So the new Fall Out Boy film clips on...

Oh boy, they are so topical! I hope they get all kinds of MTV awards for this brave, deep video. The people of Africa are truly blessed to have Fall Out Boy behind them.

I bet one of them just watched Blood Diamond and said, 'why not?'

Sometimes I feel musically out of touch...but I've never heard a single song by this band, and something tells me that's for the best.

Slade, I felt the same way a couple months ago when I heard a piece about Fall Out Boy on NPR. Of the songs they played, there were one or two that I thought I vaguely recognized, but for the most part, I've been completely unexposed to Fall Out Boy, or just about any mainstream pop that I didn't specifically want to hear for at least the last 5 years. And it feels great.

Having said that, and having listened to the NPR piece, I can certainly understand the appeal. They're not good, but Jesus, they're about 100 times more listenable than Korn.

Didn't Sum 41* do the same thing?


*Jesus I remember way too much useless bullcrap

He's defending Fall Out Boy! Get him!

To be fair, Rage has always had messages about social justice and equality, anti-corruption in their music. And U2 is so involved with human rights, the trade in Africa, all that kind of stuff, that it seems a lot more genuine from these bands.

Whereas Fall Out Boy's big hits like 'This Aint a Scene' -
And they've already admitted to taking ideas from movies. /Shrug

If it's anything like their other videos and songs, they're being ironic, making fun of child soldiers in Africa.

I watched FOB on some New Years show and they were so bad I couldn't even think of words that accurately described their "sound." I've heard middle-school punk bands fronted by crack-babies who could play their instruments better then these enema-bags. I had always cut them some slack because I had never heard their music...now that I have I want to rape them with barbedwire dildos covered in tabasco sauce.

This is true. Also, I find that people who take the time to complain about Fall-Out Boy tend to like even shittier bands. I've seen these guys play on SNL and a couple of award shows and I'll be the first to admit they're maybe one of the least talented popular bands I've ever seen in terms of hitting the right notes and such. But, at the same time, they occasionally write an indisputibly catchy chorus (far better than Sum 41 ever did, based on what little I've heard of each).

Also, tons of bands have taken ideas from movies. If you want proof, take a look at one of the mixtapes I made for Owen in the last chewer CD exchange. The tracklisting's in one of the threads on the subject.

Yeah, I don't get that argument. He's saying he was inspired to use arms dealers as a metaphor for what he doesn't like about "the scene" after watching a movie about arms dealers. That seems pretty cool to me. And even if he were directly writing a song inspired by a movie, I don't see where that's a bad idea. It worked for Blue Oyster Cult, right?

It's not the 'taking ideas from movies' thing I have a problem with. Some of my favourite videos are spoofs or homages or what-have-you of movies. I don't even have a problem with the band; 'Dance, dance' and 'This ain't a scene' can be found on my ipod, though it's not something I'm entirely proud of. Actually, scratch that. I really dig the sound of the verses in 'This ain't a scene'. It gets my motor running.

I just don't buy for a second that the video is anything more than a ham-handed attempt to make them look more political and deep or something, it just doesn't fit in with

"Whoa oh, we're so miserable and stunning
Whoa oh, love songs for the genuinely cunning
Whoa oh, we're so miserable and stunning
Whoa oh, love songs for the genuinely cunning, ohh…"

or anything else I've ever heard from them. Hence the thought that it seems like they just ripped this concept from Blood Diamond or something and starting patting each others backs. Please correct me if I'm wrong here, but what does any of their music have to do with African child soldiers? Is this a new band-aid single? It doesn't even have to be about that specifically, do they have -any- songs with anything resembling political issues (no, warring emo bands don't count). If I start seeing them donating proceeds to worthy causes or doing benefit shows or something, even doing songs closer to the subject, then it would be a non-issue for me. As is, it just feels so left-field that I can't get behind it.

Bear in mind, I haven't actually seen the video (therefore, haven't heard the song) so maybe it IS all righteous and true. It would just be a huge leap from everything they've done up to now.

Their biggest crime remains being a terrible band, third world exploitation or not.

I can go you one better. I don't remember a music video, but they did do a short documentary thing where they went to a war-torn country and did volunteer work in it. I don't particularly see anything wrong with that...except that it involves Sum 41 and was part of a really awkward and hilariously inept attempt to be socially/politically relevant.

I just read in Rolling Stone that Albert Maysles is making some sort of documentary about this terrible, terrible band.

Imagine that, the man behind one of the greatest rock and roll documentaries focusing on one of the most seminal events in rock history (Gimme Shelter and the Rolling Stones Altamont concert) is now dedicating his talent to a band of talentless, Pro-Tools dependent, teeny-bopper schmucks who will be completely forgotten in 2 more years.

