Achtung
E6=sold out. Motherf*ck...
posted by Face of Spades at 8:56 AM
Friday, February 17, 2006
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- Name: Face of Spades
- Location: Cobra Island, Gulf of Mexico, Mexico
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- She was the slow going hours tonight...
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26 Comments:
Yea, it was pretty heartbreaking to learn that you and Drew were not attending.
I'm sorry to say it doesn't surprise me. Every single show I've even thought about going to in the last 4 months or so has sold out. Fast. This British group, The Editors, came to NYC last month. They're nothing special; the UK's version of Interpol basically. Yet both New York shows sold out within about 10 mintues of tickets going on sale back in December. Belle and Sebastian sold out both NYC shows and their Philly show in a couple days. I tell ya, man, gotta jump on those indie shows while the iron is hottt.
New York is a bad example; it's a hot market, and everything sells out there. NOTHING sells out in Madison. Philly...well, it's a big town, and big shows are gonna sell out. But I went to plenty of shows in Chicago DOS and got tickets. Just as long as you're not going to see bands like, well, Belle and Sebastian. (*coughsissiescough*)
Ahem, first of all, it's not just big shows selling out in Philly--Stars sold out Beyond on Thursday (the show was moved to some sketchy place to accomodate the overflow, and I'm pretty sure it sold out there too), Clap Your Hands Say Yeah sold out the TLA for the March 7 show (dammit), Art Brut will sell out the First Unitarian Church in April, etc.
And there's nothing sissy about a band who writes about boozing as much as B&S do.
All of the bands you just named are hot indie bands. They're big shows. CYHSY are getting ENORMOUS press in every music rag I see, and Stars got the same treatment last year.
Ok, so just shitty bands aren't selling out shows? My point was that technology prevents bands from flying under the radar, so every show worth seeing sells out.
Why would any band even get booked for a ticketed event without a degree of success that suggests they MIGHT sell out? And how would you find out about them?
Dude, are you really that Pitchfork-saturated? There are tons of great bands out there that don't get any press, either mainstream or indie-mainstream. Some of them are British; some of them are from the south and/or somewhat influenced by country music; some of them are vaguely religious, and all of these things can work against you in getting critical acclaim. But they sure as hell don't count against your potential for talent.
Maybe, but given my limited means (and everyone has limited means), every concert has a significant opportunity cost, so if I go to see Jimmy Jew and the Haters on a whim, I can't afford to see The Books with Jose Gonzalez.
In addition to saturating the world with buzz about the Arctic Testicles or whatever (being British does not work against you in garnering critical acclaim; see the way the press creams its pants over mediocre bands like Coldplay and Arctic Monkeys. Neither does being southern; see Kings of Leon. Neither does being evangelical; see MatisYahoo!), the Internet filters out the Jimmy Jews of the world. I can be fairly assured that if I don't hear about it from Stereogum, brooklynvegan, Pitchfork, ultragrrrl, Fluxblog, gorillavsbear, or my musical buddies Dave, Ward, Mikey, Geoff, and Josh, it's not worth the time/money.
Unfortunately, being British doesn't help you if you're South, or Engineers, or Elbow, or Turin Brakes, or Starsailor, or Embrace. The quality of British bands that do break through pales in comparison to the quality of those that don't. I blame the bad judgment of the people who write what you read. Keane is not nearly as good as the Doves. But who gets all the press?
And being Southern doesn't help you if you're Athenaeum, or Cravin' Melon, or Five Way Friday, or Monte Montgomery, or Stir, or Treehouse/Pete Riley, or any of dozens of other Southern Rock/country-tinged outfits I can think of. It's a strike against you unless you can prove fashion/credibility in some other way, like being ironic all the time or purposely obfuscatory.
