Bands you initially dismissed but now love.

Searched and found variations of this topic but not this particular one so here it goes.

Posting this today because I recently took a chance and picked up 'The Soft Bulletin' and 'Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots' by The Flaming Lips and I love both of them. I always thought that the song 'She Don't Use Jelly' was kind of a novelty song, although pretty catchy, so I didn't really look into them any further back then.

The thing that made me take the chance was revisiting their performance on the VH1 Rock Honors for The Who. I loved it when I saw its original airing on television, but I didn't take a chance on the band until seeing the performance again recently on YouTube.

Glad I did. I don't know what fans of the band think, but those two albums that I've listened to so far remind me a lot of Beck, who I've always been a fan of. So it's kind of funny they've been right under my nose this whole time and I'm only getting into them now.

Do any of you have a band you love that you initially dismissed?

 

Blue Oyster Cult

 

U2. I didn't rate them when I was a teen, through their Rattle and Hum / Joshua Tree phase. Then they released Achtung Baby, and I really liked that album, as well as Zooropa and POP. But, they lost it after that imo, they started it play it safe with All That You Can't Leave Behind. But I'll always love their 90s output.

 

Genesis

Initially, reviews of the Peter Gabriel led Genesis seemed over-the-top, and just seemed unappealing to my limited tastes at the time.
I think I was more focused on, "what's their hit single?".

Fortunately, my world has expanded since then.

A lesson learned - try to hear the music before letting ANY other opinions sink in that would overshadow your own.

 

The Beach Boys in the 70s. I loved "Pet Sounds" and their early hits. Later stuff had a bad reputation and it took years before I gave "Sunflower", "Love You"...

 

Although I've been getting deeper and deeper into jazz for over a decade, it's only recently that I've genuinely started appreciating the artistry of Miles Davis. I know, it seems so obvious -- he's probably the world's most famous and popular jazz artist -- but for a long time his music left me unimpressed.

 

Frank Zappa

 

Kraftwerk
The Orb
The Beach Boys
The Ramones

 

Prefab Sprout. Once I got past the glossy synth-laden 80's production, I realized that there was a genius songwriter at work.

 

Rush.

 

Grateful Dead

 

The National

 

Television

Mind you, I was totally hooked two weeks later, after I fully digested their debut Marquee Moon about a dozen times. But I definitely remember thinking WTF is this? - the first half-dozen-times through. (This was only about 8-10 years ago, BTW -- had never heard anything by them prior.)

Total fan now, can't get enough!

 

Two more that I could've mentioned as well.

 

The Byrds
David Bowie
T Rex (if that is a band)
ZZ Top
Van Halen Mark 1
Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble
The Cure

 

Ramones. Didn't "get" them at all, finally realized they were saving rock and roll from terminal boredom.

 

Not necessarily "love" but "like".

Jackson Browne

 

Bob Dylan
Neil Young
Rolling Stones

 

For me it was also The Grateful Dead.

I don't now really know why but I spent years avoiding their albums and music and only in the early 90s did I dip my toe in the water following an article in the now defunct ICE magazine, which I managed to get on subscription.

I've been playing catch-up - and enjoying it immensely - ever since.

Best Wishes,
David

 

Steely Dan took a while but now they are one of my favorites.

I didn't listen to the Grateful Dead until college.

 

nirvana

the first thing i heard of theirs was the overplayed 'nevermind' album, during film school ….. i was right into the pixies at that time and didn't like the sound of 'nevermind' …. it wasn't until a few years later when a very good friend of mine died (the same month as cobain), that that unplugged performance was playing everywhere, and that's when i finally HEARD the true beauty and sadness of all those songs…… they really hit me hard …. i then went on to really love 'in utero' (which i had ignored up until that point.)

 

can

a friend of mine had gotten me can 'saw delight' for a birthday present. i don't even recall any strong impressions from listening to it at the time. it definitely didn't inspire me to find any more of their releases. then perhaps about 10 years ago, i was starting to get into krautrock with a passion, and i think i found that great live can performance of 'spoon' on youtube, and i thought, wtH is THIS ? THIS is CAN too ?? after that it was completely love 'discovering' album after album. i was also playing a lot (eGuitar) in an full on improv (make everything up on the spot no planning) jam band at the time …..

 

The Band

I used to think that the only reason they were talked about was because they were associated with Bob Dylan. Now they are one of my favorite bands.

 

Radiohead (Couldn't stand "Creep")
XTC
Talking Heads (Was unimpressed by "Fear of Music")
Flaming Lips
Tame Impala
R.E.M. (Michael's voice was very off-putting at first)

 

Ditto Can. It's not so much that I dismissed them as I ignored them. In the 1990s they had a reputation as a trendy band for the kind of urban hipsters who dug Portishead. But they aren't like that at all. Or at least their imperial phase - until Future Days - wasn't like that. Their music is accessible, clever, occasionally self-indulgent, but it has charm and wit. You can dance to it, cook pasta to it, think to it etc.

The other band that springs to mind is Autechre, but I've written about them before.