem at all on 69 Love Songs, there's probably five or so songs I'd have gotten rid of but thats it.

Carissa's Wierd:
Strengths: They kind of the embody the pacific northwest musical aesthetic for me and they create some of the most heartwrenching music ever.

Weaknesses: Sometimes they're a bit too cliche, particularly on tracks like Die which you can only listen to if you're already feeling down.

Jens Lekman:
Strengths: He writes funny lyrics that would place him along side Morrissey and Stuart Murdoch, which is extraordinary given English isn't his first language. Plus he's an excellent vocalist that from a technical standpoint is stunning.

Weaknesses: He tries to rhyme certain things that shouldn't be rhymed. English is his second language and it makes it amusing but sometimes its distracting particularly when vocals/lyrics are such a big part of his music.

Morrissey:
Strengths: When he's in proper form he can rival the best of the Smiths stuff easily and he's proven to be a very versatile artist from album to album.

Weaknesses: Sometimes style changing isn't for the best, for every good Morrissey album you can basically find a bad or subpar one. He's also become far too stream-lined with these last two releases. I hope he does something different with the new album.

Bright Eyes:
Strengths: I think Conor can write some of the most beautiful lyrics ever and create some very eclectic/unique music when he wants to, example: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn or Letting Off the Happiness.

Weaknesses: Lately his lyrics have been below standard (they've honestly been a downhill slope ever since Fevers & Mirrors) and his music is becoming pretty stream-lined. I don't think he'll be experimenting anytime soon and seeing as his orchestrated country sound is already dull that kind of blows.

Modest Mouse:
Strengths: Back in their day they created fantastically jaded and edgy music that was a brilliant combination of Pixies and Built to Spill.

Weaknesses: They've turned into a fairly dull supergroup that's obviously past their prime.

The Smiths:
Strengths: They created some of the most perfect pop songs ever (There is a Light That Never Goes Out for instance) and some of the just most perfect songs ever (Asleep for instance.) Morrissey was an excellent frontman, Johnny Marr a great guitarist, Rourke and excellent bassist and Joyce a very solid drummer. All in all a very cohesive group of musicians who knew exactly what they were doing.

Weaknesses: I couldn't think of many but the reason I don't listen to Strangeways, Here We Come much is because after the Queen is Dead they became fairly dull. Maybe they'd already achieved their pinnacle sound I don't know but that album only shines at moments. Stuff like the pointless intro to Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me and the banality of Unhappy Birthday are kind of shameful given their prior releases.

Daniel Johnston:
Strengths/Weaknesses: He created some of the most painfully honest lo-fi music ever. This could be both good and bad.

I think they did what a lot of British bands did , they crumbled under the pressure to break into the U.S. Just like The Clash , just like the Sex Pistols , just like the Stone Roses , just like Oasis.

I'll do a few more...

Aerosmith
Strengths: During the 70s recorded some of the greatest soulful , funky , dirty rock n roll ever recorded. Steven Tyler is just bursting full of charisma and Joe Perry had cool oozing out of every pore on his body.

Weaknesses: Recording slickly produced middle of the road love ballads for your daughter written by Diane Warren? Oh f*ck off.

Flaming Lips
Strengths: Don't take themselves too seriously , write some gorgeous pop songs. Wayne Coyne seems like one of the nicest blokes you could ever hope to meet and is clearly totally bonkers.

Weaknesses: It's all gone a bit nice , dare I say a little boring. There will always be a part of me that would love to see them return to the acid tinged punk inspired noise they did during the 80s when Wayne Coyne ripped off Gibby Haynes with alarming regularity. And speaking of Wayne Coyne , his vocals ain't the greatest either.

David Bowie
Strengths: Can turn his hand to almost anything and make it work. Has an unmistakable voice. Fantastic songwriter and always has talented people queuing up to work with him. He may jump bandwagons but he does it long before anyone else even thinks of jumping on them.
Weaknesses: 1984 , 1985 , 1986 , 1987 , 1988 , 1989 , 1990 , 1991 , 1992 ........... you get the picture.
And the less said about T*n M**h**e the better.

Motorhead
Strengths: Lemmy , Living legend.
Their first 7 or 8 albums are a faultless example of loud & dirty rock n roll with plenty of balls & attitude.

