Ones to Watch 2013 (1 Viewer)

[Moods For Mallards]

To you maybe. You're not me.

Ah I am.

 

[hermie]

Well those bands sum up the thing i hate pretty well. I'll put it like this.

Every band I've ever loved have had more ambition than ability. Some have had plenty of both. What I mean by ambition is not that they sold records or made it rich I mean they push forward and try new things. It excites me when a band does tries things that they can't quite pull off.

These bands are the absolute antithesis of this. Their ambition, it seems, is to sound like a carbon copy of each other. It's a sound based in fashion and attention or approval seeking. I have the exact same problem with a lot of post rock, a lot of metal and a hell of a lot of punk, in fact if anyone says they are in a "insert genre here" band they are probably either

A. Understating what they do or

B. Being completely earnest and as such missing the point completely.

an example of A would be Sonic Youth describing themselves as a "rock" band.

B would be any of the above describing themselves as whatever the fashion based term for what they do is.

It's, seemingly, enough for them to be part of the scene rather than bring anything new to it. some of these bands are on their 3rd record it's utterly bizarre. Like when someone in AC/DC said that they make the same record every year and just change the cover. The bands that subscribe to this fashion (and that's all I get from it is fashion It reminds me of designer label plaid shirts during the grunge period.) are essentially perpetuating something that stalled after those bands had made one record. It's the epitome of Woody Allens dead shark. Don't get me wrong I do like some bands who have taken a bit of influence from it and made something new. But three chords too much reverb and that same tired drum beat does not excite me in the slightest. Going back to the initial point about ambition vs ability. The more I see of bands who play this kind of thing the more I think that they are actually better musicians than the fashion allows, so to speak, and so the scene, the fashion etc inspires people to stay stuck repeating the same old shit instead of making something unique. That's deeply troubling and what's more troubling is that "curators" the "bloggers" or whatever "they" are calling themselves, for me the best description would be "fashionistas" these days seem to be falling over themselves to support this.

Agree with most of that. Particularly with regards to fads and trends (fueled by bloggers) and especially how (musical) ambition sets the really good bands apart from the rest. However, I'd take umbrage with where you get specific about what bands should or shouldn't involve themselves in (bold). Okay 3 chords and lots of verb is a particularly tired format but I wouldn't rule out more great music being made using that same template just yet, so long as aforementioned musical ambition/confidence (whether or not it matches ability) is in place. Is one chord and obscene amounts of distortion any more imaginative??

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Ticks all the boxes that are annoying people on this thread, but i like this one. Nice pop tune.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Kermit McDermott]

Ticks all the boxes that are annoying people on this thread, but i like this one. Nice pop tune.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[Moods For Mallards]

I think that song is unimaginative, lacks a good tune, has basically no lyrics of its own, and doesn't sound nice (for a band who generally sound nice if nothing else).

This is what happens when bands in any genre, following any template fairly strictly, and without a lot of creativity make recordings. It's not unique to reverby music with guitars and 2 to 4 chords.

The important thing in (broadly speaking) pop music, to me, is personality. Say that as Trappatoni would say it. How best for a musician/singer/songwriter to express their personality through the song? You can't do that through outright pastiche, but you can certainly let your personality run around in the green fields of tropes and colloquialisms that any genre provides.

 

[Kermit McDermott]

And I double posted it....Jaysus

I like it. Hardly groundbreaking of course. I like the fact that the melody is subtle & it's a touch noisy. Sometimes with music that is more original & groundbreaking, you can admire it but you might not enjoy listening to it.

Have you read retromania? Simon Reynolds blames the jesus and mary chain for all this, "record collection rock"

 

[washingcattle]

Is one chord and obscene amounts of distortion any more imaginative??

The bands in the post I made earlier have something like 9 albums between them, all of which sound exactly the same. One chord and an obscene amount of feedback is fine for about 4 minutes if you then move on and do something else, but were talking about a plethora of bands following a dull derivative blueprint.

 

[Theseus Mock]

That's deeply troubling and what's more troubling is that "curators" the "bloggers" or whatever "they" are calling themselves, for me the best description would be "fashionistas" these days seem to be falling over themselves to support this.

What's even worse is when these bands get some other shitty band/dj/'artist' to remix their crap songs. Indiepopwave cross-breed with some crap Ibiza trance music.

 

[hermie]

The bands in the post I made earlier have something like 9 albums between them, all of which sound exactly the same. One chord and an obscene amount of feedback is fine for about 4 minutes if you then move on and do something else, but were talking about a plethora of bands following a dull derivative blueprint.

