Arcade Who?
Posted: February 14, 2011 Filed under: Main 152 Comments »So I turn on Good Day NY this morning and the first thing I see is Greg Kelly repeating over and over “Who the heck is Arcadia Fire, who’s Arcadia Fire.?” Next thing Rosanna Scotto says is “ehh, some hipster band.” So basically my day started off great. They were in shock because the hipster band from Canada called Arcade Fire won for album of the year. The album title of all things? THE SUBURBS. Bahahahahahahahah. Can it get anymore cliché?
I’ve said this before – the next truly great music will be heard by our great-grandchildren at the earliest. This Arcade Fire is simply one of the thousands of hipster Casio Keyboard/Macbook/xylophone bands out there that somehow, some way won Album of the Year at the Grammy’s. It amazes me that they beat out acts like Lady Gaga and Eminem - not that I’m a fan of them either but c’mon, everybody knows they are way more popular than Arcade Fire. I haven’t watched the Grammy’s in over a decade but I’m just saying. So now what? Is this hipster band mainstream? Are hipsters still considering themselves special and unique even though one of their music Gods have now been exposed? Is it time to find the next flea-bitten band in your 6000gb i-Pod and cheer for them?
Some people sent me these link today:
Link – Tumblr – Who is Arcade Fire???
and…
It’s not often I say this but I’m glad I’m growing old now. I’m glad I’m at an age where I don’t care anymore about bands or current “in” culture. The quality of music today is so lame and milquetoast compared to any period since music was invented that I just want to shoot myself whenever I hear another new band in action.
I was watching Simon Cowell recently when it all dawned on me. There is no place today for a protest song or a song which reflects on any negativity in life today (singing “Armageddon” or “Revolution doesn’t count). Everything is filtered through the thought police of the Self Help Industrial Complex. You can’t say “Fuck the System” anymore. You can’t sing an anti-war song anymore. You can’t sing Life Sucks and I Want to Die anymore. It’s all fucking “Inspirational” and about how the singer “overcame all obstacles” to get on (ignoring how much cock he/she sucked to get there). It makes me sick.
I’m glad I grew up in the 70s and 80s when music was poetry, lyrics were multidimensional and people sung about their real feelings. Funny how that music is still popular today. I wonder how many people will remember “Drew and the Medicinal Penis” or “Teeth Mountain” in 20 years.
Actually, I would say it tends to be even worse. Most hipster music seems to be about, well, exactly what you would guess it would be about from looking at them – that kind of affected, pretentious stuff that celebrates not caring.
Music to listen to while you sit in casement windows, sniff gladioli and name-dropping poets and philosophers you haven’t read. Music for people who think girls find them interesting, even though girls find them creepy 10% of the time and don’t even notice them the other 90%. Music for people who would actually like to be depressed and miserable because they think it would be romantic. Music for people who think being apathetic is something to be proud of, who settle for less in terms of lyrics and rhythm and melody and musical skill just as they settle for less in terms of friendship, looks, fitness, fun, women, ambitions…
Perfect for hipsters.
I’ve always been more of a classic rock guy, but my generation at high school listened to probably some of the most widely mocked music genres ever, according to most critics (nu-metal, pop punk, ringtone rap.) And I enjoy those too. I would do almost ANYTHING to get those genres back instead of hipster music. A 14-year-old listening to Eminem, Blink-182, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot is being a 14-year-old and there’s nothing wrong with that. A 14-year-old listening to hipster i***e music should go to the doctor to get checked for a hormone deficiency.
People have talked a lot in the past about the “death of rock music”, but this excuse for a subculture is the enemy within. It’s the opposite of everything rock has been about. It’s cowardly, repressed, worthless and the more people think it counts as rock, the less I want to have to do with rock.
The good news is that there’s a backlash coming. Some of these bands that don’t look outside Williamsburg / Shoreditch / wherever in terms of their social life had better believe that in some circles, i***e music is absolutely HATED. And when it goes out of fashion, it’s going to make what happened to hair metal look graceful by comparison.
Agreed. As much as I loathed the worst excesses of hair metal, at least its fans were honest enthusiasts. Most of the current crop of whiner rockers are going to end up where Archers of Loaf are right now: attempting to stage a reunion tour for people who don’t remember them and don’t care.
surprised you haven’t mentioned the lack of proficiency in instruments and this ubiquitous fucking buzzing or droning water sound in the background of some lazily singing autotuned female vocals that I seem to hear in whatever music is playing whenever in american apparel or urban outfitters.
I’s like shit like Slowdive, Lush. Now hipster scum has discovered shoegaze. Albeit 20 years later but its bad enough how they poison and ruin what was good and real and turn it into some fake ass epcot center version of the east vill yo or something.
I write as an old ’70s Philly punk…but wanted to add this: I talk to a lot of kids in their teens who feel exactly the same way as us old-enough-to-be-their-grandparents farts.
Lie low, and give ‘em the Buzzcocks, Fugazi, the Slits, The Damned…they’ll come around. And the current tsunami of drek will be forgotten.
Now isn’t that a statement on hipster culture: a Grammy win. I have only two words to say about how long this group will be remembered after their big win: “Christopher Cross”.
I’ll see your Christopher Cross, and raise you Captain and Tennille.
Arcade Fire winning a grammy the beginning of the end of the hipster movement. Trust me on this one. It’s over.
*=
I actually have some bad memories of this band. Seriously bad ones. I had a roommate who was absolutely obsessed with them. To be fair, at the time I wasn’t a great roommate to have either. But I certainly got my fair share of punishment.
This band gets regular rotation on 101.9 RXP.
They aren’t underground.
I like that radio station.
Yeah for real if you think Arcade Fire is unknown and hipster, you’re really out of the loop.
Holy shit, the lead singers speaking voice is rather nasally!
This is the one time I have to disagree with you partially, DieHipster. Arcade Fire is actually pretty good. I could do without the chick in the band. She annoys me. Other than that, I don’t really mind them. (Bring on the critics…)
I will agree, though, that most hipster music makes me cringe. The Decemberists being one of them…the way they try so hard to use “big words” in their lyrics. They’re about as nasally and pretentious as you can get without having a lot of real meaning in their songs.
I also can’t stand MGMT, Sonic Youth, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah…I can’t really think of any others, but those definitely come to mind as nails on a chalkboard.
Umm you sir are a complete idiot. By saying that Sonic Youth is awful, you’ve lost all musical credibility. Without Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips, Dinosaur Jr., etc. you would not have “indie” music today. They defined what it meant to be indie. By saying you prefer Arcade Fire to Sonic Youth is like saying you prefer eating dish soap to food. The Arcade Fire play the most boring and bloated music for a 9+ piece band. Hell the last time you saw a band that big get praise was Slipknot and I can actually respect them because their drummer alone has more talent than all of Arcade Fire. Your critique of music is laughable at best.
My critique? I wouldn’t call it a critique. I’d call it a matter of personal taste. I don’t like Sonic Youth.
But it’s funny because that’s what I don’t care for when it comes to hipsters. There are certain bands you can like and certain bands you can’t like. If you don’t like the supposedly their idea of “good” bands, then you’re a “complete idiot”.
