Bands I Should Like, But Don't: Coheed And Cambria

While the main focus of The Guide over the year has been overwhelmingly stoner and doom oriented, I do have a soft spot for progressive music as well. I enjoy hearing the complex rhythms, the stylistic changes jammed together, the often epic story-lines, and the seemingly-random (but still somehow together) generation of sound and song. As an avid reader, and a science fiction/fantasy nut (both in novel and live entertainment form), the concepts that propel most modern progressive music call out to me. By this definition, Coheed And Cambria should be one of my favorite bands. Hell, they have a (so far) five album story-arc, telling of a science fiction-heavy war and the world corrupted by it. This story is told throughout the songs and albums, but also through comic books, online videos, I've heard rumors of a novelization of the story and perhaps even a movie in the works(??)! But even with all this, the epic story and all the accoutrements, I still can't stand to listen to this group.

Bands I Should Like, But Don't: Queens of The Stoneage & Co.

I was at work today, and I began to think of acts that by all accounts I should like, but for some reason I don't. Some, while I love the genre in general, their particular representation of it doesn't, or I like all of the previous works by one of the members of the band, but can't quite grasp the new direction they're headed in. And so, because without much thought I was reminded of two such bands - and I'm sure if I put more effort into it I could think of more - I decided to create a new segment dedicated to this notion.

After my 'All In The Family' based on the members of Kyuss, I thought it prudent to continue with the subject and focus my debut 'Bands I Should Like, But Don't' on one of the best-known of the off-shoots of the legendary stoner rockers: Queens of The Stoneage, and the following off-shoots, Them Crooked Vultures and Eagles of Death Metal, basically anything that Josh Homme has his hands in.

I'm a big fan of stoner rock/metal, as anyone who spent any time reading The Guide could confirm, varying across the numerous sub-genres of this sub-genre. From blues to southern, psych to sludge, I think that every one of these stoner off-shoots bring something to the table, something that needs to be paid attention to. What I don't like is the stoner that moves into the pop direction (I'm not sure is stoner-pop is another sub-genre, but I'm going to use it as such). Bands that combine radio-friendly poppy-sounding rock, with the fuzz and attitude of stoner.It's not a mix that I like very much, and I lament the bands that make this stylistic progression.