Bands whose songs all sound so identical, there's literally no point to having written more than one song.
My flatmate's listening to Veronica Falls. It's pleasant enough but every single song or pretty much literally the same - the same production, the same vocal style, the same type of melody, the same instrument mix. So much so that might as well just have recorded one song, released and played it over and over at every gig.
What other bands suffer from a startling lack of diversity?
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Most bands
This is true.
Why the fuck do most bands not occasionally think "hmm, maybe we'll try something a bit different this time". Surely even they get bored?
When it's done right it's great
Like - perfect
It almost never is though...
Oh yeah totes
But when it does work its the best!
Because when I buy a Godspeed album (for example) I don't expect to hear a load of Smiths-like tunes.
Equally, the day Nick Cave starts singing like Billy Corgan is the day we shall part.
True - it might be the boring conservatism of most music buyers
but if you look at Nick Cave for example, there is variety. The Ship Song doesn't sound like Papa Won't Leave You Henry and Straight to You is a world away from Lie Down Here and Be My Girl. So bands can be varied and still sound like themselves...
Sort of
I think the closer you get to a band the more you hear the difference, but if you played those songs to techno fan (or whatever) they'd probably think they all sounded the same.
I'm generally in favour of bands experimenting, but I don't know if it works as a general principle. I love George Best by The Wedding Present but not only do all the songs sound the same, they all use the exact same 3 chords.
The Wedding Present is a brilliant example of what I'm talking about.
I fear this thread is going to get side-tracked into bands that have a similar style of songs but don't quite sound the same but the Wedding Present, like Veronica Falls, have literally the exact same production, song structure and vocal style on everything...
I think Seamonsters is a lot different to George Best
And I thought it was kind of noticeable even when I was just listening to them for the first time. I don't know. I saw them live last week and maybe it was getting too drunk, but so many of the songs sounded the same... they just blurred into one another. I dunno. I still like them but there's definitely a weird contradiction where some days it all seems samey, and others, it's kind of diverse.
There are big differences between their albums
but again, only if you're 'close' to the music. Part of the thrill of George Best as an album is the feel of it being a sheer outpouring of emotion. No noodling, no changes of pace, no experiments, no solos, just a frantic urgency to get it all on record as soon as. You can see a similar thing with the Ramones, I guess.
The joy of it is that if you like the template, you get close to the music and you hear the little differences in a way you wouldn't with a band that had a broader set of sounds.
This is interesting too:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vexations
No they don't. See Royter's post for explanation.
Well said about the Wedding Present.
*im a massive fan of Bizarro, but pretty much every song sounds the same on that, as well.
a lot of the time they prob think they are doing something diffrent
its a curse sometimes being that close to your own music.
Clinic?
They've got maybe two songs.
woah!clinic are amazing.and the last few albums have changed up quite a bit
...but they're the best two songs that have ever been written.
the spooky droner
and the noisey garage one?
People say this about clinic
but i think they're pretty wrong. I think that the fact that they've got such a distinctive sound combined with the fact that some of their sounds sound the same means that people end up saying they all sound the same, or they've only got two songs or something. Once you actually start listing each of the songs that sound completely different, though, you end up with oodles of them.
Yeah, clinic are brilliant aren't they.
``Clinic can turn their hands to almost any genre and still sound distinctly themselves.``
Despite playing along with the cliche a couple of posts up, I agree that they've been doing a great job of pushing their own envelope with their most recent albums.
Best band outta Liverpool, ever, bar none.
``There is nothing extraneous, all is musically lean and creatively sharp. For all their strange trips, stylistic ticks and rhythmic repetition, Clinic never become self indulgent and remain one of the most peculiarly distinctive bands around.``
Quotes culled from www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/live/clinic-stereo-glasgow
jesus and mary chain
Have you heard Munki?
all kinds of different styles on that
Radiohead post-OK
Kiss it DiS - first.
Lungfish
but there remains a point of having more than one song. Because it's a very good song.
guarantee this thread will have a load of silly answers
like 'Mogwai quiet-loud DERP'
i had a think but couldn't come up with a positive contribution.
Might say that about.....
Placebo, Embrace, Feeder...
Hmmm
Feeder went through a few changes sound-wise. You probably couldn't say Stereo World and Tumble & Fall sound similar.
I could get nerdy and say
Godzilla and Quickfade would be better examples as they're on the same album. But I won't
The Ramones
Motorhead
The Stone Roses
All those shit t-shirt bands.
It is a shame that Ramones and Motorhead have become a T Shirt Band
but loads of their songs are really great.
They do all sound the same though.
