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Underground > Radio & Music >

Good Charlotte: Would You Slap Your Kids If They Listened To Them?

No star here laces

09:38 / 21.02.03

Well, would you?

17:20 / 21.02.03

I'd think a flogging would be more appropriate.

If that doesn’t work, just put the little buggers out of their misery.

A

05:46 / 22.02.03

Parental dissaproval makes things seem cool to kids, so I'd use the old reverse psychology and point out what good role models Good Charlotte make to kids, what with being harmless young Christian punk-lite pretty-boys and suchlike, and hopefully embarrass the kids into seeking out something a little less bland and lacking in genitals.

No star here laces

10:26 / 22.02.03

See, I actually really like that "Lifestyles of the rich and famous" record. It's very catchy. I'd buy 'em a lollipop, the little dears.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

14:19 / 22.02.03

They're this months 'Bowling for Soup' aren't they?

15:35 / 22.02.03

I'd slap my kids if they listened to 90% of what's out there today.

Or if they talked back to me.

21:57 / 22.02.03

Is that their new one, The Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous? Apparently, according to my freiends, that's crap. But their last one was good. is there a difference? I'm so confused... And my friends don't like the new direction of No Doubt, and wonder what happened to them> She used to be sucha good girl...

They threatened to fuck someone up, for saying they were just another band with spikey hair. I don't think they get any of the jokes.

I quite like that new single too, in the way that I like all the damn singles like that (ie. Not enough to buy it or find out about it, but it's not Dashboard Confessional, and that's alright by me)

23:10 / 22.02.03

Well Im no fan of theirs...they have a few decent songs (LSOTRAF) but I refuse to hunt them dont because they provide the theme song to my curretn favorite animated show: Undergrads. (www.undergrads.tv)
That was my college days.

14:48 / 24.02.03

Actually, I've got a soft spot for all these appalling pop-"punk" groups.

I think they generally make good pop music - they're like really retarded, primary school versions of the Buzzcocks.. nothing wrong with that.

Though it goes without saying that the Donnas could kick their respective asses so fast they wouldn't even notice, and they'd wake up in a quarry ten mile away and go "dude, what happened, all my bones are broken and I'm slowly choking to death on my own absurdly over-sized shorts!"

Matthew Fluxington

17:26 / 24.02.03

Really?

I don't like the Good Charlotte bands, but I find them fairly easy to ignore.

However, I really dislike the Donnas - mostly because I hate Kiss, and they sound like a girl Kiss. I just don't understand why some people think they're special. As far as I'm concerned, they're just a slightly more credible version of Avril Lavigne.

21:24 / 24.02.03

aaaargh! NO NO NO. the donnas DO kick arse and i cannot for the life of me understand why no-one (here at least in sunny brighton) likes them. I saw them live and they werent the most professional or polished band, and most of them are butt ugly (except for the guitarist) but that is exactly why they are NOT "a slightly more credible version of Avril Lavigne".
I shouldnt have to say it, but, they write their own songs (NOT co-write), play their own instruments, and were obviously not picked by record company execs for their good looks and dancing ability. According to the humorless pedants and '4real' fans of 'proper' music, this is what constitutes a real band. perhaps they should sign to Dischord, give up all worldly belongings and get matching Fugazi tattoos? would that be more 'credible'?

Matthew Fluxington

23:19 / 24.02.03

Settle down, White Riot. Please don't mistake me for an anti-popster or an indie-nazi.

This is how I see it:

The Donnas are a bunch of earnest girls who like what they do, and worked their way up from the indies. That's cool by me. They're definitely not prefab. However, I think their music is cheesy proto-hair metal. I think they sound like a slightly more 'rawkin' Avril, or more charitably, something out of a shitty teen movie from the 80s.

There is just one thing that I will NOT STAND FOR:

All four of the Donnas are very good looking girls. I sure hope that your usage of "butt ugly" is some kind of ironic slang for "hot chicks", man.

00:50 / 25.02.03

To answer the original question, having just listened to the Good Charlotte song "Bloody Valentine" yes, if I had them, I would probably smack my child(ren) upside the head(s) if I heard this in my house. It is catchy, but it is also crap. It's just so bland and absolutely neutral, and damn it, if my children are going to listen to crap, I at least want it to be committed crap. So, in the unlikely event that Good Charlotte is still popular in a decade when I plan to spawn, then my children will be subject to mild ridicule for listening to uncommitted crap.

