"What Your Favorite Sad Dad Band Says About You"

[Lawdawg]

The concept is funny and the descriptions are funny, but they don't really match up with the bands. Maybe it's all a meta-meta sad dad joke about sad dad bands by a sad dad literary journal.

That said, this one hit a little too close to home -- "Was that place a dance club? A friend’s house? Were there parties there or just a drug dealer? You may have misplaced your David Foster Wallace books in the last move, or your spouse quietly donated them."

 

[Greggorios]

I have a fairly healthy sense of humor. I just didn't think it was funny. Someone's trying too hard IMO.

Edit: To elaborate, the whole thing seemed written by someone who's never heard the bands with which they're trying to humorously correlate the descriptions. I get the attempt. I just think they missed the target.

I agree. There's nothing particularly wrong or bad about it, it's just weak. A miscellaneous collection of bands from the 90s with random cliche "goofy Dad" jokes attached to each without any real connection. It's like a watered down imitation of the Progressive insurance "becoming your parents" tv ads.

 

[gitold]

I think of all these bands as “new” music. I guess I’m in the Grandpa band mode.

 

[teletimetx]

I have a fairly healthy sense of humor. I just didn't think it was funny. Someone's trying too hard IMO.

Edit: To elaborate, the whole thing seemed written by someone who's never heard the bands with which they're trying to humorously correlate the descriptions. I get the attempt. I just think they missed the target.

Ok, I get that - the little blurbs don’t align with the bands mentioned or perhaps the fans that follow those bands, if there are distinctions to be made between Wilco fans vs. Pavement fans, for example. Are there enough distinctions there? I wonder.

Might have to lean into stereotypes too far to accomplish that? Or at least farther than that writer already did?

I saw it more as a spoof on aging, and it’s effect on lifestyle fashions than on any particular band. The band names are just a prop, I guess, and ones that can be spoofed gently without raising serious issues.

 

[ping-ping-clicka]

I hate these immature, demeaning label based on ageist bigotry. Please give it a break , no body was talking about howlin' wolf or muddy waters in this disparaging manner

 

[Willie Johnson]

I died seven years ago. Kids shoulda told me.

 

[P-Nutz]

The Nutz offspring were the ones who turned me on to these bands!

 

[Kandinskyesque]

I DO have a serious injury AND I live in the woods.

This is more accurate than my horoscope: I'm a Pyrex btw, I was a test tube baby.

 

[EugeneWeemich]

Kayaks!

 

[Flat6Driver]

I have a fairly healthy sense of humor. I just didn't think it was funny. Someone's trying too hard IMO.

Edit: To elaborate, the whole thing seemed written by someone who's never heard the bands with which they're trying to humorously correlate the descriptions. I get the attempt. I just think they missed the target.

I didn't get half the jokes, but I get the gist. Bands I thought were actually newish, Modest Mouse......F I recall that album when it came out like 15 years ago. Or more. Now these young bands are old(er) guys.

I was listening to an R.E.M. show from 84 on youtube and I watch these young guys that were older than me in 1984. They still look so cool. Now that I am way older, I look at the young guys of that age and laugh at their stupid tight jeans, and can't put two and two together that it's the same thing just 35 years later.

Where's the liquor?

Get off my lawn.

Now I'm grumpy.

 

[radtz]

I learned that I don't like sad dad bands.

 

[oregomike]

I didn't get half the jokes, but I get the gist. Bands I thought were actually newish, Modest Mouse......F I recall that album when it came out like 15 years ago. Or more. Now these young bands are old(er) guys.

I was listening to an R.E.M. show from 84 on youtube and I watch these young guys that were older than me in 1984. They still look so cool. Now that I am way older, I look at the young guys of that age and laugh at their stupid tight jeans, and can't put two and two together that it's the same thing just 35 years later.

Where's the liquor?

Get off my lawn.

Now I'm grumpy.

Would be nice to see REM today, for sure. Wilco is twice the age as most popular bands these days, and they still bring it twice as hard as any of their younger counterparts. They also still find ways to experiment and explore the sonic landscape which no one in rock seem to do anymore.

slainte

 

[MickM]

When is the author supposed to graduate high school? It might not be too late for him to transfer to Vo-Tech courses.

 

[middy]

The reactions here are even funnier than the article.

 

[Lawdawg]

When is the author supposed to graduate high school? It might not be too late for him to transfer to Vo-Tech courses.

If he's writing for McSweeney's I'd put the over/under for the author at 46. The joke descriptions are clearly written by someone of sad dad age themselves.

Edit: Confirmed! John Moe is 53 and is rocking some mega sad-dad style.

 

[57joonya]

I think of all these bands as “new” music. I guess I’m in the Grandpa band mode.

Me too , I thought I discovered something new and cool when I found the war on drugs a few years back . I guess I need to rethink that . But the guy writing this is just trying to be cool, by putting music down he doesn’t like or understand. I wonder what he’s into??

 

[tanplastic]

If he's writing for McSweeney's I'd put the over/under for the author at 46. The joke descriptions are clearly written by someone of sad dad age themselves.

Edit: Confirmed! John Moe is 53 and is rocking some mega sad-dad style.

View attachment 941671

John Moe:
Interpol
There's a quiet dignity to your Star Wars fandom.
You collect beer coasters.
That new Yeezy hoodie cost a lot of money and you haven't worked up the nerve to wear it.
Family means always being able to move back home.
Elastic waist jeans.

 

[Flat6Driver]

Would be nice to see REM today, for sure. Wilco is twice the age as most popular bands these days, and they still bring it twice as hard as any of their younger counterparts. They also still find ways to experiment and explore the sonic landscape which no one in rock seem to do anymore.

slainte

See them now? I wouldn't like it. See the 1984 version now, yes.


This is fantastic music and they look cool like I would imagine I thought "not trying" cool was when I was younger but really just older "kids". Of course there was an interview with Stipe and Berry after or before the show where they were playing cool and aloof and it was sort of trying too hard.

 

[Cam]

I only know the sad grandpa bands. Those bands are all after my time. They're youngn's!.

Fun post btw.

 

[middy]

I have bought albums by 13 of those 19 bands, and I have 4 kids. This hits home.