This thread isn't necessarily saying the bands in question aren't good. Just that everything they do is identikit.
nah
if you listen to a ramones greatest hits there's loads of variation there
*ALL of their songs
Th Stone Roses?
Tell me you're trolling.
http://blog.urbanoutfitters.com/files/AnyWayYouWantIt.jpg
t shirt bands
best description.
i hate when a band that shouldnt become a t shirt band has some how become a tshirt band. once i saw a clouddead tshirt in an arrested development episode and i thought OH NO!!!!!!
I know you shouldn't have to "get" bands, but
that's the point of The Ramones. By the way, neither Motorhead nor The Stone Roses are The Ramones.
Best Coast
Oasis
Mumford & Sons
there was a point when I didn't realise they'd released more than one single
The National
(good band, very very samey style though)
nowadays maybe
but their debut sounds quite different from High Violet, so over the length of their whole career I'm not so sure
Just thought of another one. The Long Blondes.
DIIV - Oshin
over the course of thirteen tracks, essentially one concept is built and rebuilt thirteen times. i love bands that can do this (successfully, of course). for me, it means that the band has found their sound, in that they are able to explore and navigate their way through and around it; no distractions, always focused, everything relevant, nothing random. not being a musician in any shape or form, this is what always impresses me most. now, over the course of a career this could become quite dull, but it befits the purpose of what an LP means to me. otherwise, it's just a mix-tape and anyone can make one of those. (i love mix-tapes fyi...some of my best friends are mix-tapes).
came here to post this
If not as eloquently.
Great post
AC/DC
Is surely the canonical answer to this? More so than even the Ramones?
True story:
I was in the car one day, and "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" was on the radio. I was singing along, and when it got to the chorus, I realized that it WASN'T "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap", but actually "TNT". The two are so similar, even knowing the songs, I could not tell them apart.
Haha
Will Haven
They are ace at playing the same thing over and over.
These bands must decide that all their songs will sound the same, they'd notice otherwise surely. I like to imagine them turning up to rehearsal, guitarist being all. "Got this new riff guys, CHECK THIS!!"
"...............?"
I thought exactly the same of Veronica Falls
really didn't find much to love in their debut.
Pennywise
But sometimes they vary the skit-skit-blammablamma with some chant-a-longs?
The Fall, obviously
They've just re-recorded the same song 900 times with different band members.
Nah.
NO!
NAHHHH!
Well done
I'm no fan of the Fall and I think Mark E Smith's montonous twat-voice does make everything sound a bit samey and boring
but they are surprisingly musically diverse.
*John Peel quote about The Fall*
They'd be better - and probably bigger - if they were less prolific
Because some albums to the casual fan are impenetrable.
And Mark's personality isn't something most people want to be saturated with. It's like spending an entire summer watching Bernard Manning DVDs, but with less political incorrectness and more books he thinks we're all too cool to read.
Cults
Probably epitomise these template bands.
You kind of flog the album for the first week. Y'know, listen to it twice every night and think "oh, it'd be so cool to write music like this." Then you just don't play it one night, and don't really play it again. I think DIIV are way better as a band and as musicians, but they kind of suffered the same thing.
every psy trance act ever
Vampire Weekend
ridiculous answer
VW gotta be the most inventive indie-pop/whatever band of the last 5 years
:D
Rihanna
Snow Patrol
The Verve
The fuck?
A Storm in Heaven doesn't sound like Urban Hymns. At least only if you think all Northern guitar bands sound identical.
jamiroquia.
more interested in crazy headwear, than writing different songs
Nope
They started off as a great funky band, turned into a dance outfit. Also, started off as a band, turned into a man. A man with a hat.
Another vote for AC/DC here.
Every chorus is exactly the same. BORING.
It works so well though.
They're very lucky with that; lesser bands like that who started out in the mid-70s would be sent to the knackers' yard as soon as punk came around.
2:54
Got their album for Christmas and was wondering this week why I hadn't listened to it that much so stuck it on. Then realised that that album could just be condensed to the first couple of tracks, which are quite similar to each other anyway.
Admittedly, this is only going off one album. Maybe they'll change loads by the time of the next one.
Seen them live last year
And due to a technical problems, their mics weren't working. They carried on, playing an instrumental set that shown that all of the music is exactly the same. Maybe if their mics were on I'd have been able to tell the songs apart, but even then that's not a good sign.
have to say
that i wasn't impressed with the album to start with
but when i'd left it for a bit and came back to it and gave it a proper go i really enjoyed it
I know I'm going to get killed for mentioning the R word
but one has to give Radiohead a lot of credit for doing things differently.