A

06:04 / 25.02.03

While I share Flux's anti-Kiss stance, I am vehemently pro-Donnas. I think they have far more in common with fine rockin' bands like AC/DC and Cheap Trick than Kiss. They certainly do Kiss songs better than Kiss did, anyway, as their split 7" with them demonstrated.

And none of them are even slightly "butt ugly". In fact, if you look at their album covers, they all seem to get more attractive with each successive release.

20:40 / 25.02.03

alright, sorry. perhaps 'butt ugly' was unkind and totally unjustified, i just meant that they arent airbrushed pop-rock, puppets, thats all.
They rock in both tunage and bootage!

14:02 / 26.02.03

A round of virtual drinks for white riot and Count Adam.

As I've said rather vehemently before, The Donnas are my conception of an absolutely perfect pop group.

There's no way to intellectually defend such an assertion - I guess if you listen to one of their records and you're not grinning massively and politely headbanging by the end of the first verse, you'll never understand..

(And they're still burying their hair metal tendencies under enough Ramones and Runaways to make it alright by me, thanksverymuch..)

..actually, Flux's description of 80s teen movies as "shitty" probably says it all in terms of the chasm between our respective views of the Donnas - I see even the worst 80s teen movies as solid pop-cultural gold..

14:47 / 26.02.03

See, I actually really like that "Lifestyles of the rich and famous" record. It's very catchy. I'd buy 'em a lollipop, the little dears.

Speaking as someone with an 8 year old Blink 182 fan in the house, I'm sticking with "you gotta start somewhere" as a rationale, and trying not to let on that I find them catchy as hell. I've heard a little Good Charlotte, and they sound very much like a church group to me. Entertaining at the youth group picnic, with volleyball and weiners. Perfect for the preteen. Issues of anger and credibility generally only matter once the hormone poisoning kicks in.

07:06 / 28.02.03

well grant, lucky you! yr 8yr old sounds like my friends... sigh... nah, Blink182 is alright, i mean they at least put out a few CDs before they sudenly "got big" and they don't try to look too punk w/ the spikey hair and all that, in my head they some how have a "get out of jail free" card i guess... Good Charlotte bah! don't like them... anyway, i'd prolly let my kids listen to them and make sure to play some Mr T Experience, Descendents and Queers stuff arround them too, show them other punky poppy music (and i my mind better, tho my friends dispute it) that doesn't seem so manufatured and more real i guess, street cred and all that... and the new No Doubt (rocksteady) CD is the best one since the very first one (the red one) even if i'm the only one i know in real life that thinks so!

Matthew Fluxington

14:06 / 28.02.03

The only worthwhile No Doubt album is Rocksteady, if you ask me. I loathe Tragic Kingdom to the core of my being, but Rocksteady redeems them. I don't know how they went from being so awful to being quite good, but I'm glad that it happened.

Good Charlotte are pretty lousy, but I definitely think they're better than Mother 13. Those Mother 13 guys are just terrible!

14:28 / 28.02.03

A friend of mine wants to create a pop-punk band the way promoters create boy bands.

What should he do first?

Matthew Fluxington

14:40 / 28.02.03

I would say that he should scout talent at one of those 'high school of the arts" places, like in Fame.

Or recruit from casting calls for teenage actors.

10:07 / 01.03.03

a pop punk band the same way a boy band is made... um aren't they already called SR-71?

13:34 / 01.03.03

Yeah, there was one in the cahrts the other week, wasn't there? Like N-sync but with spikey hair and guitars that they weren't playing.

Their creators are clearly kind of missing the point that (I'm assuming) the kids like Blink 182 etc. cos they're a bit noisy and a bit non-parentally approved and a bit stroppy, but still make cool pop music.

I'd suggest that rather than creating one, grant's friend should find an already existing teeny punk band and beat them into the required shape* = instant Sum 41.

*er, not literally beat, obviously, but, um, y'know what I mean..

18:18 / 01.03.03

I caught the music video a couple of days ago. Have had trouble getting the hook of Lifestyles of the rich and famous out of my head since then.

Not a terribly exciting act, but I have to give them respect for infecting my head with such bland music.

The Natural Way

10:48 / 04.03.03

Well, I would hope that my kids would get into something a little bit cooler...

But I'd only really worry if their Charlotte-loving was accompanied by a huge pash for Radio 1.

Meanwhile, Good Chartlotte are out doin' the robbin'. Got to be honest, if I actually met anyone earning their bucks and audiences who went on about all that twaddle, I'd probably laugh in their cock-face.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:50 / 04.03.03

Well, I would hope that my kids would get into something a little bit cooler...

