So when does a pallid copy of the past cease to be a pallid copy of the past? It is simply when enough time has gone by, that everyone has forgotten how rush-of-blood energising this music can be?
Sure, this sounds like some marketing man's or Bob Stanley's dream of what C86 sounded like (but NEVER really did), or a Pitchfork critic's vision of indiepop 2009, but does that make it any good? Really? Sure, there's some C86 in there - if by C86, we're talking the (spit) Close Lobsters, or a fifth generation copy of The Wedding Present. My wife was way more into cutie than I ever was and even she immediately had this down as "generic indie".
Listen up. I'm genuinely intrigued. What the hell is the appeal of this band? Is it simply that their fans have never heard The Wedding Present, Heavenly, the bloody Smiths, The Field Mice, Vivian Girls, Brilliant Colors, Liechtenstein, etc etc etc?
Why don't they just call themselves The American Smiths and be done with it?
P.S. In response to the blogger who reckoned that I have no past form when it comes to writing about cutie music. Um. That would be right. Yep. That would be about right. (Etc, etc, etc.)
I've said this elsewhere, and I'm aware it makes me sound like a snotty 'i liked them before they....' response, but honestly, I DID love the first few songs/recordings i heard. Sure, they did sound 'generic', but fuck it, if i was 16 again it wouldn't so hey ho. That said, i was sorely dissappointed by the album. Still can't decide if that's because a) it all sounded too clean on CD after the scratchy 7"s b) the initial adrenaline rush was gone and i was just feeling arsey, old and grumpy c) they suddenly seemed to be very 'indie trendy'. Or indeed any combination of a, b and c.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I still struggle to see pretty much ANYthing of interest in Vivian Girls, and I'm still to be convinced of the greatness of Liechtenstein aside from that one song you posted a while back. And really, i do think that if you're going to tar The Pains... with that 'generic' indie-revisionist-by-numbers brush, you have to use the same brush for those groups as well. Just dip the brush into a different pot of 'original source' colour.
pallid copies of the past tend to be more interesting than pallid copies of the present, think for a lot of people who were into cutie before the recent revivalist thing it wasn't a lack of bands, it was that most of them don't play anymore, or at least not in the way they did originally and it's a lot harder to feel ownership of music that was made before you were born, you're never really part of it. think pains and their fans wanted that back, like all of the punk bands that have been formed by kids who weren't born till the 80s and copied what they thought it was rather than trying to recreate what it meant to them in their own voices (like hardcore). That said some of their stuffs quite good, I like the bits that sound exactly like the field mice more than what northern picture library or trembling blue stars did. it'd be better if they times new viking'd the production.
ReplyDeleteI shared your suspicions initially ET, and was all set to hate, but you must listen to them outside of cultural context and learn to love them, for their record is just so basically good & right they might as well be crowned our new overlords:
ReplyDeletehttp://stereosanctity.blogspot.com/2009/05/youre-all-my-sisters.html
(Lifted from a reply on Drowned In Sound)
ReplyDeleteI'm genuinely perplexed that folk would listen to something that amounts to the equivalent of Bjorn Again and ABBA or The Bootleg Beatles and The Beatles.
I mean, I've seen both those tribute bands perform live, and thoroughly enjoyed them - but I sure as fuck wouldn't listen to them on record.
Ah, originality's overrated. Everybody's always trying to sound like somebody else... it's only when they suceed too well that you've got a problem.
ReplyDeleteI don't think The Pains sound overly reverential toward 80s indie - they're mixing it up with a good bit of oomph and racket and distinctive writing - but then, I didn't grow up with that stuff anyway, so I probably just care less.
Yeah, right enough. Originality IS overrated. I can't believe I'm letting myself be suckered into attacking something over that. That's never bothered me.
ReplyDeleteI guess then, for me, TPOBPAH must be suffering from something else: a lack of heart or irreverence or a cleaned-up sound or simple lacklustre-sounding songs or whatever. They're too in awe of the bands they're taking their primary influences from to do anything with those influences.
Or maybe it just comes down to the fact I never really liked The Smiths that much in the first place.
I will give them another try, Ben. I have respect for yr views.
ReplyDeleteAw, thanks dude!
ReplyDeleteStart by playing track 4 on the album really loud.
Actually, the one thing that irks me about The Pains is that I wish the singer would just shout it all instead of doing the 'weedy mannered voice' thing, but that aside... there's nothing not good about that song.
I can't stand The Smiths and their more obvious followers btw - they're pretty much the antithesis of everything I want to hear in pop/rock music, although I'll gladly shut up about that out of respect for the many people I know who seem to find endless enjoyment in their stuff etc etc.