I’ve been contemplating this for a while now, and I decided to put my balls on the table and list a few of the most underrated and overrated bands in town. There may be more of these but here are a few that have been on my mind lately.
Here: Trees on Fire, the Acorn Sisters, Falsies, and King Wilkie
Overrated:
Trees on Fire
Pseudo-cerebral jam reggae that leaves you feeling like you never left your college dorm room and the band up the hall is still trying out their new wah-wah pedal. Probably lug around the most gear of any band in town for nine minute (and counting) songs that never go anywhere except to the bar for another beer and to ask your friend why you came to see them in the first place. Stop taking yourselves so seriously, it doesn’t go well with the dreadlocks. These guys top the overrated list.
Acorn Sisters
As a disclaimer they’re only barely in the overrated category - there is hope! I loved both of them in the 90s, and the Pearls and Matchbook Poets are still unparalleled in my mind. I totally had a crush on Sian when I was in high school (15 years ago, gad). My advice (if you take the advice of an asshole critic) is to ditch the Americana and write songs together like you both used to individually. Comparisons to the Carter Family make my stomach turn, the Americana is pretty but ingenuine. I’m hoping more than any other act in town that they can impress me - the promise is there but it ain’t happening right now.
Underrated:
Falsies
While some may debate that the Falsies are correctly rated - anyone who has seen them even once is a disciple. The most rock and roll band in town. Any other band that thinks that they have a shred of edginess should pack it in and start playing Gravity Lounge acoustic. Seriously. 2 cute girls, a guy in a chicken suit on drums, and the most charismatic lead singer in drag of any band in town (are there others?). The best part is that it’s not a total gimmick because the songs even rule on CD. Donde esta mis pantalones - who wants to fuck on a ten ton cheese?
King Wilkie
They have found success in the world and don’t need Charlottesville anymore but we should be prouder of them. IBMA best new artist YEARS ago, former artists on legendary Rebel Records, I’ve seen them sing harmonies to a packed Starr Hill acapella that you could hear a pin drop over. They do they foot stompin’ thing well but they have been taking bluegrass in a direction that everyone else is struggling to catch up to. Buy every single one of their records.
Popularity: 30% [?]
i ain’t touchin’ this one with a 10-foot didgeridoo
hmmm… I have only one opinion to register, and that is that I miss the original incarnation of the Falsies. I do agree that they are the most rock & roll band in town (glam! silliness! men who ordinarily would have no business dressing as women!).
I just wanted to add something to this discussion, from a personal perspective. I have never considered myself a music critic. Others may, but I have not. I consider myself, first and foremost, a music lover. I believe there is a difference. One of the knocks that I have taken via reviews I’ve written for various albums over the years is that I have never, ever panned a record. Never. But there’s a reason for that. I have only reviewed albums and artists that I personally love. That doesn’t mean I haven’t pointed out weaknesses or flaws, I have, but every review for a record I’ve ever written was a positive one. And by writing these reviews I open myself up to you, the listener, to agree or disagree. That is a discussion I will gladly take on. I don’t expect everyone to like the music that I like, nor do I believe that what I like should be considered great music. It’s simply a reflection of my tastes.
So why not write a review of something I don’t like? There are two reasons for this: Joy and Time. I find joy in writing about those things that I love. And I find joy in sharing those things. That’s my modus operandi. My M.O. As for time, well that has two parts. One being there isn’t enough time in the world to review every record. And two, why waste my time writing about something I don’t like? Personally I have better things to do. That’s just me. And maybe that’s why I’m not a critic.
So if I don’t review your record, it’s either because I didn’t have the time (which could also mean that I was listening/reviewing something else that I really loved!) or I didn’t like your record. But that’s between you(the artist) and I(the listener). The same applies to seeing live music. If you look out and see me in the audience it’s because I want to be there. If I’m not there, I either didn’t have the time or money, or I’m not a fan of your music. But again that’s between you and I. And it doesn’t mean that the people who are out there in the audience wouldn’t know good music if it hit them up side of the head. It means that they are there because they want to be there. That this is how they want to spend their time and experience their joy.
Personally, I think that 90% of what I hear on the radio is overrated. It’s generally what I don’t hear that’s underrated. And many of those underrated musicians are busting their asses hauling gear up and down the highway, loading in and loading out, just to sing a few songs before packing in all up and heading back home so they can get up the next morning and go to their real jobs, you know the ones that actually pay the bills. And during those moments on stage, if they look out and see ten thousand people or ten people, it doesn’t make them under and overrated. It just means that we all have to do what we love.
