Let Us Anticipate Interpol - El Pintor 9/9/2014

Not you, Alfred. We already know you HAAAAAAATE them. The rest of us can anticipate to our heart's content.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaAP11p3sI

Hello friends,

It’s been a long time coming but we’re finally ready to share some new album news. We’d like to announce the release of our upcoming new album, El Pintor. We wrote & recorded the bulk of the album in 2013 in NYC and finished mixing it in London during the early part of this year. We’re very excited to share the album with all of you. The album was recorded at Electric Lady Studios & Atomic Sound by Mr James Brown and mixed by Mr Alan Moulder at Assault & Battery studios. We had a lot of fun making this record and can’t wait for you to hear it. The album will be released on September 9th in North America and September 8th in all other territories. You can pre-order the album here. We also took the opportunity to capture some background film footage of the recording of the album. A first in our history. You can view a clip here.

1) I like the name! I like it a lot.
2) I don't hate the cover; it's a good harkening back to what their aesthetic feels like it should be
3) Good god Kessler and his selection of mouthwatering reverb on those vintage amps
4) I have the amazing ability to recognise HEY IT'S BRANDON from literally half a second of the back of his head.

I liked the new songs a lot, live. They really reminded me of early Ride. I think I will be anticipating this greatly.

Parents, hide your daughters!

Quiet, you!

I mean, Paul Banks has even gone and cut his hair exactly like Imperial Phase Bernard Sumner just to impress you, and you *still* won't love him.

Thanks for the heads' up, Branwell. Will anticipate!

Do we have a thread for youtubes of musicians puttering around in the studio? Because if not, I think we really need to make one.

Really kinda feel like Kessler is making a big slutty "please adore us?" ploy with his blatant Branwell-baiting gear show-offs lately.

I mean this... just... come on, man. Stop it.

http://24.media.tumblr.com/fdcd2c5906bf934b456baab9c6aab23b/tumblr_n6k4vtUm1R1rd1g7mo1_1280.png

Followed by that whole LISTEN TO THE HUM OF MY VINTAGE AMPS. LISTEN TO THEM! segment.

Track listing now:

1. All the Rage Back Home
2. My Desire
3. Anywhere
4. Same Town, New Story
5. My Blue Supreme
6. Everything is Wrong
7. Breaker 1
8. Ancient Ways
9. Tidal Wave
10. Twice as Hard

(Trying really hard not to read "Ancient Ways" as a Macfarlane man-off.)

I only like the first album but I always think maybe they'll turn out a good one again. Who knows.
Guitarist is looking weirdly thin.

Cautiously optimistic for this one.

Took me a bit to figure out the title was an anagram.

http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/news/55453/35103735.png

i have a bad feeling about this

can't be any worse than the last one. or (most of) the one before.

came across this recently, so cute! Sam's first gig. it's from the 10th anniversary edition of TOTBL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKQkseydlDE

I'm pretty sure it can and probably will be worse than the last two, they look just so. not. into. it.

except kessler

Ha! I thought the acronym was so obvious that I didn't understand why everyone suddenly went "OMG it's an acronym!" It took me a while to realise it was actually Spanish words rather than some random Acrid Avid Jam Shred spew of acronymic letters.

I think after having a long break, and doing a couple of solo records, the other two are actually quite into it. Banks just has one of those faces that looks perpetually grumpy, even when he's happy. He has that same face when he's making out with supermodels, so that's just... his face?

If the songs are anything like they are live, it is actually going to be good. (But then again, I feel like the only person in the world that actually loves the S/T album so don't trust me.)

I'm pleased to see that Brandon got actual credits etc. on the record, though.

the s/t is halfway decent... "summer well" esp. is of totbl/antics caliber. "barricade" too. the chorus of "memory serves" is good. most of it feels and sounds like plastic food

cf. "Song Seven" with anything from the s/t... it's like everything after 2004 has had the life sapped out of it and filled with polystyrene

I'm pretty sure it can and probably will be worse than the last two, they look just so. not. into. it.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

Ha! I thought the acronym was so obvious that I didn't understand why everyone suddenly went "OMG it's an acronym!" It took me a while to realise it was actually Spanish words rather than some random Acrid Avid Jam Shred spew of acronymic letters.

To be fair, I didn't even see the cover art until just now, which really makes it plain as day.

i'm looking forward to this but i'm a fan of most of our love to admire (think the only song i outright don't like is "all fired up")

the s/t is okay but also oddly lifeless yeah. still like "lights"

High point of S/T is Always Malaise for me. I don't get the plastic/polystyrene complaints at all. If anything, on the S/T it's like they were trying too hard to be GROWN UP and WE ARE SRS ARTISTS with all those lugubrious little Philip Glass piano frills and the like.

Tumblr is so much better at getting excited about this album. It was quite funny how they accidentally spoilered themselves. (To the point where I do wonder if it was deliberate.) The album has been finished for ages, Brandon told me back in March that it would be out in September, but no one was announcing ~anything~. Then Sam told literally one fan at a gig, and the news was ~all over the internet~ in about 20 minutes. It never fails to amaze me, how organised fanbases can be at dispersing news, and how useless record companies etc are at stopping it. The official announcement was literally rolled out the next day. Like, I do just wonder if that was on purpose.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

To be fair, Carlos was quite good at looking ~into it~ but, y'know, the hell with that guy.

to be fair they have always looked so not into it except kessler

no they used to look cool and aloof now they just look sad, bored, and deflated. the dream is gone. feels like their inspiration is dried up completely and this new record/tour is out of obligation

Nope, that's a pretty good assessment of the last tour, and the state they were in *then*. No one is *making* them do it at this point (not even Kessler) - if they didn't want to do it, they wouldn't be doing it. All of them have solo projects now (except Kessler) to keep them busy. I think after a long break, they have actually decided that this is what they wanna be doing.

i watched a video of all the rage back home. dirgey directionless intro that the crowd talks over. i like how pb starts singing like 'evil' during the loud part but eh. this is like... cruiseship level imo. fucking bummed

y does paul never tweet :(

Paul never tweets because he forgot the password to his twitter. No, really.

cmbtslcsrmvl ---- yea?

