Posted: September 16th, 2009 | Author: Lilledeshan Bose | Filed under: Los Angeles, indie rock | Tags: Bon Iver, collections of colonies of bees, justin vernon, NPR, volcano choir | No Comments »
I love Justin Vernon/Bon Iver; I love the Collections of Colonies of Bees. Together, they are Volcano Choir, and their new album, “Unmap,” is streaming on NPR for a whole week before its release. It’s AWESOME, probably my favorite record of 2009.
Cocobees does what they do best — layers of repetitive sound, pretty melodies, odd-time structuring and unexpected hooks. Vernon uses his voice as another instrument, so no one in the so-called indie supergroup gets more star time than anyone else. I hope they tour this album; I can’t wait to hear them live. Listen to it here.
Posted: July 27th, 2009 | Author: Brian | Filed under: pop | Tags: Carrie Brownstien, Fans, Matt Sharp, Monitor Mix, Novelty Band, NPR, pinkerton, pop, Rivers Cuomo, sincerity, Sleater-Kinney, the blue album, the green album, the red album | No Comments »
Carrie Brownstien (Sleater-Kinney) commented in her NPR music blog, Monitor Mix, that Weezer is a novelty band. Though I’m hard-pressed to really argue with her on this point, there’s a particular line that irked me:
I don’t know if Weezer hates its fans or just the (apparently) stifling concept of sincerity, but you should listen to these two new songs if you weren’t already convinced of Weezer’s contempt for music.
Ouch. I would rephrase that line to read as such:
Weezer hates sincerity, but you should listen to these two new songs to hear Weezer’s contempt for their fans.
There. That looks better. First-off, I am not a diehard Weezer fan but I think they get a bad rap. I would certainly slam a TON of other musicians before criticizing Weezer about being a novelty act — like, perhaps any adult/contemporary “rocker” and nearly all modern country? How about U2 for christsake?! Oh, and aren’t Elton John & Billy Joel touring the country this summer?! Sure, the last few incarnations of Weezer have sounded like a Weezer cover band, but at least they took a STAB at sincerity at one point.
It seems obvious to me that in between Weezer’s second and third albums — Pinkerton and The Green Album, a lot changed. And the change was not just the the loss of Matt Sharp.
Blue Album era Cuomo (L) & Sharp (R)
In 1996 Weezer released Pinkerton — a painfully funny, slightly abrasive, endearing and self-reflective album. It was certainly a “difficult” album by pop standards, especially being their followup to a delightfully sugarcoated Ric Ocasek-produced initial album.
Cuomo poured his heart out, his vocals were raw and the content was much more personal than anything on the Blue debut. The album was slow out of the gate due to some legal problems and never gained footing. It peaked at #19 on the Billboard charts and was initially met with both critical and public indifference. Weezer had dropped a smart, self-effacing, confessional album and the U.S. didn’t care. It was like we pushed Rivers to open up to us and then we were all “Uhhhh, T.M.I., dude.”
It seems from that point on Cuomo pledged never to write anything sincere again.
Even though, in the past 18+ years, Pinkerton has gained considerable adoration the damage had been done. Rivers/Weezer had gone into hiatus, emerging four years later as a shell of itself — vying to ride high on pop hooks and metal riffs and refusing to ever, EVER write anything serious ever again. The guitar licks were spic-and-span, production gleaming, lyrics memorable but completely meaningless. ‘Safer that way.
So is Weezer a novetly band? Maybe. But, my answer would be “So?”. Aren’t most bands? Why criticize a band that tried to be sincere only to be told, quite clearly, by the fans and press, “play like you’re empty inside or risk not having an audience.”
And now… some puppets.