Gayngs Chub Licker

DJP: No, but I do think that George Michael would be more on target.

it's all sort of got that AOR sound (which i absolutely love anyways), but there's just tons of psych and kraut and funk bits that get lost in great songwriting and amazing production.

I think this is key. Trying to get a sense of what Gayngs are doing from either of those two tunes alone is pretty much impossible. I think tunes like "The Walker" and "Crystal Rope" are much more "representative".

okay you cannot SERIOUSLY tell me you hear George Michael on the "Cry" cover, which is what that joke/comment was based on

maybe George Michael doing an Eeyore impersonation

No, not on Cry which is like a bunch of people singing. Cry's not really representative of the rest of the album.

lol

I know this was literally like half an hour ago but can I just point out the context here:

tbh I was going to see exactly what the fuss was about but the idea of a Godley & Creme cover terrifies me

― DJP, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:19 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

oh what the hell, how bad could it be...

... um okay this is not starting off very auspiciously

― DJP, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:20 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

so people were really dying for a Coldplay-meets-Interpol cover band...?

― DJP, Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:21 PM Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ok, I'm duly chastened but it did sound like you were sitting down to listen to the whole album.

I think okay is the whole album like this, because if so LOL might be a good indication that I wasn't listening to the entire album...?

also the fact that my listen concluded in 5 minutes

Yeah, OK Ming The Merciless I get it... I didn't read your post very well and you're very clever and dastardly and run circles round me. I will pay more attention in future.

haha I don't think I've been called Ming the Merciless since high school

guys lets not fight, the important thing here is that DJP has learned that this song is terrible and this band is embarrassing and awful

It's a quality murk.

not a great big fan of this band for reasons that aren't entirely about their music.

this 'crystal rope' tune is pretty good tho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_yoxY2Njk

for what it's worth, (i think) the leisure suits etc in that video aren't like a regular uniform for these guys, there was a big concert at first avenue here in mpls that was billed as a "prom", i think the video was filmed then. maybe that makes it worse if you're not into it! heh

also, people complaining about the white tux lololwinkwinknudgenudge barfaroni party and i immediately thought of grady, who then came in to complain about it. hmmmm. caught you bro :D

As always, when we first hear a new band, it's usually just a CDr with a one sheet. So the stuff that gets you into it is just the music. With Gayngs it's been a long and at times painful process of seeing a symbol made from a ganja leaf and a vagina, seeing loads of guys in white leisure suits, seeing the inner art sketch of them all in a hot tub with the singer getting blown, reading some of the goofy interviews, then finally hearing that they can be all fucking hipster irony and bro-ish live.

But the stuff that made me like the album in the first place remains cool and gripping despite this stuff. As someone hinted at upthread, none of this stuff is binary. Yeah, I wish they were sincere, genuinely cool people and not smug hipsters but that's got nothing, or very little, to do with the music they make.

aaaaagggggghhhh wtf i just found out that the dude that drew the infamous hot tub picture is someone i used to hang out with all the time, its like this band is trying to singlehandedly make me hate all of these people i used to get along with ffs

next thing you know it will be revealed that Slough Feg and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum contributed members to this and justen will lose it forever

aaaaagggggghhhh wtf i just found out that the dude that drew the infamous hot tub picture is someone i used to hang out with all the time, its like this band is trying to singlehandedly make me hate all of these people i used to get along with ffs

― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:10 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if you like all these people have you considered that maybe problem is... you? (i mean that in a nice way no/zing)

is this like a minneapolis thing tho where these guys are huge/unavoidable there? and sucking up all the oxygen or something?

i can see it being annoying if thats the case

jjj it's weird that you ostensibly like these guys personally but absolutely thoroughly refuse to give them the benefit of the doubt

It's kind of weird that people find it really difficult to think that your attitude/opinion of a person can't change because of a visceral reaction to their artistic choices, positive or negative.

