Black Kids

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Here's something interesting about indie blog hype, a subculture in which I do not take part. Worth a read if you vaguely care about stupid meta shit like this.

 

The band in question:

This could pass for a high-concept parody of indie rock. Maybe it is and I just don't know it.

[Kinetic 0]

Jesus, if anything ever deserved to be parodied. I like this song. That article is a lot of aging hipster hand-wringing.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

There's a comment on the Idolator article that really pushes my buttons. Of course, I can't find the exact one now, but it was something to the tune of "The worst thing about music blogs is that I don't know who's good and who I should listen to, because so much stuff gets pimped." I mean, the solution there is to listen to music and decide if you like it. Not terribly difficult.

 

I read this and the complementary Status Ain't Hood post back in October and mostly agree that the article is hipster hand-wringing. There's certainly an argument to be made--a group noodling around will probably develop differently under a microscope than fucking around in someone's basement--but who cares? If a band gets to grow up playing a few shows to 200 people instead of 20 their first few years of existence, so be it. Blogs and Pitchfork have basically stepped up to perform the NME hype role for U.S. listeners, and England still carries on all right after these many years.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Speaking of the NME, it's been two years and I'm still waiting for an apology from them, trying to convince everyone that the Arctic Monkeys matter in any way.

 

from the NY Times:

“I know you guys don’t know this song,” said Reggie Youngblood of Black Kids to the packed, sweaty masses at R Bar on Friday afternoon. “But I want you to pay attention to where it falls apart — and then blog about it.”

Black Kids is the quintessential CMJ band of 2007, having become instant Internet celebrities in a way that is now routine, even expected. The group, a mixed-race quintet from Jacksonville, Fla., that includes two siblings, exploded onto the blogosphere after a concert in Georgia in August. The hype was global: from NME and The Guardian in England to The Village Voice and the online indie tastemaker, Pitchfork, which two weeks ago gave Black Kids’ self-released EP, “Wizard of Ahhhs,” a rating of 8.4 (out of 10).

I think that does a good job outlining how overblown and just plain weird the whole phenomenon can be.

 

I wonder to what extent I'm part of the problem. I think I listened to like 43 albums from 2007. Some of these, I'll never care about; I just wanted to keep digesting more new material. At the time, I thought a lot of it was pretty good, but now that I'm fairly removed from some of these, am I really going to care about the Immaculate Machine or the Shocking Pinks? Doubtful. Arcade Fire had a great album in 2004 and a mediocre one this year. How much of a shelf life do they even have now?

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Speaking as an aging hipster, that Idolator article is mostly spot-on. Mind you, I've yet to hear anything by this band—hometown represent!—but no band that's only recorded a handful of songs and played not many more shows is worthy of the kind of hype Black Kids is getting.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I wonder to what extent I'm part of the problem. I think I listened to like 43 albums from 2007. Some of these, I'll never care about; I just wanted to keep digesting more new material.

Big reason why I gave up trying to follow contemporary music. I wasn't really absorbing anything; I just wanted to have an opinion on whatever people were talking about. That isn't being a music fan; it's status. A pose.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

Don't get me wrong, I think this was a quite good year for new releases, and I'm glad I have the new stuff from Wilco, Nellie McKay, Postmarks, Son Volt, Radiohead, so on, but in the last week or two, I realized that there's too much shit in my library I just don't need. Well, my hard drive just crashed again, so maybe I lost everything anyway.

 

But back to this Black Kids thing. What's the hype for? They're not doing anything remarkable or creative at all. Aping The Cure, R.E.M., and The Go! Team at once is sort of an achievement, I guess, but all I can muster for this song is "that was okay," and nothing more. They'll probably be forgotten about in a matter of months, if this whole Black Kids explosion is from all the way back in October. Sucks for them.