Weaknesses: The current band might be technically better than the classic Lemmy/Philthy Animal/Fast Eddie line up but I don't think they have as much personality or the rawness that made the classic 'head' line up so iconic. Although Lemmy is still capable of knocking out the odd rock anthem from time to time a lot of the material from the last 10/15 sounds too much like re-hashed ideas from the past.

Stone Roses
Strengths: Wrote fantastic 60s inspired trippy pop records when nobody else was doing so. Recorded one of the greatest albums ever made that still sounds fresh almost 20 years after it's debut. Totally unpretentious, after an entire decade of studenty middle class jangly indie pop bands they were like a breath of fresh air and made it OK to like working class bands again paving the way for the likes of Oasis & Pulp in the 90s.

Weaknesses: That entire second album where John Squire seemed to be possessed by the spirit of Jimmy Page and the seemingly never ending disintegration of the band that seemed to last forever until it was finally put out of it's misery after an embarrassingly awful set at the Reading festival in 1996

Pink Floyd

Strengths: Created one of the finest and influential debut albums ever recorded. Did'nt write hit singles after the first album. Created some of the earliest and influential stage shows. Have a guitarist with one of the most mournful sounds ever put to vinyl. Never craves publicity. Had awesome album covers.

Weaknesses: Wrote some average banal songs that somehow have come become classic (Money). Became decidely less progressive with each album which is short change for one of the first progressive bands. Roger Waters became an arse. Are Middle class bores.

Tangerine Dream

Strengths: Have achieved longevity through a series of fads and musical change. Can say more in a few piano notes than bands can on whole albums. Marry the moving image with music succinctly.

Weaknesses: Some of their music can also be banal and not sound out of place and on a TV movie of the week. Have far too many albums to achieve a consistent discography.

Porcupine Tree

Strengths: Are excellent musicians and in Steven Wilson have one of Britains finest ever songwriters/producers. Can strike that delicate balance between heavy riffing and genuine ambience.

Weaknesses: Play music that (heavy riffs withstanding) is decidely stuck in the 70's. Have one of the most unadventurous live acts ever( they are tight as hell but look bored out of their skulls). Constantly issuing new material which retail shops sell at extortionate prices.

Fugazi

Strengths: Definite F.U to major labels and continued their support of Dischord records by self financing all their releases. 4 instruments, rarely used overdubs. Their music did exactly what it said on the tin.

Weaknesses:One album too many. Mackaye had too much of a strangehold on the band

grandaddy: made what is my personal opinion the best music around. i think each album was an improvement on the last, all the way till their last.

it's hard for me to think of a weakness. i guess the fact that they broke up after only four lps due to money pressures is the only thing i can think of, but i wouldn't say that's a weakness so much as it is the nature of the beast. edit: okay, jason lytle doesn't have the best voice ever. while i do enjoy the fact that i can actually understand 99% of his lyrics without having to look them up, it would be awesome if he could hit notes like thom yorke does.


someone do radiohead.

I'll do one for now.
King Crimson:
Strengths: One of the few bands I know that made better music because of their musicianship. Great balance between accesability and depth.
Weaknesses: Vocalists. Not so much the vocalists themselves, but the way they played around them.

Bump

This was a good idea for a thread.

The Smashing Pumpkins

Strengths:
Billy Corgan is one of the most creative minds in Alternative Rock. Suggesting art and expiriment above the radio formulas and drohl riffs of his contemporaries, Billy's music and distictive vocals rise above the (now) boring Alternative Rock scene. Capable of big riffs, serious grinds and pleasing ballads, the Pumpkins were (and altough some contest, are) an act to remember.

Weaknesses:
The lyrics.. which often times sound cliche or sophmoric. Although his lyrical prowess has improved, Corgan's poetry has often had a negitive influence on the band. Another point of contempt is Corgan's inability to keep a band together. Fans agree that the original line up will always be best, and in the rock albums where he is absent, Jimmy Chamberlin's drumming is sorely missed.

Ah c'mon, I love that song and you know if you were listening to it in 1973, you would have thought it was awesome.

Anywho.

Pink Floyd:

Strengths: One of the most original and creative bands ever. They put less emphasis on chops than other prog bands, which made them stand out. Waters is a brilliant lyricist. Gilmour has the most gorgeous guitar tone ever. Wright is one of the great keyboard wizards. Got around the fact that Waters and Wright weren't exactly masters of their instruments. Some of the best album covers ever. Gilmour and Wright also has some tight solo stuff.

