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The Distillers: Would Ya?

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:43 / 12.11.03

...Buy the album, that is.

Let's get the boring bit out of the way first: yes, they're rather overexposed at the moment, especially lead singer Brody. Blah blah blah hype blah music press blah selling out blah blah not real punk yada yada. Irrelevant.

Finally heard 'Drain The Blood' the other day and I gotta say, it's stuck in my head already. Sure, some of the sound is familiar, but in the way that makes me think "shit, this sounds like Live Through This era Hole! Wow, it's been a while since I heard anything that sounded like that - I like it!" rather than thinking it sounds played out. The part of me that still secretly idolises pre-(musical)-bloat James Dean Bradfield gets a kick out of it, basically.

So, a friend of mine whose taste I trust roughly 75-85% of the time swears the album is "too good not to buy", but I'm wondering if anyone here can offer a second opinion.

Guy Parsons

11:50 / 12.11.03

Drain The Blood is surprisingly good for what I thought was gonna be droneheavy nu-metal. I confess, it's all about the garage rock edge to it. Something tells me it's a bit unrepresentative though.

Char Aina

14:56 / 12.11.03

i dont know what gave you the nu-metal fear, man, but they're pretty much a punk band.

i havent knowingly heard 'drain the blood', but the first album is great. not earthshatteringly great, but great in a 'weren't rancid great in 94?' kinda way.

if you're drunk, and your stereo is loud, you will be singing along.

Matthew Fluxington

15:17 / 12.11.03

I'm not really fond of the album. I tried it and just thought it wasn't very catchy and wasn't pop enough to merit C-Love comparisons.

Brody Dalle is from Australia, Flyboy.

Anyway, there are much better albums you can spend your money on. Go for Kylie and the Fiery Furnaces and Jay-Z. I know they are on your list.

rizla mission

15:33 / 12.11.03

From what little I've heard of their music, I find it to be a bit lousy.

Which is a shame cos their artwork and image is really cool, and they seem like the kind of band that it would be good to make popular and famous.. were it not for the fact that, sadly, their music sounds a bit lousy.

It sounds too suspiciously clean and.. inoffensive to make for good punk/garage/rock/whatever, yet not even remotely POP enough to make for good pop.. which leaves it in grave danger of getting filed under "indie, boring corporate".

I'm perfectly prepared to have my mind changed though, since I've only heard, I think, one track by them twice or something..

Char Aina

15:54 / 12.11.03

um.. this is the same distillers that are on hellcat and have the famous tim armstrong as number one fan?

indie?

you really think?

h3r

17:19 / 12.11.03

just some celebrity gossip from lalaland, that chick singer is scheduled to marry QOTSA mastermind josh, and all the hype and sell out vibe is really annoying. hollywood at its best.
haven't heard any of their music, but yeah the posters all over town look cool!

Locust No longer

04:14 / 13.11.03

I've always hated the vocals. They always reminded me of some bad punk Courney Love impression. It's all shit in a shiny wrapper.

Jack Denfeld

06:07 / 13.11.03

I like the Distillers. They sound like a good punk rock band, and their last album "Sing Sing Death House" was really good. Haven't heard the new album, but I'll give it a shot.

Matthew Fluxington

12:47 / 13.11.03

I doubt Tim Armstrong is still a big fan of the band - he and Brody are estranged now, and she's stopped using his surname. Tim's off doing music with Pink now, so maybe that's working better for him.

It's good for his bank account, at any rate.

Tom DS

12:57 / 13.11.03

I've heard the album a couple of times at a friends house and agree with the Hole 'Live Through This' comparison but a similar sound is as far as it goes, I found most of the tunes to be nowhere near as memorable and after the first five or six tracks it gets a little samey, there's not much variation over the record and the heavy handed production only serves to emphasise this. Not a bad record but definitely try before you buy.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

14:49 / 13.11.03

Sort of a little stupid to talk about pop when The Distillers are a punk band, isn't it?

rizla mission

19:45 / 13.11.03

ummmm.... so the vast canon of pop-punk music from the Ramones and the Buzzcocks onwards has passed you by then?

dude, punk and pop go together like cheese and toast.

All Acting Regiment

20:29 / 13.11.03

It all depends on wether you think that the punk suff they do is actually new and current and good, or just a knock off of 70s punk. Having listened to the music, read interviews and seen pictures, I admit a certain respect for the band, basically cause the woman's got big spiky hair, but big spiky hair "for real". Um, dunno, rambling now.

I wouldn't say they were "indie" at all, in fact i don't understand why "Coldplay Fan" magazine seems to be hyping them.

Listen to it. if you like it you like it if you dont you dont.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

22:22 / 13.11.03

dude, punk and pop go together like cheese and toast.

Maybe if you like Sum 41. Wouldn't call the Misfits or The Dead Kennedys pop, would you?

Suedey! SHOT FOR MEAT!

22:51 / 13.11.03

Shit! Those bands are punk! There is not one element of pop in them! (Or is there?) And because they are real punk that means that any band with any element of pop just isn't!

The only "punk" bands that have anything to do with pop are Sum 41. And they are for kids so they suck.

Well done.

No, WELL DONE.

Jack Denfeld

23:25 / 13.11.03

How are we defining pop? If it's catchy melodies than I guess the Ramones and Buzzcocks kind of have a pop vibe to them. I guess when people think of pop-punk today it would be bands like Blink-182, Good Charlotte, maybe Green Day if they'd ever release something new.