Lock up your daughters indeed.

http://37.media.tumblr.com/a5a7e8d7a4158bb91a7d6bb8cb3c47da/tumblr_n3rty7ydpx1r81z5zo1_1280.jpg

^^^^^so clearly ~not into it~

good god i have to quit smoking pb looks ~20 years older than he is

carlos looks weird in that pic

Kessler just looking relieved that he is no longer the shortest member of the band, any more!

it's not an acronym

Mixing up the words "acronym" and "anagram" is the kind of error that only a pedant would get excited about.

But, y'know, go ahead and cue a thousand OMG BRANWELL DOESN'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ANAGRAM AND AND ACRONYM!!! posts like I know you're just dying to do because of a stupid malapropism.

I was going to guess maybe it was a spoonerism, but wrong fucking band.

Oh, and they're back too.

Haha, no, PintorLOL would have been a moonerspism. I do those in speech all the time. :-/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RdCBpCeJZQ

Lord help us all, Kessler has learned how to do YouTube comments.

(Also, whoever filmed that has not got the memo that the bassist is no longer the most popular member of the band.)

((I am ashamed to admit that I did spot the back of mine own head in the video.))

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u6DvRyyKGU

song sucks

You suck.

anagramwise, they really missed out by not naming the album Porn Lite.

damnnnnn true

https://38.media.tumblr.com/62d7265b8a4360bd549c3c41a6961c56/tumblr_n8hdgftqCU1sr0iqdo3_500.jpg

Dan, true.

Interpol quotes, out of context:

http://33.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lzyzosbkDD1qlz7h1o2_500.gif

Seriously, they are just a preposterously good-looking band. (Even their behinds.)

song still blows. i bet they'll just be the stones of....interpol now

The surfing is distracting. I expect Eddie Vedder is an advisor.

I still haven't seen the video and probably won't get to until Thursday, but the surfing is all Paul Banks. Dude is really, really into surfing. (Why do I know these things? Who puts all these Interpolfacts in my head? *narrows eyes*)

And here's Paul on playing bass and the divorce from Carlos, as usual (I ship it, I totally ship it):

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/interpols-paul-banks-previews-el-pintor-were-a-new-band-again-20140711

https://38.media.tumblr.com/ff4c2a9fd26fbf65bb15a7a1b1729c9e/tumblr_n8klad7O4V1qgze9ho7_1280.jpg

Hello, mi'lady, may I talk to you about bitcoin?

Speaking of acronyms, is the tracklist supposed to be one? amasmebatt?

Ok so surfing love is sincere. Still think it is a lazy device to put into a video. Apart from that as a first impression I thought the song was not bad. Hooky like something off Antics.

bit chilly, no? DK seems to be the only reason they're still together

& money. the other two especially paul seem really just so not into it eh?
meant to post this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNt47gp_84

thumbnail aside...

Am I really gonna be all Captain Save-A-Pol? I guess I am.

There have been a ton more interviews (Quietus, DiS, even a standard text interview on Billboard - that was just a promo for the photo shoot, which is a weird thing to have done, but hey, Billboard, I guess?) recently that have shed a lot more light into why they stayed together and did another album. (To most people's surprise, in those interviews, it came out that Paul, not DK, was the driving reason it happened.) I should go dig them out, but I don't have the links right now, just text saved on the laptop. They're a lot more chatty and forthcoming when interviewed separately (especially Sam) than together. (Though I don't think Paul has ever been either chatty or forthcoming. He just seems like an awkward interview. DK seems like a shy person who has had a ton of media training; Paul just comes off like he does not enjoy the interview process and would rather not be there at all. When the other two let Sam talk, Sam is great!) They just have an odd interpersonal dynamic (which seems a lot more noticeable now that the garrulous one who dominated interviews has left?) but I actually think that the personality tensions which make their interviews chilly are the same ones that make their music interesting.

If you don't find their later music interesting, then you probably won't find that dynamic interesting. It's just frustrating, as a reader, that a band who are all so intelligent and well-spoken separately come together and just present this... deadlock.

(What I would really like at the moment is a GIFset compendium of the complete Shrugs of Kessler. It seems like he shrugs a lot. And his shrugs are highly expressive.)

Oh luckily I don't even have to go dig up those links because this just floated across twitter just now, yet another interview where they explicitly say "It was Paul; Paul made this happen. Paul. All Paul. He wanted it to happen so bad he even went out and learned how to play bass to make it happen. And DK didn't even hold a gun to his head or anything."

http://gehain.tumblr.com/post/94632752911/interpol-my-blue-supreme-this-kind-of-shit-dont

(I hate reading people writing about this band, though. I don't want to ever read drums described as 'resolutely tenacious percussion' I mean seriously, what is it about this band that just inspires such shitty fucking music journalism. Don't answer that.)

This adorable little man is a living embodiment of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

https://31.media.tumblr.com/24bfff327f9e0a6fc3155c154a4f49f7/tumblr_n9um99LoOa1solh11o1_500.gif

ah, i stand corrected. happily!

Speaking of my ethereal baebes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ni9bLpflDCY

music sounds like MBV meets Burning Airlines

OK, I really have been hesitating about asking this question, but I'm in my third day now of having this image stuck in my head. And I do realise that ILX is less than 1/100 interested in this than if, say, Amanda Palmer or Lily Allen had done this - which is kinda the point.