Just saying.
Ya Sonic Youth is criminal. And people buy into that shit.
I checked these yak dicks out on You tube.
You gotta be kidding me. Grammy?
Oh and of course. Let’s make fun of social norms. If it wasn’t for the suburbs these sperm dumpsters wouldn’t have anything to write about. Then again what do the suburbs have to offer except room, land, better schools, convenience, safety…..
what we should do is grab these no talent
delusional fucks, tie them up tape head phones to their ears and blast “Live At Leeds” and “Deep Purple Live in Tokyo” until their brains melt.
I don’t disagree with your recommendations, but the concept of “indie” rock didn’t exist when they were playing. there was just pop-rock and hard rock…though deep purple and sabbath ignited metal and THANK GOD THEY DID. UP THE IRONS \M/!!!
prog rock and psychedelic rock were out then too. awww fuck, i just retract that original statement altogether. “indie” rock didn’t really start till the late 70s with the slow decline of first-wave punk.
Excuse me, but we had indie rock in Philly in the 50s and 60s, it was called doo wop and sung on the corner, then jazzed up with electric guitars at weddings.
Look I’m 48 years old. I understand “indie”. But isn’t indie short for independent (please correct me if I’m wrong)? since when is it meant as a tag for no talent guys with Kazoos and toy drums? Now that these guys won a grammy does that still make them indie?
I wasn’t much of a fan of sonic Youth. I don’t know much about their music. I would tend to lump them with Rage Against the Machine, Social Distortion…..I’m also not a big fan of pearl jam. I despise their politics.
But I gave some of them a fair shot recently. I also saw the VH1 Tribute to The Who. I was extremely impressed.
so Like i said i gave them another chance. Put in the proper context – in comparison with bands like Arcade Fire – man… the energy was there as well as the musicianship.
I try to keep an open mind with regard to new music. Sometimes I’m rewarded…other times I’m not.
What I don’t get is how The Who – or The Foo Fighters or The Ramones, Pearl Jam can do so much with just 3 or four people and these psoeurs have 7 members and they sound like a Cheap casio keyboard with rundown batteries.
How can you lump Sonic Youth in with Rage Against the Machine or Social Distortion? Are you an idiot? That’s like comparing the Grateful Dead to NWA. All three bands have their place and all are very different from each other. I probably shouldn’t have said anything, because I’m just going to end up getting attacked on this site.
Naw. It’s OK. I admit my ignorance. I could
Look at it from my perspective. when I was a teen working in a music store we had few categories – Rock, country, soundtracks, comedy, Classical, Jazz and Vocal (with tiny categories for international and christian.
I have a wide range of tastes, but for the past few years it seems like everyoe=ne wants their own category. for example takeone of my favorite bands, Royal Crown Revue. It’s swing, but the guys are young. The sound is modern and younger people like it. What category would you put them in?
I have a tendency to skip newmusic for a while wait for the dust to settle and then sort it all out. categories don’t mean shit.
saying I’m an idiot really isn’t fair. I didn’t say Sonic Youth sucked. I tend to lump certain bands together is all. The Who could be categorized as R &B, Progressive, Punk (yes, PUNK!). But I lump it into rock. it’s all rock.
Would you consider Sonic Youth Indie? Well Arcade fire is considered Inde as well, yet the bands are miles apart IMHO.
Look – a tomato is a fruit but 99.9% of the population consider it to be a vegetable.
Yes I accept your apology
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Categories certainly DO mean something Pat !
I was probably a bit quick to judge the degree of your mental competence, so I apologize. I myself have a hard time with such vague industry labels as “alternative” and “indie”, especially when people equate these terms with a certain sound. Indie used to mean anything that was put out without the help of a major label. These days the term is used like “alternative” was in the 90′s.
No problem. Apology accepted. it’s said tht one should never discuss politics and religion in mixed company. i guess you can add music to the list!
Maybe I was a bit quick to speak. But the way I used to listen to music was by word of mouth or someone recommending it.
I guess with so many genres today (and it is getting ridiculous) folks can peruse their particular section, sample something that looks good and take it home.
My point wasvwith all the cross influence the whole categorization is getting out of hand – metal – speed metal, thrash metal death metal, rap, hip hop, urban, R&B and of course the record you’re looking for is probably in a different section because it’s in the section that the clerk thinks it belongs in.
Is Michael Buble and HArry connick Jr. considered vocal? contemporary? Easy Listening? Rod Stewart – although he’s rock – could be considered “vocal” given his latest raping of the great American songbook. The Who, Led Zep, Beatles, Rock, Classic Rock, Oldies? Considering some of the crap that that’s out there now and given the amount of time that’s passed are The Ramones still Punk? Is Blondie New Wave? The Clash? Their music is now played in supermarkets for crissakes so would that make their music rock, Oldies?
If you keep splitting genres to create new ones, yo keep pigeonholing artists. You wind up splitting the categories until you get down to a single atom.
And we all know what happens when you split an atom.
I hope thats the macc lads live at leeds!
The Who! Sonically, angrily, musically…no album comes close, in my opinion. Listening to it at full volume is the sonic equivalent of taping pillows to your head and having someone beat them with a Louisville slugger.
Scond on the list – Deep Purple – The live album at Buddaakan. Third…Zep’s Song Remains the Same…Fourth a tie – Kinks “One For The Road” and Secret Policeman’s Ball (first volume).
Honorable mention: Pat Travers “go For What You Know”, Cheap trick “Live at Buddakan” and Santana “Moon Flower” and Lynrd Skynrd “One More From The Road”.
Guilty Pleasures: Billy Joel “Songs From The Attic”.
You can shoot me now or later.
Trust me, the macc lads would annoy them more.
No you’re correct. I wasn’t being facetious. All i’m saying is that both eras had their general sound. there’s def a common thread between independent (“indie”) rock in the 80s to early 90s that is starkly different than today. Because the concept of “alternative” has become mainstream to the point where all bands these days are “alternative” the new “indie” sound has become this pussy folksy bullshit that is supposed to be the response to the “alternative” mainstream. ask a hipster if he/she listens to “alternative” rock and he/she will cringe.
The problem with having 9 people is that you all have to be excellent musicians or it becomes a boring wall of sound. Arcade Fire is definitely the latter. They should hear bitches’ brew and see what 9 musicians are truly capable of.
the new “indie” sound has become this pussy folksy bullshit
Exactly. “Indie” used to mean guitar rock played by people who had been into punk and hardcore and wanted to branch out into more complicated or melodic sounds. Now it means folk or orchestral bullshit played by kids with 18 years of yuppie violin lessons who got to college and decided that they wanted to “rock.”
Now that I’m an adult and don’t care about defending my favorite bands to the death I can see how the “old-school” indie stuff I liked as a teenager back in the day paved the way for the hipster crap that came later — Pavement with the wordy lyrics that don’t really mean anything, Dinosaur Jr. with the slacker attitude of being too lazy to practice their instruments. But at least they were playing rock music with balls, not some 10-minute, 10-person orchestral snoozefest.