Jack Denfeld

23:29 / 13.11.03

And the Vandals. Sometimes when I hear the Vandals I'm amazed that they missed out, they've got some tunes that are just as catchy and poppy as bands like Good Charlotte and the new pop-punk bands but I guess they're too old to be marketed right.

Char Aina

03:07 / 14.11.03

ladies, ladies....

there's an actual GENRE called POP-PUNK.
that should settle that.

but if it doesnt...

green day
mr t experience
alkaline trio
the descendents
screeching weasel

and of course blink 182. if you have to buy one of their albums, get dude ranch. it sucks the least.

i didnt realise brody and tim were split up...
so she's after yer stone age queen now? do you think the distillers will start making heavy stoner desert music soon? they sounded like old rancid with courtney singing before, now are they gonna sound like kyuss with the love?

Char Aina

03:10 / 14.11.03

The only "punk" bands that have anything to do with pop are Sum 41. And they are for kids so they suck.

what, like sweets suck? and skateboards suck? and comics suck? and pixar movies suck?

what about all the girls who buy kids tshirts? y'know, for tits?

kids stuff can be good.

Regrettable Juvenilia

06:50 / 14.11.03

My man Suedehead was putting it down in reverse.

rizla mission

08:37 / 14.11.03

Wouldn't call the Misfits or The Dead Kennedys pop, would you?

Yeah, I would actually. They do pop songs - loud, messy pop songs with swear words! And I love 'em for it. You could hardly have picked better examples actually.

Unless we're talking hardcore, classic-styled punk music lives or dies by it's pop element.. it goes back to rock n' roll and garage and teenage PoP.

People who think 'punk-pop' is automatically a negative label deserve all the grumpy gurning Rollins-wannabes they inevitably get.

do you think the distillers will start making heavy stoner desert music soon?

here's hoping!

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

13:56 / 14.11.03

Eh, it's all semantics here. I see "pop" as being a genre of music all on it's own. Whereas punk (a genre I largely dispise BTW) is a pretty different sounding genre. That's the only point that I was trying to make, albeit pretty poorly.

15:01 / 14.11.03

Whoever said the Dead Kennedys didn't have pop elements have clearly never heard songs like "Kill The Poor" or "MTV Get Off the Air".

As for the Distillers, don't really like them. My brother is a big Rancid fan though, and they have a few good albums.

Of course, I always thought that bands like Suicide and Throbbing Gristle were more punk then most, so I'm probably not the best person to ask here.

Matthew Fluxington

15:13 / 14.11.03

For fuck's sake. Most of Fugazi's songs are catchy and more or less pop songs - are any of you going to be dim enough to try to say that they aren't punk?

Punk + Pop : Cheese + Toast, as Rizla says.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

20:23 / 14.11.03

Like I say, it's all fucking semantics- I've always associated the word "pop" with Rick Astley* or Blue or Bay City Rollers or Abba teens. I see now that we're merely refering to that x factor that makes music great- and I agree, The Distillers have none of it.

*Zenith without superpowers

Char Aina

03:41 / 15.11.03

jus' cos' you relate it, don' mean i's troo, nah'm'sain.

rizla mission

15:58 / 15.11.03

DeeDee Ramone was a massive fan of the Bay City Rollers.

(mumbling aside: isn't 'Bay City Rollers' a brilliant band name? You wouldn't get a boy band today with a name half that cool!)

rizla mission

16:07 / 15.11.03

Oh, and by 'pop' I'm not meaning the 'X factor'. I mean, avant noise bands that sound like a jet engine getting attacked with a pitchfork can have the 'X factor', but they sure ain't pop.

Pop is cool tunes that make you jump up and down and sing along and grin like an idiot. It covers the entire spectrum of what earth people call 'genres'.

King Mob

16:35 / 21.11.03

Their music is nothing to start "Topic"s about, but i do enjoy thinking about "Brody" as i masturbate.

I'm Rick Jones, bitch

12:15 / 22.11.03

Dude, she's skanky as fuck!

Punji Steak

12:45 / 22.11.03

Fuck, the Distiller's have a new album out? Less than 12 months between albums is pop as fuck! And yes, they are a great pop-punk band (whatever the hell that means) and she has a seriously great voice too. Looking forward to hearing the new stuff...

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

21:30 / 04.12.03

Just bought this the other day- I kinda like it. Yeah, it's punk. And pop. And fun and shouty and all-round worth getting.

Ground-breaking? Nope. Destined for legendary status? Nope. But very good, nonetheless. (And it's growing on me the more I hear it.)

Regrettable Juvenilia

23:07 / 13.01.04

You ever get that feeling where you know you're being played - and it's a really obvious sting, all the signs are there, and you're not the first person to be taken in, and you're inevitably going to end up getting let down... but it feels so good that you just go along with anyway?

Char Aina

19:07 / 13.04.04

yeah.
like with rancid, actually.
they now suck so bad its hard to believe that half of them were on tracks like 'the crowd' and 'unity'... and that first rancid album is nasty-blinding.

its been downhill, through mediocrity to absolute shite, since.

i mean, 'life wont wait'? who the fuck let them fly to jamaica and act all gangsta with the shining lights of homophobic dancehall? i know tim's fucked up, but hasnt he got minders?

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