But you know when you're caught between "I don't want to give the obvious attention whore any of the attention he is so clearly craving here" versus "come on, is not one even going to *acknowledge* the existence of this?" Like, I guess the entire fandom mostly just likes to pretend that it ~totally didn't happen~ (or maybe I missed any debate around this?) and if they do, it's like "LOL, a man in a dress" rather than "um, why is he in blackface?"

And there awareness that he's deliberately doing it to be shocking or provocative, like, duh, dumb goths who play with fascist imagery because they're trying to get a rise, and refusing to give them them the rise they are looking for. I mean, I'm mostly interested in the total lack of any kind of reaction of any kind to this. Maybe it's just a question of scale. (Though it's hard not to see a double standard, because I'd argue that this guy is way more famous than e.g. CocoRosie?) I acknowledge it's not very high on the endless list of racist things to get discussed when kids are gunned down in the street (but you could make the same argument about Taylor Swift twerking). But I didn't see this talked about or mentioned or acknowledged "hey this was kinda gross" anywhere. I mean, I'm wary of accusations of "looking for things to get offended about" by bringing up an admittedly unwatchably terrible 2-year-old art film with 3000 views you YouTube. (I mean, I'm bringing it up now because I have literally never seen it before, let alone seen it problematised.) But I'm just kinda perplexed about who and what seems to tip off pop culture outrage and a billion ILX threads and thinkpieces (without discounting the awfulness of things that do garner outrage) and what seems to get a total free pass.

I guess that's the question, not "is this bad?" but "why does this get a free pass?"*

http://31.media.tumblr.com/4cbeceb58816141a4f91b4ebb46c0936/tumblr_mlowh68Sny1r6cs0zo1_500.gif

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTWwZT96gZY

*I guess the answer could easily be, "no one gives a shit about Interpol any more, even to hate on them." That's a valid but unsatisfying answer, I guess.

Ugh, I didn't mean that video to embed, sorry, I didn't realise the S thing had been fixed.

Can you imagine what ILM's reaction would be if, e.g. Amanda Palmer did this?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bvj_s6NCAAAM6pf.jpg

(Some people have told me they can't see the video or the GIF)

((This was originally in reply to another ILX poster contacting me privately to say it wasn't really fair to compare Interpol to Taylor/Miley in terms of fame/exposure. But I think Interpol were actually bigger than Dresden Dolls, and the level of indie fame/notoriety between Carlos D and Amanda Palmer is fairly analogous.))

is that someone in blackface? I can't even tell.

Mr Dengler's natural skintone, when he's not portraying a "baddie" in a film is normally more like:

http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/Carlos-D-interpol-58666_876_584.jpg

(I really had to struggle to find a photo of him *not* in that nazi-esque uniform which I thought might be, well, prejudicial, but it actually makes me rethink the whole "oh, it's just a fashion thing" excuse when a guy who spent a great deal of time walking around in jackboots turns up in blackface.)

I don't want to get bogged down in accusations of "is this act racist or not?" (sure looks like it!) but what I am curious about is what it is that triggers the scrutiny of a celebrity's behaviour, what triggers ILX opprobrium. And not just ILM, but generally, in what cases is "Indie-rock celebrity turns up in blackface" a media event and in what cases is it "nobody even mentions the blackface"?

Especially the dude isn't actually even in the band for the album this thread is about, maybe I should have taken this to a different thread. But I felt like taking a picture of an indie-rocker in blackface to the rolling "Is This Racist?" thread would be, I dunno. Provocative in the wrong way.

He is not in "blackface." He is in "body paint." There is a difference. Blackface is not just painting your skin in a dark color. It's the lips, the eye-rolling, it's a whole thing. He looks more like an alien from a very low budget sci-fi show/movie to me than anything else.

You've watched the film, then? Because I tried to pick a frame that highlighted the lips, the eye-rolling, the exaggerated gestures (did I mention the Vogueing at one point?) This is not just a guy painted a funny colour. This is a guy performing race in a very stereotypical way.

i have no problem with anyone saying 'fuck you carlos d' over this video. i also have no problem with the world continuing to ignore carlos d altogether.

if a former celebrity makes a questionable video in an attempt for attention, and it's ignored entirely, i think the punishment fits the crime.

and i'm being nice by using the word "celebrity"

I mean, I do not expect anyone to sit through a 20-minute cybergoth art flick to prove my point. But this is not "a guy painted brown to look like an alien." This is a guy doing blackface.

I dunno. "Continuing to ignore Carlos D" is definitely an option. But why does ILM never take that approach with Amanda Palmer?

You've watched the film, then?

Ha, nope; life's too short.

(I've heard the new Interpol album, though. It's very good.)

because she has a large fanbase, a presence in the media. judging by the numbers and comments on that youtube, carlos does not.

when carlos d does a ted talk, i'm sure ilx will take note

I mean, I did think, several times, while watching it "this is trolling, this is a fading celebrity trying to get attention" but, like, even in the *fanbase*, who still pay attention to this dude and his (fnar) antics, like, not one person problematised or even mentioned the blackface? I found it weird.

(I'm glad the new Interpol album is very good; I've only heard about half of it at this point.)

I mean, this is going to turn into a tautology soon enough.

"People pay attention to her, because people pay attention to her."
"People do not pay attention to him, because..."

Frankly, I take the lack of outcry as a hopeful sign for society. Maybe we collectively don't have to "problematise" every fucking thing on Earth. Maybe we can ignore worthless bullshit. Like, as a life strategy.

