those Barenaked guys

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that people who just discovered the Barenaked Ladies recently with their single "one week" doesn't deserve them? Like, the real fans have followed them since they were an obscure folksy band. Or is that pretentious? Or did I make any sense?

I actually feel like that is completely pretentious. Because who to say one fan is better than the other...or more real. Music is music no matter when you find it. If you are there from the beginning great but it doesn't make you a better fan...just more informed. This is kind of like the old school fruhead vs. new school fruhead...when a band is obscure its kind of hard to get an arrogance about knowing it becasue most ppl could careless that you like a band they have never heard of and some ppl just don't have the means of procuring the knowledge. So yes the "Stunties" are worthy of BNL

I'm gonna have to vote for pretentious too. I don't see anything wrong with having a little bit of an "I'm so cool, I've liked these guys for years!" attitude...but I don't think it's fair to say that more recent fans don't deserve them. Also, I don't think I'm the only "old" or "real" BNL fan who discovered them because "If I Had $1,000,000" was on the radio all the time for a while...and, really, what's the difference? Anyway, I have to admit that I've been a bit annoyed at recent BNL shows by the people who seem like they're there just to hear "One Week"...but for the most part I feel like it's a shame that they went to all the trouble to come to the show and didn't let themselves enjoy most of the music. And I almost think the older BNL fans who refuse to listen to Stunt or Maroon are worse...don't give up on a good band just because they became popular.... *Shrug.

actually, it's funny... i expected someone to bring up this conversation topic *ooh the psychicness*.

i have to point out, without trying to sound too bitchy, that i'm really sick of people telling you you're not a 'true' fan because you didn't discover the music early enough. i'm not ashamed to admit that i got into BNL when 'one week' came out in this country, but since then i've really gotten into them and i love 'Gordon' and 'Stunt' is now one of my favourite albums in the entire world - I was listening to it last night in fact, and I would choose it over thornhill any day :D also, i've been a fan of moxy fruvous since wood was released, but i don't go around proclaiming that people who got into them through live noise or 'c' are inferior because they found out about them later than i did. it's just unfair and not called for. my point is that it shouldn't matter how late in the band's (or musician's) career you discovered them, you're a true fan if you love the music with all your heart. for example, i can't help it that the beatles split up 10 years before i was born. does this mean i can't call myself a fan? does this mean i can't listen to their music? The wonderful thing about music is that it's so diverse, and it's changing all the time, so there's something for everyone. so what if you discover something later than everyone else? if you love it and it makes you happy to listen to it, then that's all that matters.

I almost think the older BNL fans who refuse to listen to Stunt or Maroon are worse

That depends on why though.
I honestly don't care for those two albums. I really doubt I would care for them much if the band were still obscure. I don't think that makes me a bad fan (well, any more than if I didn't like Gordon or Maybe You Should Drive).
Or, another way to look at it. I have similar feelings towards Stunt and Dan Bern's album 50 Eggs. There are some good songs, but as a whole, the album just wears on me. However, Dan Bern's newest album is one of my favorites. If BNL came out with something else that I thought was on the level of Maybe You Should Drive, then I'd listen to it all the time, regardless of how often it got them on MTV.

Yes, sorry...I didn't mean that I thought any BNL fans who didn't like the more recent albums were snotty or evil...but I do think that there can be an elitist attitude....like..."well everyone likes these albums so I'm going to be cool and unique and only listen to this other stuff that they're too shallow to get...so there!"...or something. But I realize that's certainly not the case with many of the older fans. :)

I vote for pretentious. sorry. Poeple discover something when they discover them. My guess is that I discovered Fruvous long before you did unless you are from toronto and even then its' a good bet. All it means is that I was exposed to them first. BNL too for that matter, I saw them the first time they ever played in NYC, when Gordon was brand spanking new.

No...some of us DID first hear of BNL when "One Week" aired on the radio, like me, When this happened, I had never heard of them before, but I had never really been into any groups at the time anyway. But when I did hear "One Week" I thought it was awesome and in time I bought the rest of their albums. Give us a chance. Just because we didn't hear of them when they first released "Gordon" doesn't mean we're any less devoted than the rest of you.