Brian is right, this can’t possibly end well.
mmm…
i like b.c.
cannonball comin’ was a great band.
man mountain jr. can funk out some seriously shake yer assness…
and i think, perhaps, william walter & co could well be a truly,strangely underrated band.
that’s all for now.
/doesn’t get out to see as much music as to make further comments
Shaun, I don’t mean to knock you for only writing positive reviews - I just hope that you understand where I am coming from. I make an effort to review everything and I give considerable thought to what I write. I am a little new to the music critic game but I’ve read enough and thought enough about music that I stand behind my opinions. They are, after all, just my opinions. I find joy in sharing everything - whether it is something that I mostly liked or mostly disliked. If I take the time and effort to listen to a recording or go to a show I will definitely give my thoughts on it. I make an effort to go to shows of a band who I am really not into but have never seen before because sometimes I have been converted and they blow me away. It happens. I stand by my previous statement that I will listen to and review everything that I get sent, at least until the mountain of CDs becomes unbearable.
As far as the radio goes - I’m making an effort to review the local music scene here. I have gone to some shows of national bands, but I am really interested in this city. Unfortunately local bands do not really get played on the radio, with some exception to niche shows like WNRN’s Local Motive and 106.1’s Midnight BBQ. I find this unfortunate but then I hear bands online or in person WAY before I hear them on the radio usually so I don’t find the radio to be important to me.
If you take the time to send me your record, I will review it. If you send in a CD of your own band (not a label doing it for you) it takes some serious balls to send it in to be listened to and critiqued. For that fact alone I will listen to it. And you don’t know who I am so you will never know if I’m at your show or not. More than likely at some point I am, will be, or have been.
@5 I love B.C., IMHO Miller’s is the best place to see them.
I havent seen Cannonball Coming or Man Mountain Jr (in a while) or William Walter - didn’t they used to play at Orbit a lot? Unfortunately I never went there a tremendous amount and I think I can count on one hand the number of times I went to shows there. I did hear good things about all three bands though.
Squid, the thing that I appreciate most about your viewpoints and opinions is that they provide a basis for discussion as well as an open and honest debate. Hopefully it’s understood that my take on things is in no way more right or wrong than your own. And ultimately in the end, it is your opinions, much more than my own, that may drive an audience to explore, seek out, or simply avoid new music, especially new music that may fall outside of their own acquired tastes. In the end what we both have in common is our willingness to share our own thoughts and ideas, realizing that by doing so, we open ourselves up to the ideas and opinions of others. As long as any and all criticism is constructive it can, and will lead to a healthy discussion. My remarks earlier were aimed at that very idea.
“Squidtank” The (All New) Acorn Sisters is a side project/for fun/cover band.
Fair enough. All that said, you guys would make hearts melt if you wrote songs together. Just throwing that out there.
I still have a crush on Sian Richards.
If I may…
I used to have sort of a philosophy about reviewing shows: I didn’t have to like it for it to be good. If I could figure out what the band was going for I could evaluate it on its own terms. Would fans of this kind of music go for this band?
Yeah, it meant critically listening to a bunch of stuff I’d really rather never hear at all, going to shows full of people I may never get along with, etc., but in the end you get a good outsider’s opinion on something the reader may have no ideas about. If you relate it well, the reader starts to get the picture. You can even tell them it’s not your thing but it was tight, thoughtful, balanced, energetic or whatever.
And never be afraid to say something sucks. If you don’t like it but it’s good for what it is, you’ll know. If it sucks - maybe the musicians are trying too hard to be something they’re not or maybe the soundman couldn’t find tone in Tone Loc - just say it sucks. Even if you can’t say why. There’s no shame in being asked to share your opinion and doing so. The bands will be better for it.
And thanks a mint for the kind B.C. ups! See you some Sunday soon.
I have to disagree. In fact I feel so strongly about this it brought me out of lurking.
Trees on Fire is AWESOME. They are great and I think very few local bands can ever be called overrated. They are local for goodness sake, they aren’t the Rolling Stones.
Local bands have to work really hard to be known at all. I think they are all generally nice, hardworking musicians that will probably never get the credit they deserve let alone be overrated.