Here’s another fun game that Mark came up with. Just pick your favorite band from each pair. My answers are hidden as they were in the best album posts.
- The Clash vs Sex Pistols: The Clash. This is an easy pick. The Pistols might be important in the grand scheme of punk rock, but they really weren’t that good and they never stretched any boundaries (musically anyway). The Clash transcended punk, taking its ethic and energy to the masses without compromising themselves.
- Madness vs The Specials: Madness. While the Specials were a great ska band, they were only a ska band. Madness on the other hand, took ska with a healthy dose of soul. The Specials were more textbook ska, but Madness was closer to its spirit.
- Aerosmith vs Kiss: Aerosmith. Kiss had outside writers helping them from the get-go. It took Aerosmith almost 20 years to rely that heavily on outside sources.
- MC5 vs the Stooges: MC5. Both band released three albums and called it quits before their time. But the MC5 had more breadth in their work. it went from trippy psyche to punk rants to candied pop on any given album without losing cohesiveness. The Stooges changed a bit over the course of their albums, but they weren’t able to jump around as much.
- Iron Maiden vs Judas Priest: Maiden. I was listening to Screaming for Vengeance yesterday and it still holds up pretty well, but even as one of Priest’s best albums, it has more filler than the first five Maiden albums combined.
- Public Enemy vs NWA: Public Enemy. In the late 80s, rap was at a crossroads: There was the Public Enemy path of intelligent socio-political commentary over dynamic, jazz-influenced backing tracks and there was the NWA path of mindless gang-banger idiocy over more straight-forward funk influenced rhythms. Unfortunately, NWA won out. But that doesn’t make them better, it just means the listeners are dumber. Too bad for all of us.
- Marvin Gaye vs Aretha Franklin: Aretha. Even up against Marvin Gaye, she gets more respect.
- Guns n Roses vs Motley Crue: GnR. Their best albums are pretty close in quality, but even the all-covers Spaghetti Incident wasn’t as bad as Girls Girls Girls. Besides, GnR never killed anyone and made light of it later.
- Great White vs Whitesnake: Battle of the Led Zep clones! But who cares? They both suck. Maybe Whitesnake wins since they never burned up a bunch of people in a nightclub.
- Replacements vs REM: Replacements. I think there’s a valid argument for REM, but the Replacements were never as self-righteous and self-important as REM. Tehy never stretched as much as REM, but there’s a lot to be said for their straight-forward, honest, anti-rock star brand of rock n roll.