Did DMB destroy their legacy with the release of Everyday?

[brandiluwho]

[QUOTE=snow1868;16515487]

Originally Posted by brandiluwho

I was in Stillwater during that time and drove down in hopes to see Dave running around Tahlequah. Good times.

That town was a shit show, but man, I had SO much fun in college. Sometimes I wonder how I didn't get arrested or die.

[snow1868]

[QUOTE=brandiluwho;16515618]

Originally Posted by snow1868

That town was a shit show, but man, I had SO much fun in college. Sometimes I wonder how I didn't get arrested or die.

We never saw Dave but had a good time running around. Was about the only time I spent in Tahlequah.

What was the name of the bar he was rumored to have been a regular? The Library?

[brandiluwho]

[QUOTE=snow1868;16515626][QUOTE=brandiluwho;16515618]

We never saw Dave but had a good time running around. Was about the only time I spent in Tahlequah.

What was the name of the bar he was rumored to have been a regular? The Library?



He was at Ned's and Roxie's Roost a lot.

Our "club" was called, The Library.

[BringBackButchT]

Stand Up is remarkably atrocious. Bad production, bad performances. Dave's vocals sound like shit. Baston's loops don't fucking line up.

Everyday is a decent pop record by any other band.

[Heyberto]

Everyday is the demarcation line in their career. It's not the cause, but a symptom. After that album, we entered the era of incessant setlist bitching and general complaints about the band... And I think that's fair. Despite some flashes of great songs.. The band has creatively not been able to get back to a level of songwriting that they seemed so good at before. All bands change, but in some ways they've moved forward, and in some ways they haven't. But pre-everyday, the band could do little wrong amongst it's fan base. A far cry from today.

[kcentrury]

Not to beat a dead horse, but just my two cents.

I started to get very much into the band in '99 and in 2000 went to my first show, at Giants Stadium. For fans who were too young, the band was, at the time, on top of their game, probably beyond what you could imagine. If you were a teenager in the 90s, notwithstanding the onslaught of britney, christina, etc, it was difficult turning on the radio and not hearing Ants, Crash or Crush at any given moment. It was almost as if DMB was the anti-pop culture, not giving into the direction being pushed by radio, media, etc., and yet still generating hoards of mostly young fans, with the ticket sales to prove it. And as every year passed, they seemingly got bigger and bigger. Needless to say, at the time, "Dave shows" were more than just concerts. I can remember multiple family parties/gatherings, where the conversation with distant cousins or friends would almost certainly segue into which DMB show you were most recently at. And being a kid living in north jersey, the Giants Stadium shows were events that pretty much everyone under 30 was, at the very least, aware of (I have friends in PA who have similar memories of the Vet in Philly). In fact, following the sold out 3 night stand in 2000, the band took out a one page ad in I believe the NY Times, with that now infamous Giants Stadium photo, reading something along the lines of THANK YOU NEW YORK"".

Then came Everyday. To put it in some perspective, I was in college at the time (a time in which at least 25% of college dorm room walls featured a DMB poster of some sort) and remember music stores having midnight release parties. Yup, people lined up just for the opportunity to own the album at 12:01AM. Around the same time (I think slightly before the album release), the band released the video for "I Did It". I remember watching it on my computer in my dorm room and having this mixed feeling of perplexity and frustration. The band I had come to love over the past few years and whose live recordings of unreleased songs such as "grey street" and "bartender" I frequently listened to, shelved that material for 'I Did It"?! That summer we dutifully returned to Giants Stadium, at the time not realizing it would be the last time seeing them in that house. In the subsequent years the band continued to successfully tour and by no means were "tarnished", imo, but I can remember some people after the '01 tour saying "I think I have seen enough DMB shows for a while...". The band started to move, musically, in a different direction, and some fans were just not into it. With some exceptions, the shows physically began moving into smaller venues, which at the time was marketed as the band wanting to get back to playing to more intimate crowds (20,000 ppl vs 80,000). Maybe there was some truth to that but it is hard to not draw even a minor conclusion between the release of Everyday and the timing of their shift in stage production (ironically, now if I listen to Everyday -- that album that, 15 years ago, we waited so patiently for at 12:01 AM -- it has, IMO, aged nicely. Maybe the songs just remind me of a simpler time in my life but after many years of more or less pushing the album to the backs of fans memories, I would really love to hear the band give Angel a shot again).

