Yeah, that is what Lester Bangs said about them: "
East Coast Grateful Dead/Quicksilver Messenger Service, just even worse".
I always loved his put-downs, he spared no one. Another one of his classic comments was "
All Heavy Metal bands sound the same, people say. But that is not strictly true. All Heavy Metal bands sound the same to the unaccustomed ear." And then went on to differentiate quite knowingly between the styles of various bands to end his treatise with the conclusion that within its boundaries Heavy Metal (he used the term loosely for all types of heavy music) is actually quite varied, spawning bands such as Mothers Finest with their funk edge to doom bands such as Black Sabbath.
I guess it's fair to say that "
intrepid exploration of the (subjectively) unknown", was part of Tom Verlaine's credo. It's a nice way of saying "
not knowing what you are doing, but being inquisitive about it".