Bitches Brew is with out no doubt one of the finest examples of self indulgent, over the top claptrap ever recorded.
You know it, I know it, and the American people never listened to it ’cause it’s AWFUL.
Yeah, I said it.
Well, let’s parse that term “indie” a bit.
I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call music “indie” when it relies for its composition, distribution, marketing, and performance on a globalized high tech network provided FOR the musicians for effectively free.
In my mind “indie” means some kids with instruments who might take five years before they even get to play a place with plumbed bathrooms.
It is a stretch to call it “indie” when it is an acne pimple outcrustation of a massively globalized industry.
The first time I saw them was on SNL a few months back I thought it was a hipster skit because one of the singers looked like Chris Elliot. Then I figured out it was a band that played the shitty music in Where the Wild Things Are.
““Who the heck is Arcadia Fire, who’s Arcadia Fire.?”
That’s exactly what I thought — and I’m a Canadian.
<img src="http://www.whiterabbitcult.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/what_the_fuck_is_this_shit_dr_seus.jpg"
I even had to check it out on Youtube. My reaction — like most people, it seems — was, "What the fuck is this shit, and why would anyone care?"
Completely forgettable and lifeless. They used to have to re-arrange pop songs to make it into elevator Muzak. These new chumps have saved them that step. Not that any of this would even be good enough for Muzak.
Not that I was ever a fan, but I remember when Canadian rock music that would hit it big internationally was stuff like Rush, Triumph, B.T.O, etc. At least it was arguably rock music.
Oops …
I love Rush.
Dorks.
Screw you, I will choose free will!
Semi-related nostalgia note, does anyone else remember Q104.3 back when it was a hard rock/metal station? That was an entire musical education for me back in the day.
Today’s hipster music is emptily derivative. Like doing a cover of a cover and not knowing it’s a cover.
Like buying a box of cereal (something someone else made) and trying to eat the box.
That’s a perfect analogy. Worse, it’s a matter of being told “the box is the best part!”
Or Enlightenment in the cereal aisle, where you realize all the cereals are the exact same four or five ingredients, juggled through the Blessed Saint Taco Bell and packaged to look different.
Hipsters love irony, right? Well, I love the irony of your two-bit ass becoming a mucic critic, and declaring someone else’s body of work “cliched.” Granted, the Grammies have really never had any credibility, but alert the press when you win an award for anything. Your prose features more cliches than if Dan Dierdorf worked for Hallmark.
So if you haven’t won a Grammy, you aren’t allowed to express any opinions on music at all?
… Riiiiiight.
I’m not saying a Grammy, I’m saying anything. Let me know when this hack wins anything.
So let me see if I’ve got this right:
The grammys are meaningless, or as you you say “without credit” (which I don’t deny). But at the same time, you’re saying that DH is less than Arcade Fire because he didn’t win, as you say, “anything”, and Arcade Fire won a grammy?
Please help me see what you mean, because to me this sounds just like the type of conflicted contradictory thing that every hipster I’ve ever met says…
I’m saying this hack’s writing makes Beetle Bailey seem interesting. His thoughts are no more original than recipes on the back of a Campbell’s soup can. His prose wouldn’t be good enough to even be a comment in the Press-Citizen (Iowa City’s finest).
Don’t talk shit when you can’t write better than not just all the people ya hate, but basically anyone.
Yeah I know what you mean. You, just like all your gentrifying bretheren, are SOOO much more articulate and SUCH a better writer and SOOO much more creative than some knuckle-dragging BK (or any other inner city) native could ever be.
And you know, this blog is all about concescending english-major level writting and in depth analysis of up and coming bands no one outside of beardoland has ever heard of.
If the author of this blog hurts your feelings when he points out that no one, NO ONE outside of the conforming / non-conformist capitalist / anti-consumerism sub-culture known as douchebaggary likes Arcade Fire, then I have a simple suggestion for you. DON’T READ IT.
I can’t name one song of theirs. I admit that. Can the author of this blog claim to know all the competition against Arcade Fire and make an educated decision as to who should have won? Can you, Linguine Head?
Has he ever even listened to the album?
Besides, we’re talking about Grammies here. The Simpsons ripped on that institution almost 20 years ago.
The only award I ever see this this blog’s writer receiving is the Sarah Palin medal for Excellence in Generalizations, Know-Nothingness, Over Simplifications, and Dumbing-Down.
You’re writing is the least original here.
Go fluff your buddies.
*Your*
Glad *your* 6th grade education kicked in a minute too late.
Steve/Trey,
You’re gonna be a busy man/boy/vampire tonight. And no I don’t mean folding napkins into origami at the family restaurant. I placed 5 links to my awesome site in 5 major cities on Craigslist. The catch is….I disguised them as porn links so you better get to work now if you want to log in and out 3 times under your different CL accounts just to remove one link – that is if you can find them. The longer it takes you, the thousands more that come here and share in the hate. Hipster hate is spreading Stevie. Like wild fire. You might want to re-write your Trey Parasuco profiles on Facebook, Myspace and Friendster to say that you are once again a beefy frat boy and you can’t believe you ever considered dabbling with hipsterism.
Hey everyone, I easily tracked Steve/Treys IP address right back to Canada even though he thinks he’s hiding it, LOL. Also notice how sensitive he got because we made fun of a Canadian band. (well, not really a band)
GET TO WORK STEVIE, ITS GONNA BE A LONG NIGHT!
Fucking OWNED.
Poor, poor Stevie. I’ll bet his butt hasn’t hurt that badly since the last time he begged his girlfriend to get out the six-foot sandstone strap-on and put on the bunny suit.
Talking of fur suits, I hope you disguised those links as regular porn and not fur suit stuff, so Stevie will be less likely to come across them.
“I placed 5 links to my awesome site in 5 major cities on Craigslist. The catch is….I disguised them as porn links”
Bullshit. You did no such thing. Though you just put your foot in your mouth with your absent-minded comment. You pretty much just admitted that your idiotic blog appeals to nothing but the lowest of the low on the internet. Congratulations, you appeal to the types of people who go trolling on CL for porn…of all people.
You’re just bitter that it’s been over a YEAR and you STILL can’t advertise your lame blog on CL. Your days of free advertising and spamming the Rants and Raves section are over. And by the way, it’s effortless on my behalf to ensure that you’ll never advertise on CL ever again. If only you actually knew something about computers…
.
Is “mocking you” another hipster apologist pipsqueak ?
Judging by the fact you replied to this comment after more than a week, with a different username and an angry bitter tone, I think I can guess what happened.
Also, do you know that by your logic, because you post on here, you “appeal” to the kind of people who hate hipsters? I thought you guys were supposed to be all intellectual and liberal arts educated, so if you’re as intelligent as you say, you should be better at logic than that.
Why are you so obsessed with Craigslist though? Your comments always seem to mention it these days, and you seem to spend half your time fighting battles over Craigslist. How many commenters on here do you honestly think got here through Craigslist?
Don’t bother coming back on here until you can talk about something other than Craigslist and actually address the subject at hand. What’s your opinion of Arcade Fire? What’s your opinion of rafts on the Gowanus Canal? What’s your opinion of organic food? Why do you call yourself a vampire in the first place?