Over the next decade, I don't recall ever feeling as if the band had fizzled out. If anything, the smaller venues often made it seem harder to get tickets.
However, musically, they continued to move into a new direction and ultimately, fans more fans began "skipping years", until eventually getting to where we are now with the band in certain cases having difficulty selling half the venue. Part of this is likely due to over exposure. It is tough being in your 30s or 40s, in many cases with a family, and justify going to concerts every summer; however, I also think an argument could be made that if the band's new material continued to live up to the standards set 20 years ago, they would generate the interest they once did (I have several friends who no longer attend shows annually simply because they "don't like the new stuff").

This summer marked an interesting point for me in my DMB fandom. 17 straight years of seeing them non-stop and after seeing them in Camden this summer, I think I am finally ready for a break. Not because I don't still love the music, but I think the break will help the band re-charge and maybe find that magic again. I also think, like many things, some of the older fans who maybe abandoned the band some years ago would perk up and want to come back to DMB, even if just for a night, maybe with the hope of re-living that musical magic. And I think increased interest could only do great things for the band. I imagine it is tough for them seeing their attendance drop, and the "3 night stand" become "2 night" or in most, "1 night". Maybe a little time off from the road would give the band some retrospective so that when they return, they do so to larger crowds, which will, in turn, spark something which might help them regenerate.

[bustedstuff88]

Originally Posted by kcentrury

Not to beat a dead horse, but just my two cents.

I started to get very much into the band in '99 and in 2000 went to my first show, at Giants Stadium. For fans who were too young, the band was, at the time, on top of their game, probably beyond what you could imagine. If you were a teenager in the 90s, notwithstanding the onslaught of britney, christina, etc, it was difficult turning on the radio and not hearing Ants, Crash or Crush at any given moment. It was almost as if DMB was the anti-pop culture, not giving into the direction being pushed by radio, media, etc., and yet still generating hoards of mostly young fans, with the ticket sales to prove it. And as every year passed, they seemingly got bigger and bigger. Needless to say, at the time, "Dave shows" were more than just concerts. I can remember multiple family parties/gatherings, where the conversation with distant cousins or friends would almost certainly segue into which DMB show you were most recently at. And being a kid living in north jersey, the Giants Stadium shows were events that pretty much everyone under 30 was, at the very least, aware of (I have friends in PA who have similar memories of the Vet in Philly). In fact, following the sold out 3 night stand in 2000, the band took out a one page ad in I believe the NY Times, with that now infamous Giants Stadium photo, reading something along the lines of THANK YOU NEW YORK"".

Then came Everyday. To put it in some perspective, I was in college at the time (a time in which at least 25% of college dorm room walls featured a DMB poster of some sort) and remember music stores having midnight release parties. Yup, people lined up just for the opportunity to own the album at 12:01AM. Around the same time (I think slightly before the album release), the band released the video for "I Did It". I remember watching it on my computer in my dorm room and having this mixed feeling of perplexity and frustration. The band I had come to love over the past few years and whose live recordings of unreleased songs such as "grey street" and "bartender" I frequently listened to, shelved that material for 'I Did It"?! That summer we dutifully returned to Giants Stadium, at the time not realizing it would be the last time seeing them in that house. In the subsequent years the band continued to successfully tour and by no means were "tarnished", imo, but I can remember some people after the '01 tour saying "I think I have seen enough DMB shows for a while...". The band started to move, musically, in a different direction, and some fans were just not into it. With some exceptions, the shows physically began moving into smaller venues, which at the time was marketed as the band wanting to get back to playing to more intimate crowds (20,000 ppl vs 80,000). Maybe there was some truth to that but it is hard to not draw even a minor conclusion between the release of Everyday and the timing of their shift in stage production (ironically, now if I listen to Everyday -- that album that, 15 years ago, we waited so patiently for at 12:01 AM -- it has, IMO, aged nicely. Maybe the songs just remind me of a simpler time in my life but after many years of more or less pushing the album to the backs of fans memories, I would really love to hear the band give Angel a shot again).