It doesn't feel like that, horse. It feels like "a woman breaths in a room: WE MUST PROBLEMATISE IT" as opposed to a guy does an overtly terrible thing "Oh, I'm sure he's just pretending to be an alien or some other perfectly reasonable excuse, let's give him the benefit of the doubt and just ignore it."

like, if you genuinely think an active singer/songwriter who gets large amounts of money through dubious kickstarters selling her toenails and does ted talks at bono's behest and a former indie rock bassist who makes a tasteless artfilm to a total of 5,000 youtube views over 2 years are THE SAME THING and that there's something to ilx ignoring the latter (and again, this video is two years old) and commenting amusedly on the former, i don't know what to tell you

if carlos d sang "makin' whoopie" with neil gaiman to a cheering crowd, i'm sure we'd lol

it's frankly an insult to the relative effort amanda palmer puts into trolling and getting attention to suggest that sexism is the only reason she gets more attention then a far less notable figure doing a far less notable thing

I dunno; I think that ILX's hate-crush obsession with Amanda Palmer is weird and kinda unhealthy and her importance is exaggerated because ILX is obsessed with hating her.

I mean, I don't know how many records Dresden Dolls sold as opposed to Interpol (1.4 million, the latter, I think? Has Palmer sold that many?) but I think they occupy pretty similar niche habitats in terms of, well, my Mum hasn't heard of either of them.

But, I mean, I pretty much think of Amanda Palmer as a nobody that ILX is just weirdly and unduly obsessed with.

I dunno; I think that ILX's hate-crush obsession with Amanda Palmer is weird and kinda unhealthy and her importance is exaggerated because ILX is obsessed with hating her.

this is a fair statement, however the fact that ilx has joined the rest of the world in not paying attention to a short artfilm from a guy best known for a haircut and having herpes ten years ago doesn't confirm the sentiment's validity.

like yeah, ilx and the world probably care too much about courtney love, but if a hypothetical bassist from a b-level seattle band yells racist shit about obama in an unpromoted youtube and no one notices, it'd be kind of weird to claim this is revelatory evidence of anything

That's kinda my point. If Carlos D were a woman known for having haircuts and wearing racist uniforms and carrying/transmitting a sexually transmitted disease, there would be an ILX thread 5 times as long as the Amanda Palmer one, probably called something like "This just in: Carlotta D: Still Crazy" or "Carlotta D: Cash Cow or Total Bitch?" or something along those lines.

Female artists get a ton more scrutiny, and a ton more shit for their antics. Dudes get a free pass to get their shit ignored.

My point, you have just made it.

Now I'm going back to anticipating a new, herpes-free, nazi-free Interpol album. Yay.

i'm not denying that female artists get a ton more scrutiny. i simply don't think carlos d and amanda palmer are equitable in stature or activity.

we're talking about a successful singer/songwriter and a former bassist

Well, if you don't want to accept Amanda Palmer, then you know who's a really, really, seriously obscure female indie artist who sold absolute jack shit compared to Interpol, and still got like five threads dedicated to calling out their questionable behaviour?

CocoRosie member goes to "Kill Whitey" Ironic dance parties and gets called out by brainwashed.com as racist

"Kill Whitey", Cocorosie, and borrowing the Audi.

Well! what *are* we to make of CocoRosie?

Why does Europe love CocoRosie so much?

again, i am with you that women get a ton more scrutiny. however, two of those are two posts long, only one updated since 2008 despite the fact that the group charted in europe in 2013 (a year after the ex-bassist of interpol made this video). cocorosie was an active group doing questionable shit while making music people listened to. carlos d made a shitty video years after leaving a band he didn't even sing in.

that said, if you start a thread saying "carlos d is a racist" today i guarantee you'll get more than two posts.

"women get lots of scrutiny and shit for stuff men totally get a pass on" - i'm with you

"and the proof is that nobody wants to talk about carlos d as much as i do" - hold up

I mean, I have never even heard a note of that band's music. I don't think I ever saw a picture of them in a music paper or could name one of their tunes. But I sure remember that ILM had 5 threads about how racist they were.

But on the other hand, you've got arguably the most prominent American indie-rock band of the 00s (or certainly the most critically acclaimed, or "seminal" (LOL) or whatever), and their front man / most prominent / recognisable member (I mean, let's stop with this "just the bassist" shit. He was the one that everyone photographed and interviewed and treated as the star) goes and makes a blackface video and there's... *tumbleweed*

And you don't think there's any difference in the way that the public sphere (including ILM) scrutinises and problematises female versus male behaviour? really?

p.s. I don't want to talk about Carlos D. It's Kessler I always want to talk about, keep your indie-rock heartthrobs straight. I just find it *weird* that in two years, I never heard so much of a whisper about Carlos D and his blackface, while I read a ton more scrutiny of women at much lesser levels of celebrity.

And you don't think there's any difference in the way that the public sphere (including ILM) scrutinises and problematises female versus male behaviour? really?

please acknowledge what i've written - "women get lots of scrutiny and shit for stuff men totally get a pass on" - i'm with you

if you think carlos d in 2014 (or shit, 2012) is bigger than cocorosie (apparently still a charting act in europe even though i haven't heard about them in years) and amanda palmer (who had a top 10 album with her name and face on the cover in 2012), i would say you do want to talk about carlos d

i am not debating the relative scrutiny of women vs men, i debating the stature and celebrity of carlos d in the current decade

i am trying to break it to you that carlos d has not been the most prominent member of interpol for many a year

Well, I want to talk about the fact that a (now former) member of a band I thought I liked made a blackface video in 2012 and no one, not even in the *fandom* seemed like it was worth mentioning. I mean, yeah. That did give me pause. I've spent three days, basically googling to find any mention of it at all, and asking around, and going "uuuhhh, why did none of you ever see fit to mention the blackface? Is there a collective amnesia here, or was the film just so horrific you've all blocked it from your minds? (despite the fact you're posting GIFs and laughing about how he's wearing a sequinned ballgown, but still not mentioning the blackface." I mean, yeah. I kinda felt a bit like I was standing there with my mouth open, gawping, saying "am I the only person that can see this?"

