Continuing yesterday's Bands That Should Reunite story, Bullz-eye.com posted an article called Bands That Should Break Up. The name speaks for itself, so read on...
U2
Listen to the Irish pre-grunge rockers' grungy early-'80s anthems – such as "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" – and you hear passion. Fire. Something to live for, and possibly, to die for. The Joshua Tree was the creative and sales apex for the band, and it's been downhill for the two decades since.
After the live Rattle & Hum album, U2 reinvented itself as an upscale dance-rock band, a pretty cool parlor trick. But their problem was, there was no substance behind the beats, and the band's relevance eroded. By the time U2 rolled into 1997, it had become a parody of itself, promoting its "
Pop" tour at K-Marts and hemorrhaging money when no one came to the shows.
It's 2007, folks. No one's denying that U2 recaptured its politically astute fan base, but it took terrorism on a massive scale – and the band's touching, reverent salute to the victims at the following Super Bowl halftime – to get them back. They're off again, doing poppy, say-little-if-anything tunes, trying to speak to the iPod generation on TV commercials. It's time for Bono to become the mature, full-time political ambassador we know he can be, and reap the humanitarian good his name and reputation can accomplish. It's time for The Edge to validate his quirky technique by launching a guitar school. As for the other two guys, they'll make fine A&R men for record labels. But please, break up the band. There's nothing left for them to say. – Mojo Flucke, Ph.D.
Korn
In the ‘90s, Korn helped millions of 13-year-old boys get through ninth grade by crafting brilliant rock tunes about alienation, sex, violence and children’s nursery rhymes. But now all those angry little kids are all grown up and listening to Modest Mouse, while their little brothers are busy self-loathing to emo. In decline ever since 1999’s Issues,the band had a slight comeback of sorts with See You on the Other Side, but they haven’t been relevant or influential in nearly a decade. Their joke recording of “Word Up” for their greatest hits album and the rambling acoustic mess that was their recent MTV Unplugged CD both signify just how much they are struggling to find a place for themselves in the rapidly changing pop environment.
The band probably knows its time to part ways too, as guitarist Head left in 2005 to go find Jesus (seriously) and drummer David Silveria recently announcing he is taking a “hiatus” from the band. With great classic-metal revivalists like Mastodon and Priestess bringing back the heavy in heavy metal, Korn’s once-groundbreaking style of “nu-metal” is sounding older than ever. We as a people have moved on; it’s time for Korn to do the same. – James B. Eldred
Oasis
It’s not that British rock band Oasis has been around forever like the Stones. But to say that this band (formed in 1993) was both blessed and cursed from the start would be an understatement. When Noel Gallagher agreed to join his brother Liam’s band, he did so with the understanding that he would have complete control. And so, the band was immensely talented, signed almost immediately, and saw their debut become the fastest seller in British history at the time. But the dark side of stardom reared its ugly head, and the two brothers were always in the news. Why? Because they kept beating the shit out of each other.
To this day, there has never been a more dysfunctional relationship in music than that of the Gallagher brothers. Over the course of the decade that followed the band’s debut, more success bred more dysfunction. In addition to the bickering, bad things happened to these guys – a cab accident that forced the cancellation of U.S. tour dates, and a street scuffle in Munich, among others. But the worst thing that has happened to the Gallagher brothers is that where great bands fight and out of that tension comes great records (Rumours, Abbey Road), the Gallaghers fight…and have made one record in the last 10 years that wasn’t crap. Familiar to millions, maybe, but these days they’re loved by hundreds. Time to give up the ghost. – Mike Farley
Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Red Hot Chili Peppers may just be the only band in this feature that should have called it a day back before they “got good,” and then called it another day after they became huge and started cranking out therapeutic albums. Suffice it to say that their debut album and Freaky Styley really have nothing going for them, save for an ace cover of Sly and The Family Stone’s “If You Want Me to Stay” on the latter. Otherwise, it’s just rote thrash-funk that really goes nowhere. After those flops, the first half of The Uplift Mofo Party Plan is pretty snazzy, but the second side just makes the previous half seem like a fluke.
Then came the overrated Mother’s Milk and the masterpiece Blood Sugar Sex Magik, which remains one of the best alternative rock albums of the early ‘90s, bar none. It should have ended right there, given the fact that deceased original guitarist and heroin junkie Hillel Slovak’s successor John Frusciante started a big heroin addiction of his own, leading him to leave the band in time for the dismal One Hot Minute. Of course he cleaned up and returned for the (equally) overrated Californication and has remained through By the Way and the bloated Stadium Arcadium. While the Chilis may just be reaping the biggest successes of their career, they’ve never really had that much talent to deserve it for this long. Have you ever seen these guys live? There’s all the proof you need. – Jason Thompson
Read the entire list at Bullz-eye.com.
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