Over the next decade, I don't recall ever feeling as if the band had fizzled out. If anything, the smaller venues often made it seem harder to get tickets.
However, musically, they continued to move into a new direction and ultimately, fans more fans began "skipping years", until eventually getting to where we are now with the band in certain cases having difficulty selling half the venue. Part of this is likely due to over exposure. It is tough being in your 30s or 40s, in many cases with a family, and justify going to concerts every summer; however, I also think an argument could be made that if the band's new material continued to live up to the standards set 20 years ago, they would generate the interest they once did (I have several friends who no longer attend shows annually simply because they "don't like the new stuff").

This summer marked an interesting point for me in my DMB fandom. 17 straight years of seeing them non-stop and after seeing them in Camden this summer, I think I am finally ready for a break. Not because I don't still love the music, but I think the break will help the band re-charge and maybe find that magic again. I also think, like many things, some of the older fans who maybe abandoned the band some years ago would perk up and want to come back to DMB, even if just for a night, maybe with the hope of re-living that musical magic. And I think increased interest could only do great things for the band. I imagine it is tough for them seeing their attendance drop, and the "3 night stand" become "2 night" or in most, "1 night". Maybe a little time off from the road would give the band some retrospective so that when they return, they do so to larger crowds, which will, in turn, spark something which might help them regenerate.

This entire post makes me sad I wasn't born 10 years earlier...What an era to be a part of something like what DMB had.

On the flipside ill still be appreciative we have what we have. Right or wrong, good or bad, it isn't too far off in the distant future when there wont be a DMB at all anymore and all we'll be able to do is reminisce.

[acousticmike80]

While this topic has been explored in many different ways over many years, it is still relevant. I agree with many of the posts above. Some well thought out responses, many of which, I agree with.

Though, I'll try to offer a very simple and brief thought of my own.

All bands go through this. Fans get older, bands get older, life changes. It is almost impossible to sustain that "magic" of the early years. If it wasn't "Everyday", it was going to happen at some point.

For those of us who followed DMB in the 90's, the Everyday album changed everything. Yet, here we are....still on these damn message boards.

[misschung]

In fact, following the sold out 3 night stand in 2000, the band took out a one page ad in I believe the NY Times, with that now infamous Giants Stadium photo, reading something along the lines of THANK YOU NEW YORK"".

I was at that show, and I saved that NY Times article for years until it disintegrated. Part of the problem of being young (and before I became a professional librarian) is not knowing how to preserve these things, lol.

Your entire post resonated with me, as my experience was much the same. Also, I have to be honest and say that it took me years to really be able to listen to and hear Everyday, because for me it became so closely associated with September 11th. The change in sound between 90s DMB and Everyday combined with the general change of energy that happened after 9/11 was a bit too much for me.

Having said all that, this band will always be my favorite band in the world, and the one who has made the largest impact on my life. It doesn't matter if I go years between shows. I was at SPAC this weekend for the first time in 16 years and it was everything and more that I hoped it could be.

It's impossible for any band to maintain the energy of their "early days" - but yet bands persevere. I mean, name one long-running artist who doesn't have an album in their catalog that people say "oh man, that one sucked." Nothing is always perfect, and nothing lasts forever, but man, they can still turn it on.

[comeandsee41]

Originally Posted by kcentrury

Not to beat a dead horse, but just my two cents.

I started to get very much into the band in '99 and in 2000 went to my first show, at Giants Stadium. For fans who were too young, the band was, at the time, on top of their game, probably beyond what you could imagine. If you were a teenager in the 90s, notwithstanding the onslaught of britney, christina, etc, it was difficult turning on the radio and not hearing Ants, Crash or Crush at any given moment. It was almost as if DMB was the anti-pop culture, not giving into the direction being pushed by radio, media, etc., and yet still generating hoards of mostly young fans, with the ticket sales to prove it. And as every year passed, they seemingly got bigger and bigger. Needless to say, at the time, "Dave shows" were more than just concerts. I can remember multiple family parties/gatherings, where the conversation with distant cousins or friends would almost certainly segue into which DMB show you were most recently at. And being a kid living in north jersey, the Giants Stadium shows were events that pretty much everyone under 30 was, at the very least, aware of (I have friends in PA who have similar memories of the Vet in Philly). In fact, following the sold out 3 night stand in 2000, the band took out a one page ad in I believe the NY Times, with that now infamous Giants Stadium photo, reading something along the lines of THANK YOU NEW YORK"".

