Dude can shred…
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Yeah there was something else I heard by them that showcased some very unexpected chops. I was surprised. It made me wonder if everyone is awesome at guitar and just chooses to hide it, and that I alone suck lol!
That is a cool motion he has (RDT). There is some (possibly) swiping but he sounds good and looks pretty relaxed. You can see the fingers that aren’t holding the pick flopping a little. Possibly a little grip motion in there too.
Haters gonna hate but I’ve always had a lot of respect for Nickelback, particularly how great their mixes sound. When I did home studio projects I would always have something from All the Right Reasons as a reference mix. And yes, that is largely beyond their control BUT I found a forum where people were discussing the mix on that album and the amazing Mike Shipley was a member and chimed in about his experience working with them. I hope I am not remembering this how I’d like to hear it, but I am pretty sure he said when he received the tracks from Nickelback that it was some of the best sounding he’d been given (in his career) before he even did any mixing.
And, they know how to write pretty catchy choruses. If that’s so “easy” then everyone could do it. Not my favorite band or anything (not even close) but I always felt like they got picked on unfairly by the “musician” community. I am sure they’ve always laughed all the way to the bank though lol
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@joebegly I don’t think it’s just musicians that pick on them or that it’s unfair…
They are basically creed adjacent without the Jeebus, the drugs and the filmed tour bus bj’s.
That said, and probably the most important aspect: THEY GOT MONEY DOING THAT! Just put this in perspective. There is someone, somewhere out there whose favorite song is How you remind me, and that makes me a little sad inside.
I’m not familiar with Nickelback but their singer isn’t my favorite. Spotify says that they have 21.8M monthly listeners, and Creed has 8.5M. YJM has 0.38M.
Yeah you can do that because you have had 26 years of international radio saturation. The songs and the music do not have to be special or even good - in fact it can be quite bad, it doesn’t matter. When was the last time you heard YJM on a mainstream radio station? Probably never, at least not in North America. That’s niche music.
Always been partial to these. I think the hate is overblown same with the Creed hate (although that seems to have tapered now that Alter Bridge is successful and people respect Tremonti.)
There were far worse bands in the post-grunge genre that don’t get an iota of the hate Creed and Nickelback get mostly because those acts were actual one hit wonders. Since to achieve radio saturation you have to have more than one hit.
Dang. Those mixes. Chef’s kiss!
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So Tay Tay is a little over 107M, but Lana Del Ray (I am a fan) is about half that! Wow!
So the shred people have to write more commercial songs! EVH’s work on “Beat It” is the right idea, so perhaps we have to see if Max Martin is willing to make this a reality.
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He’s done it in the past.
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Reminds me of
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Another +1 to Nickelback’s production being stellar. I haven’t always loved their writng (“The State” was great, they got increasingly commercial over time), but their production has always been unbelievable good.
And, the thing I’ve always respected them for is - aside from not being total DB’s and I’m looking at you Scott Stapp - they 100% know exactly what they’re doing and why. They’re perfectly transparent that they’re writing corporate rock because it sells and fills stadiums. I’d kinda love to see what they could do if they stopped trying and just made whatever album they want to make, but for now they’re making millions doing something that we all do for fun, and I respect that.
There’s a bunch of videos of them doing what they call “Metallica minute” covers live where they play like a minute of a Metallica song between their own songs - worth doing some googling. Hot take - they sound better playing Metallica than Metallica does today.
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I think they can stop anytime now and do that. I don’t think they are in danger of running out of money any time soon.
To be fair to Stapp he’s come a long way from the the early 2000s and pretty much battled and overcome his demons and regrets his douchebaggery. His two most recent solo albums are very good imo.
I’m glad to hear - sounds like he had some real problems with addiction for a while in there. It still doesn’t make me feel any different about Creed’s heyday, though - ignoring the layup that is “With Arms Wide Open,” the main problem with “Higher” was, despite some absolutely killer riffing, the lyrics were basically “Wouldn’t it be so great if we could make the world we live in as good as the one we dream about? Wait, but then we’d have nothing to dream about. Oh well, whatever, nevermind,” and that’s hardly a compelling message.
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Ehhh… the drugs and the camcorder bus blowies just makes him a typical rock star.