Also weird: people taking hyperbolic statements on ILM wholly at face value.

all kinds of stuff is weird!

but if u want to have a different conversation, i've known people in bands i really liked, people in bands i was indifferent to, and people in bands that sucked. it never changed how i felt about them personally!

yeah wtf. i have friends who are struggling in bands and maybe not making artistic choices i would or whatever but it doesn't effect how they treat me, our history, etc.

also what is with this unreconstructed notion of 'authenticity' (here, thought of as a lack of irony/smugness) as some sort of relevant factor as to how the actual arrangement of notes and timbres sounds? reminds of the vampire weekend backlash -- "just ... look at them! i bet they're really mean, and richer than me!"

i dunno it's like all music made by white dudes in northern cities has to be some sweaty prole flannel thing or what? is this what the 90s revival is going to look like? if so ugh. i don't know what's worse, that or this arch popist idea that tropes of 'high' (highly produced, selling, eg aor modern r&b) pop can't be appropriated by indie (whatever that means anymore) acts. it's just kneejerk and annoying. to be fair i had a kneejerk reaction to das racist much in the same way

but i dont know why im wasting my breath; ilm can't be any other way. maybe im really just baiting and hoping for the next round of flailing at trying to distinguish personal taste from some sort of objective reality, laden w/ obliquely hinted at class and race undertones, right?

also can we please never call any musician a 'hipster' ever again pls

I'd just like to state for the record that my objection to their cover of "Cry" has nothing to do with irony or hipsterism and everything to do with deeply annoying vocals over a boring, plodding beat. Basically if you think that cover is worth listening to, I can make you some fart recordings that will BLOW YOU MIND.

pls bring cd-r when we chill in a few weeks

done and done

ysi?

:)

fwiw my official position on this record is that it's prob a little more miss than hit but i'm glad it exists and i rock "gaudy side of town" all the time

Hahaha sorry thread was out at bar

1. Peeps that are taking me srsly re: "oh no now i have to hate these people that are making music I don't care for" obv don't know me uh at all, also if this were true my day job would be a long slog through abject misery

2. I hate the cry cover because it is terrible pretty much for exactly the reasons that djp said - I hate the lazily pitchshifted vocals and the dragging pace and the clear feeling that the band seems to think that the original is laughable/lampoonable/shitty. All the hipster (did I actually use this because I try to never do so) irony etc stuff is ancillary to the major problem that this song is imo just musically and experientially unmistakably awful to listen to.

Oh and to max wondering if the backlash was because they are some ubiquitous mpls band - pretty much the opposite, because afaict no one here could give two shits about them.

the clear feeling that the band seems to think that the original is laughable/lampoonable/shitty

i do not get this even 1 bit!! i mean i get your other criticisms, they are definitely going for a "sound" that i dont blame people for disliking, but i dont hear any kind of snickering going on at all.

oh huh

God I was wondering why this thread was revived. Don't think I listened to this again after I reviewed it.

No reason to break that perfect record Ned

I shall maintain my streak. (Partially because I'm quite happily listening to the new Fabio Orci instead.)

He has beautiful flowing hair

I find this to be a proper thing.

I think the problem is that the "Cry" cover is so bad that you kind of think they HAD to be joking when they recorded it, because the idea that they went into the studio going "this is an awesome song, we better do it justice" and ending up with that as the final output generates cognitive dissonance on par with watching the cutest kitten you can possibly imagine eat your screaming mother's eyes.

Any typical Cure b-side lyric from 1984, then.

Yeah ok DJP so otm it hurts

Tempted to do a Gayngs vs Owl City poll

Like I kinda think that my feeling that this is a fucking lol lol pisstake is somewhat based on the fact that I respect some of these peeps and don't like thinking that they could make something this shitty without realizing how bad it is.

http://www.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs2/1127092_o.gif

Hold on guys I have this strange feeling that max doesn't get my objections to this song but until I get a few more animated gifs I can't be sure

dude! i said that i get (some of) your objections! that is a "agree to disagree" shrug

Yeah tbf at this point this is pretty much hate this song vs. don't get it so I'm kinda just irritated at myself for beating a dead horse I guess

you should have taken me up on my "agree to disagree" last night

nothing to do with irony or hipsterism and everything to do with deeply annoying vocals over a boring, plodding beat

otm (also the coldplay comparison)

i think a lot of the other arguments made here are reactions to the idea that people can think execution like that is acceptable