Then came Everyday. To put it in some perspective, I was in college at the time (a time in which at least 25% of college dorm room walls featured a DMB poster of some sort) and remember music stores having midnight release parties. Yup, people lined up just for the opportunity to own the album at 12:01AM. Around the same time (I think slightly before the album release), the band released the video for "I Did It". I remember watching it on my computer in my dorm room and having this mixed feeling of perplexity and frustration. The band I had come to love over the past few years and whose live recordings of unreleased songs such as "grey street" and "bartender" I frequently listened to, shelved that material for 'I Did It"?! That summer we dutifully returned to Giants Stadium, at the time not realizing it would be the last time seeing them in that house. In the subsequent years the band continued to successfully tour and by no means were "tarnished", imo, but I can remember some people after the '01 tour saying "I think I have seen enough DMB shows for a while...". The band started to move, musically, in a different direction, and some fans were just not into it. With some exceptions, the shows physically began moving into smaller venues, which at the time was marketed as the band wanting to get back to playing to more intimate crowds (20,000 ppl vs 80,000). Maybe there was some truth to that but it is hard to not draw even a minor conclusion between the release of Everyday and the timing of their shift in stage production (ironically, now if I listen to Everyday -- that album that, 15 years ago, we waited so patiently for at 12:01 AM -- it has, IMO, aged nicely. Maybe the songs just remind me of a simpler time in my life but after many years of more or less pushing the album to the backs of fans memories, I would really love to hear the band give Angel a shot again).

Over the next decade, I don't recall ever feeling as if the band had fizzled out. If anything, the smaller venues often made it seem harder to get tickets.
However, musically, they continued to move into a new direction and ultimately, fans more fans began "skipping years", until eventually getting to where we are now with the band in certain cases having difficulty selling half the venue. Part of this is likely due to over exposure. It is tough being in your 30s or 40s, in many cases with a family, and justify going to concerts every summer; however, I also think an argument could be made that if the band's new material continued to live up to the standards set 20 years ago, they would generate the interest they once did (I have several friends who no longer attend shows annually simply because they "don't like the new stuff").

This summer marked an interesting point for me in my DMB fandom. 17 straight years of seeing them non-stop and after seeing them in Camden this summer, I think I am finally ready for a break. Not because I don't still love the music, but I think the break will help the band re-charge and maybe find that magic again. I also think, like many things, some of the older fans who maybe abandoned the band some years ago would perk up and want to come back to DMB, even if just for a night, maybe with the hope of re-living that musical magic. And I think increased interest could only do great things for the band. I imagine it is tough for them seeing their attendance drop, and the "3 night stand" become "2 night" or in most, "1 night". Maybe a little time off from the road would give the band some retrospective so that when they return, they do so to larger crowds, which will, in turn, spark something which might help them regenerate.

great post. similar to my experiences.

[Mr. Pineapple]

No, they destroyed it when they thought Batson's drum loops were bad ass on the follow up. Let's put it this way. Ballard took a great a tastin' a pizza pie and scraped off a few of the signature toppings. Then the delivery boy (Batson) took it, pissed all over it, turned it upside down, flung it on the porch, rang the doorbell, and then skedaddled.

[comeandsee41]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pineapple

No, they destroyed it when they thought Batson's drum loops were bad ass on the follow up. Let's put it this way. Ballard took a great a tastin' a pizza pie and scraped off a few of the signature toppings. Then the delivery boy (Batson) took it, pissed all over it, turned it upside down, flung it on the porch, rang the doorbell, and then skedaddled.

wut?

[crashintonickdm]

did we ever get a reason why the 2004 songs never worked as a whole?

i think that was the last straw for many people. i was in the army, and had just finished boot camp. i graduated july 2nd and had a few weeks off before i went to korea. i didn't listen to tapes much early in 04 because of what i was doing, but i was able to find out new songs debuted. during those 3 weeks off i saw them in hershey and camden and when i heard the new songs live i thought to myself wow they're getting back to what made me love them so much

and then, all the sudden we get track listings of the next album and I'm like wtf? so when i purchase the album, i go in thinking alright well, the 2004 songs are solid so they were on a creative high. i really couldnt believe how awful is truly was.

and I'm sure many many people had the same exact experience. stand up is fucking dreadful.

[Mr. Pineapple]

Originally Posted by comeandsee41

wut?

Ehh, I drank a lot of wine while I was mowing the lawn today. Forget about it.

