Nicholas suggested I start a thread. Here it is:
If Gentle Giant mated with some talentless, goth garage band from the 80s, and had an abortion, it would be Zdrastvootie. The lack of musicality, combined with the overwhelming sound of "we're so fucking indie and cool, that we don't care about being listenable," sounds like the most self indulgent musical masturbation I've heard since Axl Rose thought he could play piano.
You have to understand tonality before you can be atonal.
Bitches Brew was played by some of the masters of their instruments. Mike Garson's dada-esque solo on "Aladin Sane," is great, because the guy is a piano prodigy, and wasn't just randomly playing some instrument he didn't understand. Elvin Jones could play time perfectly. When he stretched the meter, it was not an accident. Frank Zappa's "The Yellow Shark" was an exercise in intentional atonality. He told me that the most difficult thing he ever did musically was make sure that everything was dissonant. He clearly had to know all the rules of harmony before he countered them. (It didn't make the result any more listenable, but at least he could also write "Peaches En Regalia," and not just mind numbing noise.)
Zdrastvootie is nothing but a bunch of artsy fartsy guys with instruments, making unimportant noise, that is a waste of the vinyl it's pressed on. It has none of what made the shortcomings of bands like the Velvet Underground or Bauhaus listenable. And the unconventionality of it just sounds like a train wreck by guys who just can't do anything better. My dog knocking a guitar over makes a more interesting musical statement.
Of course, fans of this band can't acknowledge their own insanity, and I'm sure would rather compare them to how VanGogh was never appreciated in his lifetime. But if anybody can't see this steaming pile of shit for what it actually is, and says things like "this is one of the most important records in the history of rock," then they clearly are in need of a drug test.
http://www.myspace.com/zdrastvootiehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xY7qAo6ibE