Uncool music for dorks.

[BoringPostcards]

Is early Chicago Transit Authority considered nerdy? Terry Kath was a genius and the album cut's solo for 25 or 6 to 4, is quite possibly the best solo of that era.
He used scales and modes that are criminally underrated/neglected in Western Music.

[whitewatersky]

Peter Green's "come back" album in 1979 "In The Skies" (after he had been out of the music scene for 8 or so years, because he was drugged with LSD spiked drink at a party he attended in Germany after a gig ) is magnificent. The guitar tone is still there and his voice is bluesy and creamy.

man, that's heavy to think about a spiked drink derailing his musical life.... I must look into this...

[Veitchy]

Peter Green's "come back" album in 1979 "In The Skies" (after he had been out of the music scene for 8 or so years, because he was drugged with LSD spiked drink at a party he attended in Germany after a gig ) is magnificent. The guitar tone is still there and his voice is bluesy and creamy.

man, that's heavy to think about a spiked drink derailing his musical life.... I must look into this...

It's a pretty sad story. Dude unfortunately became a bit of an acid casualty and a recluse. He worked intermittently after leaving Fleetwood Mac, but had a reasonably productive last couple of decades.

In a sad coincidence, Danny Kirwan, another guitarist in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac lineup also had a lot of mental health issues and was homeless for an extended period to boot. For all the fantastic music it seems there was a real cloud hanging over that era of the band.

[andy_tchp]

Unashamed fan of Glee here, a subject I don't think I've ever seen mentioned on OSG. I think a big part of it is the Adam Anders arrangements/reinterpretations.

[whitewatersky]

It's a pretty sad story. Dude unfortunately became a bit of an acid casualty and a recluse. He worked intermittently after leaving Fleetwood Mac, but had a reasonably productive last couple of decades.

In a sad coincidence, Danny Kirwan, another guitarist in Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac lineup also had a lot of mental health issues and was homeless for an extended period to boot. For all the fantastic music it seems there was a real cloud hanging over that era of the band.

Sheeesh. That sucks. Must admit. I’ve heard of that dude forever, but aside from his background/influence I haven’t known anything further.

[soggy mittens]

Damn this thread is hard, I mean I'm trying really hard to think of a band that would actually be ok with being labelled as dorks otherwise it would just feel like a call-out thread. I'm not sure I'll be able to comfortably get away with this so I'm just going to go for it...

I really enjoy this album

Embrace - This New Day (2006)

especially the track exploding machines.

They're a bit of a limp wristed band but I do dig that one album by them. Cheese pop for the dorky normies out there, sorry Embrace. x)

[Veitchy]

Dorky and uncool is subjective but I'll preface this by saying I was never much of a prog head when I was younger. Pink Floyd was as far as I ever swung in that direction and the more full-on stuff like Yes used to shit me. Modern stuff like Tool and Dream Theatre just left me cold. Thankfully a lot of those walls have come down as I grew up but Prog was always something of a blind spot for me.

However, some Gentle Giant got posted in the thread discussing the Les Paul Forum and I can't. Stop. Listening. To. It.
I'm not sure if its the off-kilter rhythm, the strident vocals, the great shit outfits, the whole thing is so charming to me.

https://youtu.be/vMrYSTzqFI8

The whole concert is up on YT, and it turns out every member is a multi-instrumentalist, and their songs range from rockers like this, beautifully arranged acoustic numbers, and full-on renaissance faire stuff. It's a wonderfully diverse mix.

So yeah, perhaps I'm drifting towards being a daggy prog-head.

[Shadoweclipse13]

When I was younger, a lot of the music I got into was from movies, and so I liked a lot of film scores. That was pretty uncool and dorky for a grade-schooler in the early 90s.
I remember special-ordering the Empire Strikes Back soundtrack on cassette from HMV, and after I picked it up at the mall, I went across the street to my friend's place to play Super Nintendo and he was like WTF at my music. He put it on and he said the only good thing was the 20th Century Fox Fanfare.

Dude, John Williams is the man. The first two CD's I ever got were the Goo Goo Dolls' A Boy Named Goo and Steve McNeely's soundtrack for Star Wars: Shadows Of The Empire. That opened up a very deep love of orchestral and movie soundtracks. John Barry's James Bond soundtracks (especially all the Connery-era stuff), Harry Potter (various composers), and TONS of movie and TV soundtracks. But I always go back to Mr. Williams. Bear McCreary (Walking Dead and the reimagined Battlestar Galactica) is another composer I love. Christopher Lennertz (some of the early Playstation Medal Of Honor games, Netflix's Lost In Space) is probably my favorite composer lately.