And being vaguely religious helps if you're an obscure sect of orthodox Judaism, because that's cool. But any kind of Christianity isn't, which leaves any of several hundred semi-to-fully Christian bands in the dust. I can start with Mae, Mighty Joe Plum, Third Day, David Crowder Band, Delirious, Anberlin, Sonicflood, Telecast, The Afters, Fono, and Tree63, all of which are good bands and some of which are enormously popular but most of which you've likely never heard, because rock journalism outfits minimize or refuse to cover religious music.
And don't give me Sufjan Stevens. I can't explain that, but neither can you.
South was huge back around From Here On In; they had a song on The OC for chrissakes. Their problem is that they haven't done anything great since.
Starsailor's problem is that they're mediocre; I'm surprised they got as big as they did.
Engineers and Elbow got decent love this year.
Meanwhile: Bloc Party was fucking hot shit in 2005; I love Art Brut but Eddie Argos' accent is about 30% of their success, same with The Streets and Mike Skinner only moreso; The Boy Least Likely To made all kinds of noise on everyones' Best of 2005 lists; Franz Ferdinand?; Arab Strap?; Belle and Sebastian? (Scotland's doing just fine thankyouverymuch). Sure, British bands don't get the credit in America that, say, American bands do, but that's because they don't tour and release albums here as much.
Being Southern hasn't been a hindrance for very long: REM, the B-52s, and Ben Folds Five all blew up back in our younger and more vulnerable years. Apparently the scene has moved on, but Austin, Atlanta, and the Triad are still plenty legit music hotbeds (I'm drawing a blank on who's from where...lotta rap coming out of Atl these days). Being twangy hasn't hindered Ryan Adams, Neko Case, Nickel Creek, Okkervil River, Calexico, Iron & Wine, Calexico and Iron & Wine, Jose Gonzalez (who's twangy and foreign and probably a good Christian), My Morning Jacket, Wilco, etc.
Religious music is inherently lame (I've seen those commercials), but Belle and Sebastian sing about religion frequently, so does Wilco (I played Summerteeth in New Zealand and my bus driver thought is was Christian Rock), and then there's U2, or FUCKING KANYE WEST LOVES HIM SOME GOD. So there's no bias against Christians, just a bias against their lame-ass music.
You're just naming bands that happen to have come from the South, withough recognizing the stylistic differences that are inherent ("outlaw" country, typically set off by convenient political views, poor production, and sloppy playing/drunkenness. Hence Wilco, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle...) Neko Case and Calexico are great, but they're exceptions, and Iron and Wine is a folk singer, through and through. And I don't know any indie scenesters who like Nickel Creek. And what the fuck do Ben Folds and the B-52's have to do with Southern music? 'N Sync was from Orlando, but the influence from country music and Southern rock was minimal.
Also, keep in mind that all of the bands I named are great, but they don't get much press; the point here is, indie media outlets are just as judgmental and likely to reject great music as mainstream media outlets, and I personally believe there is ultimately no difference between the two. And I'll take my trash in the form of All-American Rejects and Simple Plan over Animal Collective and Bright Eyes any day.
"Sure, British bands don't get the credit in America that, say, American bands do, but that's because they don't tour and release albums here as much." - Well, that's certainly true. I just wish the American music press had better ears when looking across the pond.
As for South...have you heard With The Tides? Holy shit!
Belle and Sebastian can't properly be said to sing of anything with any regularity. U2 were long ago dismissed by indie media, and they're also 30 years old. Kanye's case is unique, and incredibly interesting, but it's also just that-unique, and you can't build a case around it. The fact remains that making religious music, or music that is perceived as religious, is a liability. And yet some of it is really, really good.
Orlando is not the South; Atlanta, Rome, Austin, and Chapel Hill are, but any mention of Orlando is irrelevant. Generally if a band can't play its instruments and has lousy production, I'd blame their lack of recognition on not being able to play their instruments and having a shitty producer, not regional bias. I mentioned plenty of bands with twang (hell, Sufjan uses the banjo all the time, and I didn't even bring him up), so there's no reasonable suspicion of bias there.