Can't view the vids/links in work so had no frame of reference on that level.

 

[Primitive]

Speaking of the above Surf Girl Band, September Girls, The Objectorz & Hunk live!


http://www.facebook.com/events/588193421197183/

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Do any of the bands sound like this?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

That's what I think of when I think of surf music.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Even better if any of them sounded like this?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

 

[washingcattle]

Do any of the bands sound like this?

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

That's what I think of when I think of surf music.

That drum beat stretched over about 50 albums by about 30 bands, so yes a bit.

 

[GARYXKNIFEDX]

Not a bad drum beat.

 

[Jerry Twig]

Well those bands sum up the thing i hate pretty well. I'll put it like this.

Every band I've ever loved have had more ambition than ability. Some have had plenty of both. What I mean by ambition is not that they sold records or made it rich I mean they push forward and try new things. It excites me when a band does tries things that they can't quite pull off.

These bands are the absolute antithesis of this. Their ambition, it seems, is to sound like a carbon copy of each other. It's a sound based in fashion and attention or approval seeking. I have the exact same problem with a lot of post rock, a lot of metal and a hell of a lot of punk, in fact if anyone says they are in a "insert genre here" band they are probably either

A. Understating what they do or

B. Being completely earnest and as such missing the point completely.

an example of A would be Sonic Youth describing themselves as a "rock" band.

B would be any of the above describing themselves as whatever the fashion based term for what they do is.

It's, seemingly, enough for them to be part of the scene rather than bring anything new to it. some of these bands are on their 3rd record it's utterly bizarre. Like when someone in AC/DC said that they make the same record every year and just change the cover. The bands that subscribe to this fashion (and that's all I get from it is fashion It reminds me of designer label plaid shirts during the grunge period.) are essentially perpetuating something that stalled after those bands had made one record. It's the epitome of Woody Allens dead shark. Don't get me wrong I do like some bands who have taken a bit of influence from it and made something new. But three chords too much reverb and that same tired drum beat does not excite me in the slightest. Going back to the initial point about ambition vs ability. The more I see of bands who play this kind of thing the more I think that they are actually better musicians than the fashion allows, so to speak, and so the scene, the fashion etc inspires people to stay stuck repeating the same old shit instead of making something unique. That's deeply troubling and what's more troubling is that "curators" the "bloggers" or whatever "they" are calling themselves, for me the best description would be "fashionistas" these days seem to be falling over themselves to support this.

Yeah, what a shower of BASTARDS. Well worth the ire of that post and the half an hour it took to write it!

 

[washingcattle]

Yeah, what a shower of BASTARDS. Well worth the ire of that post and the half an hour it took to write it!

With dyslexia most of the time is spent re-reading sentences that go nowhere and trying to remember/figure out what the original point was. Thankfully I have serious trouble estimating time so god knows how long any of this gibberish takes.

Frankly, I need a job.

 

[sleepy]

I don't know if I'd call this music Surf Pop. I'd probably call it Girl Grunge or summat, not in a dismissive way at all, it's just that a lot of it does remind me of early 90s grunge but with more of a pop sensibility and without the earnestness. I actually like a lot of this type of stuff, maybe I'd feel differently if I was going out to gigs on a regular basis but after years of seeing countless dull post rock bands and really bad fugzi rip offs this stuff is like a breath of fresh air. It's nice to hear 3 minute pop songs again.
I've listened to Cave Ghosts demo (I'm assuming this is one of the bands that people are having the most problems with) and I think it's deadly. Hideaway's an excellent song (with no reverb, but does have ukulele). They've gone beyond being a Best Coast pastiche, that song was better than anything that was on the last best coast album which i suppose wouldn't be too hard. And that Dott ep is pretty good fun too, kind of reminds me of early breeders.

On a side note, Weezer haven't done anything worthwhile in about 10 years and that last Dum Dum Girls album was really good, a real pregression from the first one.

 

[hermie]

Cave Ghosts will win over a lot of people. Even if the template is as previously discussed they've got genuine hooks and a singer who really can genuinely sing. There's nothing that people respond to more than those two things. Also everyone loves a bit of girl-boy dynamic.

 

[sleepy]

Aye, hooks. It's amazing how many bands forget to use them. And actual singing

 

[hermie]

Aye, hooks. It's amazing how many bands forget to use them. And actual singing

Easier said than done I guess