[Whatever] Fwd: [Excellent] Oasis article

Mon Jun 13 07:41:28 PDT 2005

I think that article pretty much just sums up how we
all feel about Oasis and how others look at Oasis as
well. A very well written honest review by that
journalist about the band if I've ever seen one. It
figures he was Canadian, and not American!!

Thank you for posting that to the list James.

--- jamEs <slideaway at oasiscentral.com> wrote:

---------------------------------
 Possibly the best article that hits the nail on the
head regarding the band I've ever read.

jamEs
---------------
slideawaymedia
http://www.slideaway.ca
---------------
Blog
http://www.modsuperstar.ca 

--- Begin forwarded message:

From: pmarin at stwing.upenn.edu (Paul S. Marin)
Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 08:34:48 -0400 (EDT)
To: excellent at shiftrefresh.com (Excellent Mailing
List)
Subject: [Excellent] Oasis article

What a fantastic article.   This pretty much sums up
how I feel about 
Oasis.  I'm glad he made the point about the
Ravonettes, too.

peace,
paul
NP. Pernice Brothers (over and over and over and
over..)

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/O/Oasis/2005/06/12/1083328.html

Oasis still matters

Thought they were washed up? Think again. Here's why
...

By BILL HARRIS -- Toronto Sun

The dismissal of Oasis as nothing more than a Beatles
copy band is the 
most lazy musical analysis ever foisted upon the
public. 

Through sheer repetition, it has been accepted as
truth by people who 
couldn't name or even identify three Oasis songs. 

But as the Gallagher brothers themselves might say:
Don't believe the 
truth. 

Let's make one thing clear: I'm the biggest Beatles
guy ever. As wide as 
my tastes are, John, Paul, George and Ringo have been
No. 1 on my depth 
chart from the time I was a humming infant. 

And, for the record, I think Oasis is brilliant. 

Not every Oasis song is a gem (not every Beatles song
was, either). And 
not every utterance from the tart tongue of Noel
Gallagher, or the marble 
mouth of Liam Gallagher, is worthy of inscription on a
plaque in their 
hometown of Manchester, England. 

But for my entertainment buck, the batting average of
Oasis -- as singers, 
songwriters and occasionally outrageous personalities
-- continues to be 
far higher than any of its contemporaries. 

Respecting both the Beatles and Oasis, rather than
pitting them against 
each other in a bizarre cross-generational rivalry,
won't endear me to 
everyone, I suppose. 

And a lot of folks won't like this, either, but here
goes: While I 
recognize the quality of fellow British bands such as
Radiohead and 
Coldplay, I find them to be, well, a little dour and
dull. 

Oasis songs, on the other hand, make me want to pick
up my guitar and 
learn how to play them. 

Noel Gallagher, the driving force behind Oasis, once
said, "We've only got 
half a dozen good bands in England -- there's Oasis
and there's five Oasis 
tribute bands." 

Really, how can you not love a quote like that? But
there are plenty who 
openly cheer for Oasis to fail as punishment for such
audacity, whether 
you take Noel at his word or think he's just screwing
around. 

Oasis-bashing has become a rock-critic cliche. In
response, fans of the 
group have developed a bunker mentality as they
continue to buy tickets to 
concerts and sing along to almost every song. 

Most reviews of the band's new CD, Don't Believe The
Truth, have fallen 
between "not as bad as their worst" and "not as good
as their best." That 
last charge is something Oasis always will have to
live with, and it 
amounts to the price of past success. 

Since Oasis burst to the front of the Brit-pop scene
in the mid-1990s with 
two seminal albums -- the impudently catchy Definitely
Maybe and the 
anthem-laden (What's The Story) Morning Glory? -- the
Gallaghers 
constantly have been reminded how each subsequent
effort has not measured 
up. Alanis Morissette, coincidentally, has gone
through much the same 
thing in the past 10 years, post-Jagged Little Pill,
and you probably can 
point to other examples as well. 

Not every Oasis CD has been a gem. But how many
artists who have been 
around as long as Oasis can claim to be clunker-free?
To my ear, on 
average, Oasis still has more good songs per CD than
the norm. Regardless, 
many critics continue to focus on the worst of Oasis
rather than the best. 

Oasis has taken far more abuse than has been
warranted. Really, in this 
God-forsaken era of sampling-addicted rap artists and
American Idol 
squealers topping the charts with the most formulaic
drivel in the history 
of recorded sound, how did Oasis ever become the
poster-boys for alleged 
musical thievery? 

Not only is it not fair, it's not accurate. 

Listen to Rock 'n' Roll Star, or The Hindu Times, or
Lyla, the single from 
the new CD. The Beatles never sounded like that,
folks. Listen to 
everything Oasis has to offer, rather than picking and
choosing certain 
songs to prove some point about how derivative the
band is. 

Oasis has its own sound. I can pick it out a mile
away. 

Do some Oasis songs remind you of Beatles songs?
Absolutely. But guess 
what? Oasis is a British group that plays
hard-driving, melodic rock and 
roll. There are going to be similarities, to the
Beatles, to the Who, to 
T-Rex, to countless others. 

I had a good laugh last year when, for the first time
in decades, I heard 
a Rolling Stones song from the mid-1960s called Child
Of The Moon. It's 
the closest thing to an Oasis song that isn't actually
an Oasis song I 
ever have heard, right down to Mick Jagger's vocal.
All that's missing is 
updated instrumentation and Liam's voice, and it would
fit snugly onto any 
Oasis CD. 

The point is, just about everything sounds a little
like something that 
came before, if you listen hard enough and have a
musical library wide 
enough to recognize it. Heck, the Raveonettes, a
critically acclaimed 
group from Denmark that played at Lee's Palace in
Toronto last weekend, 
owe much of their sound to the Jesus and Mary Chain
and almost all of 
their harmonies to the Everly Brothers. But no one
seems to be up in arms 
about that. 

So why does Oasis get picked on so much? 

Part of it has to do with the magnitude of the band's
profile. But Oasis 
also has paid for its perceived arrogance, which I
find endearing and even 
humourous, but others do not. 

I recall several years ago when Oasis was playing at
Molson Park in 
Barrie. When Noel Gallagher emerged from backstage, he
greeted the 
assembled throng with the words, "Show some respect
for the best f---ing 
band on the planet!" 

I thought it was great. To have the nerve to say that,
especially in front 
of a Canadian crowd that primarily was on hand to see
Neil Young, showed 
incredible rock-and-roll bravado. But as Oasis ducked
a shower of plastic 
water bottles for the rest of the afternoon, I had to
listen to the 
grumbling of those around me who thought Noel's words
somehow were 
inappropriate. 

Noel's proclamations through the years -- whether he's
bragging 
unrepentently, or ripping himself, or ripping his
bands' rivals, or 
ripping his brother -- have provided me with more
chuckles than any 
stand-up comedian. He's full of bombast. Personally, I
think his musical 
resume gives him the right to say just about anything
he wants. But even 
if you don't agree, why can't everyone just lighten
up? When did popular 
music become so serious? 

That the United States largely has shunned Oasis
because of the band's 
arrogance is the height of irony. It appears the U.S.
appreciates 
"attitude" only when it's homegrown. 

But Oasis is not exclusively about crazy quotes and
battlin' brothers. It 
comes back to the music, and I am of the strong
opinion that Oasis does 
not get the credit it deserves. 

Oasis still takes me someplace. 

A place where guitars still are loud. 

A place where singers still sneer. 

A place where songs still have tunes, not just beats. 

Call it my own personal Oasis. 

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