Why on Earth would you say Animal Collective is trash? Bright Eyes (though I love I'm Wide Awake it's Morning) I can understand, but Animal Collective? Who's biased now?
With the Tides is way lame compared to From Here On In. The quintessential sophomore slump.
U2 haven't been dismissed by the indie media at all; I have an mp3 of them playing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" with Arcade Fire. I probably picked it up on Stereogum. Fluxblog also loves him some U2. So they're no doubt still relevant in indieland, despite a solid decade of crap. But so wait, Kanye's an exception, Sufjan's an exception, that makes the two most popular artists in indieland exceptions. I think that alone should disprove your hypothesis.
Since when is Kanye West a denizen of Indieland?
I saw Animal Collective live, and they were terrible. I'm not hating, I'm just saying that I didn't like their live show, at ALL. And dude, you're totally wrong. With The Tides is far superior to FHOI. It is so strong as a full album, the songs elide together so well, it is so tight...
But anyway, we're getting bogged down in the details here. The point is, indie media outlets are just as ignorant of tons of great music as anyone else. Pitchfork covers some good music, and a lot of bad music, but it hurts so much to read because of the increasing elitism creeping into it - and I believe that the elitism is stylistic as well as political and musico-philosophical.
I maintain that there is a very great deal of fantastic music made that indie media never picks up on; occasionally,I come across some of it, in the course of digesting major-label samplers, checking out recommendations from friends, and seeing openers for bands I like (or, as is more often the case, headliners for bands I like). I could throw a dart at the Chicago Reader on a Saturday Night and hit a band with better chops than a lot of what indie outlets promote as the best stuff out there.
And Face's got a point, there. Kanye's been whoring to the majors from the start. That's not necessarily bad - he is in the rap game, and it's not an uncommon move - but it's germane, in that although he gets indie love, he gets love everywhere.
I sure as hell wouldn't have heard of Stereo Agency...
(Kanye West is relevant in that he's an evangelical musician who's hugely popular in the secular world of Pitchfork elitists, just like Sufjan, which disproves your point about bias against Christians. As I said, it's a bias against lame music.)
(FHOI is tight as a man's anus. WTT felt like an album of FHOI b-sides, not bad, but nothing on WTT is as good as the best 3 songs on FHOI.)
And I think my original point is that indie media--blogs, alt weeklies, Pitchfork, etc.--are so pervasive no band can truly fly under the radar unless they suck. Stereo Agency, for example, has been written up in various local publications and the Lehigh Valley's best lobster-themed blog.
If a band hasn't been picked up widely in indie media, it's generally either because the music sucks or they haven't been around long enough.
Hey Danno, your blog has turned into the nerd arena the likes of IMDB with these hooligans. What's going on with that?
That, in no way, accounts for the literally hundreds of CD's I own from great bands who got little or no large-scale exposure in any meaningful way, mainstream or indie. And I know damn well that you (used to?) listen to a bunch of them! Go pull out what you owned in 1998; you'll find a bunch of bands that up and died, but sure had some great choons.
I don't know, Bluddsky, but you have inspired me to one day build an amphitheater where we'll put overachievers in legionary armor and make them have at it to the death for the aesthetic and gambling enjoyment of the average square.
I think you mentioned this elsewhere, Chubbles, but Kanye West's enthusiasm for Christianity is akin to hard scientific evidence against global warming. It is conveniently ignored because he has other characteristics that are smiled upon by the bulk of the indie community, his outspoken politics being first among them.
I'm afraid I'll need specific band names to discredit their popularity. (I'm writing this, drunk, from a condo in Hilton Head.)
Wow, I don't even remember writing that last one.
It happens to us all...
Apparently, I bought the Suicide Girls DVD, even though I have no recollection of doing so. I could have been drunk...
Shut Up.
Danno: Re - the original purpose of this post, check yr email.
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