[Kinetic 0]

I just listened to their EP before anyone else here. It's all right. "I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance With You" (which will be referred to in acronym form from here on in) is the one real standout.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

That they've attended the Pete Wentz Academy Of Stupid Long Titles In A Half-Assed Attempt To Cite Morrissey As An Influence is yet another silly indie rock cliche, to go along with everything else about them.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

I still follow newer music, but I'm far from caring about checking out whatever new band gets blogged about or written up in Pitchfork. There's a total homogeny in indie rock now—good for you if you can honestly tell apart Rogue Wave from Blitzen Trapper from Tapes n Tapes from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from etc. but it's all the same whiny-voiced, infectiously hooked swill to me.

[Kinetic 0]

Well, it is the central lyric in the chorus. I guess they could have gone with "Dance With You," but that's a lot more generic. That song title didn't scream "indie rock cliche" to me.

[Kinetic 0]

I still follow newer music, but I'm far from caring about checking out whatever new band gets blogged about or written up in Pitchfork. There's a total homogeny in indie rock now—good for you if you can honestly tell apart Rogue Wave from Blitzen Trapper from Tapes n Tapes from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from etc. but it's all the same whiny-voiced, infectiously hooked swill to me.

 

This is true.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I've heard like three songs by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Again, were they serious about this thing?

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

That they've attended the Pete Wentz Academy Of Stupid Long Titles In A Half-Assed Attempt To Cite Morrissey As An Influence is yet another silly indie rock cliche, to go along with everything else about them.

Lengthy song titles are not exclusive to Moz-aping youngsters. No one was thinking of the Smiths when, a decade ago, Don Caballero were giving songs names like ""In the Absence of Strong Evidence to the Contrary, One May Step Out of the Way of the Charging Bull" and "No One Gives a Hoot About FAUX-ASS Nonsense."

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

Black Kids must have put on a great live show at CMJ with cowbells and clapping and all that, because yeah, they're pretty indistinct, albeit fun.

 

I listen to Clap Your Hand Say Yeah's first album every now and then, but three songs are in my regular rotation. I mentioned them here before at some point: "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away," "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth," and "In This Home On Ice." Great songs all. If they could replicate that kind of energy and interest in everything they did, they'd be a great band, but alas, evidence to this point suggests they've only got so much in them.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

No, it has to be stuff like "You're Not The Only Girl I Ever Thought I'd Really Love" or something like that.

[Giuseppe Zangara 0]

Okay, listening to this for the first time. There's a really nice melody in the chorus, but the cheerleaderish chanting and count-off are just a little :eyeroll:, ya know? It also could benefit from better production values, not that that would disguise the fact that the song is little more than an indie pop trifle. We all benefit from the vocals being buried low in the mix/effects-laden, as I can testify to singer/guitarist Reggie Youngblood being incapable of a carrying a fucking tune to save his life. I say this with confidence as, a few years ago, he was the frontman for this totally awful bunch of Cure-rip-offs called Cubby, whom I had the misfortune of seeing live a handful of times.

[rising up out of the back seat-nuh 0]

Sounds like everything else.

[Guest Tzar Lysergic]

I still follow newer music, but I'm far from caring about checking out whatever new band gets blogged about or written up in Pitchfork. There's a total homogeny in indie rock now—good for you if you can honestly tell apart Rogue Wave from Blitzen Trapper from Tapes n Tapes from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from etc. but it's all the same whiny-voiced, infectiously hooked swill to me.

 

 

SO Metal!

[Mik 0]

Black Kids must have put on a great live show at CMJ with cowbells and clapping and all that, because yeah, they're pretty indistinct, albeit fun.

 

I listen to Clap Your Hand Say Yeah's first album every now and then, but three songs are in my regular rotation. I mentioned them here before at some point: "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away," "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth," and "In This Home On Ice." Great songs all. If they could replicate that kind of energy and interest in everything they did, they'd be a great band, but alas, evidence to this point suggests they've only got so much in them.

 

You're right. They had some really outstanding songs on the first album with a few misses, but the second one is hard to listen to at times with almost no outstanding songs. And a lot of people will be turned off right off the bat by the voice.

