The band you've tried hardest to like but never got there?
 

the ones you keep having another bite at, but never quite like the taste.

None. If I don't enjoy it, I don't enjoy it, move along. There's plenty of great bands out there, no point wasting time trying to like a band.

The only band I can remember consistently trying to listen to years ago to figure out why people liked 'em was Queens of the Stone Age. I got to a point where I liked a few of their songs but still don't really see the big deal, especially compared to Kyuss.

Led Zeppelin. I keep trying but no, nothing.

Why does anybody like TOOL?

This thread doesn't make sense to me. Why would I try so hard to like something that I don't like?

Good point well made, gmku. But still...is it wrong to admit tha I've never really "got" either the Smiths or the Stone Roses? To be honest, I find both bands as boring as hell.

I have tried (meaning repeated listens to various records by them) and never goten into

The SWans - they bore the living shit out of me

Radiohead - I like one song for a bit then I get fed up with their wankery

smashing pumpkins - so many people stand by them, I listen to all their albus, the only one I am close to digging is Gish, while all the others leave me feeling cold, like I am listening to one of the several SHITTY Peter Gabriel solo records...

^^no, but did you just listen to the smiths once and then right them off?

demonrail - I've listened to them loads of times, but come up blank, as it were. I will say that "How Soon Is Now" is a great tune, but the rest of their oeuvre leaves me scratching my head and going "Duh..."

Rob - Smashing Pumpkins are Gash Central. They are truly a borefest to my ears.

I think if you've not warmed to something after a couple listens, it's not worth your time to keep at it.

On the other hand, I have come around to like things after not liking them. That's why I believe in keeping everything you buy. For example, I had given up on Love's Forever Changes, and then one day on a whim after not listening to it for about 6 months, I put it on again and fell in love with it immediately.

Music should be fun, not hard work.

But that's the point. Whether we like it or not, we do give some bands more of a go, so to speak, than others.

i think that in order to really really get there then its not enough to simply want to like a band but you should listen to the whole way to ensure that your first impression isnt your ultimate account of said bands.

try this: if you agree then its a lot more fulfilling and indeed necessary when it comes to agreeing and necessitating the things that are there.

if that doesn't work then try this: dont try too hard to think that.

Tis true. I don't hate Oasis, as you know, but I never thought them to be anything but a re-hash of other shit I've heard before.

some bands, like devandra barnhard, are only going to get one listen from me

I do not need to smell a turd twice to know it is shit.

Well yes, clearly Barnhard warrants just the slightest of tastes before absolute rejection can ensue. But, I dunno, Pink Floyd?

I feel the same way about many of the bands mentioned on these boards, many of them just seem to be a little too pretentious or intelligent (perhaps, a little bit of both) for their own good.

However, I must disagree and say that SWANS are excellent. Have you given Angels of Light a try? Although, the band features Gira, they are a bit more melody focused than SWANS.

I will give angels of Gira a few listens.

The swans just do not make my brain or ears sparkle.
It is like the early melvins without a sense of humor.

I will keep buying whatever Jon Spencer puts out, fully aware that it'll be dreadful, but somehow still hoping that it might be utterly amazing.

I used to like them alot but recently have found myself unable to listen to them, for very much those reasons.

This I did not see coming Rob especially not from you. :(
SWANS is fucking raw energy.

I definitely think bands are worth working at, for the simple reason that there is a good chance you'll like them. If I only listened to music I immediately liked, I would only listen to hardcore. Thank fuck I worked on that.

As for bands I just can't get after trying very hard: Skinny Puppy, Andrew Bird, The Cure, Husker Du...There are a ton really. But these are all bands I still listen to on occassion because I don't dislike them quite enough to give up. I've almost got Skinny Puppy, I think. I can feel it.

It took me a very long time to finally admit I had started to enjoy Zeppelin. I didn't want to.

I don't like Led Zeppelin at all. I tried a few times, but it never worked out. Stairway to heaven has to be one of the most annoying songs I've ever heard.

I'm the same. I've given them so many tries but it's just like. I don't get anything.

The "Raping A Slave" 12" and "Cop" LP truly kill. The Jarboe-goth stuff makes my lungs ache. Gira solo live is great. Hmm, let's call it a draw, eh?

Yes, admittedly, I can't criticise cop at all.

I'm going to listen to that later on.

Abba+Swans = Win.

Stairway to Heaven is fucking horrible. So is Kashmir. Those were probably the sole reasons I resisted, though, as I mostly like anything else by them now.

If you don't like something, you don't like something, I don't understand why you would try to force yourself to "get" something. I guess some people just don't realize that, hey, it's okay to dislike things other people like. It doesn't mean anything.