You never say. You just sound like a robot. You’re not just a nuisance, you’re a boring nuisance. You spend all your time attacking a small group of people you claim not to consider important, and defending a subculture that doesn’t seem to accept you.
If you actually did get a beating from a native New Yorker, I think you’d start sending up sparks and malfunctioning. “Zzzt… pathetic… zzzt… bitter… zzzt… Craigslist… zzzt… knuckle draggers… zzzt…”
Jack, we’ve seen the same tired responses from this weasel over and over again. Whenever questioned or asked about his opinions on anything from music to gentrification to culture, this marinette-bodied vampire shemale / 30 year old perpetual community college student clams up like the vapid pathetic loser he is. What a sad, sad little shemale Stevie is.
Hey IKJ!, PS=YT, baby pac, Rabbi Buddy, Strong Punch, grave digger…… Where are you guys?
+1
Missing those voices but glad to see you posting, Bill!
“Hey IKJ!, PS=YT, baby pac, Rabbi Buddy, Strong Punch, grave digger…… Where are you guys?”
They finally found themselves gf’s and grew the fuck up instead of ranting on here day in and day out in the most cowardly way possible like the rest of you imbeciles.
Lately, any time I’ve gone to Craigslist and typed in “hipster” or “hipsters”, I don’t get his moronic diatribes anymore. I think we can safely say Craig banned him and that’s why his estrogen is acting up.
I’m just glad I’m not that poor bunny.
Oooh you got me, Steve. I’m quite critical of my own writing. But as a copywriter, not only do I make money writing, but my clients benefit as well.
Doubt you could claim the same, douche.
You’re post’s are the nerdyest Ive ever seen Stevie!
This is not about being for or against anything – a culture or a band.
It’s a simple question: did you listen to all the Grammy nominees in order to make an educated choice as to who deserves Album of the Year? Or do you just let Rosanna Scotto do all the thinking for you?
Read my lips: I DON’T LIKE ARCADE FIRE.
THEY WOULDN’T WIN ANY AWARDS THAT I’M JUDGING, except maybe an award for being annoying.
I’m not being closed minded, I just don’t like them that much. I don’t happen to be a huge fan of the other nominees either, but they don’t actively get on my nerves in the same way. (Well, Katy Perry’s husband does, but that’s a different matter.)
What’s so hard to understand about that?
Quite simple: do not judge things you don’t know anything about. Certainly don’t publicly write about it.
The real irony here is that Diehipster comes off as the Jack Black character in “High Fidelity,” pretty much the model for your hipster stereotypes.
James Crackcorn,
The opinion you express is a totally WRONG opinion ; NOT “wrong to us” or “wrong to me” , but totally wrong period .
The opinion you have expressed deserves NO respect whatsoever…NOT even the tiniest respect .
Hipster apologetics is as trashy and insipid as being a hipster .
Postmodernism/relativism be dammed !
Ambivalence be dammed !
What makes you think I don’t know anything about Arcade Fire? I’ve listened to them. I wasn’t impressed.
It works like this.
1) There’s a band.
2) I don’t like them.
Do I have to make this more obvious?
I’m going to make an educated guess that you don’t like Eminem, for instance. If he’d won the Grammy, would you have been a happy vampire?
You could at least give some reasons for defending Arcade Fire, since you haven’t actually bothered to say what you think of them yet.
Are you two in high school or sumpthin’?
No, I don’t care who wins Grammys. N one should care since George Michael took it home with “Faith.”
Again, all I’m saying is quite simple: if ya wanna be a music critic, take the time to actually listen to the albums.
I read a review of that band, in one of the magazines I had a subscription , back in 2007 .
The author (Sasha Frere Jones) lauded them in passing, because the lyrics to one of their songs had a conflicted /ambiguous / ambivalent message about it . <—How goofy!
Typical hipster ideology of relativism /postmodernism (i.e. sellout thinking)…goofy .
If anything comes about as a backlash against the hipster phenomenon, one hopes it will be a larger indictment *against* relativism/ postmodernism .
Hopefully , the momentum of hating hipsterism will build into a greater momentum of hating relativism/ postmodernism in all its manifestations … hating the tendency to tolerate ambiguity …the evil , namby pamby tendency towards respecting crass opinions for the sake of mere balance / the middle ground .
It is that conflicted , namby pamby thinking that oinks out trite , namby pamby crap like the memes which claim that "what is true or right for someone else , might not be right for…or "to" them" …that sellout thinking that so much of the television influenced world along with much of academia has been mired in since the mid 1990's .
It is high time that relativism / postmodernism (sellout thinking) be permanently shafted to oblivion…along with the equivocal , squishy type of thinking called *lateral thinking* that has ruined much of the education system …and tends to accompany such relativist ideology .
Lateral thinking —fostered as it is by the fast and loose media—has led to a decline in the standards of both public and private discourse. Acumen has been compromised out of an insipid desire for flexibility .
Hopefully, the backlash against hipsters will amplify into a greater backlash against all relativism (including manifestations of relativist
ANTI-philosophy in other subcultures and in the thinking of people who unfortunately have embraced relativism , even if they do not affiliate with any subculture ) .
It is high time that people give relativism / postmodernism …the inchoate desire for balance , NO quarter but be totally maximal in rejecting it !
It is NOT that relativism has somehow "gone overboard" …relativism / postmodernism has NO good points whatsoever .
People ought to be single minded in rejecting it as wrongheaded, duplictious …epistemically unsound .
It is high time people acknowledge that there should NEVER be any intrinsic give and take with matters of principle .
Any compromise on matters of principle should be merely cosmetic , *extrinsic*, and *temporary* .
To have any fundamental give and take on matters of principle is selling out …and , hence, always wrong .
Give and take with personal needs of the personal self is well and good . In contrast, give and take with matters of principle is always bad and wrong .
Shades of gray are NO substitute for accuracy and truth .
What is long overdue is that people should be unabashed in striving for perfection , that people indeed should strive to be purists and single minded …instead of ambivalent and flexible .
It is long overdue that people should seek to prevent what author William Stafford called ,
'the small betrayal in the mind / the *shrug* that lets the fragile sequence break '.
Here below is an excerpt from a post I posted in another message board , in 2007. The essay was titled ‘Sasha Frere Jones Writes Rubbish’.
In the post , I quote from (and go on to denounce) a music review by the New Yorker magazine editorialist Sasha Frere Jones : a person who reveals themself to be a hipster apologist , by praising the lyrics of the hipster/indie band ‘Arcade Fire’ for having ambiguity in the lyrical content .
Sasha Frere Jones is yet another example of a pro hipster voice , which displays thinking similar to that of the character Pomo Kid from the story ‘Pomo Kid and The Misadventure In Time ‘: thinking characterized by militant ambivalence / tolerance of ambiguity (i.e. sellout thinking) .
Now on to the excerpt …
FROM SASHA FRERE JONES WRITES RUBBISH
SASHA FRERE JONES WRITES RUBBISH !
