Opinions on The Darkness

[GuitarWizard]

edit

[JESTER700]

These guys were recommended to me, so I gave a listen. Thanks to KaZaa, I needen't buy this now, and the songs are deleted. The songs are OK, but not great. The playing isn't stellar, basic 3rds harmonies are overused, and the sounds aren't as good as you can do from a $130 V-amp into a $800 multitracker. But the big one - this guy's falsetto just grates on my ears (the transitions aren't even smooth). And I listen to Rush, Zebra, Queen, and Steelheart - the *kings* of falsetto.

Campiness can only go so far. Humor has to be more clever than this, IMO. Where is T-Ride when you need 'em? ;-)

...maybe a more thorough listen would convince me, but I just can't get past the singer...

[LHSV]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

I love 70's music.
I Love 80's music as well.

I have had several pm me wanting to know why "I hate 70's music".

Let me clarify by saying that , in my personal opinion, I feel that more of the greatest albums of the last 100 years came from the 1970's, than any other decade.

Being that I am so studied in 60's and 70's rock maybe why I don't care for bands like "Jet" or "The Darkness".

Just as many of us on here feel Timberlake, and Spears are computer generated pop candy (which they are), I feel that 99% of these bands like the Darkness are generic copies of the bands they are trying to imulate.

Don't get pissy guys. This is simply an opinion poll.

I am around music 24/7 , its my life, its my store. I hear a lot of bands in a days time, and I have no repect for the Darkness.

I appreciate say, U2 , much more than the Darkness..... when U2 came out 20+ years ago, they sounded like no one else. Some loved the sound.... some hated... but they were original.

Jemsite is probably the website that has more Steve Vai fans than anywhere else. While I like Steve Vai, he's not my favorite... but I do appreciate that 95% of the time, he will try new things. Granted, unless its a X-Mas song, you'll never Vai on the radio.... but who cares?

At least Vai is playing music on his terms.


The Darkness, however , is playing music on terms of AC/DC song structure, based on "borrowing" a Queen like sound.

Not only do I find it un-original, and un-inspiring..... but I find it somewhat insulting.

We all borrow..... but don't make it so obvious.



I also hate the music of.... Cradle of Filth, Tool, Korn, Limp Biscut, Linkin Park, Slayer, Drowning Pool, Pantera, Black Label Society, Deftones, Perfect Circle, Good Charlotte, Blink 182, Dream Theatre and 95% of Metallica albums.....

Yet these bands sell all day long in my store.

I'll give you.... The Darkness cd, although contains many hoaky B-sides (about , isn't as bad as most of bands I just listed.....but lets be honest. This isn't a classic album that you play over and over again.


If there was one perfect band that we all loved, then we'd only have one band in the world.... thankfully, we all think differently..... and we have a choice.

I have not heard much of The Darkness, but I know they like aussie band Jet are kinds of throw backs to the 70's bands, and while yes they are not original, it is slightly refreshing to hear this 70's style rock coming back on to the radio, a relief from the other crap they play.

Maybe next they might get some more original, bands on the radio and replace punk power chords, with ripping solo's reminicent of the 70's and 80's.

Leah

[GuitarWizard]

Originally Posted by JESTER700

These guys were recommended to me, so I gave a listen. Thanks to *****, I needen't buy this now, and the songs are deleted. The songs are OK, but not great. The playing isn't stellar, basic 3rds harmonies are overused, and the sounds aren't as good as you can do from a $130 V-amp into a $800 multitracker. But the big one - this guy's falsetto just grates on my ears (the transitions aren't even smooth). And I listen to Rush, Zebra, Queen, and Steelheart - the *kings* of falsetto.

Campiness can only go so far. Humor has to be more clever than this, IMO. Where is T-Ride when you need 'em? ;-)

...maybe a more thorough listen would convince me, but I just can't get past the singer...

Jester and Leah....thanks for your input on this topic, as I am sick of arguing with the same 3 people.

Jester...what you siad is exactly what I have been talking about.

I love falsetto singers.....but the ones I love have a smoothness about them.

Did anyone see Saturday Night Live last Saturday??? Elijah Wood and Jimmy Fallon were in a skit were they were poorly singing falsetto in a choir.

My wife and I said in unison "Is that the Darkness".

Justin Hawkins really does sound a high school boy in the hallway doing a piss poor Steelheart impersonation....then the friends all laugh.

Well.... these boys decided to make a band around it that bad hallway joke.

Leah.... I agree.... some guitar ... even un-original, poor tone, riffs are better than hearing Timberlake and the Backdoor Boys do another poor Michael Jackson impersenation....

But... the lack of un-originality is a bummer.

We keep saying "At least they are ripping off the guys from the 70's...and their playing guitar".

Let me ask you this.... all the great 70's bands.... who were they a throwback to?

Sure... Peter Frampton and Clapton were borrowing licks from Freddie and BB King.... and Keith Richards was heavily influenced by Chuck Berry.....And Angus Young's solo and rhythm work was in some cases Little Richard transferred from piano to guitar...... but they weren't so damn blatant about it.

