I grew up in Detroit, so, same thing. Living in Nashville isn't any better. Really, you have to live in NY or LA to see any good UK acts. It's incredibly frustrating.
I agreed for many years and perhaps still do, though I've recently found that I may think that honor goes to Suede. They are both great so I guess it doesn't really matter.
I grew up outside of Detroit as well, which was a music haven compared to Arkansas, where I'm stuck now haha. My MLiR vinyl just arrived. Have been holding out listening to much of it until I got a copy. EVERYTHING they do is gold.
Fair. Nashville has gotten a lot better since I moved here, but only really for big acts and American indie bands (zzzzz...). Everything Blur did was gold until they started sounding American on the self-titled LP...the last two albums really did nothing for me other than "Tender." Think Tank is barely listenable. But I know a lot of other people feel the exact opposite about the Blur trajectory.
Love Suede as well, but as good as they were, they couldn't put together the same string of albums Blur did. The first three Suede albums, plus the b-sides collection, are great, but they really kind of fell apart after that, which I think Brett Anderson would tell you himself. The new album was a welcome return to form, however. Blur, meanwhile, didn't make a bad album until they were on the other side of the '90s and they'd lost Graham.
Huh. Strange you would say that because when I lived in Ann Arbor in the 90's I saw them three times at St Andrew's Hall. Three of the best shows I've ever seen in fact. IDK, maybe it's changed since I left.
Ann Arbor is where I'm from. There aren't really any shows there, all of them are an hour+ away in Detroit, which is where the bigger acts play. Local music is at an extreme low in the area. I personally love the last 3 albums, Think Tank is my least favorite if I had to pick because as Asa guitar player, I just miss Graham too much. Being only 23 I realize my blur experience is much different, I see it all in hindsight which may give way to a different type of appreciation.
I was too young...By the time I was old enough to go to shows like that, they'd stopped touring the US. And then broke up. :\
I spent 3 1/2 years going to U of M. Worst experience of my life, but I was pretty much forced to go there...I was just a kid with a guitar who wanted to play in bands, and there was nothing happening, despite it being a massive college town. So glad I got out of that entire region, even though obviously Nashville has its own set of challenges (namely, being in a part of the country European bands rarely visit).
I love Popscene also, but since it was released more than a year BEFORE Modern Life Is Rubbish was released, I don't see anything petty in it not being on "the new album" 14 months later.
It's actually well-documented that they made a point not to make the track available again availed its dismal chart performance. I don't know if that was necessarily a petty decision, but it was intentional.
For the US release of MLIR the band's stateside label SBK did actually include Popscene. But then again, SBK made some weird decisions when it came to the band, the most infamous being remixing Bang and She's So High and releasing it without the band's knowledge or consent. They absolutely hated those.
Wow, it REALLY must have changed since I left because when I was there all kinds of great stuff was going on. Everyone I knew was in a band. I mean, I saw Jack White when he was just some guy playing drums in someone else's band. And yeah, most of what was really happening was going on in Detroit, but back in the Britpop days ALL of those bands played there. Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Supergrass, Radiohead, Spititualized...even Menswear for crying out loud. Maybe the population has gotten so low that it's just not cost effective to play there anymore.
They were influenced by some American bands on the self-titled LP, but, to me, a track like "Strange News from Another Star" sure sounds a lot more like David Bowie circa Hunky Dory than it sounds American. Not sure what's really "American" sounding about any of the tracks other than "Song 2," to be honest, and even that's a piss-take of grunge music.
Suede had two nearly flawless albums and a run of singles and b-sides that were staggering during the Anderson/Butler era. They nearly equalled it with Coming Up in '96 but fell off a cliff, quality wise, after that (even though I like chunks of Head Music and New Morning). So really, they don't come close to the mantle that Blur hold as best British band of the 90s.
If Butler had stuck around as long as Coxon did, it would have been a very interesting battle between the two bands.
Absolutely. The advantage Blur has is also a stable lineup over their entire career (apart from Graham's hiatus from the band 2002-2008)
I think the last three Blur records were heavily influenced by lo-fi American indie...Pavement, Stereolab, etc etc. I know people who are really into that, but the whole "lo-fi" thing just sounds like "sounding crappy on purpose" and is kind of a turn-off for me. Especially since the '93-'95 Blur albums were incredibly well produced.
Stereolab weren't American. I understand that Graham was influenced by Pavement, but outside of his "You're So Great," I wouldn't exactly call the self-titled album "lo-fi." Or "American."