[DMB41GUY]

Originally Posted by trippingant

Came here to post this. Everything up until then had been a skyrocketing ascent with 1998-2001 being the peak, and everything since then has been slowly descending, with their change in sound and direction being the catalyst.

Yeah, they totally peaked in 2001... by 2003, they were stuck playing small venues like Central Park.

[BringBackButchT]

Originally Posted by DMB41GUY

Yeah, they totally peaked in 2001... by 2003, they were stuck playing small venues like Central Park.

The dude you're being kind of a dick to is right. They were doing 2-3 nights in NFL stadiums (50k+ people) in major markets in 99-01. They were back to the sheds (10-20k) in '02 and haven't been back in the stadiums since. Central Park was a one-off special show, and it was free.

[TheLastPig]

Originally Posted by BringBackButchT

The dude you're being kind of a dick to is right. They were doing 2-3 nights in NFL stadiums (50k+ people) in major markets in 99-01. They were back to the sheds (10-20k) in '02 and haven't been back in the stadiums since. Central Park was a one-off special show, and it was free.

They played baseball stadiums in 2010

[BringBackButchT]

Originally Posted by TheLastPig

They played baseball stadiums in 2010

True. Those are smaller than football stadiums, though.

They definitely peaked in popularity as a live act around '01. As a studio act I think their peak was UTTAD, but I know everyone over a certain age owned UTTAD and Crash at some point.

[RMinor205]

Originally Posted by BringBackButchT

True. Those are smaller than football stadiums, though.

They definitely peaked in popularity as a live act around '01. As a studio act I think their peak was UTTAD, but I know everyone over a certain age owned UTTAD and Crash at some point.

So, as a studio act, they peaked when they released their first studio album?

[Hilly]

What's worse: Everyday or 2016 concerts?

[Hilly]

Originally Posted by RMinor205

So, as a studio act, they peaked when they released their first studio album?

That's not too uncommon, really.

You spend your life crafting and perfecting a set of songs, then finally get to record them for your first album. Which is why most people love the first album by a band, and then fizzle out after that.

When it comes time for a second, third, tenth album, the creative well begins to dry up, it shifts from years of preparation and development to weeks, days or hours, etc.

[coolhotwaves]

Originally Posted by CrashTheStone41

not releasing the 04 and 06 songs destroyed their legacy

I agree with this, it was the release of stand up that solidified a direction that most of the fan base was resisting. Everyone hoped that Everyday was a fluke and the 04 songs were a sigh of relief...until they got scrapped for new material with a hip hop producer. It was this decidedly off path direction by the band that lost a good chunk of the old hardcore fan base. It is still a stain on their career. Big whiskey started to finally get them back closer to a sound that reminded fans of the band they loved, but kept a little too much polish on the sound for fans to declare the "back". Away from the world finally returned the band to a sound that could have easily been released in the mid 2000's and have been a natural progression for a band maturing, and it seemed to help ease the pains of the stand up years.

This next album will be a turning point for the band, Will this be a last hurrah? Or, will it be the next step in furthering the bands sound and paving the way for their future?

[misschung]

I agree with this, it was the release of stand up that solidified a direction that most of the fan base was resisting. Everyone hoped that Everyday was a fluke and the 04 songs were a sigh of relief...until they got scrapped for new material with a hip hop producer. It was this decidedly off path direction by the band that lost a good chunk of the old hardcore fan base. It is still a stain on their career. Big whiskey started to finally get them back closer to a sound that reminded fans of the band they loved, but kept a little too much polish on the sound for fans to declare the "back". Away from the world finally returned the band to a sound that could have easily been released in the mid 2000's and have been a natural progression for a band maturing, and it seemed to help ease the pains of the stand up years.

This next album will be a turning point for the band, Will this be a last hurrah? Or, will it be the next step in furthering the bands sound and paving the way for their future?

Well said. I wondered the same thing as well. I was out of the loop from Everyday - Big Whiskey and to be honest, I didn't really like many of the songs after the "big 3" until I heard them live. I've always preferred live versions of all their songs but there is something decidedly sterile about those last two albums.

It's funny, I was just going through my digital music and I realized that I only have 1 song from Recently and about 3 from Remember Two Things, and it's because my CDs of those albums skipped so much that I could only transfer a few songs. And those were my 3rd copies of both those. Ah, the days before born-digital!