In practice, surely your kids will get into something a *lot* cooler, and you'll rub your grey bits and grumble "bah, this is a shitty cheapened version of what The Rapture were doing twenty years ago", and then the kids will laugh and point and you'll send them to bed without supper and sit up listening to The Rapture muttering "kids!" and eating soup.

The Natural Way

17:22 / 04.03.03

There's tons of lame kids. Most kids at my school were about as cool as my arse. At the height of rave, you could've counted the kids into it on 2 hands. Barely. And check out the G'n'R 'n' Chilli Peppers luv that's going on at the mo'. Why? Kids with sad older brothers and sisters remember their siblings cranking out the shitrock back in the day, and are now turning to that crap as some kinda touchstone for *authenticity*. Y'know, REAL ROCK MUSIC.

Feh.

(gargles soup)

13:43 / 05.03.03

And the Rapture are just doing what Public Image were doing twenty years ago.

Get the pots boilin' Ma, we're having soup tonight!

No star here laces

14:13 / 05.03.03

Bah. Little Richard. Mutter... grumble... slurp.

Matthew Fluxington

15:00 / 05.03.03

In practice, surely your kids will get into something a *lot* cooler,

You know, I don't really agree with that. It's definitely true that coolness is in the eye of the beholder, but I really don't think that "what kids are into" is necessarily synonymous with 'coolness'. Popularity and coolness aren't the same thing. Popularity tends to come from consensus, and coolness tends to come from something more unique and individual.

I don't think Runce is wrong when he notes that most kids are boring, conservative, and woefully ill-informed, and I don't think that observation is necessarily a sign of being out of touch or too old. Only someone brainwashed by corporate marketing would go along with the notion that coolness is something that is exclusive to youth.

16:05 / 05.03.03

Flux:

"Only someone brainwashed by corporate marketing would go along with the notion that coolness is something that is exclusive to youth."

Hmmm, I welcome that marketing notion. Not being expected to worry about coolness (and all the hideous unspoken umming and ahhing and second-guessing and raising of eyebrows that goes with it) is a blessing. I reckon if you're old enough to have record-buying kids of your own and you're still bothered enough by what is or isn't cool to be embarrassed by what they're listening to, then you deserve all the pain and anxiety you get.

17:16 / 05.03.03

What's with the G'n'R hate? Appetite for Destruction is one of the greatest albums ever.
My girlfriend likes Good Charolette for some ungodly reason, and we constantly get into stupid arguments (started by me, being that I'm a complete music snob) about how they aren't punk rock, despite what they are called by 13 year olds. She somehow disagrees with me that they're just horrible pop shit -- not that I have anything against pop, just horrible pop. I've even tried getting her into better bands, like Fugazi or the Dead Boys, and she's resistant to it; she doesn't even like Fugazi! But, whatever, there is one thing that we can agree on, and that's the Donnas are fucking lame. Male bands exhausted the "I like sex" model for songs in the mid-eighties, if not sooner, but now since it's a female band ripping off lame-ass cliche rockers I'm supposed to like it? Man, fuck that noise, and I thought they were prefab, I coulda sworn they were put together by Larry Livermore, the head of Lookout Records, the previous home of the Donnas. I mean, sure they write their own songs, but the songs still suck.

A

04:26 / 06.03.03

Cop Killer! You've returned!

But I'm afraid I disagree with you. Guns'n'Roses always were and always will be a load of bollocks. Sure, they had a couple of standout tunes, but, by and large, they're were always just an average bar band with a particularly annoying vocalist. "Lame-ass cliche rockers", even And then there's Axl's charming lyrics about "immigrants and faggots" and the like. I think the reason that Slash always wore his hair over his face was so that Axl wouldn't realise he was a black guy.

The Donnas, on the other hand, are great. They're not particularly original, and they do tend to be a bit repetitive, but they have kick-arse songs, they rock like buggery, and they're more fun than a barrel of monkeys on a saturday night- all the things I likte about rock'n'roll.

Good to have you back here, though.

13:44 / 06.03.03

The Donnas, on the other hand, are great. They're not particularly original, and they do tend to be a bit repetitive, but they have kick-arse songs, they rock like buggery, and they're more fun than a barrel of monkeys on a saturday night- all the things I likte about rock'n'roll

My thoughts exactly.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:05 / 06.03.03

Just to clarify - I take yr point, Flux - I guess I didn't mean 'cool' in the positive sense, for once. It just struck me that it's a little naive to hope that your kids will be into the same kind of music you are, or at least an approximation of the same. It seems to rely both on forgetting how dubious yr own tastes were as a 'kid' and assuming that as you get older yr taste won't change or alternatively, stagnate...