A certain band that I like has had a small flurry of solo projects come out. Some of the tunes are pretty good, and some are not so good. The ones I like tend to really enjoy, sound very much like the band. It seems to me that once the band implodes that the solo stuff becomes a last effort to make some cash for someone who doesn't know how to do anything else while solo acts when the band is still together or on a break are actually pretty strong.

Do you guys ever find yourself liking some solo stuff from your favorite bands more than other outputs from the band?

Pixies - Frank Black (Frank has some great songs)
Husker Du - Sugar - Bob Mould (Sugar wins)
Tom Petty vs. The Heartbreakers (Tom Petty wins)
The Cult - Coloursound - Holy Barbarians - Ian Astbuy (The Cult wins hands down)
Rolling Stones - Mick Jagger (Mick's got some nice songs, but...)
Dire Straits - Mark Knopfler (I really like Mark's solo stuff but it sort of all sounds the same.)

Other solo projects that I am thinking of:
Pearl Jam - Eddie Vedder
Radiohead - Thom Yorke
GBV - Pollard

The longer I type, the more solo artists I can think of that have tried to emerge from the ashes...but the results have been primarily obscure. (Toad the Wet Sprocket, Men At Work, etc.)

Pixies -- The Breeders -- The Amps
Kim Deal's side projects were every bit as good as The Pixies, IMO. Which one "wins"? That's easy: I win!

Martin Newell -- Cleaners From Venus -- Brotherhood of Lizards
Not sure which of these I would prefer over any of the others. Cleaners From Venus has put out so much, and so much great stuff -- more than either of the other ones. But, then, that project has been a little more uneven, too. The best record of any of these was put out by the solo Martin (Greatest Living Englishman). Again, a wash.

Yeah, Sugar never approached Husker Du for me.

While I like Sugar, I agree.

Another one:
Los Lobos --- Latin Playboys
Gotta go with The Wolves.

That one is much closer for me. Will the Wolf Survived came out and I loved it and thought I'd be a Los Lobos fan for some time, but I just pretty much feel like they went down from there. Out of the gate strong, maybe strong enough to tip the scales overall even. But damn, I do like Dose a lot from Latin Playboys.

I think I like Sugar because that was the first Bob Mould stuff that I ever heard. I really liked it, but couldn't get into diving back into the Husker Du catalog, probably because I didn't know where to start.

The last one, Warehouse, is the most accessible. Zen Arcade is the critical darling. And New Day Rising is my favorite.

Faith No More - Mike Patton - Fantomas - Mr. Bungle - Tomahawk - Peeping Tom

I probably like Peeping Tom the least. Mr. Bungle is probably right up there with FNM for me as my favorite with Fantomas falling shortly behind them.

For me, it's
Bob Mould "Workbook" & "Black Sheets of Rain" era Solo > Husker Du > Sugar > Bob Mould post Sugar era Solo. These aren't really side projects though.

A lot of the examples given here aren't "side projects" A side project is a one-off project or ongoing project that is a lesser focus for someone who is a fulltime member of another band.

In other words, Mick Jagger's solo albums are side projects but Frank Black's solo career post Pixies or recordings with the Catholics are not side projects.

Joe Pisapia's Daydreams album could be considered a side project since he was a fulltime member of Joe, Marc's Brother when he recorded that and the songs were all things he'd written that just didn't work with his main band which is just slightly above average power pop.

Minutemen - fIREHOSE - dos - Ciccone Youth - Stooges - Crew of the Flying Saucer - Black Gang - Unknown Instructors - Banyan - Mike Watt solo

Sonic Youth - Text of Light - Crucifucks - Free Kitten - To Live & Shave In LA - Coachmen - Glen Branca Symphonies - Lucky Sperms - Dim Stars - Backbeat Band - Mirror/Dash - FOOT - Echo Park - Plus Instruments - William Hooker/Lee Ranaldo - MMMR - Strange Fruit - Mosquito - Two Dollar Guitar - Cat Power - Sentridoh

The Ciccone Youth record was awesome.

I like that Ciccone Youth record as well, and should we really consider the Stooges to be a Mike Watt side project?

My definition is probably looser than others. If the artist played on it, and it wasn't part of their primary outfit, its a side-project, imo. Same with Steve Shelley and Cat Power and Sentridoh. It wasn't his band, but it was apart from SY.

Also, I would hate to see this thread get wrecked by semantics.

And many others, to boot.

I find Thurston Moore's Psychic Hearts to be as enjoyable as SY... and there are a handful of songs on it that I like more than (most) SY.

The following solo record is better than anything he's released as Son Volt Version 2.

Recently, I realized that I hate Husker Du.

serious question for everyone. how do you differentiate between side projects and supergroups? cause wouldn't every supergroup be a side project of some other band?

this should be so much better than it is:



my favorite side project of all time would have to be Loose Fur



every bit as good as wilco IMO.

As far as the original Stone/Flying Rabbit exchange goes. We shouldn't think of Stooges as a Mike Watt sideproject. We should think of them as that seminal band, the Stooges. That said, for Mike Watt, the modern incarnation of the Stooges were/are certainly a sideproject of his and I'd assume that FR is only talking about the Stooges records that MW played on.

Exactly.

Hmmm...

I'd have to go with Deerhunter barely a hair above Atlas Sound.
Modest Mouse...way better than ugly cassanova
Broken Social Scene: a bunch of these people are no longer in the band and while I don't actually prefer them I love Stars, Feist, Jason Collett, Raising the Fawn, Do Make Say Think, and to a lesser extent Metric and the Happiness Project...
The Shins...Better than Broken Bells
Gnarls Barkley...better than cee lo's solo stuff
White Stripes...better than Raconteurs/Dead Weather though now Raconteurs is the top of the Jack White mountain.

The Move -- Roy Wood -- Wizzard -- ELO
in that order

Marbles - Pyramid Landing - Rob Schnieder (Apples in Stereo) solo album. It's wonderful lo-fi bedroom pop. He did another called Expo a few years later but it stinks, unfortunately.