So many bands do re-plough the same field (albeit a very nice field). To have in their canon Life in a Glasshouse alongside, Everything in it's right place, alongside Idioteque, alongside Airbag,alongside Bulletproof, etc, etc is quite an achievement.
When I look through bands or artists I like it's really rare to find one that can sustain a long career through varying their songs and their influences so much. It does make you think that sometimes less can be more.
I love The National, but they operate in quite a narrow range of sound.
Indeed.
I'm not a massive Radiohead fan but they do deserve a lot of credit for not resting on their laurels and being prepared to take risks.
The suggestions in this thread are 87% bollocks.
To be honest I think the thread would have worked better if I'd made it bands that you still quite liked.
Otherwise it just becomes an excuse for people to claim bands they don't like and haven't listened to that much sound exactly the same. Oasis and Snow Patrol, for example, really aren't that samey once you actually listen to them... They're not staggeringly diverse but its not literally the same song over and over.
True.
I really like Stars of the Lid. I have 3 of their albums but don't intend to buy any more....
The Gas box set is an even better example. Brilliant but very samey.
Not sure I agree about Gas
there's definitely quite a lot of progression going on there, at least enough that there are times when only 1 of the 4 albums will do
Snow Patrol is quite a weak suggestion
Maybe their recent stadium pop shite all sounds the same, but it is a very long way from their erratic first two albums from when they only had a handful of fans.
87% eh?
Show your workings.
Only deep_blue does that kinda math.
My % was purely a creative fiction number that was quite high. Apologies to empiricists everywhere.
85%
Hope of the States
Nah.
...but Hope of the States is the default answer to any DiS thread title surely?
Nah.
I always thought
Superchunk were the best example of this. I wouldn't go so far as to say they shouldn't have bothered making more tunes because I really, really like their sound.
eels
love them, but every new eels album these days contains near replicas of tracks off previous eels albums
yup
I'm not sure I could name or tell any of their songs apart from their last three or so albums. Which is a shame, as you could easily make a brilliant varied mix cd of different/great sounding songs from the first lot of albums.
Most lofi bands
The recorded in a bean can production and the lack if song craft makes it one scuzzy sprawl punctuated by gaps before the same thing in a different key or at an ever so slightly different pace.
Of not if! Damn iphone typos.
nope
Status Quo
Next question.
Yo la tengo
^exact opposite of what the thread's about
^ pissed off because I this'd a disagreement about his totally inaccurate Fall comment.
Didn't even know you had, pal
That'th what they all thay honey
Ban request for this post alone.
School of Seven Bells
Fortunately it's a sound I could quite happily spend forever listening to.
Japandroids
/thread
and that's why I love hearing one song but think the albums they've released are a slog to sit threw.
SO MUCH THIS
agreed...
...the Weeknd are similar. i like a few of those tracks over the course of that trilogy of his, but crikey could he use an editor. just too samey for me. ditto National, as someone mentioned above. but thats subjective of course. i admire anyone who sticks to a sound, working every angle, as opposed to someone phoning in a gospel choir or adding dubstep beats out of pure desperation.
i love the way, say, Bowie, or Blur, have different feels for different records, each one given their own identity. giant acts like Madonna take this to ludicrous extremes of course, but when its done well, its fucking cool. perhaps that is the secret for longevity in terms of finding your sound: find a sound... rinse the shit out of it... find a new one. if your public can't keep up, well, then you've got a decision to make, i guess... feel as though the Strokes are doing this at the moment, and i kind of love them for it.
The Thermals
It's a fucking great song though.
HOT SNAKES!
However, every song is incredible so it's not a problem.
dunno about that one
some songs are much better than others
The gas light anthem
Literally one song. I've had the unfortunate 'pleasure' of seeing them live, like twice. Over an hour of my life, maybe more I really can't tell as its like the fucking the twilight zone
most Galaxie 500 songs
except they were one of those bands who could make a lot with a clearly-defined sound/basic chords.
Cake
But that is their point, no?
probably 30% of the bands named in this thread actually apply to the thread idea
the rest are just bands you don't like.
or bands where the poster has only listened to one of their albums
Like the person who named the Verve further up probably hasn't heard their earlier shoegazey stuff.
^ This
Early Verve - decent shoegaze / spacerock (epic 10 minute jams)
A Storm in Heaven - refined early Verve into pop structures
A Northern Soul - britpop with a hint of spacerock in there in places
Urban Hymns - very decent middle of the road indie pop
Mazzy Star?
can't say i've heard all their stuff.
Beach House?
Love 'em but wouldn't say their sound has progressed all that much in four albums. Palma bloody Violets? Or maybe I've only heard one song.
yeah SO much,
but they're a great band and that style is a very defined one
Haim.
i kinda like em but keep on thinking i've already heard their 'hot new single' whenever one comes out and then realise they all just do sound kinda samey.
