Of course it's a slimy marking move, that goes without saying since almost everything that happens in capital P pop music is. However, that doesn't make it evil or not worth discussing. It's interesting that slimy marking moves now encompass explicit allyship, regardless of motive.
Beautifully choreographed, but the camera work and overall visual style feels cheap and dated to me. Maybe that's the point, like they're referencing a style or type of video from the past? Can someone please help me like this?
While I think the broader discussion surrounding non-professional photography at shows is worth having, it's also possible to view this incident simply as a fan behaving poorly on stage. If you crowdsurf your way to the stage (or just jump up there), you're expected to make a fairly swift exit, usually by getting off the same way you got on. You're not allowed to stand there like an idiot and do whatever you please, which includes taking a selfie.
Way back when, I was present for the filming of the video for "Level", which was incidentally tracked live. Between takes, Jack White went around to the small group of us in the "audience" and introduced himself, even letting people hold his "Triple Jet" all-copper Gretsch. This was obviously quite cool and gracious of him, but what really stuck with me is that in between takes the band ran through a bunch of other songs that day (which they didn't film), and Jack White absolutely fucking killed on guitar. There was palpable feeling of danger to the way he played (and especially solo'ed), as if the whole thing might fall off the rails at any second. His musical output mostly hasn't hit home for me in the decade+ since, but I'll never forget the way he brought it in front of an audience of maybe 30 people. The video turned out pretty cool too. Anyway, hope this didn't sound like a weird brag, I just felt like sharing that memory.
They went in such a shamelessly valid pop direction that it’s actually made me hear the first album differently. Everything about this band is punishingly superficial and it blows my mind that they’re popular.
Well, singing over a prominent backing track has definitely happened, but I can’t recall a performance before Eastside that felt lip synced. What’s your take?
According to her, no. And she’s made the very valid point that SNL probably wouldn’t let her even if she begged to because if there was a malfunction it would compromise the intergrity of the show.
First of all, I agree entirely with you second paragraph and share your disgust. I’m not taking issue with that, or with how fucked yo the lyrics in wuation are.
That said, I do think my analogy works if you imagine that the character of “Rivers” is a manufactured and malleable public identity created for the purpose of entertainment. Instead, you’re assuming that actual person of Rivers Cuomo is represented accurately and honestly through the lyrics of his songs. You certainly don’t apply this same standard to, say, Nick Cave. We all assume he sings either “in character” or at least as a sort of shard of his actual personality: a cathartic expression of a certain frame of mind in which he may find himself or be able to imagine. We understand this, and therefore we don’t actually think Nick Cave is a bad guy. He’s just playing a role, or a series of roles. Somehow, Rivers isn’t afforded the same courtesy. Why is this?
In any case, the idea that a musical artist is or should be writing from a place of total personal authenticy is entirely wrong to me, but I respect that others might not feel this way. It’s all theater anyway, regardless of how much we might pretend that it isn’t.
I don’t really understand this perspective. Sure, some of the lyrics on Pinkerton are “creepy”, but he acknowledges that fact in the very lyric you quoted. Is an artist ever allowed to express having had a desire or impulse that society might deem as wrong? To me, this like people saying they didn’t like the film Three Billboards because they didn’t approve of the main characters’ actions or opinions. Yes, of course you don’t approve of the character, that the point of the project.
He's quite obviously an asshole, and while this is, of course, an entirely subjective pejorative term, it's hard not to come to this conclusion if you've ever seen him interact with other humans in social context or read any of his insufferably sanctimonious statements concerning whichever human rights issue or heterodox liberal celebrity is guaranteed to sell tickets to his one of his endless PF cash-grab tribute performances.
The hypocrisy of this comment is really quite funny. You "hate" him because his worldview is "infected" with anti-semitism, while tacitly acknowledging that hatred itself is in "his DNA", presumably because of his ethnicity and upbringing. And yet somehow you find his politics agreeable on the whole.
How did you form this nuanced view of him? Did you carefully consider his positions, or were you, like him, simply born with hatred?
I took this “song” as being entirely satirical, especially in the context of the video. I think they’re just having a laugh. It’s too bad the track itself is such shit.
At first this comment made zero sense to me, but I just went back and listened to that Arctic Monkeys song, and you're totally right, both in terms of the very similar choruses and even, to a lesser extent, the verse riff. Also, Don't Sit Down really kicks ass, which makes a lot of sense because Arctic Monkeys have always been great (unlike Weezer, who were once briefly great).
I expected this song to work horribly acoustic, but it actually made me take another look at how honest, sweet, and unpretentious the lyrics are. I didn't exactly *cry* per-se, but I suspect I will in 40 years when I hear this song on an oldies station.
Everyone I know loves it, even the snobs that (understandably) haven't taken them seriously until now. Critical response has been great too. I'm not sure anyone could ask for more considering how out of left field the actual music is.
I agree that it, production-wise, it sounds somewhat pandering to the present (or recently-past) moment, but it does a few of those tricks better than most. But yeah, Summer is a mind-blower.
Interpol have always relied upon dirt-stupid guitar parts to convey Very Serious Detachment, but this a new low, especially combined with Banks' excellent Ozzy impersonation. What is this band about, again?
Lovely, lush instrumentation but this guy's voice is just not bombastic enough to justify this kind of presentation. Not trying to knock Lord Huron, but this kind of showmanship (and mixing) emphasizes the wrong things about this band.
And yeah, nobody comes here to talk about US politics, in fact many probably come to escape it, so maybe leave that stuff out in the future and keep on the music at hand.
I watched a few seconds of the first two videos and decided not to let them be the first time I hear music from the new album, which I am unreasonably, childishly excited about. However, I couldn't resist with the other two videos. On first listen, the new sounds sound fantastic. It's also nice to hear You're So Dark.
I'm the opinion that if you don't have a new take on a cover, or anything interesting to add, it's probably not worth recording. This is a great example of that.
The justification at the time was that it protected your wrist during periods of intense and over-performed strumming, especially with guitars without a bevelled edge (like the telecasters they both played during this period).
Fun fact: "Impeach the President" by The Honeydrippers happens to feature a turnaround section that sounds eerily similar to the McDonald's "I'm Lovin' It" theme. Conspiracy? You tell me.
It's not just one album, and it's not just so-so. They sound downright lazy, embracing vapidity as if it's a virtue. Even Reflektor felt like a retreat. I'm glad they're having fun and making music, but I still remember when they were a serious band that made timely, passionate, intricate music.
Shit, I actually like this. The lyrics and message are very sweet, and while it features many of pop's current production tricks, they aren't so offensive in this context. It sounds like he was influenced by the huge success of his collaboration with AJR (Sober Up) which is also both awful and strangely charming.
I still listen to that soundtrack as well. Those songs are simply gorgeous, although the pair that also appear on Suck It And See were somewhat less effective in the context what I would argue is their least compelling and certainly worst sounding record.
Critics loved AM, and it was massively popular, yet I still somehow feel that Alex Turner is under appreciated as a songwriter. It's been a joy to watch him grow as a writer and singer.
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