Band Face Off - Round 7
 

The double act of Ann and Nancy Wilson, managed to kick the fine booty of both Debbie Harry and Chrissie Hynde, as Heart won Round 6 with 21 votes.

The next Face Off was suggested by Gaius, and sees some of the best 60s pop up against each other. Which will you choose?

Round 1: Petty defeats Springsteen - 35 to 17

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22558

Round 2: Led Zeppelin defeats The Who - 21 to 18

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22596

Round 3: Madonna defeats Sheryl Crow/Kate Bush - 23 to 12/10

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22631

Round 4: The Beatles defeat Rolling Stones/U2 - 22 to 15/11

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22662

Round 5: Guns N Roses defeat Bon Jovi/Metallica - 14 to 12/10

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22695

Round 6: Heart defeat Blondie/The Pretenders - 21 to 14/6

http://ledge.fleetwoodmac.net/showthread.php?t=22721

The polls are still open!

I went with The Byrds. :nod:

VERY hard. But I chose the way Lindsey would have done ;) .

Kinks!!!!!

The Kinks, baby.

The Kinks for the center square and the win!

The Byrds. Just because I love Gram too damn much!

The Beach Boys. Not that I really like them, but Lindsey does, and I'm more familiar with their songs than those of The Kinks/Byrds.

for a second I thought about choosing the Byrds.
But, Pet Sounds. Do I need to say more? I don't thinkso, but ok. Smile.

Tune in Gaius! I'm so friggin' curious!

haha.. you'll have to wait until tomorrow, the boy doesn't have internet at home these days ;)

Beach Boys - It's in the name although The Kinks come in a close second.

Rawk it! Kinks yeah because they ROCK and have their own thing going on. Love them!

Have to go with...
 

the band with a member I was named after....the Beach Boys!!!

The Kinks

Definitely more badass.

The Beach Boys - harmonious ear candy.

I went with the Byrds. I don't know much of the Kinks, and I've always found the Beach Boys to be a bit cheesy.

I went with the Byrds. It was between them and the Beach Boys...I don't care for the Kinks. I love David Crosby and I love Gram Parsons. :)

This was a tough one... probably the first one that I've had to really think about.

I'm indifferent to The Kinks, but The Byrds and The Beach Boys... both HIGHLY influential on several of my absolute favorite artists - including Tom Petty, Lindsey Buckingham, and Walter Egan.

I chose The Beach Boys, but it was a close one. They only won out because they have more songs that I really love than The Byrds do, but just barely.

Umm... it's surf music. What do you expect? It's just meant to be fun and catchy.

Beach Boys!!! Love the harmonies. Love Pet Sounds!!

Very tough one for me - love them all, but I went with the Kinks. Class. :nod:

Oh, this one is easy. The Kinks. :nod:

Ok. ;)

Well, it isn't an easy choice for me either. All of these bands have made albums that should be included amongst the greatest '60s classics. And of course they were tremendous singles bands too.
The Byrds' peak was Younger Than Yesterday, an absolutely fascinating work where all the songwriters were contributing equally to the whole. I don't think any of their other albums come close to that, 5th Dimension is the closest but it's patchier. And unlike the other two, they actually knew when to stop at the right time and have far less filler cluttering up their back catalogue. Plus, they were the most obviously dark band of the three, there's nothing like "Eight Miles High" or "Everybody's Been Burned" in the catalogue of the Kinks or the Boys.

The Kinks turned out great albums during their classic era on a constant basis, The Village Green Preservation Society, Arthur and Muswell Hillbillies are all powerful observations of the English life, married to classic songwriting and a general good-time atmosphere. Ray Davies' satire and sense of black humour is today needed more than ever. And his brother wasn't all that bad in songwriting either.

I had to pick the Beach Boys though. Their voices can actually move grown-up men to the verge of tears. Everything's already been said about Brian Wilson's genius but I think the other Boys grew up to be good songwriters at some point too, for that you need to check out their early '70s albums. I think they did put out more quality albums than the Byrds and the Kinks; albums like Today!, Pet Sounds (of course), Smile (not Smiley Smile though, although it is interesting to listen to), 20/20, Sunflower, Surf's Up and Love You have gotten lots of plays on my stereo system. And solo albums like Brian Wilson's debut and Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue beat any solo products by the members of the Kinks and the Byrds. Yet they also made the biggest artistic missteps of the three, everything released by the Beach Boys after the '70s bounces between decent filler and downright banal pap. But the earlier works more than make up for that in my mind. And in spite of their happy Californian image there's a lot of darkness in their music, even behind some of their happiest moments. It is ironic that they tried to give the impression of being always on Prozac (before Prozac was actually invented), and yet their personal lives were often a huge mess.

So there. Two typically American bands (although not in the patriotic sense, praise the Lard) versus a typically British band. Hopefully this was as interesting a face-off as the others have been. :)

The Beach Boys!

Pip

Umm...I know. Even something that is meant to be cheesy is still just that.

Gaius just posted the reason why it is absolutely not just that...........

No, he posted his opinion on why it is absolutely not just that.

he always speaks the truth. :p

Sometimes I believe he must have swallowed an OOR-encyclopedia* :shocked: No, all volumes of them!



*The Dutch popular music encyclopedia, my bible :D

Brian Wilson's a genius. There will never be another sound like that.

I can't say I'm a big, big fan of any of these bands. But I'm going with the Beach Boys hands-down. There is a beautiful innocence and melody that never ceases to amaze me when I relisten to Pet Sounds or, more recently, Brian's SmiLe. I really love a great deal of BB songs, while I'm quite picky about the Byrds or the Kinks.

Plus, they were one of the bands that was played a lot while I was growing up. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, what can I say?