Bravo!
*applauds!*

I wouldn't say I'm haughty about it, but I feel a certain amount of pride that I have had my copy of Gordon for years and years and I can recall singing "lovers in a dangerous time" in my college theatre class. I think my pride stems from the fact that I finally have a snippit of proof that I can recognize talent myself, without them becoming globally famous first.

"But it takes the HORDE tour and that album to get them popular?"

I resignedly say "so be it". In the barenaked movie (or was it some Much Music biography dealy?), I believe there was a reference to the fact that BNL got new management or changed their approach to marketing their music / videos.

Anyway, the fact that they suddenly became popular by new spiffy videos, new management, or the tour, OR all of the above, their popularity simply allowed more people to experience the beauty of BNL.

For some people, it might be a bandwagon thing, but then again, they are the kind of people who are bandwagony about almost everything, right?

Old Fans knew it was only a matter of time before the rest of the world caught on. It's not like we were TRYING to keep BNL our treasured little secret.

I know of a few older fans that stopped going to concerts after Thornhill because they thought they sold out and didn't like the turn they were taking musically.

You're not actually serious, are you?
if so, those are sad pathetic little people with no lives.
:D

I mean, I didn't like thornhill... I'll admit that.
that and C are the two "throwaway" albums I can think of..... but even so... I didn't think LESS of them for it. Part of any decent band is experimentation.
It's their music.... if I don't like it, well, then I'll listen to the albums I *do* like. (and live shows. heh)

I can not think of any artist I've EVER known of who didn't put out SOMETHING I disliked.
Hell..... Costello worked with Burt Bacharach.... which makes me want to rip out my ear drums.... .
And... BFF put out the disgustingly overproduced album "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"... which, though it contained good songs.... was butchered almost to the point of those songs being ruined.

Point being.... any good artist experiments.... and, some of those experiments suck... live with it.
It's the ones that don't suck that we rave about as being brilliant.
:)

Would now be a bad time to state that "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner" is my favorite Ben Folds Five album? ;)

(although RTS is my favorite from Ben Folds)

Heh... yeah, I think we've already discussed this.
:)

I also dislike RTS.

ah, so what you're saying is that you just have no taste ;)

Ben Folds is one of those rare people who I generaly like all of his stylistic eras. (Fr�vous, TMBG, and Peter Mulvey being the others I can think of off hand)

Which is not to say I like every single song on every album, but there aren't any albums I shun either (no, not even "C", or "Mink Car" ;)

Hey hey hey.
Just because I don't like cheese-ass overdone productions and 70's horns that make you want to hide in embarrasment?
;)

But yeah... there are bands/artists like that for me, too.
Peter is one.... also TMBG (though I hardly every listen to them anymore).. the maggies, fountains of wayne, and... to get back to the subject at hand, BNL.
hehe
Who else.... Nirvana... I would say tom waits, but... well, black rider never really did much for me.

Um, I'm sorry to interject. I feel pedantic and small, but I must say that I hate it when someone mentions a song that was covered or a movie that was remade without giving credit to the original. Sure, BNL made the song their own, but Lovers In a Dangerous Time was written by Bruce Cockburn.

And cut out half the song.

I wish I could say that I'd liked BNL since the release of Gordon in 1992, but let's face it, I was seven. I didn't really start listening to my own music until I was ten or eleven, which at that time consisted of the Top 40. So forgive me if I'm one of the masses who heard One Week and became a fan. But even though radio was my introduction to them, Stunt isn't really the basis of the continuation of my fannish ways. I didn't even buy Stunt until after buying Gordon, Maroon, and the live cd. I can sing to Alternative Girlfriend with the rest of you, thank you very much.

I can understand how it might be frustrating for someone who has liked BNL for years before they hit it big, especially when fellow concert-goers' eyes glaze over save for Stunt songs. But casting a sheen of idiocy and unworthiness on people like myself isn't really fair either.

The pride thing, that's cool. I can dig that. As in, "I knew + loved them without the trappings of commerce. So there!" And yeah, mainstream can beat things to death, which is not cool. But more people are then exposed to the pre-mainstream material. Which is better- obscure and artistic or popular and postproduced?