They borrowed from their predecessors, yet made it interesting, and made it their own.

The Darkness hasn't made anything interesting to me.

Call me crazy, but I refuse to believe that "all the good ideas have been taken".

Electric guitar hasn't even been around 100 years yet, and we already need to rip off musical passasge , almost note for note, that aren't even 25 years old??

Of all the musical possibilities, this is the best that signed artists, with million dollar record contracts can do?

Thats sad.

[LHSV]

Agree with many of your points,
I know they haven't run out of ideas on guitar, it's just the ones with the ideas are the ones scrimping and saving to release their music independently, because no one will offer them a record deal, coz they scare the crap out of todays producers of mindless dribble!
(sorry to rant )

I take a lighthearted/laidback (must be the Aussie coming out) approach to bands like Darkness and Jet, and enjoy them for the fact that they at least, do more than power chords, I prob won't buy their albums, but i won't change radio stations when the come on, hell i'll even sing along!
(i refer more to Jet as i've heard more if their stuff)

It's sad when the most recent albums i've bought have been 70's, 80's groups, eg: Led Zepplin, Dire Straits, Van Halen, not sad coz their great bands, but that there's nothing worth buying, from todays music, last new music i bought was Powderfinger(Aussie Band), and MatchBox Twenty.
( I got Brett Garsed's album "Big Sky", but that ain't main stream)

Leah

[The Euphor]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

Let me promise you CerealK, sales of a cd in ANY location in the USA will determine the success of a band more than sales anywhere else.

"There is talent all over the globe, but if you don't make in the States...your nothing".

(Slightly off topic)
Being from Norway I have to say that Germany and Japan is just as important for artists, in order to sell records and make money.
Quite a few black metal bands from Norway have massive success in those areas.

USA don't seem to understand this music, (and that's probably to the better, seeing how easily influenced SOME people are.)

My point is that USA is only important for those wanting to top charts, not essential in order to make a living of music.

Euph

[pawel]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

Sure... Peter Frampton and Clapton were borrowing licks from Freddie and BB King.... and Keith Richards was heavily influenced by Chuck Berry.....And Angus Young's solo and rhythm work was in some cases Little Richard transferred from piano to guitar...... but they weren't so damn blatant about it.

They didn't seem blatant about it because most of their audience has not heard Freddie King, Robert Johnson etc...

[dex]

GuitarWizard, live and let live, buddy.
You can’t get everyone else to agree with you and thank god for that.

Now I have had “Permission to Land” for close to 2 months because I thought that these guys deserved a listen from me.
As I said before I gave it a chance and spun it a few times – not great.

Anyway after Pete’s input here I decided to give them another chance and see if I’ve missed something there.

Well they went from a band that I didn’t mind, like The WhiteStripes/Hives/Strokes/Vines etc, to a band I can’t stand to listen to.
I’m sorry but the Darkness are abysmal and they sound like a bunch of 12 year olds, half of which are into AC/DC and the other half into Queen.

none more worse.

ilia

[GuitarWizard]

Originally Posted by pawel

They didn't seem blatant about it because most of their audience has not heard Freddie King, Robert Johnson etc...

Hmmm... You lost me on that, as that suggest that most people who had a Cream album or Frampton comes Alive had ever heard of Robert Johnson or Freddie King....

Which is simply not true.

Guys like Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton have always been very good about citing influences. Even if the beginning SRV or Clapton listener had never heard of any old bluesmen....they certainly would have after reading/viewing ANY interviews with these guys.... and many would then go out and buy those albums like I...and so many others did.

What I am pooping green twinkies about is the fact that look in your liner notes on your Darkness cds....

(Note: You fortunate ones who don't own the cd will have to look off a friend)

We have Justin Hawkins, wearing a Freddie Mercury signature series spandex leotard, circa "News of The World" years, while jumping off a drum set. Trying his best to look like the buck toothed one.

Its ballsy enough trying to be Freddie Mercury.... its even ballsier when you suck.

Meanwhile... on the inside cover of the Justin Timberlake cd "Justified"... he's wearing black loafer's with white socks, a black top hot, 1 white rhinestone glove, with one leg ****ed up "billie Jean" style.

And I think Timberlake is more Michael Jackson, than Hawkins is Mercury.

I find this behavior stupid.

Of all the ways to be creative.... of all the unsigned talent in the world .... this is the best record companies can come up with??

I'd be embarassed to be from the part of the UK where The Darkness "made it big" ..... and your band didn't.

I just feel that there are jemsiter's reading this right now who are working in a band right now with more potenial then The Darkness... who are taking their music seriously.... you are the guys I'm rooting for.

Not a bunch drunk no talents, pissing their 1 in a million shot down the toilet trying to be "campy" and "zany".

[jono]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

Of all the ways to be creative.... of all the unsigned talent in the world .... this is the best record companies can come up with??

I'd be embarassed to be from the part of the UK where The Darkness "made it big" ..... and your band didn't.

I just feel that there are jemsiter's reading this right now who are working in a band right now with more potenial then The Darkness... who are taking their music seriously.... you are the guys I'm rooting for.