Weaknesses: The annoying fanboy cult of one Syd Barrett. The fact that Waters turned into an assh*le, and while fancying himself the "leader" of the band he got lazy as a musician, having Gilmour record a lot of the bass parts on Animals and The Wall. Waters' solo stuff is pretty damn awful.

The Beatles:

Strengths: Pop music geniuses. Lennon and McCartney are in the top 10 greatest songwriters ever, Harrison is at least in the top 30.. Brought about the british invasion and changing the sound of rock music. Taking the bold risk of retiring from concerts to focus on creating more progressive music. George Martin was a freaking wizard, but they were also more skilled musicians than people give them credit for. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all put out strong solo material. Lennon had a great sense of humor and turned being an assh*le into an admirable talent.

Weaknesses: Letting Ringo write songs. Making Yoko Ono famous. Writing Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. The huge quantities of crappy soft rock McCartney has been dissing out for the last 30 years. Influencing Oasis.

Led Zeppelin:

Strengths: One of the greatest ensemble bands ever. Brought a sense of power to rock n roll that has never been successfully imitated since. Page is a god among guitarists. Plant has one of the best howls in rock. A consistant run of great albums. John Paul Jones is an underappreciated musical talent who is not only good at many instruments but produced albums for REM and Butthole Surfers. Made singing about LOTR cool.

Weaknesses: Not the best lyrics in the world. Plants vocals lost their power as years went by. The sad fact that you never know when a concert of theirs is gonna be f*cking amazing or f*cking horrible. Inevitably led to power metal. The fact that Page hasn't done anything interesting since. Robert Plant really let himself go. Wolfmother.

Yes:

Strengths: Maybe the best collection of virtuoso musicians in all of rock music. Took influences from all over the place and made it into something that was entirely their own. Brought progressive rock into the mainstream. Still churned out two good albums even after turning into a pop band. Wakeman's experience with the band is some of the most hilarious reading material you will ever find. Roger Dean's awesome album cover art. Jon Anderson's daughter is really f*cking hot.

Weaknesses: Can never keep a consistant line up. All the crap they put out in the 80s and 90s. Some of the most mumbo jumbo lyrics you will ever come across. Wakeman now has 500 rock operas all based on some piece of literature. Howe now looks like the cryptkeeper. Asia

I would have put John Paul Jones in the weaknesses.
Not because he's not very good , but for the exact opposite. He was extremely under-utilised.

Seconded.

Elvis Costello:
Strengths - One of Britain's finest musical exports. Terrific lyricist and songwriter, has worked with some great backing bands and collaborators and boasts a much more musically varied and consistent discography than he's often given credit for.

Weaknesses - For all his ambition he does have a habit of trying a bit too hard every now and then. His vocal style does grate a little bit sometimes and he's probably a self-obsessed, pretentious arsehole in real life.

David Bowie:
Strengths - What Urban said. One of the most unique talents music has ever seen.

Weaknesses - Released some pretty terrible music in the late 80s but, most annoying of all, after recovering his form in the mid 90s with a few terrific albums, he took a step backwards and got a bit safe for my liking. His last album sucked too.

Leonard Cohen:
Strengths - Probably my favourite ever lyricist, and whatever musical backing he opts for doesn't often intrude on the poetry of his lyrics, giving them that little bit more atmosphere to improve on it and create a glorious, deeply-affecting whole.

Weaknesses - He's never really made an end-to-end brilliant album in his career. A few come close, but even those are taken down a peg or too by one too many weak spots.

The Pogues:
Strengths - Just about the best band in the world when you're in the mood for them. Raucous, frenetic, uplifting and responsible for some of the best melodies I've ever heard when they're at their best.

Weaknesses - If you're not in the mood for them, it's just drinking music with Shane MacGowan's atonal jeering over the top of it. Plus, when they're bad, they're pretty bloody terrible.

I'll think of more later I guess...

I disagree with that. He was a very important part of the band and I disagree with everyone that says he was the weak link. His bass work alone was outstanding. But his work with keyboards, other instruments and arangements was what tied many of their later albums together so perfectly.