Weird Al is another one. What's funny is that being parodied by him became a badge of honor, and at a certain point everyone just started being glad he's around and doing what he does. His career's peaked strangely late. Apparently his band is all the same people since 1983, and they just love working together and with him. Says a lot about him right there. Weird Al is as lovable as they come.

Weird Al is a good dude and totally lovable. The thing that gets me about his band more than anything, is how many genres and styles they can play. SUPER talented group of musicians.

I like some Shostakovich, but I really like Chopin the most. I like melodic or minimalist classical music. Don't care for grandiose stuff like Beethoven, Wagner or Bach.

Same. Chopin is amazing, especially his Nocturnes. Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach all have their place, but they've always bored me, and I've also never cared for them. I prefer broody classical. St Saens and DeBussy are absolute favorites of mine.

Apparently I have landed on the island of misfit guitar players.

This forum is amazing for finding unknown or underground music. I must have discovered at least 200+ projects since 2009, and that's a very conservative estimate.

My favorite music is finding something that I have never heard before, truly.
It fluctuates but I still have a religious need to hear live music just for that reason,
I used to do sound at clubs more than playing them just to hear fresh stuff, plus
it was never easy getting gigs playing original music and I could never go all in on a music career.

Completely agree. I've discovered so many good artists and albums from people on here, and I love it. I love being surprised by something you've never heard before too. I was at a party for a friend a few years back, and one of our friends put on their playlist (Spotify/Pandora/something like that), and while I was spacing out on the couch (no substances, just antisocial and tired), Phyllis by Lettuce started playing. I heard some similarities to my favorite band Dredg (mostly guitar tones and phaser use) and was absolutely blown away.

Lettuce - Phyllis

[Zork]

I love Tommy James & the Shondells. Awful mainstream teenie bubblegum pop (back in their days), but so catchy and with super cool arrangements and orchestrations. Also, "bakerman" by Laid Back is one of my all time favourite songs.

[dinosaurkale->]

Laid Back is actually cool
not uncool

[Ceylon]

I love Tommy James & the Shondells. Awful mainstream teenie bubblegum pop (back in their days), but so catchy and with super cool arrangements and orchestrations. Also, "bakerman" by Laid Back is one of my all time favourite songs.

I'd argue that TJ&TS were more than just another bubblegum band, if nothing else because their cool arrangements and orchestrations. OK, they're not exactly the Beach Boys but tracks like Crimson & Clover or Sugar on Sunday is basically more polished psych.

[Singlebladepickup]

Apparently I have landed on the island of misfit guitar players.

This forum is amazing for finding unknown or underground music. I must have discovered at least 200+ projects since 2009, and that's a very conservative estimate.

I agree, and I also find a lot of interesting stuff over at reddit.com/r/vintageobscura/

[Larry Mal]

When I was a young man I found a cassette tape of The Nice at a truckstop somewhere... Mississippi, I think. I learned back then to always look at the discount crates of cassette tapes at truck stops back in the day because you could always find some rare shit. I don't know if it was because trucks stops back then were a dumping ground for things that didn't sell literally anywhere else, or because truckers back then would buy just about anything. Prior to books on tape and the internet and shit, and considering that radio signals would be unreliable, you can imagine that a long distance trucker might take anything over silence and static or shit they'd heard a million times before.

Anyway, there is nothing cool about this song. I thought about it since we are talking about prog, and The Nice were only known to be because Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake and Palmer played in The Nice.

Right? Why did I know that? Why was there a cassette tape of The Nice in a truck stop in rural Mississippi? Why did I buy it? How high must I have been? Why am I talking about it now? Why did they spell "Azrael" wrong?

It cost like three dollars. That much we do know. I don't still have it.

[danbind]

I love Tommy James & the Shondells. Awful mainstream teenie bubblegum pop (back in their days), but so catchy and with super cool arrangements and orchestrations. Also, "bakerman" by Laid Back is one of my all time favourite songs.

I'd argue that TJ&TS were more than just another bubblegum band, if nothing else because their cool arrangements and orchestrations. OK, they're not exactly the Beach Boys but tracks like Crimson & Clover or Sugar on Sunday is basically more polished psych.

Great music is great music, regardless of how it was produced and by whom. This is especially true of 60's music. The Monkees are just about my favorite band--I don't care how the records were made, and I won't apologize to anyone for it. That is some seriously great pop music.

[aRoseisaRoseis]

I'm going to go with Soft Machine.
I have one, two, three, six and seven in the barrel and have always done a pretty good job of it keeping it to myself.