Not a bunch drunk no talents, pissing their 1 in a million shot down the toilet trying to be "campy" and "zany".

GuitarWizard, you forget that most record companies care nothing about ‘talent’. They care about shifting enough units to make an artist financially viable. And The Darkness does just this. British folks (though I have no idea why) seem to love them. There album is selling shed loads over here and that’s more than enough for them to survive on a major label. One of our popstars, Robbie Williams (our version of J.T.) signed an £80 million deal a while back and he’s been described as “The fat dancer from “Take That” (Our version of N’Sync)” … Talent? It’s not my place to judge, but hey

Personally, I don’t think they’re any different from any other pop band, from Westlife (more N’Sync wannabes) to the winner of Pop Idol. (Except maybe Justin Timberlake has a much, much better voice than Justin Hawkins. )

It might even be that the members of the Darkness themselves realise this, and are simply working the band as a day job, I’m fairly sure it will pay more than most of us are making from ours. Their camp zany band has made it big, whereas their britpop effort didn’t and nor did their prog-rock band from which The Darkness evolved.

[pawel]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

Hmmm... You lost me on that, as that suggest that most people who had a Cream album or Frampton comes Alive had ever heard of Robert Johnson or Freddie King....

Which is simply not true.

I'm thinking more of an average Zeppelin, AC/DC or Stones audiences, and sure, they might have heard of the Chicago bluesmen, but I doubt that this many of them actually heard them when they watched the Stones on top of the pops or someplace like that....Of course, it's just speculation, but I think that there is a bigger chance that someone who hears The Darkness today is familliar with Zeppelin or Queen, than that someone who heard the Stones back in the day was familiar with Muddy Waters...

[Infinite]

I think the Darkness are amazing!! Such a change from all this crappy grunge and "nu-metal" that we've been subjected to for the past god knows how many years.....

[Knightmeir]

Originally Posted by GuitarWizard

What I am pooping green twinkies about is the fact that look in your liner notes on your Darkness cds....

(Note: You fortunate ones who don't own the cd will have to look off a friend)

We have Justin Hawkins, wearing a Freddie Mercury signature series spandex leotard, circa "News of The World" years, while jumping off a drum set. Trying his best to look like the buck toothed one.

Its ballsy enough trying to be Freddie Mercury.... its even ballsier when you suck.

Meanwhile... on the inside cover of the Justin Timberlake cd "Justified"... he's wearing black loafer's with white socks, a black top hot, 1 white rhinestone glove, with one leg ****ed up "billie Jean" style.

And I think Timberlake is more Michael Jackson, than Hawkins is Mercury.

I find this behavior stupid.

Of all the ways to be creative.... of all the unsigned talent in the world .... this is the best record companies can come up with??

I'd be embarassed to be from the part of the UK where The Darkness "made it big" ..... and your band didn't.

I just feel that there are jemsiter's reading this right now who are working in a band right now with more potenial then The Darkness... who are taking their music seriously.... you are the guys I'm rooting for.

Not a bunch drunk no talents, pissing their 1 in a million shot down the toilet trying to be "campy" and "zany".

ROFL... always the critics...

"I don't like the way the band dresses"
"They aren't serious enough for my liking"

Opinions are entitled to all, but some are a tad too anal.

So you think musicians who take it seriously are the only ones who should make it big huh? Frank Zappa, Steve Vai, Weird Al... ah, to hell with 'em, they ain't serious! Good Lord, and did you ever see the way Steve Vai dresses? I can't bear to listen to a guitar player that wears leather. Nay.

Jesus, does everyone have to dress in a business suit and stand at the position of attention while recording/playing music live?

Everyone's got their own thing, and it's all been done before. Originality in the looks department is rough to come by. Although the Darkness might not be the most talented band on the block, at least they play rock, and at least rock is being heard again. I doubt many businesses in the past 10 years have done well financially by selling nothing but rock CDs.

Granted I can't stand a lot of music that's being spewed out by the industry these days, a lot of people like it, and that's just the way it is. It's not crap just because I don't like it. And if a band emulates another band, then so be it. You can hear the influence of many musicians in other musician's work. Are they no-talents just because they want to pass something on?

I'm happy to see an honest to God BAND recording music, no matter how strange it sounds, no matter how strange the band looks. It's too bad people can't see past their outfits.

[JESTER700]

I'm happy to see them, too. I just won't listen to them or buy their CD. But I DO hope they're successful. In fact, I hope they're so damn successful that they spawn a whole new generation of guitar harmonizing, falsetto singing, power chord-not-tuned-to-D playing bands with long hair. Because a) some of those fans will want guitar instruction, and b) some of those bands will be better than The Darkness, with better pipes.

...and I *WILL* buy *those* CDs...

[shanghai prawn]

ok so which record exec thought it would be a good idea for a christmas video to have a strange guy in lace up leather trousers inviting kids into his log cabin for a 'sing song'?

not a huge fan of the darkness. but then thats not a problem since I don't like going to teen parties or big hair. Rant over