NO-CORE blog

Outside of the world of noise/no-wave/weirdo rock and bands I have actually played shows with, I really know very little about what’s supposed to be hip – but living as I do in hipster central I keep hearing all these band names, and sometimes I wonder if there’s anything there worth a listen. So I was on a long flight recently and they had album listening on demand, including an “alternative” category. I thought it might be fun to take a little browse of some band names I’ve heard and give my impressions. I know I’ve never done negative reviews before and I might dislike much of what I hear, but I thought this might be educational for me and fun for anyone else to experience my reactions. Anyone inclined to take this a little too seriously ought to see the *DISCLAIMER at the bottom of this post.

And here we go…

Dirty Projectors

First up: Dirty Projectors “Bitte Orca” – an unnamed acquaintance had told me this band was the worst live show he’s ever seen, but they are name-dropped about once every 15 seconds in Brooklyn, so let’s see. After a too-long opening of someone enamored with the effects they can apply to their guitar in Garageband it’s straight into over-the-top cutesy vocalness. Oh man, I don’t know if I can take this. That same acquaintance said that this band sounds kind of like Dave Matthews Band and I can hear that. At least the songwriting is straight alt rock sappiness – Dave Matthews meets Gin Blossoms but with that overbearing twee-cutesy-pie singing. Ouch. Next few songs start the same. Can’t take any more. Next.

White Denim

White Denim “Fits” – I’ve definitely heard this name somewhere. This starts out really, really unpromising with some Garageband-effected moanwave mwwaaaah. In fact, it sounds almost exciting when this suddenly becomes a 70’s boogie-rock thing. Compared to Dirty Projectors, this band sounds downright bad-ass and I was starting to think maybe they’re going for a Royal Trux thing. But the vocals are pretty half-assed instead of bad-assed and scanning through some songs, this all sounds pretty flat and gets boring within a few minutes. Actually sounds like the whole thing was recorded direct into a Macbook and then vintage amp effects were applied and the result is pretty bleh. I didn’t catch any hooks or riffs in any of these “rock” songs. A couple points for slightly loose style and what might qualify for “rocking” in the world of indie rock but that’s about it.

Passion Pit

Passion Pit “Manners” – This name is familiar to me from another friend making a recent comment about them. This is just pretty terrible all around. The self-consciously twee-falsetto vocals. Reverbed, chimey, flutey synth swells. Sounds just like the radio music I couldn’t stand 25 years ago and still can’t. Even on a 7-hour flight with nothing better to do I feel like I am wasting my life listening to this.

Gossip

Gossip “Music for Men” – Okay, this is in fact the band I remember as THE Gossip. I’ve heard them and remember them being pretty good. Basically the same formula The Yeah Yeah Yeahs started out with: rock songs with a garage sound, pop hooks, and a singer who can sing. Sounds like they’ve seriously smoothed out all the rough edges and lightened things up, sad to say. The singing is still good and at times almost redeeming – belted out old-school R-n-B style – but every song has this disco-lite sound. Kind of like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs now also, come to think of it.

Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear “Veckatimest” – I know the New York publications have been raving about this one. So much so that I shudder AND cringe just thinking about hitting play on this. Everything gives me a bad feeling about this, including the band photos, but here we go… Okay, seriously? This is what people get excited about? It sounds like Hall & Oates crossed with Air Supply, or maybe iPod-commercial music slowed down to half-speed. Acoustic strummery, oohs and ahhs, breezy ambience, and all that Beach Boys wankery which indie rockers have been convinced is brilliant ever since the Flaming Lips dumped a load of it all over “The Soft Bulletin.” This is really what gets people excited? Those same people must have heart palpitations when there’s too much cinnamon in their oatmeal. This makes Pink Floyd sound edgy – today – in 2010.

Can I go on? It’s getting hard but let’s see…

TO BE CONTINUED in PART 2…

*DISCLAIMER: This post is for entertainment purposes only. The members of these bands might be wonderful people, and in fact some of these bands are probably friends of friends. My musical tastes do not make me a superior person. I once listened to a Sightings CD for 15 minutes thinking it sounded pretty cool before realizing my computer was reading it as a data disk.