(A somewhat brief essay on the vulgarity of the fashionably conflicted)
At first I was inclined to title the present essay ‘Sign of The Times’ to express the potentially infinite exasperation with finding yet another example of relativism/ambivalent thinking ( i.e. sell-out thinking) . But I decided to title it ‘ Sasha Frere Jones writes rubbish’ instead, in hopes that the Internet search engine classification might present it in such a manner that all those who are looking to research the writings of Sasha Frere-Jones would find the present text and read it .
I have a subscription to the New Yorker magazine : a magazine that from time to time has some noteworthy , remarkable items such as : occasionally good articles, verse, comics, and photos . Yet often one has to sift through the dung (figuratively speaking) to find the gems and , of course, disentangle the gems from the dung . For much of the New Yorker has articles that are quite besotted with that ( ever so popular in this present weird decade) murky ideology , mood of ambivalence /respecting opinions for the sake of balance , which is to say: SELL-OUT THINKING .
Such sell-out thinking is often called relativism , postmodernism, poststructuralism, tolerant of ambiguity and a host of other names and phrases .
Like the Legion that went into the Gaderene swine and drowned them —it’s names are many !
Well it just so happens that out of mild curiousity I read a musical review by a writer named Sasha Frere-Jones in the Februrary 19-26, 2007 issue of the New Yorker, titled ‘ BIG TIME’ . It was a musical review of a musical band from Canada named ‘ Arcade Fire ‘ (a band who, a number of weekends ago, I had seen perform some music as guest performers on the televised comedy show Saturday Night Live) .
The band itself (due to some rather unusual voice intonations vocalized by the singers) inspired some mild curiousity .
To be fair to the reviewer ( Sasha Frere-Jones) , let it be understood that I don’t wish to make a blanket indictment of every article that he/or she has written as a reviewer or editorialist —since I haven’t read every article that they have ever written (presuming that they have written other articles than the one I read, and that’s probably a safe wager) .
In titling the present essay: ‘Sasha Frere- Jones writes rubbish ‘ , I wished to reveal how the article written by Sasha Frere-Jones titled ‘ BIG TIME’ does indeed contain putrid, de-edifying , ugly-minded thinking .
The attitude expressed in a clause found in a key paragraph which reveals the ideology (from which the reviewer is approaching the topic of that band and their music) is INDEED A SIGN OF THE SORDID ERA of the zeros (or whatever you call this present dodgy decade) . It is but yet another muck droplet in a cresting wave of muck, in a raging sea of cultural muck and mire !
So let’s cut to the proverbial chase..What did Sasha Frere Jones write that was so pathetic?(you may be asking)
Well here below follows a direct quote from Sasha Frere -Jones taken from the article “BIG TIME’ ( of the Februrary 19-26, 2007 issue of the New Yorker) regarding the music of the band ‘Arcade Fire’ .
“One of the album’s most rousing tracks–which should
have been a hit but wasn’t —–is ‘ Rebellion (Lies)’ .
Over a pounding bass-and-piano ostinato, Butler rails against sleep—’giving in’ , in his words and calls out, ‘ People say that your dreams are the only things that save you.
Come on baby, in our dreams , we can live our misbehavior ‘ .
When Butler punctuates the verse with the words
‘ Every time you close your eyes,” the band cheerily chants back, ‘ Lies, lies !’
(In Arcade Fire, more is always better : if five band members are available to sing, five will sing) It’s unclear whether the chorus means to call the singer a liar,
or whether lies are what surround us as we sleep, the ambiguity saves the song from
pomposity .”
It is that pathetic last clause , which reads “the ambiguity saves the song from pomposity” that is the tell-tale sign of decadent, murky thinking .
!
In my view I never needed anything more than to look at her name.
TILT
Just watch: in another year, Arcade Fire will be nothing but a trivia question. That’s par for the course for the Grammys: incessant cock-slobbing for flash-in-the-pans that break up six months after the big win (or blatant frauds such as Milli Vanilli), while deserving acts that don’t pay to play get bupkis. These days, the Razzies have more relevance as a major award than the Grammys. Give these guys a year, and if the lead singer isn’t dead from a heroin overdose, they’ll be braying as loudly as they can about their big comeback.
Oh, TTR, heroin is SO Kurt you know. Totally 90s.
More like they’ll be hired to write ad campaign music for the new Apple iWank.
And then will turn their millions into some Charitable Nonprofit that makes sure that poor children in Africa (you know, that big exciting nation) get to taste Mast Bros chocolate. Hey, it’s as good an excuse as any to have a jet set lifestyle while pretending to be Saving Humanity.
Arcade Fire started their US career on a small independent record label based out of the area of NC I live in, and the Avett Brothers are locals. Trust, the hipsters here were losing their SHIT!
I admit to liking a couple of their songs, but the rest of the time I make fun of them.
They’re really ugly too.
I hate hipster bands. I used to watch a lot of Late Night with Conan and he had his share of indie bands that were all virtually indistinguishable from one another. No passion, gusto, or hormones. Music perfect for picking out a new shirt at the Gap.
Whatever happened to good music? I might be an old fogie but back in the day it was easy to pick the different bands apart from each other. The vocalists were all distinctive as where the various guitarists and musicians.
My god….can you imagine what a typical 20-30 something indie music fan would think of something like ELP’s Karn Evil 9? Their heads would likely explode.
Im 31, virtually everything i listen to is 20 years old. The last 10-15 years has been wall to wall shite.
I’m 44, and I couldn’t agree with you more. Back in the very early Eighties, music was as bad as it is now, with lots of proto-whiner rock from Quarterflash and Phil Collins stinking up the radio. Sales were down, and as now, the music industry blamed piracy instead of putting out shitty music. Every once in a while, something interesting would rise from the muck, but it was promptly buried in more bland crap. By 1989, though, it finally looked as if enough people were rebelling as to what was being shoved down our throats that rock music itself might change.
Silly me: I wasn’t only building dream castles. I was measuring for drapes and planning to move in at the end of the month. ’89 was when Geffen Records practically copyrighted the term “indie”, after testing it out with Edie Brickell a year before. Within three years, any number of pathetic corporate acts were seeping onto the airwaves like a greasy fart from underneath a blanket, and you couldn’t step on them hard enough to kill them. Bush, Stone Temple Pilots, Pearl Jam, Ugly Kid Joe, Foo Fighters, Marcy Playground…they were all indie because the label said so, and so they got airplay because those labels offered enough payola to keep them propped for a while.
(Back in ’94, Dallas had a radio station on the Z-Rock network, and since our three “rock” stations had gone into full “all-Nirvana, all-the-time” mode, I listened to Z-Rock for lack of any alternatives. Z-Rock knew which way the payola was blowing, so its programmers suddenly loaded up on the whiner rock, and you couldn’t hear any real rock until after 10 at night or so. The day Kurt Cobain blew his tiny brains out, Z-Rock ran “a tribute to Seattle bands”, which consisted of playing the whole three approved and paid for acts that were already in saturation play. When this tribute started playing Stone Temple Pilots’s “Plush,” I blew up and called the station. I got the afternoon DJ, who was also the programming director, and when I asked “Why the hell are you running a Los Angeles band and claiming they’re from Seattle?”, she told me “Well, they sound like they’re from Seattle.” Just like Geffen suing Neil Young for making a Neil Young album that didn’t fit Geffen’s idea of what a Neil Young Album was supposed to sound like, Geffen had already decided the chorus of the Seattle Sound: “WAAAAAAAAAH!”)