But in terms of "who's bigger" Interpol or Amanda Palmer or .... I mean, honestly I had never fucking heard of them except this Cocorosie? I suppose it depends what circles you move in. If you asked me to make a chart of who's more famous, Interpol or Amanda Palmer, I would put them at about the same level. Yes.

Just so long as we are in agreement on "women get lots of scrutiny and shit for stuff men totally get a pass on" - i'm with you which is the main thrust of my argument.

i am trying to break it to you that carlos d has not been the most prominent member of interpol for many a year

You probably need to break this to Tumblr and their online fanbase, too, in that case. LOL.

i mean, take heart that this nazi in blackface has been totally ignored (outside of this tumblr cult that can't get his artfilm more than 5,000 views over 2 years), despite being such an apparent superstar in your eyes. that's a good thing!

Maybe I should make a poll for "who was more famous: Interpol or Amanda Palmer?" and then ILX would completely fucking explode.

I mean, if the only thing we disagree on is that I think Carlos D is more famous than Amanda Palmer and you think Amanda Palmer is more famous than Carlos D, then really we can go home now because this is probably a transAtlantic thing where Interpol are in the NME every fucking week and Amanda who is not.

i think it'd be awful if an ex-bassist could get attention on the level of a top 10 solo artist who does ted talks just by making a shitty artfilm

you know he's not in the band right? for four years?

It's a really terrible film. Like, it is now actually literally the worst film I have ever watched in my life. And given how many NYU film students I dated in my youth, that is really saying something.

also i think a fleeting moment in a video isn't going to get as much traction as amanda palmer's endless media presence and the material she's provided that fuel revives and responses in that thread. also i think cocorosie was very much at the center of some kind of vice mag-sponsored cultural movement, back when vice was engaging with a decent amount of racist trolling.

it seems rude to kessler & crew to keep acting like the attention they're getting is attention for the guy who bailed on them two albums ago

also i know a lot of people who owned the first cocorosie album, back when pitchfork and others were trying to make them happen. they weren't especially big or anything, but i mean everyone who bought the cocorosie album didn't start a band but rather wrote a thinkpiece about their toying with racist imagery.

Really? Carlos isn't in the band any more? He left? Who knew? My goodness this is news no one has ever told me or discussed or, why no one even mentioned that, and you know, I was *wondering* why he didn't turn up at any of the aftershows. Really? He quit or something? Hold the front page! I had ~no idea~.

p.s. one album ago. Paul's only been playing bass for one album.

he bailed before the previous album was released, didn't promote it.

honestly shocked to discover cocorosie went top 30 in france last year. i have not heard about them in so long.

He certainly played on the S/T, and was deeply involved in the writing of it.

p.s. just so you know, I am actually joking. I have ended up knowing rather a bit about Interpol these days.

I think though, that actually the defensiveness of fans being all "BUT CARLOS HASN'T BEEN IN THE BAND FOR FOUR YEARS, STOP TALKING ABOUT HIM, HE IS NOT COMING BACK" actually kinda speaks to how he was, for a long time, the most famous person to non-fans. But I also understand why people are sick of talking about him. Granted, I don't know why I would be surprised that a guy who dressed up like a Nazi for kicks might turn out to be the kind of racist who made videos in blackface, but hey. My innocence springs eternal.

wait wait are fans saying "stop talking about him" or still worshipping him on tumblr

i love totbl and some songs since but i am not of the cult

all i'm doing to is trying to stop any implication that ilx has failed to pay as much attention to carlos d as it should

I'm not saying that ILX should pay more attention to Carlos D. Heaven forbid. I'm just saying that it's kinda *UNLIKE* ILM to resist the chance for a clusterfuck about an even mildly famous indie-rocker found to be doing a massive racist thing. And wondering why.

I mean, if you think it's down to Dengler's post-Interpol (lack of) pulling power, y'know, maybe.

But I just can never fully discount the greater amount of scrutiny paid to female artists, and the greater opprobrium that women face for doing bad things.

But I guess we can carry on talking about Carlos D all night, since you seem to really want to now? This was never about Carlos D, for me, it was about wondering why Celebrity X would get opprobrium while Celebrity Y seemed to get a free pass, and what it is that makes the difference.

did someone even post about it in 2012? i don't know if you can say "got a free pass" unless a brave soul attempted to find justice when it was released and ilx just let the thread descend indifferently. for ilx to chortle, someone has to pull the info out from the wild.

also cocorosie and amanda palmer were getting acclaim and $$$ at the time ilx got giggly about them - if carlos d is actually making hay anywhere right now, i haven't heard about it

"A free pass" often entails that exact lack of scrutiny, the lack of people searching them out and "pulling info from the wild."

Amanda Palmer doesn't post to ILM. People go hate-reading her blog or her website or whatever, to my eyes, sometimes even just ~looking for things to get offended about~. Men often read "I literally cannot stop clicking on her website, staring at her, hate-reading her, I am unable to control myself from paying attention to this woman!" as "this woman is demanding my attention." It is a real thing, whether you choose to accept it, or apply it to ILM's attitude towards Palmer, or not.