Some of these threads lately are so silly......

just because your first or second reaction is "I do not like it" does not mena that is the correct reaction.
you must be a skeptic even to your own feelings and thoughts.

There are a ton of bands that I love dearly, that I consider fantastic in the extreme, which, upon my first or second listen sounded horrible, but I forced mysef to listen again and again, and the greatness of the music dawned on me slowly.
this happens to each of us, for various reasons.

I love Morphine. when I first heard cure for pain when it came out I could not STAND IT. I could not understand it's instrumentation (no guitar, just saxophone and bass), why the production sounded that way (not rough "punk sounding"), why he sang about topics a 36 year old sings about (I was just 22) etc.
Repeated listens opened my ears and my mind.

The same thing can be said by me for Bob Marley and all reggae music, for delta blues, for Phish, for original ska music, for most jazz,

hell! for sonic youth themselves! at the age of 16, a thrash metal/hardcore headbanger in the extreme, I could not grasp nor like daydream nation, but I forced, yes, forced myself o listen to it over and over again (a by product of having to pay full price for an album with your chores allowance, something you freeloading download thieves will never understand) and it was an epiphany!

sonic youth is my all time fave band, and daydream nation is my all time fave record.

if a band is EASY to get/like it ussually means they are easy to get bored with.

If it's apparent shit on first listen, I'm not going to bother listening to it over and over. However, there are a few albums that I didn't like at all on first listen, but saw some potential worth in them. A good example with me is Trout Mask Replica. I first listened to it three years ago (I was sixteen) and found the thing to be somewhat interesting, though kinda painful to sit through. I put it on sporadically over the next two years seeing if it would click, and it finally did last year. I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that my tastes have significantly shifted from when I was sixteen to where I am now that helped me appreciate it more. I can say the same thing for a few other albums in my collection too.

I've never felt like that. I hear bands right away that I find interesting to some degree even if I don't like their music completely. From there, I hear more and eventually reach a decision on them. I can at least walk away from them and go, "Oh, well that wasn't my kind of music but it was decent." If a band is shitty from the get-go, I highly doubt I'll ever appreciate their shittiness. The thing is, I can walk away from most music and find something to like about it -- that doesn't mean I'm going to waste my time constantly listening to shit.

I've never heard a band and thought "man this is completely terrible" and then listened later and realized I loved them or something... unless I hear, like in the case of the Markers, that they're going to release something completely different than their usual output...

I've never kept listening to a band I liked, hoping to eventually "get" it... that just makes no sense to me. I can tell pretty much immediately whether I like something or not.

Well, me and supercreep posted pretty much the same thing.

Trout Mask Replica is a perfect example. When I first heard it 6 years ago (I was 16 too!), I thought it was interesting though the production gave me a headache (and still does -- songs are great, but the trebly dry production with overloud mixing on vocals makes me feel weird). Of course, I pretty quickly realized it was a masterpiece even though it took many listens to fully understand the depth of it all.

However, if it had been complete shit with nothing redeeming or interesting about it, I never would have bothered listening to it again. I dunno, I think it's pretty easy to tell...

but do you not see that that may be just a "shallow" first impression?

we are always changing and sometimes a band can make you change your musical brain, and sometimes your musical brain needs to be changed by life itself before a band or a band's music is enjoyable to you.

both the swans and captain beefheart seemed boring and kind of shitty on first listen but now i really like both. it took me 3 or 4 listens though. same with joy division.

Everyone grasps music in different ways I guess.

When I first listened to Daydream Nation I thought it was boring, and when I warmed up to it with repeated listens, it became my favourite album of all time.

Rob, if I'm ever proven wrong about a great band that I initially hated, I'll let everyone know. However, even music I didn't LOVE back in the day, I STILL could find it interesting -- I may not have been crazy about Stars of the Lid 5 years ago but I could tell one day I'd love them. And now I do. I'm just saying, there are some bands that are COMPLETE shit and I'll never force myself through them. And there are bands I recognize the musicality of.. like say.. fuck OPETH or something... but I don't necassarily enjoy them... but I will probably listen to them a bit in order to appreciate them better. I just realize that some things I will never like. EVERY type of music, every awful band, has something of value contained within it... but why waste your time listening to bad shit when there are hundreds of thousands of great bands? I guess that's what I'm saying.

Also, uhler, Captain Beefheart seemed boring on first listen? Eh?! I could see "annoying" "mindless" etc but BORING? That's interesting.

Actually, that just made me think of something, I almost have never described a band as boring. Music has almost never bored me, except in a live setting.

The Fall. I know people round here love em'. i have about 4 or 5 of their records too over the years. I like Kurious Oranj the best but I think musically they're just not developed enough or something. When will i learn..

Fear not. In time it will happen.