Believe it or not, there’s a good side. For all of the justified complaints about hipsters and iPods, we can still get decent music, and play it when all around us is beardo rock. Good music won’t go away: all we need to do is wait for things to come to a head and the Powers That Be realize that they can’t make any money off the latest whiner rock compilation. And that’s when we lance that zit and let it drain.
We had something similar over here in the 90s, in the form of Britpop. I was too young to remember most of it, apart from being vaguely aware that Blur and Oasis were being played everywhere, but there was a kind of short revival about five years ago – pretty much when everyone in the media was hyping up the Arctic Monkeys and thought they could manufacture a second wave.
Britpop always seemed to me to be our equivalent of country, with the jingoistic fans who liked it just because it was British. There are still a lot of people and places who say they play rock music when what they actually mean is that they play Britpop (and you’d better not complain about it), and the lyrics had the kind of narrow focus that a Confederate flag-waving country fan would recognise.
I’m not going to say that all Britpop was bad, but a lot of it was. Oasis were not so much bad as mediocre – fine as a drunken sing-along band in the rugby club, but never much more than that. But the media had to have something to hype up to compete with grunge, so we had the stories about how they were “the new Beatles” because they used an old John Lennon riff in a song. A whole fad, and the Gallagher brothers’ egos, got made up in the process.
These days the first wave of Britpop bands are a bit discredited, mainly because they tried to bring politics into things and became too associated with Tony Blair for most people’s liking. But if you’re going to be a successful rock band over here, you’re still expected to have jangly guitars, lame “socially conscious” lyrics and a fake Cockney / fake Northern accent despite being from Surrey. (By the way, I’m not good at recognising different American accents, so do the Brooklyn hipster bands keep their Midwestern accents when they sing, or do they try to fake a Brooklyn accent?)
In fairness to Britpop – and grunge, for that matter – the quality of the recording in both tended to be fine, and the bands did generally have rhythm sections and were capable of being loud. So guess what got changed when those genres merged into our respective indie scenes, just to cause a little extra annoyance? Josh Homme – in my opinion one of the only guys who can make lo-fi indie-style recording sound like it has some guts – tried to do this with Arctic Monkeys, and the sweaters and chunky glasses crowd actually got angry. And then the BNP supporters among them started complaining about how they left the country to record it.
I’d rather listen to Neil Young’s “un-Neil Young-like” 80s albums any day, and he was actually going out of his way to make those sound bad.
I would have to disagree about Foo Fighters being whiner rock though. Good solid band with talented musicians and a proper rhythm section, who don’t act pretentious or take themselves too seriously.
Hi Jack ,
Your country had some of the most amazing music– back in the late 1960′s and early 1970′s– with the truly ethereal (NOT pretend , halfway ethereal) British psychedelic rock and folk rock .
Bands like the Moody Blues, Cream: with Ginger Baker, also Pentangle with John Renborne , Jacqui Mc Shee and others, early Pink Floyd when they still had Syd Barrett, and other bands of that sort kicked ass !
That sort of music was positively Orphic and mystical : it could make one see colours in the mind . It lent itself to synesthesia .
Britpop with bands like Oasis was passable…okay .
Some of that shoegaze music (like the music of the Catherine Wheel) had more promise, though it didn’t hold a candle to the amazing psychedelic rock of the 1960′s and 1970 .
Indie music is the all time sonic dregs , thus far . Squish .
Your country still though has one of the most amazing folk singers , nay one of the most amazing musicians of all time : the impeccable Vashti Bunyan .
She sings and plays genuine folk music: music with character, grandeur , and sublimity ..singing and playing with resonant pure tones …
The music is UNlike that amorphous charade of droning , MTV era , postmodern indie trash that pretends to be folk .
The Scottish singer from the 1970′s: Al Stewart, who sang ‘Year of The Cat’ and ‘Time Passages’, also made remarkable music !
I would pretty much go along with that. Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson are also worth a mention – both really underrated.
Yes, Bert Jansch .He rocks !
I was there, indeed it was blur or oasis. I preferred pulp myself as well as a few others. It wasnt all bad- blur had two decent albums before britpop exploded.
Well, I haven’t liked ANYTHING since The Buzzcocks.
Hipsters/ scenesters display a worse quality than apathy. They are NOT apathetic. They are ambivalent / tolerant of ambiguity .
Even apathy is better than that postmodernist ambivalence. The postmodern/ ambivalent people betray in thought in any good cause they might occasionally do lip service or do activisim for , with that goofy, flexible/ conflicted , MTV era thinking .
Such ambivalence makes every stance (such as if they take a stand on an issue that counts for something important such as enviromentalism ….NOT the adolescent no pants subway rides that don’t count for anything important anyway) an *anticlimatic* one . For as postmodernists they allege that there allegedly is no ultimacy to truth , merely opinions.
Of course they are , after all, totally wrong about that . There are NO “shades of gray” to truth …and truth is NOT and NEVER has been relative to opinion nor so-called “perspective” .
“What Happens in Vagueness Stays in Vagueness”
http://www.city-journal.org/2011/21_1_snd-american-english.html
I kiss your nose.
I missed this issue of City Journal. THANK YOU.
I see that Stevie’s latest idea was to try and think of some terribly droll and biting metaphors to describe us.
With that in mind, here’s Edmund Blackadder describing Stevie (starts 3:45).
If only it were to end like this:
If hipsters were truly concerned with following trends and chasing “cool”, they would be fans of Lady Gaga and whatever pop-crap is on the radio today. They can always say they are only liking it “ironically” of course.
Their concerned with following trends allright, just more specialized , dystopian /urban decay sort of specialized kitsch trends .
Indie music is just as prosaic and banal as any of that G-dawg, rap music that talks about women with big butts and “livin large” with the “homeys in the crib” , as well as preppie style pop music , or grungie heavy metal noise .
The difference is that the latter: G-dawg music , preppie- jock pop music, and typical heavy metal –though it is as equally prosaic, mundane, banal and worthless as indie music , is NOT pretentious. It is the pretense of that goofy Indie music trying to appear arty and deep when it is NOT …that makes Indie music far *worse *than G-dawg rap, preppie pop, and typical heavy metal .
Indie music tries to adopt a mystique of counterfeiting something good (like folk music ect) , yet as a counterfeit it is not even a plausible one …since it reeks of the bourgeous , MTV sensibility of suburbia .
It is funny that Arcade Fire would title their album “Suburbia”, since the karma chameleon sensibility of the hipsters is a product of affluent , conformist, t.v.- influenced suburbia !
Looks like some people will do anything to live in Billyburg.
http://www.wpix.com/wpix-woman-responding-to-craigslist-ad-held-as-sex-slave-20110215,0,5714168.story
Funemployed: ARCADE FIRE HIPSTER ATTACK
Funemployed. Now there’s a word I keep forgetting to use to describe the hipsters. Thanks for reminding me.