Granted, I think Dengler is trolling, and also trying to garner attention for his shitty art-films (I think he has something to sell, just not as successfully, because his product is not as appealing). But he's not being hauled up for his actions, or scrutinised, or hunted in the wild. You see this as because he's no longer a Celebrity. But I see, constantly, that the freedom not to be looked at, scrutinised, gazed, is generally a male freedom.

i wish you could stop pretending i'm claiming women don't get more scrutiny just because i'm providing examples of how carlos d is nowhere as notable as you think

i think a better example would be someone like ted nugent or gene simmons, who's a big public/musical figure, and constantly spouting nonsense, and ilx mostly shrugs it off as predictable asshattery

Fair enough.

i think the difference is basically no one except complete idiots will agree w/simmons or nugent because no one takes them seriously at all, carlos d has been a joke for years so no one pays attention to him, but amanda palmer is regarded i think as some kind of futurist or groundbreaker and some people do take her seriously (cf. the TED talk), and as we all know whenever someone who is taken seriously in some quarters also tends to traffic in self-serving nonsense, they're the biggest targets for a takedown. not sure what anyone can say about carlos d at this point.

i guess the closest comparison in recent times could ***maybe*** be michelle shocked's behavior and the reaction to it, but then again unless i'm mistaken carlos d just had some brief imagery in a film no one saw as opposed to being a supposedly leftist '80s folk icon who returns from the wilderness to take a stand against gay marriage and homosexuality.

Carlos D was the guy we all joked had herpes almost a decade (!) ago, so we might've expended our store of contempt.

but people do take nugent and simmons seriously, in the sense that Kiss and Nuge get POX threads and respect for their careers, etc. commentary on palmer is almost 100% on her shenanigans, despite the fact that she's maintained a pretty strong musical career as well. you can make distinctions between nuge and palmer just as you could palmer and courtney love and anyone with anyone. we're all beautiful novel snowflakes. but i do think women are more apt to get shit of the "why do i have to tolerate this? destroy this person" variety, where people even more noxious are just written off.

where men even more noxious, i should say.

that being said, amanda palmer puts in a remarkable amount of work into keeping eyes on her - her ted talk was almost on some l ron hubbard shit - so i don't begrudge folks hate-chronicling her pathology in action. but it's good to think about why she gets so much more hate than neil gaiman and not just to rationalize the fact.

the difference also though is that nugent and kiss were genuine superstars and all over classic rock radio and palmer just doesn't have the same cultural impact with her music. have dresden dolls or AP gotten a lot of radio play? i really don't know!

I think a more apt male counterpart to Amanda Palmer is Wayne Coyne, who does get quite a lot of shit for the barrage of ridiculous bullshit he's blessed us with over the last couple of years. It's true that he should probably get quite a bit more and Amanda Palmer should get a bit less.

that these two guys have had success writing misogynist songs in a misogynist culture for years isn't really the best thing to use as an excuse for giving them less attention than amanda palmer

xpost oooh wayne is a really good one

in all these cases it's "yeah he's a dickweed but i still love that song about being a dickweed i first heard a decade ago" vs "look i dunno what she does at that piano but she needs to SHUT UP"

massive x-posts now, but...

Yeah. Her shenanigans. And her husband. (Because that's what women are judged by; who they marry.) That is very much getting more to the nub of it, leaving Dengler and his fame or lack of it aside. Women will get reduced to their Problematisements (that's not even a word) while there's a tendency to handwave away much huger and more worrying stuff coz the guy made some great records back in the 70s.

(I dunno. I often feel like, when dealing with sexism, and also racism, a lot of it is pointing out this steady drip, drip, drip that makes up this bigger pattern of behaviour. So when you point out a drip, and people go to lengths to say "no, there's not a leak, that drip is just there because (rain, condensation, the dog drooled on that spot etc) there is no leak!" but you *know* there is a leak. Every single individual drop can be explained away in some way or another, and many people will tell you you're crazy, reading a pattern into it. It's *possible* that something like Dengler is not a drip. But the damn leak is still there.)

Now I just wanna know how many herpes jokes one has to tolerate before one gets a memo saying it's OK to make blackface videos...

xp yeah with wayne i think a lot of long-term fans have taken time to come around to the fact that he's an insufferable dickhead now

well it's not an "excuse" nor is it right, they're clearly horrible people and much worse than amanda palmer, and i don't think they get less flak than amanda palmer because of their discographies. i just think they have people talking about their music more bc their music was more central to the culture at one point, as terrible as that is. they're both pretty awful.

I mean, when I was trying to think of guys who have been problematised on anything like a level - Wayne Coyne did spring to mind after a few hours of thinking. But it's taken years for recognition of his bullshit to percolate through the "aw but he's just a hippie dippie psychedelic music making love maaaaan".

i feel i deserve great credit for thinking something was rotten in the mind of coyne from when they subbed out a variety of fans dancing onstage in animal costumes for young female fans dancing onstage in nothing. think i was at least a couple of years ahead of the critical consensus there.

both chris brown and james brown are guilty of acts of deplorable abuse. one made music that was central to the evolution of popular music for decades before people really got what he did. one did that inane song in the viral wedding vid. it's far easier to suggest the latter be blasted from the historical record than the former.

a lot of dudes weren't paying attention to the dresden dolls and it's easy for them to be like "WHY IS AMANDA PALMER A THING" rather than Wayne Coyne

(Like, I really enjoy those contexts where Paul is "Mr Helena" and no more because it's such a funny inversion of the norm as regards Amanda and Courtney etc.)

wayne coyne is a lot worse than amanda palmer for a lot of reasons i think, but he's also a lot closer to simmons and nugent in a lot of ways too. like i think amanda palmer is much more intelligent than any of those guys and when she is wrong, it's in more interesting and debatable ways. whenever i read something wayne coyne writes it sounds like an incoherent youtube comment with 3x as many downvotes as upvotes.

it's easy to find little distinctions as to why we hate this artist more than that artist but there's just the fact that female artists are more likely to be seen as expendable to a lot of dudes, because a lot of dudes don't rate female artists. so when they DO talk about female artists, it won't be with that "but i gotta give them props for their years of service to the rock industry i've idolized since childhood."

And her husband. (Because that's what women are judged by; who they marry.)