Does that include Lets Dance and the Labyrinth soundtrack?

Cuz I like those. :o:

Let's Dance is pretty much an album of two halves. Side A's great, I don't care much for side B though.

I do hate the Labyrinth soundtrack though. That said, there is the odd decent Bowie song from that era, but it does seem to me that he had burned himself out by then (the poor chap).

The Clash

Strengths: Awesome musicians, especially for a punk band. They had an intellegent and authentic vibe to them, which goes a looooong way. Great melodies. Love the experimental edge they had. Very large and eclectic mix of songs that you can never really get sick of.

Weaknesses: Lots of filler on Sandinista! I know it was pretty much them just recording whatever they wanted but much of it really wasn't neccesary. There were some absolutely awesome songs on that album and it could have been so much better as a whole without some of the filler. Combat Rock is even worse because about half of the songs suck and there's only 12. The only album of theirs which doesn't have at least one crap song is Give 'Em Enough Rope, which is a shame because it was just a punk album.

Alexisonfire

Strengths: Incredible amount of energy and emotion in their first two albums. Many great individual songs. Dallas Green is a great singer, and George Pettit is a great screamer. At the end of the day they're a bunch of fun guys.

Weaknesses: Wade can occasionally get in the way, on Crisis they sounded eerily like Rise Against, "Keep It On Wax" has a TERRIBLE chorus. Their albums are getting increasingly polished, and one of the things that made their debut so good is that it was so raw.

EL-P

Strengths - Menacing, claustrophobic soundscapes, his production can be incredibly dense at times, but the different elements almost always gel. Is capable of being a great lyricist.
Company Flow is a landmark group in hip hop, innovative and influential.

Weaknesses - His flow isn't always that strong, tending to get jumbled up over itself. Also, his lyrics sometimes veer to far towards being indecipherable.

The Mars Volta

Strengths - Great energy, especially in Omar's guitar work. Eclectic and frenetic sound, fusing latin funk rhythms with prog and hardcore influences.

Weaknesses - Often self indulgent, songs can degenerate into long unfocussed jams and their albums aren't terribly consistent. Lyrics aren't flash hot either.

His self titled really had me hopeful until I heard the new album. :(

I feel really bad about liking "Casadaga"...I really can't get into Conner's early stuff for some reason.

:banghead:

Why why why why why did you have to go there?

I'm sure that's a half-serious statement, but can you really blame Led Zeppelin for having an influence on a band you don't like? It's not like what Wolfmother is doing is bad either. They play an up-to-date version of that classic style, I see nothing wrong with that.

Green Day

Strengths: Well written pop. Excellent bass arrangements. They sound great when they're trying to be the Beach Boys.

Weaknesses: Its POP. Its POP POP POP POP POP. It has absolutly no street cred. It doesn't deserve it.... Its like...black cotton candy. Its black. It looks like it would be different. But its still cotton candy. And theres that song where they try to be the Ramones....I hope its just a bad single.

The Zombies

Strengths: Wow, they're just beautiful. Lovely lovely lovely well-written music and rad melodies and gorgeous concepts and I can't get enough.

Weaknesses: Not many. I dislike when he goes in falsetto (like in "Tell Her No") and I dislike all the covers of "Time of the Season". They make me sad.

The Mars Volta

Strengths: This genre (prog rock) peaked in the 70s, but I still think this band is awesome. Deep lyrical concepts, well-written, good melodies, and the guitar on some songs absolutly blows me away.

Weaknesses: 1/3 songs are good lyrically. 2/3 kinda seem like they're just words put together to sound smart. And now they all have their heads up their a**es.

Since when does being pop mean a lack of artistic credibility?

I'm not saying that Green Day has any, I'm just sayin'.

Nick Cave
Strengths - Great variety over his career in his respective bands. Rarely sounds like he is chucking out an album for the sake of it (Nocturama is the exemption). Very good lyricist that can cater to some absolutely dark moments and then some bright ones the next.

Weaknesses - Nocturama sucks. Harvey has left the Seeds now.

Yann Tiersen
Strengths - Great contemporary classical music blended with its fair share of classic European folk. Very good compositional work.

Weaknesses - Often borrows from one of his albums for the next soundtrack, which can lead to repetitiveness if listening to his albums without offering as much new work. Live albums are passable.