Indie music all sounds the same to me- nasally, poorly recorded. I’ll admit that Franz Ferdinand’s first hit single Take me Out was decent, primarily because it had a good beat. Other than that it all sucks, and as far as I’m concerned they can take a wrong turn in front of a cafe where some Serbian nationalist has just finished his sandwich…
I dont care about top 40, I just like the fact that the most vain, vapid, & self-loathing have beaten the flamboyant.
Yah hipster bands!
i think it’s amusing how much of a commotion people are making about this. does anyone actually take the grammy awards seriously? they picked arcade fire for the same reason the oscar people pick movies like ‘crash’; it’s an incredibly white-bread-safe way to appear culturally relevant.
plus, arcade fire is as indie as coldplay.
Yeah, but it’s still good that an example of people hating hipsters is being highlighted.
That’s actually a great point, and these award shows are nothing but politics and ratings. I feel like Arcade Fire was chosen to “surprise” people, or instill the most “what the…??” reaction in people.
Case in point, this blog post.
It’s interesting how a post about music caused Stevie to come back out of the woodwork. The hipsters don’t much care about the effects of gentrification or the reasons not to act like a 7-year-old in public, but bash one of their precious cultural touchstones like indie music and they get all upset. They really do care that much about people disagreeing with them on matters of taste. Pathetic.
Here are some indie lyrics from 100 years ago:
Arcade Fire Disease is contagious:
Now that Arcade Fire has won a Grammy, I can hear the hipster fungi saying “like Yah, Arcade Fire, I personally discovered them myself, on Pitchspork, like, when nobody heard of them, because I’m like, so much more culturally advanced than most people”.
A few years ago a lot of those same cretins were begging their parents to take them to the Jesse McCartney and -insert other Disney products here- shows for their birthdays. I used to see groups of them on the train with their moms going to those shows, and once in a great while a dad would pitch in and chaperone too. Those dads were some of the saddest looking people on the planet.
lol! Justin Beibert & Lady Gaga have to street perform on the L train stop in Union Square. Only then will they be relevant to Pitchfork lovers.
Dude! What’s that thing that meghan is playing? It looks like some sort of antique, hand-powered kazoolaphone!
SO authentically deck!
Hahahahahahahaahahahahhaa!
The modern day kazoolaphone (as we know it) is much lighter and easier to maneuver on subways in gentrified neighborhoods. It also relies more on nasal wheezing as opposed to spastic rhythmless movements performed by soulless, gentrifying Wonderbread doofuses.
This reminds me of the “Revenge of the Nerds” party scene where the girl is playing the accordion. I’m so happy that I don’t commute to my office at that stop because I would have to take a few heads out for fucking up my day with this irritating, deluded-adult-toddler-wannabe-urban nonsense. How did this once great diverse city ever go from Ella Fitzgerald to Héctor Lavoe to Boogie Down to Agnostic Front to this lame, pathetic excuse for music????
That meghan sounds so annoying.
No, they’ll be saying, “I only like OLD Arcade Fire.”
Can someone please “accidentally” trip on the platform and spill a cup of boiling hot coffee over these types? Or maybe an extra large jar of thumbtacks? Or a can of paint? Something? Anything? We have buskers in my city, but they’re generally unassuming guitarists or jazz trumpeters who know their stuff. Not attention-starved assholes where music goes to die.
I’ve been fortunate so far.
Nothing both saddens me and lifts my spirits more than hearing a virtuoso street musician.
I notice the hirsute goofballs always gravitate toward the annoying instruments (at least when not played competently) –
accordions, kazoos, ukeleeles (thank you fucking “Train” for that annoying song).
All that’s left are spoons, bowed saws, jaw harps and combs covered in wax paper.
The key phrase is when ‘not played completely’.
Those are fine instruments when played by musicians who are trying to make good music—NOT indie trash for hipsters .
Blue Man Group on Estrogen.
I’d give my left nut to see Pete Towshend come out of nowher, crush their eggshell skulls with his SG and throw them on the track ala’ Abbie Hoffman.
Imagine if Arcade Fire would have lost.
This would have been every hipster in North America:
The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences?
Isn’t that the same august body that awarded Jethro Tull the award for “Best Hard Rock/Metal vocal / performance Award” in 1989?
The other nominee was a little band known as “Metallica”.
Could we stop now?
Stop what?
You could stop coming on here passively defending hipsters all the time. That would be a good start.
I never said anything on this or any other post anywhere on the internet in defense of the grammys. In fact I made comments on this very comment section to the contrary. I also agree 100% with your critisism of them because Jethro Tull got a grammy for heavy metal or hard rock or whatever. I’ve heard every modern and hard rock DJ in the country make the same argument, but I still agree with it.
So I’m not sure what I need to stop.
If we hurt your feelings because you like Arcade Fire I don’t know what to tell you, aside from “there’s a weird reclusive wannabe vampire in Canada somewhere who seems to share your want for us to stop bashing this terrible Canadian pop band”.
And yes, regardless of what anyone says to the contrary, I would certainly label Arcade Fire as a pop band.
Huh?
1 – “Passively defending hipsters”?
Calling you meatheads out when you talk like idiots is hardly defending hipsters.
2- Find and quote a post where I mention, comment or refer to the Arcade Fire.
3 – With the exception of the comments courtesy of our Canadian friend and yours truly, this entire thread has devolved into a high school, face in/out of the bong 16 oz. Old Style rant about what is cool and what isn’t. Are we gonna start in on Ace Frehley vs. Jimmy Page / Firehouse vs. Husker Du / Beatles vs. Stones / Sonic Youth vs. Television / ad nauseum? Who the fuck cares? We like what we like and we all win.
Yeesh.
Lately the only thing I see you comment here is some sort of passive aggressive shot at someone else’s comment. That is almost always interpreted by me to be in defense of whatever hipster quality the original commenter is making fun of.
This is by far the most words I’ve seen you put up here in probably a year.
The majority of this thread is a bunch of stupid ass “my band is better than your band” bullshit. But you’ll notice I didn’t engage in any of those conversations. I took a few shots at Stevie because it’s so easy and fun, and I posted this video because I think it’s funny and also really sad that anyone cares this much about either Justin Bieber or Arcade Fire, or any band for that matter.
If you haven’t notices, likening 30-year old douchebags to the little kids they act like is kind of what I do here. So if that’s what you were asking me to stop, I’ll respectfully decline.
None of us care. Spank your cock.
James Crackcorn , you hipster apologist, wanted to remind you that the hipster defending opinions you support are totally wrong .
Who are “us”? Vampires?
Ha!
Either that or boys who look like women.
You sir, are a fagmo. There is no way you spend this much time on this gay site and get laid.
Here’s a generalization for ya – all bloggers (and their gumshoes) are all fat, bitter virgins, who would rather rant on about bullshit then actually go out and meet a woman.
If you guys represent “real” New Yorkes – why don’t any one of you show how you make New York great? You don’t, because you’re too busy getting cum and cheese doodle residue on your keyboard.
James Crackcorn,
You are full of baloney .
