Why many people dislike The Flower Kings

  Aaron replied before I did, so I will have to be careful not saying they stunk live

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ I saw both in concert - The Flower Kings delivered a musically flawless gig but lacked emotion a *little* bit, SB were very enthusiastic and emotional but a *tiny* but less awesome musically. I would recommend both bands without any hesitation!

PA is chock full of Godspeed you Black Emperor and other post rock lovers but no one ever bashes them.  And there are other non-melodic, less mainstream genres that you hear praised but rarely bashed.  I hate post rock and a lot of Krautrock and other goofy areas are not my cup of tea.  But hey, if you do, bless your heart.  So why is it the popular, more traditional bands like TFK and SB continually get thrown under the bus by snobby types who only like 70's stuff or think proliferation (2CD's and long albums) is the height of pretentiousness and these bands would be better to have less output?  These artists are far more talented than the bashers and to have someone like Roine Stolt's output dismissed as the work of a hack is sad.

And I just love the people who say, "I hate all of (a certain band's) albums.  If I hear an album by a band that I hate, I don't go seeking out their other stuff.  I move on.

I kind of like them but they are surely not in my "Big 25".

I used to like them for a short while, but I now find their music pretty uninteresting. That's just my personal opinion though. They are good musicians, their music is just not my taste. But anyone who likes them is free to do so.

I saw them about 5 or 6 years ago at the Whitchurch festival.They arrived on stage and then proceeded to do a 30 minute soundcheck which ,seeing as it was getting late,would have resulted in most of the crowd storming the stage at anything other than a prog gig.Anyway they got the gig underway eventually and by the end I was reasonably impressed enough to get 'Stardust We Are'.Following that I acquired Space Revolver,Unfold The Future and Adam and Eve.Even got the double DVD 'Meet The Flower Kings'.I think it was about this time I started to get bored with them.Investing all that money in the CD's and DVD but then getting bored isn't clever but this was a band that I really wanted to like.The fact that they are 'Retro' isn't a problem at all to me.They have long complex peices with tons of melody and quality musicanship.It should be a no brainer to like them.But sad to say I got bored with them.So why is that?? I think for a few reasons.

johnobvious wrote: PA is chock full of Godspeed you Black Emperor and other post rock lovers but no one ever bashes them.  And there are other non-melodic, less mainstream genres that you hear praised but rarely bashed.  I hate post rock and a lot of Krautrock and other goofy areas are not my cup of tea.

Post-Rock is not melodic!? Krautrock is not melodic!? I would like you to name a non-melodic genre.

People who are "hardcore" usually don't like mainstream stuff, and TFK are very mainstream prog. People don't bash, say, Trout Mask Replica or Tago Mago because they see that they simply don't "get" the album and/or it's not to their taste, so they know that bashing it will just get them made fun of because they are a prog neophyte. But we can bash TFK with impunity because they don't require 12+ listenings to understand. Hurrah!

People don't like to feel that they're buying a cheap imitation. And eveyone doesn't like plagiarism. Is that feeling justified? I don't know; I haven't actually put any real time into listening to TFK, but it's how people feel.

BePinkTheater wrote: I love them. LOVE THEM. everytime i hear somethign from them I am always blown away. I understand that they sound like Yes. I understand that they have little original ideas in terms of sound or form, but that doesnt mean it is bad. I think people dismiss anything that is similar to something else. This doesn't make sense to me. If you love Yes, shouldn't you love music that is similar to Yes?! instead, the elitists that make up most of our Prog Comunity feel the need to hate something that is similar to what they love. Now if that makes sense to you, you're f**king crazy...   But I guess that just means I can enjoy the music even more :)

Edited by richardh - October 26 2006 at 02:20

Ghandi 2 wrote: johnobvious wrote: PA is chock full of Godspeed you Black Emperor and other post rock lovers but no one ever bashes them.  And there are other non-melodic, less mainstream genres that you hear praised but rarely bashed.  I hate post rock and a lot of Krautrock and other goofy areas are not my cup of tea. Post-Rock is not melodic!? Krautrock is not melodic!? I would like you to name a non-melodic genre. People who are "hardcore" usually don't like mainstream stuff, and TFK are very mainstream prog. People don't bash, say, Trout Mask Replica or Tago Mago because they see that they simply don't "get" the album and/or it's not to their taste, so they know that bashing it will just get them made fun of because they are a prog neophyte. But we can bash TFK with impunity because they don't require 12+ listenings to understand. Hurrah!

I would hardly call myself a neophyte.  I "get" it and post rock does not interest me.  There are plenty of threads gushing over Sigur Ros and GYBE that I have read but managed to refrain from saying "that stuff is crap." 

If I may speak for TFK fans on the site, we are tired of your bashing with (your word) impunity.  I can tolerate well thought out criticism of TFK.  They are like anyone else, people like them and people don't like them.  But some of the comments go over the edge.  When you have half the talent of Roine Stolt, then go ahead a let the full bore negativity fly.  Otherwise, do something constructive.