Amon Tobin
Strengths - Amazingly consistent quality discography of his career after 6 studio albums. Good integration of hip hop/trip hop/jazz/big beats sounds into his DnB base.

Weaknesses - Enough variety in his discography to cater to different moods, but often times those specific songs are all over the place. Sometimes it feels like a chore to listen to an entire album, sometimes due to it's sameness or not being in the right mood.

Dead Can Dance
Strengths - An awesome evolution of sounds and styles through their 12 year career. Almost always interesting to break out a different album. Every tour they did they made dozens of new songs just to perform especially for that tour instead of regurgitating their studio songs. Perfect contrast between the two artists vocally.

Weaknesses - Although they made new material for the tours, it was often not recorded professionally leading to some poorer quality bootlegs. One or two albums are boring. They finished with a lot of promise still left, could've released more gold.

The Church
Strengths - Some of the best Alternative Pop/Rock I have listened to. Some absolute beauties in their discography. A lot of infectious material. Kilbey is a solid vocalist.

Weaknesses - Not a big fan of their 80's stuff, a bit boring when they were still trying to break into the mainstream (Thank god they got over that dream :p:). Very rarely produce an excellent album throughout, always a song or two that simply annoy me. Kilbey is a pretentious ****

Charles Mingus
Strengths - Best jazz composer IMHO. Some crazy material ranging from bop to avant garde. As a bassist he wasn't the best, but was able to make it an integral part of the music. Intense and powerful. Even re-envisioned his own music over time to make more quality music.

Weaknesses - As with any jazz artist, a lot of meh between the gold. Poor live performer, due to his anger problems probably.

The Blurred Crusade and Starfish are excellent, i'm also partial to Heyday and Seance as well. i did think they changed direction after Starfish, though i'm not entirely sure it was for the better. i can just as easily get bored with Priest = Aura, Sometime Anywhere or any of their other post-1990 material.

still good to see so many Church fans on this board (and the majority of us aren't Aussies :p:)

Yeah, just personal tastes... I really can't understand how everyone loves Starfish.

Though I guess I did grow up with them during the 90's... Despite their lack of popularity overseas, we can't get enough of our own down here.

i don't even really go for Under the Milky Way anymore, heard it way too many times. but there's so much more depth to the album: Destination, NSEW, Reptile, Antenna... i've tried finding a better Church album, listened and listened and came up with nowt.

and they do have a fair bit of support over here. touring worldwide for some twenty-odd years has got to count for something.

Clutch

S: A band where all the parts are good, Tim Sult's and Dan Maines' cohesive guitar and bass, JP Gaster's explosive drumming and Neil Fallon's lyrical genius (he actually has an degree in English, which is AWESOME) as well as their idiosyncratic approach to music and general apathy to music trends

W: Some of their releases these days lack the kind of kick they had back in the 90s, especially their blues stuff. plus Neil isn't really the best singer, some of my friends can't get into them cause of the vocals.

Mastodon

S: great sound, stoner rock combined with a bit of progressive and able to produce some beautiful as well as hard hitting music. The idea of designating elements to each of their albums work, seeing as songs on there can make you feel the element

W: some of their songs can be a bit boring and uneventful. their solos can be messy sometimes as well as have some missed oppurtunities.

Between the Buried and Me

S: Technically superb, all the musicians are great, and they can be technical while not being too much. can be able to change genres at the drop of a dime and still make the song good

W: some parts of their songs are a bit cheesy, plus they sometimes rehash and overuse riffs and parts. also, Tommy's vocals can be a bit much

Red Hot Chili Peppers

S: they have some serious staying power (some people don't realize how long they've been around), made not only great funk rock, but have transcended genres and can still be accessible to today's youth

W: Anthony Keidis isnt that good of a singer, plus John Frusciante sometimes has too much influence over the band's music. plus their musc today isn't as exciting as it once was

Jimi Hendrix

S: definately an influental part of music, not just in rock. was a guitarist who was able to use his instrument as an extension of himself. he had command of many genres (rock, blues, jazz) and he could make sounds come out of a guitar that one could only dream of

W: pretty average as a singer, plus he was a bit selfish playing live

King Crimson
Strengths: Incredibly innovative, having always been ahead of the curve musically over almost everyone else while retaining their signature heaviness. Robert Fripp is the best textural guitarist on the planet, and despite the many break-ups and lineup changes over the last 40 years have never sacrificed good songwriting for the sake of commercial success.

