I wouldn't describe either as pretentious...far from it.
Musically they've always been honest about their influences.
If you mean their overall attitude, then your mistaking pretentiousness for over confidence, bordering on cockiness.
Both are typical Mancunians with more front than Blackpool.

Tool is pretentious fo' sho. I think its almost part of their charm.... for me anyway.

It goes beyond confidence and ****iness when you continuously state explicitly that you're the greatest rock band on earth and label the entire indie scene as worthless and unimportant simply for being indie and "small-time". That's getting into the realms of ideology.

Saying you're the best band in the world isn't pretention , it's confidence / arrogance.

Saying you're the best band in the world and you can do anything you want , so you're going to write a rock opera about the life of Kofi Annan on the xylophone , THATS pretention.

Actually, I tend to agree.

It reaches the level of pretentious if you start mentioning snooty reasons as to why you are the best band in the world. Merely stating that you are is not quite pretention. It's only delusion and idiocy.

Then we're agreed on Oasis then?
Apart from the delusion and idiocy bit.

We're agreed. But come on, brah. How can it be anything other than delusion when it's 2008, you're Oasis, and you think you have any justification in saying you're the best band on earth?

It's called unswerving self belief.
The very stuff that had them succeed in the first place.
It's certainly not delusion, although Liam is an idiot...I'll give you that. ;)

It's delusion, if it's far from being the truth. And it is!!!

I prefer to call it, inaccurate self belief. :bringit:

Alright then, inaccurate self belief it is!:eek:

Glad that's sorted!

Right then, my nomination for pretentiousness goes to a man I admire.
David Byrne.

I'm sorry, but thinking you're the best band in the world when you're just a d grade Beatles ripoff band, yeah, I'd call that pretentious.

Robert Fripp is annoying with his whole 'i hate prog rock' thing. He's not even the most important member of the band anymore. Hell, hasn't been for 27 years...

D-d-d-d-d-d-d-did you just diss Robert Fripp?

Thems fightin' words motherf*cker. :bringit:

I do have to say though, did he actually say he hates prog? Well thats gotta suck for him, he created it.

Ha ha. He said he hates the whole movement, and really tries to disassociate himself from it. Good luck with that...

If he wants to disassociate himself from it, he could start by, um, not making prog music anymore?

Or leave the band that basically made the genre.

So yeah, that does seem pretentious to me. But if I had a problem with pretentious musicians, I wouldn't be listening to prog.

As for you saying hes not the most important member of KC anymore, well, I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't think there is either a most or least important member of King Crimson, the band has always been a very tight ensemble, especially during the Fripp-Belew-Levin-Bruford era.

I think Belew's defined their sound for almost 30 years. Not saying everyone doesn't contribute, but Belew voice, and unique guitar tone are always at the forefront.

No need to apologise. ;)

There's nothing pretentious about being a mouthy northerner.
And to take a claim like that at face value, is a misunderstanding of a northern English cultural trait.

U2 doesn't play music. They emit aural garbage.

I can think of ten bands in a heartbeat that I would rank below U2. Bono is a twat-Yes! The Edge has one guitar sound-Yes! but they have put out some great tracks in their time. if I judged a band by their frontman every time I would have nothing to listen to!

Finally someone who sticks up for U2, sort of.

I hate their new stuff just as much as everyone else, but I am a fan of their early stuff, the last good album they did was Achtung Baby imo.

I also like The Edge, I love his style, also he seems to be a pretty laid back guy, which is a contrast to Bono being a pretentious media hogging dope.

Joshua Tree was a good album, who's gunna deny that?!

:)

Interesting to note than Ian Brown went around saying exactly the same stuff as Noel & Liam a few years earlier & nobody has mentioned him yet.

I think Richard Ashcroft beats both of them.

30 miles west and 30 odd years ago, everybody's favourite... John Lennon, came out with a corker.
No mention of that yet either.

There's too much chin-stroking to choose any one artist but I'd nominate Elvis Costello, because right-track beat me to Byrne

:mad::mad:

U2 embarrass the Irish.

I have heard just a few songs but I am only saying this because your man from it is ugly :(

I think **** like BORIS and SUNN o))))))))))))))) are pretentious, because to me it is all one ****ing guitar string, mega distortion fun!

No? You not likey?

The answer to this question is obviously Sting.

I mean releasing an album of songs playing the lute?
what a c*nt.

Whilst indulging in tantric sex too-as bad as his acting really.

Sting is pretentious, but thats a very stupid reason. For one, don't diss lutes, lutes are awesome.

Anywho. Some of my picks for most pretentious musicians.

Morrissey - I'm sorry, but anyone who makes an album called "Meat is Murder" is automatically pretentious.
Bono - I'm a U2 fan, but I'm not going to deny the epic pretentiousness of this man.
Fiona Apple - C'mon. Have we forgotten her already?
Rick Wakeman - I still think he's badass. But when you do something like "King Arthur on Ice"...
Nicky Wire - I'd hate on anyone who has the nerve to call Bjork a talentless twat and wish AIDS upon Michael Stipe, but when its a guy who has absolutely no talent in any form, then theres no reason for him to act like some big shot.
Prince - Do I really have to explain this one?
Michael Angelo Batio - This guy really is a c*nt, I know because I have a friend from Norway who is a guitar player, he made some Youtube video poking fun of Batio and Batio had a big rant about it on his forum, and he even started an account on my friends forum to antagonize him, talking about how he has accomplished everything and my friend has acomplished nothing, about how good a guitar player he is, how much money he makes, just a bunch of bullsh*t. Seriously I'm not joking, its a true story. He bitched because some guy poked fun of him on Youtube, he even had the video removed for "plagiarism" of his music. I always hated the guys music but I didn't know he was such a prick too.
Sting - I respect the mans causes, hes just smug about it. Still love The Police though.
Liam and Noel Gallagher - If you really think you're the best band in the world, I think you'd have to be a little more than just arrogant. Especially when all you do is copy The Beatles and water it down for mainstream radio.
Marilyn Manson - Because he really thinks he is doing something special.
*Enter Indie band here* - Cough.

:laughing: Best thing I've read all week.

If only Bono would do that here

Lol that would make my day^

Prince is automatically excused. Sign of the Times is the greatest pop album from the 80's and that INCLUDES Michael Jackson. In fact it pisses on that album from a great height.

Him changing his name to that symbol thingy don't count Lee?