k-punk
Spectres of Mark
An 'award-today, gone tomorrow' band, like Gomez. I fully expect them to win 17 Brits, all the NME awards and the Mercury Music Prize before finding their natural home, the boot of a car on a Sunday morning, on sale for 10p.
The ritual slaughtering of 'Hounds of Love' alone deserves our undying hostility. It sounds like the sort of thing a student pub band would do, which is hardly surprising really.
One of the saddest things about last week at the Boogaloo was seeing Joj King being positive about those losers, Bloc Party and all the other pathetic nostalgia crew.
(Disagree with mms about the Jam tho... even tho I obv agree that the post-Jam Weller is a culture criminal).
The ritual slaughtering of 'Hounds of Love' alone deserves our undying hostility. It sounds like the sort of thing a student pub band would do, which is hardly surprising really.
One of the saddest things about last week at the Boogaloo was seeing Joj King being positive about those losers, Bloc Party and all the other pathetic nostalgia crew.
(Disagree with mms about the Jam tho... even tho I obv agree that the post-Jam Weller is a culture criminal).
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simon silverdollar
Guest
k-punk said:
yeah the jam were wonderful: so sharp, in every way.
O
Omaar
Guest
The style council did a few good numbers, I reckon.
Check out this Guardian article about the phenomenon.k-punk said:
Very rock-centric article, which is appropriate, since the expectations for other genres differ quite a bit (wrt release schedules, live gigs, etc.) But still markedly pro-rock, which may not suit the biases of many...
don_quixote
Trent End
i like the bloc party album, but i also like the cure - boys dont cry, so it figures
hint
party record with a siren
Omaar said:
they got breaks for days
jam were a good singles band
so are futureheads, funnily enough
can we stop talking about this now, i had to sit through a record by the shins or something today and it made me angry and nauseous to the point of feeling physically sick.
there is nothing good about these parasitical third rate idiots when there are so many other amazing bands/people/types of music to enjoy.
there is nothing good about these parasitical third rate idiots when there are so many other amazing bands/people/types of music to enjoy.
i'd like to finish off this thread by saying that bloc party are the best band of the last 7 years.
the futureheads also have about 4 good songs, which is more than the fall ever managed.
i'm sure in 15 years simon reynolds will write a book about it all.
he could call it:
Was it really (Paul Ep)worth it?
Post-post-punk 2005-2005
the futureheads also have about 4 good songs, which is more than the fall ever managed.
i'm sure in 15 years simon reynolds will write a book about it all.
he could call it:
Was it really (Paul Ep)worth it?
Post-post-punk 2005-2005
One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed.
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.
What really raises one's indignation against suffering is not suffering intrinsically, but the senselessness of suffering.
bloc party just sound the pil version of what red hot chilli peppers are to the gang of four, teen friendly good time boys taking all the groovy bits from their heros, ironing out the things that made them interesting and maybe difficult (is it so bad to be a bit difficult) and playing it all back.
nothing revolutionary, reasonable but hardly exciting.
there are many more exciting things out there that are quite tuneful too.
nothing revolutionary, reasonable but hardly exciting.
there are many more exciting things out there that are quite tuneful too.
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
The effect these bands have is more social than aesthetic:
1. To convince students (who, as Simon Frith has rightly observed, are THE most conservative, reactionary and nostalgic consumers of pop in British society) of the innate superiority of their own rockist values.
2. To lower expectations about what pop - and ultimately life - can be. 'Want something that is more than a tired, microwave-reheated, low-grade simulation of the past? Forget it, it's the best you can hope for....' 'Thought Pop could be about more than over-hyped rockist posterboys living out the outdated fantasies of record company execs, PR people and journalists? Well, think again....'
But trust me, the only people who will be concerned about Futureheads, Bloc Party, Razorlight, Athlete (add other Indie losers to taste) in five years, never mind about twenty, will be the managers of landfill sites.
1. To convince students (who, as Simon Frith has rightly observed, are THE most conservative, reactionary and nostalgic consumers of pop in British society) of the innate superiority of their own rockist values.
2. To lower expectations about what pop - and ultimately life - can be. 'Want something that is more than a tired, microwave-reheated, low-grade simulation of the past? Forget it, it's the best you can hope for....' 'Thought Pop could be about more than over-hyped rockist posterboys living out the outdated fantasies of record company execs, PR people and journalists? Well, think again....'
But trust me, the only people who will be concerned about Futureheads, Bloc Party, Razorlight, Athlete (add other Indie losers to taste) in five years, never mind about twenty, will be the managers of landfill sites.
One and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad, and indifferent, e.g., music is good to the melancholy, bad to those who mourn, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.
Only in relation to our imagination can things be called beautiful or ugly, well-ordered or confused.
Snobbery exists in all areas of life. By snobbery I mean, any method of judging someone or something whereby you latch on to one or two features about them/it, and use these to come to a definitive, immovable judgement. In intellectual matters, the snob will often take the external features of a work as a guide to its value.
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
mpc said:
But of course this kind of widespread pompous relativism is its own form of judgementalism.... Why are non-definitive, movable non-judgements better than the reverse?
If subscribing to the obvious truth that Futureheads are unspeakable trash makes me a snob, then, fine. It's better than going along with whatever the PRs-that-be have decided is the latest thing...
If you can even remember them, in five years, you'll probably agree then. But I suppose that is what it is to make non-definitive, movable non-judgements.
don_quixote
Trent End
why does it matter if they stick in the memory for a long time?
i'd be perfectly happy with a band i loved for 6 months and then never listened to ever again really. fair enough, i loved ash when i was a kid, but i dont listen to their records now.
my main problem right now in alternative rock is a lack of personality. i'm not talking about personality in magazine interviews, pete doherty fucking himself up and robbing some stereos, i'm talking about personality through the music... i'm listening to magazine right now and captivated by the power of devoto over the music and i feel it a lot more in music of the past than i do right now... there's too much focus on the tightness of a band rather than individual attributes.
i havent really thought this through completely, so feel free to pick it to pieces whilst i sleep on it
edit: must exaggerate the focus on indie/alternative stuff here, i certainly feel it elsewhere.
i'd be perfectly happy with a band i loved for 6 months and then never listened to ever again really. fair enough, i loved ash when i was a kid, but i dont listen to their records now.
my main problem right now in alternative rock is a lack of personality. i'm not talking about personality in magazine interviews, pete doherty fucking himself up and robbing some stereos, i'm talking about personality through the music... i'm listening to magazine right now and captivated by the power of devoto over the music and i feel it a lot more in music of the past than i do right now... there's too much focus on the tightness of a band rather than individual attributes.
i havent really thought this through completely, so feel free to pick it to pieces whilst i sleep on it
edit: must exaggerate the focus on indie/alternative stuff here, i certainly feel it elsewhere.
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect. The judgement of the intellect is only part of the truth.
Great is truth, but still greater, from a practical point of view, is silence about truth. By simply not mentioning certain subjects... totalitarian propagandists have influenced opinion much more effectively than they could have by the most eloquent denunciations.
[/QUOTE]
Memory is the mother of all wisdom.