Weaknesses: The various lineup changes and break-ups, lack of stylistic consistency beyond one or two traits, some weak material in the late 80's, seeming inability to get someone above and beyond decent as a vocalist. (sorry Belew ^^)

Ozric Tentacles
Strengths: Have the uncanny gift of being able to hypnotize you as you listen to them. Their sound, combining elements of every entrancing form of psychedelia, dub, ambient and electronica known to man is inhumanely effective at locking your mind into a groove without the aid of psychoactive stimulants. They also aren't owned by some corporate shitbag label and yet have still managed to sell over a million albums in less than two decades. No annoying frontman drama either, as the Ozrics are an instrumental group.

Weaknesses: Lack of particularly noticeable/visible growth in style between releases. Once you own one or two of these guys records, you've pretty much heard it all.

This was a great idea for a thread. I'm really enjoying reading these because it's not just an ass licking and it's not just a negitive rant. Props Urban! :)

Am I the only person on this planet that liked Tin Machine !?!?!

Nocturama is a bit average really. I'll admit there are one or two good moments (basically Bring It On) but that's about it. It'll be interesting to see how Mick Harvey leaving affects the Bad Seeds too.

I think they're mixed bag really. When they're great they're great, when they're bad they're hardly worth mentioning. I know Jackhammer likes them as well.

No. I love the first album especially.

Tom Waits

Strengths: awesome lyrical craftsman that's produced some amazing albums over the years. very organic production (listen to his percussion once in a while) and has an insane amount of musical material. no real bad albums to his name, either.

Weaknesses: has a propensity for sounding like a cheeseball version of Springsteen when he plays his hand at ballads (having nearly ruined Rain Dogs with that crap). limited vocal range as well; his falsetto is pretty weak too.

You mean a plethora of musical material. :D

****, that's the second time i did that here.

i got two more

Megadeth

S: very well driven instrumentally, as well as with Dave mustaine's signature snarl and many of their songs have become thrash and metal landmarks

W: the fact that they were on god knows how many drugs during the band's career and the revolving door lineup they've had for like ever

Tenacious D

S: Their lighthearted, tounge in cheek approach to rock music, with acoustic guitars none the less

W: kind of hard to take seriously, plus it seems these days that Jack Black is getting bigger than the band

I'm not crazy about Wettons vocals, but I like Belew and Lakes vocals a lot.

Plus they didn't really have any material in the late 80s, I think Discipline and Three of a Perfect Pair is among their best work. Beat was pretty average though.

I wouldn't go that far, they show a lot of versatility and even if they've made a trademark sound out of their mix of psychedelia, ambient and dub. But I wouldn't call this band of all bands repetitive. It's just their trademark sound. They may not be constantly changing styles per album like King Crimson, but that doesn't mean they're not being progressive. Though I agree that they have the talent to stretch out a little more.

I love tin Machine personally.

Rather then "pop"........I should've said "soft".
And pop only reduces credibility when you think you're punk, but do not sound it.

This one is so easy.
BECK

Strengths:
Oh my god, he's just awesome. Who dislikes Beck? Tonedeaf people? And everything sounds...just weirdly awesome. Stuff mere mortals never would have thought of.

Weaknesses:
SCIENTOLOGY
This isn't exactly a weakness, but....its sort of creepy, isn't it?

Velvet Revolver

Strengths:
Finally, somebody's embarked to bring rock back onto the charts. Thats a pretty noble cause. Musically, at least... Musics well-written, lyrics are extremly cool, guitar arrangements are lush and gorgeous...."Contraband" is a total guitar album, but its also one of the first albums that has made me appreciate the drums. The drums on "Contraband" are sick. Absolutly sick.

Weaknesses:
Aw, god. Some of the stuff Scott writes when he's sober is weird. No, not when he's using. He writes weird stuff when he's sober. And they totally sold out. I just watched Slash on American Idol last night. It was weird. Like, remember idolizing Barney as a child? Its sort of like walking in on Barney masturbating. If Slash watches American Idol, thats really his bussiness, but now I KNOW that Slash watches (and I guess enjoys) American Idol. And thats weird to me.