Wasn't there a venue for such things? Wasn't there Behind the Music? Where the fuck did that show go?

Just don't look directly at the screen, it's the only way i got thru the Meet the Spartans trailer.

That show died when they moved from doing "warts and all" depictions of once famous musicians to colluding with with still successful artists to produce puff piece documentaries whenever they were about to release a new album.

Rock hasn't fallen at all. In fact, it was a pretty fantastic year for new music. But I don't know how someone can hear the choruses to "Sugar, We're Goin' Down" and "Thks fr th Mmrs" and not acknowledge that the band knows its way around a hook.

Rock has fallen when we embrace tuneless mongoloids like Nickelback, who are not only stupid, but thoroughly incapable of writing anything catchy. Fall-Out Boy may dubiously cater to a young, impressionable audience, and they may, indeed, not know how to play their instruments very well, but they occasionally write a melody that sticks like crazy, and the song titles are clever.

Like I said above, the people who actually take the time to criticize a band like this must have even shittier taste in music. They must listen to commercial radio often enough for Fall-Out Boy to have actually made such a negative impression and to that, I ask, "what exactly are you doing listening to mainstream radio, anyway???"*

* For the record, I've seen their videos maybe a couple times each and seen them play those horrific live sets.

That's a really weird and baseless contention. And it doesn't even make sense. And it's a straw man argument.

I never heard a Fallout Boy song until I played Rock Band. But I certainly hate that one song. So I can honestly say that I hate every song I've heard by them.

What's surprising is how hard that song gets on Expert.

My friend and I were making fun of Fallout Boy and then we finally played the song. What the fuck?

Really though, I think 80% of the hate towards Fallout Boy is generated because a ridiculous amount of teen girls love them, they're popular, and because Pete Wentz is a douche. I mean really aren't they all in their 30s?

They also suck ass live. I've just seen some videos, but Pete Wentz can't play his beginner's Squier bass (no joke, that's what he uses..a chinese cheap Fender) to save his life.

All I know is that anything is better than sitting through the damn Citizen Soldier "music video" everytime I've gone to see a movie. 3 minutes of my life is wasted.

What kind of world do we live in when a topic about Fall Out Boy goes to 2 pages? Someone delete this thread before it breeds!

I framed it as more of a correlation than a causation. Based on what I've seen, the people who bother to take the time to "hate" melodic pop bands like Fall-Out Boy who appeal to young, generally female audiences, tend to like stuff that reasserts their masculinity. They're an absurdly easy target, and it's not hard to rally meatheads around a common cause that involves slamming something that "girls like." It's like hating disco in 1978.

Yes, this pizza may taste good, but that doesn't mean I have to like it!

I don't get this logic at all. If you acknowledge that they have the ability to craft a pop hook, then you're basically saying that they get the job done - they fully make good on whatever expectations one should have for them. And that's all I'm saying - they deliver the hooks. I'd rather never listen to them live again, because they're awful musicians, but the product that came out of that studio is glossy and effective pop.

Obviously not, since you hate them. But you listen to the radio, and I would argue that this indicates where your tastes lie somewhat. Most of the stuff on commercial rock radio is far worse - less tuneful, less interesting, less funny - than Fall-Out Boy... and we're back to my original point.

I regret making a judgment about good or bad taste. Instead, let's call it "discriminating taste." I think most serious music listeners would consider the idea that Fall-Out Boy is something worth complaining about to be kind of beneath them. It's like bitching about the New Kids on the Block or the Backstreet Boys. It just makes you look like the stodgy asshole who won't let the kids have their poppy, catchy fun.

Did they do that "Black Parade" song? Cuz I kind of liked that one.

Did someone say My Chemical Romance?

Awesome.

Not really.

http://www.chud.com/forums/showthrea...emical+romance

To me, bands like Fall Out Boy and My Chemical Romance, whom my sisters that never used to listen to rock now listen to, seem more like "glam rock" than anything else. I'm just waiting for them to be overthrown like the hair bands of the 80's were.

Then again, I'm so out of touch with rock music today that looking at my cd collection and my playlist on my ipod makes me feel like an old man. Shit, the last cd's that I've purchased in the past five years have been from Deftones, Nirvana, and STP.

If listening to Nirvana & STP makes you feel like an old man, I'm 21 and like listening to Hank Williams.

That's kind of a valid comparison, actually, and you'd better believe that when I was in my "Hey, everyone! I just got into the Pixies!" phase in 1990 or so, hair metal was the scourge of my tiny musical universe, and I sounded like some of you do. In retrospect, those pop metal bands were ultimately harmless and, on occasion, came up with some fun songs.

