but they still shift units and get columns (not so much BRMC, who have branched out considerably to be fair)... my point being that the 60's is most definitely not in right now, and guitar music is ****ed. For shame. There must be somebody who likes this band?

My biggest problem with The Vines is they name all the right influences . tick all the 'cool' boxes (or did when they first came around) but there's no substance to it.

It's like they took all those influences , took all the rough edges from them & packaged them into something sellable.

hmm. These complaints are all entirely legitimate, I'd be the first to admit they've put out some bile (Outtathaway and the accompanying video comes to mind)...
but I think there's just a genuine desire to just make good pop there, you can hear it from the early 4-track recordings to the (admittedly off-putting) studio sheen of everything else.

What clinches it for me is the fact that the American record exec who adopted the band dropped them after their (actually brilliant) sophomore flop; now they're signed to the Aussie indie label Ivy League and still putting out those kind of albums...

Some bands want to eke a living out of sounding like Guided By Voices, others just want to be the Beatles.

I think I've given everybody the impression that I'm obsessed with this band... I just admire the songwriting ethic, man!

And my pants with semen. That's from a pre-existing condition, though.

Ahhh The Vines bring me back man! I used to be obsessed with Highly Evolved, was one of my favourite albums. Over the years i lost interest though, wasn't helped by the fact Winning Days was god awful and Vision Valley was very 'meh'. I could probably listen to it now as a nostalgia thing, especially Get Free which was one hell of a single.

i like some of their songs.
they aint nothing too special.