What your favorite sad dad band says about you

[Jaguar018]

I like a few of those bands and I am a Gen X dad. Some of the stuff was funny but nothing really hit home too much*, but that's likely because of my fickle taste. I really liked early R.E.M., Pixies, and Pavement-- but lost nearly all interest as they 'evolved' (into dad bands perhaps).

*please note that I am not trying to sound above this or cool. I am not. I am a dorky dad who misses being in a 'real' band, making mixtapes and all that other stuff.

This list confuses me. The bands span different eras. It’s all very American. Feels like the time I first heard the term soccer mom (What’s wrong with your mum playing football??).

I still think dad bands are Dire Straits/Knopfler, Genesis & associated solo acts. That’s who I remember my dad listening to the most during the 80s/90s. It’s funny when I think he was into pop-prog or something similar in his late 30s. He turned me on to REM, but they didn’t seem like a dad band even though they looked like old men to me.

Sal Paradise, to your point about what you consider 'dad bands' the reality is that Gen X and Millennials are now "dad age" so the dad music when you were growing up is becoming grandparent music to the rest of the world (at least to the people that know about these bands). The fact that list is really American is understandable as McSweeney's is an American publication. I'm sure that you could replace a few bands with some British ones and all the same sorts of broad-brush generalizations/jokes would still work. Think of this sort of like horoscopes.

[sal paradise]

The concept makes sense, it’s just the examples used. Maybe it’s just my age. I see Pixies & REM as an older generation even compared to Pavement. The National seems light years later, although I suppose about 10 years?

Then Bon Iver & War on Drugs debuts appeared years after the National were already established…

So it now makes sense that, when you are old, what seems like multiple generations of different bands across 20 years is nothing but the past to young folk. So this is what it feels like to be 40

[mcbrandt]

Now that I think about it, I'm suprised they didn't put New Order/Joy Division or the Smiths or Cure in the list.

[sal paradise]

Now that I think about it, I'm suprised they didn't put New Order/Joy Division or the Smiths or Cure in the list.

Too British.

[SignoftheDragon]

Great read. Laughed several times. Cried twice.

and hey, now- Everclear did have one good song.

I get a lot of flak at the shop when I put on my 'sad old white guy' playlist (The National is the only listed band that really makes an appearance, but the vibe is there- I know what they're talking about.)

[cestlamort]

and hey, now- Everclear did have one good song.

"How soon is now"?

[SignoftheDragon]

and hey, now- Everclear did have one good song.

"How soon is now"?

Their first single (that hit radio 'round here, anyway- before they were 'big') was called Fire Maple Song and I will FIGHT ANYONE WHO SEZ IT'S ANYTHING BUT AWESOME!!!!

Truth be told I haven't heard it in a decade+, but it still bounces around in my skull often enough to elicit a 'hey now' when folks start dissing one of my greatest-disappointments-of-a-band-because-I-really-dug-that-first-single-back-in-the-90's.

And yes- the entire remainder of their catalog is just. utter. shit.

[cestlamort]

one of my greatest-disappointments-of-a-band-because-I-really-dug-that-first-single-back-in-the-90's.

That is the quintessential feeling of the era. So much potential in whatever 7" but the album often disappointed. (I guess that's the whole point of the Nuggets compilations).

To tie back to OSG: I had a (sparkly!) G&L F-100 a couple years back (for maybe a year or so) that originally belonged to the guitar player in some pre-Everclear band (not the main guy). Adjacent to the right-of-the-dial stars!

Very cool guitar (felt nice, lots of sounds! vintage G&L hype = truth!) but it was pretty heavy*, so I sold it to fund a Marr jaguar which has been my main guitar since, so it ended well.

As marqueemoon mentioned, this article is a blanket indictment of American Gen X former hipster dudes (myself included). I did really enjoy some of the subtle reasoning for what went with what band / it wasn't done at random, and it gets funnier the more familiar you are with the various bands. And Pixies and, especially, REM are the Urtexts for the genre (for this demographic group). (sorry for dropping the German term/loan word, I'm having a "I'm Gen X so I can't have a senior moment yet" senior moment).

* and, truth be told, the lack of a pickguard was an unexpected aesthetic deal breaker.

[andy_tchp]

Now that I think about it, I'm suprised they didn't put New Order/Joy Division or the Smiths or Cure in the list.

Too British.

Too old.

[mcbrandt]

and hey, now- Everclear did have one good song.

"How soon is now"?

Their first single (that hit radio 'round here, anyway- before they were 'big') was called Fire Maple Song and I will FIGHT ANYONE WHO SEZ IT'S ANYTHING BUT AWESOME!!!!

Truth be told I haven't heard it in a decade+, but it still bounces around in my skull often enough to elicit a 'hey now' when folks start dissing one of my greatest-disappointments-of-a-band-because-I-really-dug-that-first-single-back-in-the-90's.

And yes- the entire remainder of their catalog is just. utter. shit.

Man I forgot that track. Was that on a skate or snowboard video back then, or did I get into it because the first song on that album was and that was why I bought it. I remember being like 17 and having pre nostalgia from it.

[wooderson]

From this list LCD Soundsystem for the band but the National description... which would have worked just as well for LCD really.

[mackerelmint]

Everclear was one of those bands I kept seeing live because they were on the bill with bands I actually wanted to see.

The biggest takeaway for me was that the bass player was THE SINGLE WORST bass player who ever picked up the instrument. He was never in time with anyone else in the band... not just behind the beat or out of the pocket or whatever, but like... a couple of whole measures behind. It was incredible, and it was like that every time I saw them.