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Why was Snakepit never bigger than it was?


ssiscool

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47 minutes ago, ShadowOfTheWave said:

Dover is a hideous singer, piss poor lyrics and vocal melodies, plus southern blues rock just wasn't "in" in 1995. Rod Jackson is a great singer, and writes great vocal melodies and pretty cool lyrics, but rock n roll was completely dead by 2000.

So just bad timing then.

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On 1/8/2021 at 1:25 PM, ssiscool said:

So Snaepit was formed as we know if '95. Not too long after the culmination of the UYI Tour. Slash was Riding high. But Snakepit never really took off. It could of easily been a huge band, but always seemed to lack something. What do you guys think is missing?

They weren't Grunge or Alternative, and that was all the rage at the time. 

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1 hour ago, moreblack said:

They weren't Grunge or Alternative, and that was all the rage at the time. 

I dunno, I thought there were some songs on Snakepit that could’ve fit in with grunge at the time.

The overall sound of It’s Five O’clock Somewhere is quite raw and grungy, production wise. But I guess all things Slash and GN’R in 1995, were considered dated 80’s hair metal, and most rock fans wouldn’t give them a proper chance. 

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13 hours ago, Mendez said:

Aside from the quality of the songs (which, like GNR, had a couple absolute bangers,but also some duds) not much memorable hooks. Always gotta have a catchy hook for a band to become popular, and I don't remember the hooks being particularly catchy. Good To Be Alive had great verses and prechorus, but the choruas was lacking

 

Times called for different genres

 

also one thing everyone forgets is side projects are almost never popular, or even as popular as bands they came from.

I think that's a good point. Even Axl would struggle without the Guns n Roses name.

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On 1/10/2021 at 7:36 PM, Free Bird said:

The question should be, "why was Snakepit bigger than it actually was?"

Because they were a cool band which made great music, especially compared to everything else around them at the time. 

There was barely anything new to enjoy for me. Never liked Soundgarden, Nirvana or Pearl Jam

The only other new music I loved around the time were Tito&Tarantula and Californication from the Chili Peppers. Fortunately there was a lot of old music to discover but the mid 90s and early 00s were extremely poor for my taste.

 

 

Wow... Tito and Tarantula are amazing. I got into them from Robert Rodriguez movies.

On topic - Snakepit Mk II were amazing. I've never been more excited in anticipation of and on delivery of an album than then. I remember buying it in HMV Leeds, they'd mistakenly put it on the shelves a day too early, but bought it anyway and played it to death for years. Would love a follow up.

Does anyone know if hi-res versions of those two unreleased tracks from that era ever surfaced? The two tracks that were released on the promo version but then removed and replaced on the final release?

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16 hours ago, metallex78 said:

I dunno, I thought there were some songs on Snakepit that could’ve fit in with grunge at the time.

The overall sound of It’s Five O’clock Somewhere is quite raw and grungy, production wise. But I guess all things Slash and GN’R in 1995, were considered dated 80’s hair metal, and most rock fans wouldn’t give them a proper chance. 

They were raw but in that old school early Aerosmith blues rock style, and blues rock, aside from the Black Crowes, didn't sell that well in mainstream rock in the 90s. I guess Blues Traveller did well too.

Edited by moreblack
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22 hours ago, ShadowOfTheWave said:

Dover is a hideous singer, piss poor lyrics and vocal melodies, plus southern blues rock just wasn't "in" in 1995. Rod Jackson is a great singer, and writes great vocal melodies and pretty cool lyrics, but rock n roll was completely dead by 2000.

In no way rock n roll was completely dead by 2000. Scandinavian rock was massive for example. Of course, bands like Hellacopters, Backyard Babies etc. weren’t touring stadiums like GNR did seven years before. But those bands were still bigger than Snakepit. 

I think it was just that in 2000 there was a new generation of young rockers who had their „own new bands“ and bands by former GNR musicians weren’t that exciting for them like - let’s say - Turobonegro. I know this from first hand because I was 20 years old in 2000 and was one of those guys, even though I did love GNR since 1991 and they are my favorite band since then to date.

By the way: The first Snakepit album is awesome. Eric Dover did a great job. I bought this album the day it came out in 1995. But 5 years later I rarely took notice of the second album for the reasons I stated above. I just didn’t care enough in 2000 for the second Snakepit album and rather spent my money on other artists. 

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40 minutes ago, MaskingApathy said:

What songs are those?

There was two songs: "Bleed" and "What Kind Of Life" that were initially announced as being on the Ain't Life Grand album and were released on an early promo version, but when the final version was releases they'd been swapped out. They're great songs easy to find, but I've never been able to find a hi res version.

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The vocalist on the first Snakepit album was awful.  He completely ruined that album for me.

 

Rod Jackson is a great vocalist and was very energetic live but the second album felt way out of place in 2000.  It was also a very cheesy album in general.  Definitely didn't feel very "cool" even though some of the songs are some of Slash's best.  

 

Slash delivered a great performance on both Snakepit albums but I don't think he had the right people around him unfortunately.

 

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28 minutes ago, Bitchisback said:

The vocalist on the first Snakepit album was awful.  He completely ruined that album for me.

 

Rod Jackson is a great vocalist and was very energetic live but the second album felt way out of place in 2000.  It was also a very cheesy album in general.  Definitely didn't feel very "cool" even though some of the songs are some of Slash's best.  

 

Slash delivered a great performance on both Snakepit albums but I don't think he had the right people around him unfortunately.

 

I'm actually listening to Ain't Life Grand now and it's just so corny at time. The intro to mean bone is so fucking dumb lol.  That song has a great solo in it too.  I really have no idea what Slash was thinking when doing this album at times.  It just seems very off brand for him.  It's interesting to listen to though and then think about what Axl was doing at the time with GnR and the leaks.  Those two were very apart creativity.  

 

Even the album cover to Ain't Life Grand is fucking dumb lol 

 

And I think ALG is way better than 5 O'clock lol. Eric Dover sucks ass

 

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It's probably a combination of different factors. The band seemed to vanish quite fast after the tour. If they had managed to keep it together and release another record with a few hit singles, it might have been different, instead of waiting 5 years and then following it up with a record under a different band. I remember seeing ''Beggars and Hangers-On'' on MTV quite a lot in 1995 and my friends and I all bought a copy of ''It's 5 O' Clock Somewhere'' and loved it, so I think the band had potential if they had kept it together.

Another reason is probably because Slash wasn't as cool anymore by 1995 as he was a few years earlier. GnR had become a bit of a joke and the so-called alt-rock scene had turned rockstars into a cliché, and whether Slash wanted to or not, he looked like a rockstar with his leather, sunglasses, big hair, hat and jewellery from the Mr. T collection. They played a few European festivals in the summer of 1995 and they seemed out of place. 

Although there are always exceptions, bands like Aerosmith and Bon Jovi were commercially at the height of their career in the mid 90's and were still operating within that classic/hardrock genre and looking like bonafide rockstars. But they had the poppy songs in their catalogue to reach a mainstream audience, Slash's Snakepit didn't. 

 

Edited by EvanG
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