That last Okay album was incredible, but Absolutely Kosher released another album in 2008 that was slightly better and received almost no press, Little Teeth's Child Bearing Man. I believe it is the only folk-tinged indie rock album since Aeroplane that approaches that album's level of greatness.
Why? Marty writes lots of songs, and there are lots of other record labels. I think whether or not he releases new music is largely dependent upon his health.
Yes, they ripped them off, and sadly, this kind of crap happens a lot. The most obvious example has got to be the Spin Doctors' Two Princes, which was ripped off by about a million local and national companies for about a decade. The band did successfully sue one major company, but it was so rampant that they would basically have had to commit to spending their lives in court in order to stop everyone.If only the RIAA would use their time and resources to crack down on this kind of thing instead of old ladies downloading five songs.
This album's sound seems such a 180 from Worry, but all of the songs I have heard so far indicate that the band has managed to pull a NIRVANA and make a major leap in production values and go in a decidedly more tuneful direction without sacrificing their essential identity. Under these terms, it would be really nice if they got a radio hit.
There are different possibilities for ironic humor in this situation, but your definition allows for only one. What you're saying would mean that the only things that are ironically funny are unintentionally so. If that were true, there would be virtually no British comedians and no Andy Kaufman. It would be ironic humor if Jack is intending for this to be joke but superficially presenting it as some serious project, which is what he is doing. Jack knows the song is bad, but he is not going to admit it and stupid people are going to continue to get upset while he is off somewhere quietly chuckling about it.
If I had a record label, in addition to releasing music I actually liked, I would also have some fun with it and release some novelty stuff because I have a sense of humor. How anyone can take this seriously and be upset about it is beyond me.
Dude, they're not my favorite band. They're not even in my top 20. I just think Dum Dum Girls are a good band and that Best Coast is not. Actually, I don't think that; it's a fact. I don't know why you are so passionate about this, but for the record, if I died from eating burgers (highly unlikely since I am thin and in excellent health as of my checkup last week) that would be okay because they are awesome.
I never disputed that they're the same genre; my point was that, between the two bands, the execution of the surf-rock songwriting is different enough that it is stupid to say, "Best Coast already did that, so why bother?" I said that duchess should just stick to saying that he likes or dislikes whole genres of music because he is unable to differentiate degrees of quality within a genre.
shoud read: "and if you really can’t differentiate the various levels of quality of those bands you just named, then you probably shouldn’t be offering your opinions about bands. Maybe just stick to something safe like saying you like or dislike this or that genre."
I notice you failed to mention the burgers, which are, you know, the main course, the actual substance of a burger place. Oh, that's right, you're not concerned with substance or quality. And on the next Best Coast album, maybe they'll even diversify a la McDonald's, offer up a whole bunch of different kinds of songs, but it won't matter because there isn't any one significant thing they do really well and there's nothing really satisfying about what they make. You know, analogies aside, there is a reason why many bands write songs about important things, even bands who put their vocals so low in the mix that you can't understand what they're singing. Obviously, those bands didn't write the lyrics for you, they wrote them so the song would be about something and it would turn out better. I can't help it if there is something wrong with you and you don't get more out of a Dum Dum Girls song than a Best Coast song. One is definitely more affecting than the other, and you really can't differentiate the various levels of quality of those bands you just named, then you probably shouldn't be offering your opinions about bands. Maybe just sick to something safe like saying you like or dislike this or that genre.
Best Coast? Really? I don't know what reality you occupy, but in no universe is Best Coast close to being as good a band as Dum Dum Girls. Best Coast and Dum Dum Girls serve as a really good example of how two bands may supericially seem to be taking similar approaches to songwriting but actually could not have less in common. Best Coast is to McDonald's as Dum Dum Girls is to Burger King, and the people that pick Best Coast have no taste.
In their archive, there's a performance from New York. From that set, the least well-known song is Engine. They have another video of him where he is performing Round Again with Criculatory System. Also, I know there was a week where they had posted the video of the Jittery Joe's performance, which features I Will Bury You in Time and his cover of I Love How You Love Me.
You're right about this. In fact, an indie-rock-oriented college radio station that I have listened to for years is now playing a lot more wussy things. If something rocking comes on that is actually good, it is almost always from an album that came out 3+ years ago. Oh yeah, and now they are talking about throwing more hip hop into the mix, which is just totally awesome dudes because where else on Earth will you be able to hear hip hop otherwise?
Well, so because I got to my computer about a half hour after this story broke, I guess I am not going to get a drawing. I tried to buy one several times, and they are "sold out."
They've done about a million things that for any other band would be considered jumping the shark. However, because Weezer started off as a smart band that did things ironically, people continue to give them the benefit of the doubt with any wacky thing they do, completely missing that they stopped doing things tongue-in-cheek a really long time ago. Willingly or not, they became everything they once joked about.
And after a drought lasting several months, so begins the windfall of album releases I am actually anitcipating. What is it about great indie rock albums and the end of summer/fall?
Yes, naturally, all bands will have some songs that are better than others (and no, I'm not talking about intentional silly throwaway tracks or transitional noise pieces), but a band with a decade's worth of, at best, spotty material, is not a great band. Weezer made two great albums, and then they inexplicably carried on as a shadow of their former selves. This all has to do with Rivers's precious, damaged ego. He was just so hurt that Pinkerton wasn't a critcally lauded smash hit right away that like a little baby he decided, "Waaah, I'm never going to write an album of heartfelt music again because look how I got burned! Oh, they just want catchy songs? I'll give them catchy songs, and that's all they'll ever get!" Many essays have been written on Rivers's steep and confounding decline, but this is really it in a nutshell.