Codeine
Still brilliant though.
Bob Dylan
'cept he has two songs: the acoustic one and the electric one (which sounds just like the acoustic one played on an electric guitar).
do you even folk music
he actually has one other song
it's that one where they're all sitting around screeching about getting stoned. he wrote it for 6th formers to listen to
Tame Impala!
No.
Not really. I can see where you're going with this but U R Rong. For a start, the drumming. The Drumming!
this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Hm8SXcFi8
and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0jqPvpn3sY
and then this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wycjnCCgUes
Having only heard them in their infamously bad Glastonbury set
I can empathise with ^this.
can say with 100% certainty that you are mistaken
bruce springteen
saxophoney triumphant tuneless words
it's possible you've only heard one bruce springsteen song
the one that goes waahhhhh dooooood oooooo waaahhhh
The Pipettes
Early Stereolab
Love em though
nah i'd say they have a very defined and recognisable sound
but they vary quite well within that sound
A very defined & recognisable sound
that consists entirely of going *bzzzzzzz* on a Moog, chunka chunka on a guitar, ba-ba-bababa-ba on vox and shifting the whole thing from tonic to subdominant & back again every 8 bars
Of course I'm trolling
Massive (early) Stereolab fan right here
Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences
winky face
ahah
Saw Veronica Falls at a Festival this summer, I knew a couple of their songs and really liked them, so I was looking forward to a great gig.
It turned out all the songs sounded the same like you said!
Haven't heard the new album yet tho!
red hot chili peppers have two songs
the ballady one and the funk workout. both of which are fucking shit.
Yeah
Ridiculous suggestion. Go back and listen to BloodSugarSexMagik, One Hot Minute and Californication. The album, not the songs, although my point would still apply.
no thanks
This thread works best when you pick bands you like...
So the thread title doesn't really help, a lot of bands gain a lot by maintaining the same sound.
Real Estate.
Especially live, their songs sound incredibly similar.
Even their name is a rip off.
Not a patch on Sunny Day...
AC/DC are great
you cocks
Oh yeah
I think AC/DC *are* great. But their songs do all sound the same.
As the NME said: "why fuck with magic?". [stopped clock, right twice a day, etc]
Interviewer "you've basically been playing the same song for eleven albums"
Angus Young "no, that's bullshit. It's twelve albums".
ctrl+f Raveonettes
0 matches. And let's keep it that way, eh? As per upthread re: Clinic, they've been honing and playing around within the parameters of a specific sound and are all the stronger for it. Which becomes apparent at a gig when they can mine a back catalogue and drop in strong stuff from across their career, but remain tight and coherent.
yeah, all of this
though I have to say their most recent album is a little more laid back and less rockin' than earlier stuff, though it is still in the exact same style.
But boy, what a style.
How has no-one said that pointless band with the piano note
I think its Scouting for girls?
Jeez...
smiths
that's right, smiths.
Manic Street Preachers?
huh
I can understand seeing some similarities between Everything Must Go and This Is My Truth... but after albums like Holy Bible and Lifeblood? No way.
the XX
no one said "LITERALLY"!!??!??"?"
yet>
Paramore
every song is exacty the same
Nah
Teenage Fanclub
who are one of my all time most cherished bands.
Can't be bothered reading through
I'll just assume someone said the Ramones. Wrong. So very wrong.
ctrl-f "ramones"
can't believe it took this long for someone to answer with the Ramones.
am I being trolled?
U2
First 3 albums Boy, October & War very similar in terms of song structures. Ultimately defined their sound and that of many a copyist too.
The Mountain Goats
i'm sure a lot of people will disagree, but to me it's just the production and the instrumentation which has changed and developed over the years- the melodies, chord structures and songwriting style have stayed very very similar since the earliest stuff. However, I love the Mountain Goats and I appreciate that the things which are developing and changing are the lyrical and conceptual elements of the songs, rather than the music itself, which is fine by me.
Local Natives
I don't understand the appeal. it all sounds the same to me. I'm a pretty discerning listener..... but... ! mehhhhhhhhhhhh!
Herman Dune
Dan Deacon
Shonen Knife
(Like/love all of them though.)
Dan Deacon?
Very much no.
Wavves
The lo-fi recording of wavvves made them sound better than they are.
Rage Against The Machine
NOISY INTRO > RIFF > SHOUTY BIT > RIFF repeat
Also can't believe noone's said Nickleback: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2pXfAK8r1k
Sigur Ros
I've grown to hate them. I'd rather do housework.
noooooooooooooooooooo
The Rolling Stones