 

As for Black Kids, I wasn't familiar until Czech made this thread, but I have to say... I love the EP. Two great songs, with the one in the original post, and also I Underestimated My Charm (Again) also being a highlight for me. I watched the videos of them butchering some of the songs live, etc. and I think when it comes down to it - they can put out a good CD and I could really care less if they are a good live band. Maybe they'll have sticking power, but none of that really matters to me.

 

Obviously, they don't deserve the hype they are getting but I'm never one to get concerned with the hype and/or popularity of a band and I can't really see why anyone gets worked up over that sort of nonsense anyway. If you like the music, great. If not, there's tons of music out there for you to like, so move on. I realize most people don't think it's cool to like The Killers, but that's not going to stop me from liking them... I just can't understand people who influence their own opinion based on the opinion of others. It irritates me quite a bit.

 

To me, these guys are in the same boat as Los Campesinos! right now in that...ok, you have a pretty decent EP here and hopefully you can improve it and get rid of some of the crap for your first real album. Hopefully 1/2 delivers and that would be good enough for me.

[Mik 0]

I re-edited my post a few hours after making it to make a salient point and not just be a thread killer. This is sort of an interesting, important thread and hopefully it won't die so quickly.

[Guest My Pal, the Tortoise]

I just can't understand people who influence their own opinion based on the opinion of others.

That's the crux of the initial column.

[PLAGIARISM! 0]

I listen to Clap Your Hand Say Yeah's first album every now and then, but three songs are in my regular rotation. I mentioned them here before at some point: "Let The Cool Goddess Rust Away," "The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth," and "In This Home On Ice." Great songs all. If they could replicate that kind of energy and interest in everything they did, they'd be a great band, but alas, evidence to this point suggests they've only got so much in them.

 

Agreed. The first album just exposes them straightaway. I think it was that utterly, utterly pointless guitar interlude, 'Blue turning Grey' that killed the whole thing and showed how quickly they'd blown their load.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

rofl

[Ravenbomb 0]

The few songs of theirs I've heard I dug. Not sure I'd be too interested in tracking down more, but I listen to the ones I have a fair bit.

[Gary Floyd 0]

rofl

I normally don't like Pitchfork, but I love this.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

I don't get it, but those are some cute dogs.

[Gary Floyd 0]

I don't get it, but those are some cute dogs.

I prefer Corgis, but Pugs will do.

 

I finally gave these guys a listen, and it didn't do it for me.

[PUT THAT DICK IN MY MOUTH! 0]

I don't get it

 

They're apologizing for giving the EP such a glowing review and basically igniting a huge hype storm around a totally mediocre band. The P4K giveth and the P4K taketh away.

 

Related: The Spin review of the album is hilarious. It's sub-headline is "Florida phenoms conduct a bittersweet bubblegum symphony" and it contains this magnificent paragraph:

 

While Democrats debated whether an African American or a woman should be our next president, Black Kids became the most buzzed-about new band since Vampire Weekend. They resembled the future but sounded like a past only plugged-in Anglophiles could've fully inhabited. But now, with confident new songs like "Listen to Your Body Tonight," they seize the moment by blasting past underground insularity: Their self- assured hooks position the group as winners no matter how hard their leader loses in love. Kissing goodbye to the obsolete racial and gender roles that pop, hip-hop, or indie rock still demand, Youngblood and pals throw a thrillingly subversive victory party to lift the country out of eight years of anguish.

[Gary Floyd 0]

Related: The Spin review of the album is hilarious. It's sub-headline is "Florida phenoms conduct a bittersweet bubblegum symphony" and it contains this magnificent paragraph:

 

While Democrats debated whether an African American or a woman should be our next president, Black Kids became the most buzzed-about new band since Vampire Weekend. They resembled the future but sounded like a past only plugged-in Anglophiles could've fully inhabited. But now, with confident new songs like "Listen to Your Body Tonight," they seize the moment by blasting past underground insularity: Their self- assured hooks position the group as winners no matter how hard their leader loses in love. Kissing goodbye to the obsolete racial and gender roles that pop, hip-hop, or indie rock still demand, Youngblood and pals throw a thrillingly subversive victory party to lift the country out of eight years of anguish.

That is the worst review I've read in ages. Jesus Christ.