These bands may have gone out of vogue, but the style was never really overthrown. STP is just hair metal gone "serious." Nirvana and a few of the other bands from the early 90s may have been earnest and original in interesting ways, but the stuff they introduced to the radio was often just hair metal stripped of the fun and, often, the hooks. Basically, they made tuneless, joyless, overly-earnest bullshit bands like Bush and Collective Soul acceptable, and those bands should never have been acceptable. And the worst was yet to come - bands like Nickelback and Hinder take that turgid, constantly frowning style and combine it with all of the worst qualities of hair metal - not the fun or the hooks, but the dumbass misogyny, simplistic song structures, hackneyed riffs, and meathead appeal.

There's at least a sense of Weezer-like fun in what I've heard from Fall-Out Boy, and I consider that a step up in terms of what makes the radio.

Also, any band that names one of its songs after a line in Rushmore can't be totally terrible.

Hahah you shouldn't feel OLD!

I'm listening to The Replacements, The Clash, and some Greg Dulli from back in the Afghan Whig days. Uh oh, here comes some Sonic Youth. I'm only a young man of 21.

I agree. MCR know it's silly and they dismiss the whole "scene" of the thing. Pete Wentz just wants to pay for his next clothing line or his big mansion. You really want to punch him in the face when he showed his place off on Cribs. It's not because he's rich, it's because he's such a dick about it.

Music critics' Best of the Year lists are generally worth about as much as movie critics' Best of the Year lists.

Everyone needs to listen to The Clash. NEEDS to.

In fact there should be a law on the books about that sort of thing.

I'll vote for that Initiative. But I want a rider covering all Who albums prior to the eighties.

Add in a "everyone must own 'Songs of Leonard Cohen'" and you yourself a goddamned deal.

Yeah the new Yellowcard CD is good too.

Done.

Done.

Yeah, it kinda does. It seems like some of you guys can't get past what assholes the band members are to admit they write a good hook. I'm able to overlook that when it comes to bands who make music I truly love, so it feels pretty disingenuous to pin all kinds of hate on an innocuous, flash-in-the-pan pop act for the same thing.

The excuses for MCR are hilarious, though. I don't really care what the members are like, personally, but their music is bloated and unmemorable (I've heard these two bands about an equal number of times, yet I can't recall a single melody from a MCR song and I can recall multiple FOB choruses, if not verses). The guy's voice always sounds strained, and no matter how much they pad out the music with bad Queen pomp, the songs just aren't very good.

Incidentally, I say all of this as someone who has owned, at one time or another, pretty much everything the Who ever released (up to the post-Moon years), every Replacements bootleg I could get my hands on, and at least some of every other "good" band that people have mentioned here in their attempts to provide context for their tastes (okay, not Gomez or Ben Harper - sorry, Rain Dog). I mean, at this point, I think most of us are past establishing cred here, but just sayin.'

Call me crazy, but when someone goes out of their way to repeatedly, repeatedly defend FOB over 3 pages of discussion, makes me think they like them more than just on a 'they have nice hooks' level.

Just takin the piss, Dave.

Still, Fall Out Boy fucking suck more suck than the suckiest thing that has ever sucked before. Fuck 'em.

Don Piano likes Yellowcard. Now that is a revelation....not.

The only thing Pete Wentz has going for him is his very nice penis...too bad he's sticking it in Ashlee Simpson instead of my mouth.

As was I when I said that people who cared enough to hate FOB probably had shitty taste themselves. But it struck a nerve, it seems.

How could anyone like FOB beyond a "they have nice hooks"-level, (LeeVSbenway aside, apparently)? Their primary musical goal as a pop band is accomplished. Lyrics, originality, emotional resonance - all the stuff I want from bands I love - aren't the point. But they have really good hooks, which puts them above MCR, Yellowcard, Nickelback, and most of the other guitar-oriented bands that actually get on the radio these days.

Granted, I should've probably known to quit after being confronted by the brilliantly-conceived arguments about why they suck (summary: they suck because they suck!!!!").

Is Yellowcard still on the radio? I don't really follow mainstream radio these days, but I thought they were just a one hit wonder kind of deal.

Somebody already used the Spacey picture, and we've put a fatwa on fail, but yeah, this is incorrect. Miss Vicki Sue Robinson's "Turn The Beat Around" disagrees with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0KCuhLfAsU

No idea. I just remember they had that neo-emo whine-singing*, had an electric violin, and their song(s) had no discernible melody.

* Maybe that's why I give Fall-Out Boy more of a pass. The singer doesn't have a great voice, but he doesn't whine, which immediately differentiates them from other bands of their ilk and makes it sound as if they actually thought to figure out a vocal melody.