Ha ha, actually I think Gaiman gets a lot more shit for being married to Palmer than the reverse. She's seen as having married up; he now gets "I used to like him, but then he married her."

lennon undoubtedly got more shit for marrying yoko than yoko got for marrying lennon, but you'd have to bend pretty far back to pretend yoko isn't the one judged under the lens of her marriage

i had no and i mean no inkling of this film's existence until this thread. what's it even... for? is it a music video? do i have to watch it?

The film is linked way, way, back up behind the cut. I would probably recommend against watching it, unless you're a huge, massive Interpol completist. It's pretty terrible, in a "Dieter off Sprockets makes u watch Germany's most disturbing art videos" kinda way.

I've seen it once, my memory of the plot (what little there was, because most of it was kind of random, arty noize-terror video collage with nonsense Russian words in tickertape across the screen, your typical cybergoth stuff of random politics, terrorism, some kind of parliament/congress, etc. etc.) is that there is a guy (White Carlos) I dunno, I think he's supposed to be a dissident or agent or something, being held captive in a room, muttering to himself, screaming words to the effect of he's on to them, they won't get him, he knows what they're up to etc, paranoid coke-addled nonsense, while holding interesting lighting effects up to his face. Somehow communicating with him, possibly through the television, is evil-dictator-guy (Black Carlos, doyougetit symbolism?) who gives sex changes to dolls (I'm not even kidding), mugs to the camera and vogues in a pink sequinned gown, and generally performs like the worst stereotype of a ~black drag queen~. Evil Dictator Black Carlos appears to negotiate with White Carlos (it's hard to tell about what, because he's playing funny pinky and perky with the voices) possibly about evil nefarious politics and some plot. Then Evil Black Carlos produces his bargaining chip - aha! the sex changed doll, which is now a parody of pretty-blonde-hair-smeared-makeup white femininity - and laughs maniacally and hugs and kisses it, possibly more dancing. White Carlos writhes about on the floor in a suit, and I don't even remember how it ends (I think flashback home videos of Carlos with family or something?) because I was pretty much o_0 what the fuck am I looking at. (I fear I have made it sound much more interesting than it is.)

The soundtrack is shitty video-noize bricolage with interludes of dodgy electro-goth. It's not a music video, though, it is AAAARRRRT.

I had no inkling of its existence, until someone on Tumblr posted that GIF. I had to ask around to find out what the hell it was from because I really really wanted to believe that it wasn't what it looked like.

I need to go to bed now. I cannot believe i have exerted this much effort recalling and describing this thing.

yeah that does sound terrible

It is even worse than I'm making it sound.

Here, after 80 posts about Carlos, here's a rather decent interview with Kessler

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/08/an_interview_w_74.html

(He's a bit of a fibber, claiming that 1974 is the "late 70s" isn't he, though. But the story about he and his brother both copying their look off The Jam makes me laugh.)

Somehow communicating with him, possibly through the television, is evil-dictator-guy (Black Carlos, doyougetit symbolism?) who gives sex changes to dolls (I'm not even kidding), mugs to the camera and vogues in a pink sequinned gown

how is this different from a Tim Pope-directed Cure video?

"the most prominent American indie-rock band of the 00s (or certainly the most critically acclaimed, or "seminal" (LOL) or whatever) "

haha this is so off base and wrong. interpol are like, a footnote.

Well, first, I don't remember much blackface in Tim Pope videos (I could be wrong? It's been a very long time since I saw them, but the black/white symbolism, IIRC tended to be limited to Robert Smith's shirts.) but mostly just Tim Pope videos managed to be clever, funny, and anarchic, and this film... no seriously, go and watch it if you don't want to take my word for how bad it is. You will want those 22 minutes of your life back. Trust me.

Lol was in blackface in the Why Can't I Be You video

Branwell you're the only person who has bothered to watch that film long enough to get angry about it

OK, I had stopped paying attention to The Cure by the time of Why Can't I Be You, so clearly I missed that one. I stand corrected.

I'm 1) obviously not the only person who watched the whole video - clearly at least one other person did, in order to make the GIF! 2) If I have to explain one more time, about how I am not ~angry~, I'm just thinking through things and wondering about them and discussing and thinking through complicated topics, I am going to actually physically hit the next person that accuses me of being "angry". Go away.

chillax bro

Shugazi that last post is definitely angry, brah.

ILM isn't tumblr for social justice warriors. Why does it matter to you whether ILM is sexist/racist/etc.? There are problems in the world, yes. Huge problems. If you think you are going to work through them by derailing a thread about a second-rate band's latest album by posting a questionable .gif of an ex-band-member's crap art film and comparing it to criticism of a completely unrelated artist, you are wasting everyone's time. Unless you spend lots of time with these posters offline, I don't see how you really feel you're accomplishing anything. What are you expecting to gain from derailing this thread? Let's say you come to believe ILM as a community is sexist/racist/etc. What then? Do you stop posting here? Do you then campaign to clean up the boards? It just seems like a huge waste of time to me. Want to fix real world issues? Great. Close your ILM browser tabs and do something about it.

...

If you can't change ilx
Then
Change the world

Here's a cute interview with Kessler where he confesses to his dodgy mod past:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2014/08/an_interview_w_74.html

Six songs into the new one and digging it. Production is thick but not shrill like OLTA, lots and lots of alluring sonic filligree.

Argh. Dilemma because I want to hear this, but I don't do leaks.

I can wait two weeks, really I can.

http://www.npr.org/2014/08/26/341629732/first-listen-interpol-el-pintor

three songs in this is already their best since antics

hahah, oh dear. Brandon told me that Kessler had learned to do a rather complicated guitar thing, of which he was "very proud". <3 I believe this must be the complicated guitar thing, on My Desire! (Which I've had trouble not calling "My Fuckwant" for months now.)

