METRIC, Grow Up and Blow Away In fact, Metric's songs are often characterized by a commercial sheen-- they're smart little packets that, even as anti-consumerism screeds, have a compact luster that makes you feel like getting online to price experimental shelving units from Ikea or browsing all-over print hoodies at H&M.
THE RADIO DEPT., Pet Grief Their second album, Pet Grief, is stacked with syrupy pop songs, as Johan Duncanson's effortless vocals ride the crest of soft-focus synths and programmed drums. But too often, the songs come off like the sonic equivalent of IKEA furniture: highly functional, sleekly designed, and sterile.
TORTOISE, It's All Around You More frustrating, however, is that, after the scrappy Standards, where Parker spiked the mix with sparks and grime, Tortoise have pressed their music back into Scandinavian furniture. Cold Ikea percussion frames hold downy white duvets of keyboards, the music sterile and functional.
MORCHEEBA, Charango The Sire execs saw to it that all elements of darkness, ethereality and-- gasp in shock here-- black soul were quickly and efficiently excised from the mix, to be replaced by the most predictable, glossy surface settings this side of IKEA.
― jaymc, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:03 (fifteen years ago) link
use other stores, please
― Granny Dainger, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:06 (fifteen years ago) link
lol
by 5 different writers?!
― willem, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:06 (fifteen years ago) link
Did you guys know that IKEA is a furniture store that is popular in urban and developing urban areas that has some hip appeal due to its distinct european charm and a low price that leads to its use in the homes of those who are young and aspiring to that aesthetic?
― mh, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:06 (fifteen years ago) link
The frequent usage makes sense, though: "IKEA" is a single word that carries a whole host of connotations, many of which are relevant and appropriate when also describing music.
― jaymc, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Cold Ikea percussion frames hold downy white duvets of keyboards, the music sterile and functional
this sucks, though^
this sucks less
Cold percussion frames the keyboards, the music sterile and functional
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:14 (fifteen years ago) link
That Tortoise one is very strained, I agree.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
gah i hate lofty-minded writers. everyone should write like a mix between hemingway and a 40s beat reporter.
― Granny Dainger, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:18 (fifteen years ago) link
Haha that Tortoise one is BRENT D who I haven't thought about in years. What a goof that dude was.
― Alex in SF, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:21 (fifteen years ago) link
He writes for Time Out Chicago now, so I still see his byline almost every week.
― jaymc, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:25 (fifteen years ago) link
deja vu
― deej, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:32 (fifteen years ago) link
Did I mention that last night?
― jaymc, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link
haha yes
― deej, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:35 (fifteen years ago) link
-- Granny Dainger, Thursday, June 19, 2008 9:18 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Link
are IKEA references your idea of lofty writing?
― s1ocki, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:43 (fifteen years ago) link
why do ppl hate on ikea so much? it's like if you don't have a lot of dough and just need a dresser or coffee table that looks decent enough it's not a bad place
― M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:44 (fifteen years ago) link
no this is though: Cold Ikea percussion frames hold downy white duvets of keyboards, the music sterile and functional xpost
― Granny Dainger, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:45 (fifteen years ago) link
i only hate on IKEA when it's used in figurative language in association with a music review
― Mr. Que, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:45 (fifteen years ago) link
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/7/2008/03/ikea3.JPG
― tylerw, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:49 (fifteen years ago) link
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/F0322403au9.jpg
― NickB, Thursday, 19 June 2008 21:53 (fifteen years ago) link
THIS ^^^
― stephen, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:12 (fifteen years ago) link
i hate on ikea cause its a horrible place to be inside
― jhøshea, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:23 (fifteen years ago) link
this one dude i saw on the news had been waiting on the street for two days to get into the red hook ikea to get free furniture
― jhøshea, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:25 (fifteen years ago) link
http://weblogs.amny.com/entertainment/urbanite/blog/line.jpg
it was crazy
― jhøshea, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:27 (fifteen years ago) link
The only way you could compare music to IKEA would be if, say, the download cost you $.99, but then you had to pay another $.10 to load it into your iPod, another $.10 to put it in a playlist, $.50 for the metadata, another $.50 for the album art, etc...