I happen to be very skinny . Tall and skinny –skinnier than a number of those hipsters, which you apparently may wish to defend .
Keep the puerile fantasies you have about seminal fluid to your self , you vulgarian ally of hipster flotsam and jetsam …
I check this site two or three times per day on week days during my breaks from my JOB because it almost always brings a smile to my face to laugh at you pathetic excuses for men and your ugly as pastey stinky women.
And then once in a great while on the weekends.
It appears you on are on here much more than me lately, as you’ve been engaged in almost every conversation on here, while I only a select few.
But whatever, the point of this reply is not to defend how I spend my internet time.
And I certainly don’t need to defend myself against being a “fagmo”, whatever that is. But I will assure you that am most certainly not gay and have had my share of women. Not tons of randoms or anything like that, but plenty of good, non-meghany women who are attractive, don’t dress like filthy peasants, and who smile nice and LOVE my company. My FAT ASS company.
Yet I felt the need to reply to make one point. One that, if you have any sense of reason in your puny little emaciated canukian body, should shut you down for a while:
You’ve been on here for days talking about “how can you judge a band if you’ve never heard their music”. Well I ask you, how can you judge all bloggers and all blog commenters without having met every singe one?
Jethro Tull was a damn good band !
The best hard rock award should go to Mountain : the awesome late 1960′s early 1970′s band with Leslie West, Felix Pappalardi and company .They had a sound that was loud and rocking , yet still sonorous —with remarkable lyrics .
As far as Canadian bands go …the band ‘Blood , Sweat, and Tears’ was a damn good Canadian band !
YES!
can’t forget Rush. They’re not everyon’es cup of chai but they’re phenomenal musicians.
You sir, are breath of fresh air!
Mountain! Yes!
It is good to meet a fellow Mountain fan .
Yes, their music has character !
WOAHHHHHHHH! Mountain!
Cowbell!
I LOVED Nantucket Sleighride. Had it on the playlist of the ’70s community radio station in Philly where I worked.
Nantucket Sleighride is amazing .
It almost has a hymn like cadence.
The keyboard that sounds like a church organ has such a majestic , oceanic , and imperious sound that weaves in and out of the intricate guitar work and the inimitable voice of Felix Pappalardi .
Wish there were bands of that caliber today !
So I asked this God a question
and by way of firm rely
he said “I’m not the kind you have to wind up
on Sunady”
All I have to say is, if they weren’t mainstream before winning the Grammy, they will be soon. All I’ve been hearing is “Arcade Fire” this and “Arcade Fire” that for the past few days.
What I don’t understand at all, is the hipster’s unbridled love for indie music sweethearts, but when the “average joe” decides the music is decent, the hipster wrinkles his nose like he just caught a big whiff of his own flaming pile of shit.
Kind of like this…
http://www.hulu.com/watch/210886/portlandia-this-bar-is-over
lol! That is basically the Hipster fashion cycle but its usually faster than a year!
“Arcade Fire is so over”
Now all the lamestreamers will want to know Arcade Fire cuz its anthem rock for suburban gentrifiers invading Brooklyn!
Suburban gentrifiers indeed.
And this guy is their golden idol (no pun intended): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Win_Butler
He toughed it out on the rough streets of…Exeter??
It is really odd for me to think that any grown folks were raised in The Woodlands, TX. That “town” can’t be more than 20 years old.
But, obviously 20 years is plenty of time to raise a normal hardworking child to adulthood, and enough time to raise a hipster to his pre-teens.
I guess I’m just an old man.
I’m surprised at everyone considering this band underground, including hipsters. They already suffered a mild hipster backlash with their 2nd album in 2006. David Bowie sang with them in 2005, they opened for U2 in 2006. Can you get more mainstream than that?
The English magazines aimed at Classic Rock bores have been trumpeting them as the best thing ever since the first album, as do the music websites I read. I got into a debate once with a guy who was into Sonic Youth and also these guys, who would never STFU about them. The latest album has been compared to Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. It’s classic rock!
There’s also god-awful solo albums by the lead singer and various members of the inflated line-up that I’ve had shoved down my throat by all and sundry.
I live in a small country town in Australia, and the only vinyl record I’ve ever seen in the national chain JB-Hi Fi was ‘The Suburbs’.
I can’t stand them, or their music, but they seem to appeal to a widespread enough demographic of listeners that we’re going to be stuck with them for a long time.
More mainstream:
2 Saturday Night Live, 3 David Letterman appearances.
Album #2 debuted at #2 on the Billboard Top 200 and UK Top 40 charts in 2006.
Sang with Bruce Springsteen.
Song on a Red Hot Compilation.
Song on Six Feet Under.
Song on trailer for ‘Where The Wild Things Are’.
‘The Suburbs’ debuts at #1 in Canada, The Billboard Top 200, The UK Top 40 and The Irish Music Charts.
Do people not pay attention to the number one record in the country any more? It even got to #6 in Australia, and that doesn’t happen for hipster music.
Critically acclaimed by in the top 10 albums of 2010 by Spin, NME, Q, Rolling Stone, Uncut, Paste, Time, Billboard and Triple J, all mainstream sources, except for Pitchfork Media.
It is hard to imagine that anyone would compare the music of some Indie band to the rugged, great music classic rock musicians like Bruce Springsteen or Neil Young .
I know, but they do!
Here’s the boss playing with them:
Eegaads. What has happened to the Boss that he would play with the likes of a hipster band ?
Perhaps he took pity on them and wanted to expose them to good music , which they weren’t used to ..
[...] Muzyka ===================== A czego słucha hipster? Przede wszystkim indie i alternatywy (i ich setki odmian tj indie folk, twee pop) a jakże inaczej. Problem jedynie leży w określeniu gatunków, np czym jest indie? Definicja niezależnej wytwórni już dawno upadła, ludzie tagują indie na Last.fm (hipster musi mieć Last.fm, for sure) od Belle & Sebastian, przez Coldplay aż po Katy Perry. Przyznam, że też jestem z tych tagujących na Last.fm, zawsze wiem co jest indie a co nie, ale jak wyjaśnić taki wybór? Zresztą pojemność znaczeniowa tych nowych gatunków muzycznych jest tak obszerna jak pop, rock razem wzięte. A i tak wiadomo, że hipster słucha m.in. Radiohead, ekscentrycznego Devendre Banhart, MGMT czy Belle & Sebastian (którzy grają 19.04 w Warszawie pierwszy koncert w Polsce, będzie wylew hipsterów). Ostatnio prestiżowe Grammy na najlepszy album roku wygrał hipsterski zespół Arcade Fire z ‘The Suburbs’, co natychmiast się wrogom alternatywnego ruchu niespodobało. [...]
[...] album roku wygrał hipsterski zespół Arcade Fire z ‘The Suburbs’, co natychmiast wrogom alternatywnego ruchu się niespodobało. (Belle & Sebastion grają 19.04, a Arcade Fire 24.06 idę zobaczyć ten wysyp [...]
Lady Gaga and Eminem, good musicians?
you must be out of your mind. music has been dead for at least 25 years now. and that’s being extremely lenient.
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