I've got news for you. Rivers killed Weezer ten years ago with something called the Green Album, and the decade that followed has been nothing more than an exercise in contempt for his audience and music in general.
Henderson, you know, if you disagree with me, you could actually explain your view instead of doing the typical Stereogum thing and responding with an irrational emotional reply. Okay, you are right without any explanation! Everyone who likes Dogs Playing Poker and the Mona Lisa likes both in exactly the same way because no one's response is complicated by anything so pretentious as an actual thought process. Anyone who admits to anything other than a purely visceral negative/positive response to art is a jerk.
You know what? All that stuff is very nice, but $800 is just outrageous and offensive. It wouldn't matter what artist was charging that; there is no reason it should be anywhere near that expensive.
Man, that Teen Wolf show sucks. I don't know how MTV has the right to use the name of the classic '80s movie for their show, but it sure would be nice if Michael J. Fox could just wolf out and devour all of the cast members.
You can ironically like something. To give a very extreme example, no one seriously thinks The Room is an awesome dramatic film, but plenty of people love to watch it so they can laugh at how outrageously bad it is. Every actor involved with the film (save the director) has confirmed that the film was always intended to be a serious work of art, so the people who like the film are doing so ironically. Some art is unintentionally cheesy, and when people recognize the cheesiness of that thing but like it because of or in spite of that, they are appreciating it in a somewhat detached way. People that talk about hiding behind irony are people who never had good taste in the first place and so are incapable anything ironically. Liking something ironically is not always snobbery; experience leads to sophistication, which, if one is intelligent, naturally leads to a set of standards that inform one's perceptions.
Steve Perry did a reunion album with journey in the '90s but was unable to do a tour sto support it. He broke his hip and subsequently discovered that he was suffering from a degenerative bone disease. He didn't have any plans to do anything musical again, but he recently wrote a ton of songs and mentioned that at some point he would release another solo album.
Hey, this is pretty good. It's got a guitar that simultaneously sounds like a guitar without sounding like a guitar, it actually has the beautiful/violent dynamic that ought to be the aim of every shoegaze band, and they didn't forget that melodies are as important as all that other stuff.
From her site: "...I was blowing my nose and my crazy long nail stabbed me, I had no time for that (plus it was my first bloody nose) so I rocked it…."
Oh, you meant "mature." I should be mature like you, someone who doesn't care about a topic but keeps talking about it along with other people who don't care, one of whom is a member of the band in question. But how can I be mature and win your approval? By mindlessly accepting that playing the same music as someone else and calling it your own is not plagiarism? Okay, but then we have to agree that plagiarism does not exist. But we still need to call it something. I mean if 2+2 does not equal something we can call "four" because we don't like the word "four" we've got to call it something we do like. I know! Sampling! Here comes another twenty-year-old reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAJ0dIImKBU Head to the 50-second mark to hear what you sound like. And just so you know, artists still have to pay for samples, and that guy and his line of thinking is the reason for it. You've been hilarious, but this is too easy.
Well Chad, the thing is that George Harrison's "plagiarism" with "My Sweet Lord" was accidental and he ended up paying royalties to the songwriter who originated that melody. He even apologized and seemed embarrassed about it. Led Zeppelin's, however, if you look into it, seems a bit underhanded. They knew what they were doing with Whole Lotta Love and just thought they could get away with it without having to pay some old blues guy. They were wrong. Thank goodness I am not a Led Zeppelin fan so I don't have to try to decide whether Jimmy Page is too much of a jerk for having done that...although they never ripped off an album's worth of songs a la Pains and I think their large body of innovative original work justifies their status as pioneering artists. And by the way, I believe Kurt probably owed the most to John Fogerty vocally. In fact, the first band he and Krist formed was a Creedence cover band. I don't know enough about the Star Wars thing to really comment, but I do think there is more leeway with movies. Anyway, I don't care at all if one band's basic sound is like another's or if one vocalist sounds like another. I neither expect nor want every band to reinvent the wheel. What I do want is for every band to make honest, sincere attempts at creating original melodies. If someone accidentally uses someone else's melody, well okay. These things can happen, but don't repeat the mistake. Also, see that the royalties go to the right people. But when a band has already said they are influenced by a particular era of another band and then it becomes clear that a high percentage of their melodies are the same as the songs from that era, well, that is deliberate theft and quite obviously wrong. I find it hard to believe that I need to explain this to you. I really think my posts on here sufficiently convey my viewpoint, and I think deep down, in many situations, people already know when a set of actions is wrong. I don't think I have said anything mindblowing or amazing on here. The people who have engaged me in a dialogue on here have only done so because that is easier than having an honest dialgoue with themselves about what they already know.
Why does it matter how old the songs are? A lifted tune is a lifted tune, and no amount of rationalization about bands "emulating" (a word which is ordinarily understood to refer to stylistic similarities) other bands can change that. Saying "who cares" is just a feeble attempt to dismiss what is obvious to anyone who actually sits down and compares the songs. I can sit here and play Thorn and comfortably sing the vocal line from Everything With You along with it because the chords played are the same. And if 31 is considered "aging," then the average life expectancy of a human being has suddenly been drastically reduced and I apparently have a lot of things I need to get done in a very short amount of time. Oh wait, I see, you think because I know and care about a band that released stuff a long time ago that I had to be an elderly person. Yes, only old people (or possibly also people who aren't totally ignorant and apathetic) care about things that didn't happen yesterday...
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