You gotta love a business model that sells you the table separately from the legs. Genius.
― pshrbrn, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:39 (fifteen years ago) link
more like you have to buy percussion separately.
― deej, Thursday, 19 June 2008 22:57 (fifteen years ago) link
"hi hats are an extra .10"
exactly! i guess that's sort of the radiohead model for those remixes stems, no? i wonder how many of the contest remixers scrimped and didn't buy, say, the bass.
― pshrbrn, Friday, 20 June 2008 00:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Isn't it good? Scandanavian wood
― Steve Shasta, Friday, 20 June 2008 00:13 (fifteen years ago) link
What's odd is that the music review references to Ikea always make the furniture sound more glossy and professional and, well, sturdy than it actually is.
Like, the real IKEA pop would be Robyn - not because she's from Scandanavia, but because there's that same sense of rickety el cheapo construction aspiring to ape the high-tech and high-cost fashions of the day.
― Tim F, Friday, 20 June 2008 00:20 (fifteen years ago) link
This is just what happens when the generation who watched Fight Club too many times during adolescence grows up and becomes music writers.
― adamj, Friday, 20 June 2008 01:27 (fifteen years ago) link
(I know because I am part of that generation)
― adamj, Friday, 20 June 2008 01:28 (fifteen years ago) link
That's great because you can choose what color legs to go with what color table!
― dan selzer, Friday, 20 June 2008 13:02 (fifteen years ago) link
paint would be cheaper. and more versatile!
― pshrbrn, Friday, 20 June 2008 16:32 (fifteen years ago) link
What these writers really mean to say is "This music reminds me of IKEA because they play stuff like it at IKEA."
― Hurting 2, Friday, 20 June 2008 16:53 (fifteen years ago) link
mostly they play stuff like it at urban outfitters but nobody wants to admit they shop there once they get their first job
also THE CONTAINER STORE people fills more inches and is less done
― El Tomboto, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:01 (fifteen years ago) link
do they play stuff like this at IKEA? the ones i've been to are playing kinda normal supermarket/mall sort of music. i think.
― tylerw, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Actually I haven't been to IKEA in years so I don't know.
― Hurting 2, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Pretty sure the first time I'd ever heard of IKEA was via the Pavement song "Date w/IKEA."
― jaymc, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:55 (fifteen years ago) link
jaymc always with the really random cultural blind spots!
― some dude, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:56 (fifteen years ago) link
-- Hurting 2, Friday, June 20, 2008 12:53 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link
they play soft rock/pop radio at ikea
― and what, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:57 (fifteen years ago) link
not the alt/indie peter bjorn & john style soft rock but like air supply and shit
― and what, Friday, 20 June 2008 17:58 (fifteen years ago) link
It was 1997! They hadn't yet penetrated the Midwest.
― jaymc, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:01 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm with jaymc, that too was my first exposure to IKEA.
― jon /via/ chi 2.0, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, it looks like the Schaumburg store opened in fall 1998.
― jaymc, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:04 (fifteen years ago) link
ironically, the first time i heard of pavement was at an ikea.
― Granny Dainger, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
You should've borrowed my Walkman on the National Honor Society field trip to Navy Pier.
― jaymc, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Sometime around 1999 I think I nearly had a relationship end entirely because of the stress of a day at IKEA. You can walk in at 10am and find yourself at 5pm, still there, wanting to murder everyone around you, you and your companion both convinced that the other is the most irritating soft-headed pain in the ass ever to have walked the earth. There should be some sort of Survivor-style reality show set in an IKEA.
(I think the only reason the girlfriend and I didn't wind up killing one another that day was that I managed to carry a 7-foot circular rug through crowds and down three flights, which gave me immunity.)
― nabisco, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:35 (fifteen years ago) link
i wasn't in NHS! just NJHS. (and i was lying. i'd heard of pavement in Spin)
― Granny Dainger, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:37 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/marcshaiman/cds/scenes.jpg
― some dude, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:38 (fifteen years ago) link
xp For some reason I think I knew that. (The first part, I mean.)
― jaymc, Friday, 20 June 2008 18:45 (fifteen years ago) link