You stated my meaning better than I ever could. The earlier point about the Beatles was a great one too-I was too young to become a fan until after they broke up. I guess the people I meant to discuss are the ones who are only interested in what's playing 30 times a day on the radio, and when BNL wasn't anymore, these people lost interest. But I agree that a fan who loves all their music is just as die-hard as I am, regardless of when they discovered the band. But I can still feel a little of that aforementioned pride that I recognized their talent before mainstream america did. ;D

hee, well BNL are certainly not mainstream over here. some people remember 'one week' being released, but usually when i mention BNL, people say 'who're they?', and i reply, 'oh, just some obscure canadian band' :D

Honestly, despite what some people on here say, they're really not THAT big in the states either... just bigger than they were.
They're still a niche band.

As far as I'm concerned... (to weigh in on the topic at hand).... I don't really care how popular that are... I wouldn't go to a show because the shows are too big... and I probably wouldn't have gone to a show BEFORE they got "huge" for the same reasons.

I like stunt... and I like maroon (quite a lot, actually).
As far as I'm concerned, popularity isn't a factor with bands... it's all about the music.

meeee! :)
thanks to mollie. but still. love her.

My mom was in Italy last week and visited the Vatican. My response was, of course, oO~ We all want to see the pope pope pope pope-pope! ~oO

I first heard on BNL when I was singing with a bunch of friends and they started singing $1,000,000. Probably around '95. What a fun song, I thought? And I went and got Gordon.

Fast foward to this past summer, and I'm watching tv with my mom, and it's a BNL documentary-type thing, and she looks up and says, excitedly, "Isn't that the lottery song?"

Yup. New York Lottery has a commercial featuring construction workers and cabbies singing the damn song. Maybe it'll help boost record sales. Hey. You never know.

I don't have a problem with people who just discovered BNL... good for them, though I still flaunt my copy of the original Enid single with pride. ;)

What I hate is the fact that, when BNL were in town, I didn't have enough money to go see them, even though the last time they'd played a gig in Edmonton my parents werent' even letting me go to concerts yet... but all these spoiled brat 13-year-olds on the bus were talking about their tickets to the show, and how they didn't know if they were going to like it because Maroon was the only BNL album they liked. Not even the only one they knew, they only one they -liked-.

I was upset by that. It was tragic.

Great Big Sea is getting like that in the states now. A few years ago, I saw them for $12, front row and all. Last time they were in the area, I think tickets were near $30.
(But I saw them on PBS. My jaw nearly hit the floor when I found that.)

What I can't figure out why the the last time the Arrogant Worms were in town, the tickets were $28.

i missed a recent boston-area erin mckeown show because tix were $25. robbery.

For *erin*??
what, are they on crack???

I would have to say BNL is my favourite band. I was one of those who discovered BNL just before "One week" but then bought the album it's on, Stunt, pretty quickly. And actually I think BNL has improved a bit over the years, One Week not being one of their best songs. I didn't get hooked on BNL because of One Week, I think it was $1000000 and some of the other songs on Stunt.

I got hooked the same way. I do, however, feel rather annoyed when people talk about Barenaked Ladies and only mention newer songs, neglecting to identify the earlier and at least equally beautiful masterpieces.

It is cool when your taste is validated by the rise in a bands popularity. So pride is ok.... as long as you remember the the others, the one hit wonders, your own personal  Milli Vanilli or Flock of Seagulls that you thought were so cool until you bought the stinking album or heard them live and realized how much got fixed in the post-production.

The thing that is cool about the newbies is that you, as "senior members" get to expound knowingly about what other good stuff they should listen to, which cd they should buy next and all that good stuff. Not at some drunk-fest concert obviously but as the opportunity presents itself. Ahh....the inner teacher in all of us, come on Chrissy, surely you can relate to that. Hmmm ...Miss Bof Ed? ;-)

"Is it just me, or does anyone else think that people who just discovered the Barenaked Ladies recently with their single "one week" doesn't deserve them? Like, the real fans have followed them since they were an obscure folksy band."

Mhh, where would that leave those of us whose favourite musician died in 1750, and who, although highly regarded during his lifetime, became almost completely ignored until Wanda Landowska "rediscovered" him in the 1930's? Utterly undeserving of his works and totally fake fans?