He is doing the Complicated Guitar Thing on Same Town, New Story, too! He really is like a small child with a new toy, it's so adorable.

Ah, My Blue Supreme, that'll be the one that's Fogarino's Berlin-era Bowie fan fiction.

I'm trying to work out if Everything Is Wrong = The One That Sounds Like Ride (or if there's another one that sounds even more like Ride?) Because that fuzz bass, yeah,

Breaker 1 - I don't care how much organ you pile on this and how DEEEEP the drums get, it's still your fault that there's no *real* TSM and biting their style does not endear you to me.

Tidal Wave - HI BRANDON. Ooh, I really like the bassline on this. Paul has such a better sense of rhythm, even if he tends to root note/octave basslines. The string (?) arrangements on this are fantastic; love the mellotron (?) sounding interlude. That outro! Wow. My shoes! The second from last song on every album is ALWAYS the best.

Twice As Hard - <3 Daniel's wonky piano playing. And the bass on the intro/verse! It's almost... jazzy. Dengler would never have permitted jazzy bass playing. I am liking this banks-bass thing so much. Kessler's "Cigar Tube Full Of Wasps" guitar tone!

It's really hard to avoid the feeling that he's baiting me...

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwX2G-fIQAI68WQ.jpg

http://33.media.tumblr.com/5a1ba802c6b3eafef75df42bffee10fa/tumblr_nb2j9hMQJQ1rjw8sqo2_1280.jpg

p.s. remember when I said upthread that part of the reason their lyrics scan like ESL student English might be because... they were actual ESL students?

About as poppy as they're ever gonna get, I'd wager:

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/song-of-the-day/listen-interpol-the-depths

huh. should've been the last track ime

Marfa... Pompei... Dendur... as you do...

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/ah/interpol/the-met/interpol-7.jpg

the pfork review is 10 paragraphs long. First description of a song occurs on the seventh.

I have been trying to avoid reviews because jesus christ there is just something about this band's music that inspires the WORST in purple prose. I try to avoid Pitchfork at the best of times, but I'm almost tempted to go and read it just for the sheer dread of it.

Surprise of the album 1: LYRIC SHEETS!

I guess Paul really was sick of those "time is like a broken watch" type errors.

Surprise of the album 2: someone pointed out this album had the highest BPMs since Antics, and now I'm really noticing it.

Well, that was a boring waste of time. I didn't last 4 paragraphs. It wasn't even *funny* as a savaging. At least when Alfred rips into the band he is fucking hilarious. That was just kind of boring and limp and "wow, this band don't sound as good as they did when I was 20." God that's tedious.

who knew that the greatest trick al qaeda ever pulled was convincing the world interpol had depth

You're talking to someone whose top 5 songs of all time contains Sugar Sugar by The Archies. I don't really care if a record has "depth" or not.

Surprise of the album 1: LYRIC SHEETS!

reminds me of my favorite Le Bon Bon: "hear me when you listen"

It's timeless, dammit. TIMELESS!

This whole record is basically Kessler going "Hmmm. Not enough reverb on this. Can we get some more reverberation on the reverb, please?" and Alan Moulder going WuBWuBWuBWuBWuBbbbbbBBBbbbbb.....

brutal review. i thought they might be gearing up to give it at least a 6 or 7 something considering all the coverage p4k has been giving the band in the lead-up. but i'm not surprised at all. still need to hear the record. one thing that really bothers me about most criticism of interpol and PB in general is their supposed lack of authenticity/sincerity, that they're posers, not a "Serious Band" (barf). i never felt the distance that so many do between paul and the audience. i feel like there's as much of a heart-on-sleeve desperation and openness and honesty in his lyrics as in Kurt Cobain's.

i don't care abt interpol's depth or whatever, i was just talking about the hilarious implications of that review

What's kinda made me come round on PB is actually realising that there's a lot of sly self-depreciation in his lyrics, and also a huge amount of humour?

I mean, maybe the whole thing is that the self-depreciation is supposed to be as much a schtick as the supposed arrogance?

But I read an interview recently, where he was talking about how people never got his sense of humour, and quoting lyrics like "let's see about this ham" and going "HOW. HOW. HOW DID ANYONE POSSIBLY TAKE THIS LYRIC SERIOUSLY. How could anyone not see humour in that line?"

Lack of authenticity/sincerity doesn't bother me. But there's this constant back and forth between wise-ass buffoonery in his lyrics, followed by heart on sleeve desperation, which is really kinda adolescent and I can understand how people could hate that. But I have come to find it really endearing.

(Also, I feel really really disloyal now, because the keyboard line that really stuck out as my favourite the first time listening, turns out to be the only keyboard part that wasn't written by Brandon Curtis. Oops.)

Wasn't the review about how it didn't matter if Interpol lacked depth?

i feel like there's as much of a heart-on-sleeve desperation and openness and honesty

and freckles

Those aren't freckles. Those are moles. Holy shit, that boy has a lot of moles.

Y'know, the one thing I am really glad about, is that when they go on tour, someone actually FEEDS Kessler.

https://38.media.tumblr.com/d50147ec91b8be655bc674ef2aa78b5b/tumblr_nbhwslgagn1rd1g7mo1_500.png

So he looks more like a human being, even if his buttons are a little tight, and less like the walking stick insect that he looked like in the making of video above.

OK, now I've been generally complimentary about the new album, and I do still like it a lot, and I feel it's only going to grow on me with repeated listens. So now I'm going to say something a little, well, less than nice.

WHY CAN'T INTERPOL EVER GET A DECENT BASS PLAYER ON THEIR RECORDS. WHY. TELL ME THIS. WHY IS THE BASS DEPARTMENT ON THEIR RECORDS ALWAYS SO LACKING.

Seriously, yeah. Banks' bass tone is a hundred times less annoying than Dengler's. I can get through the whole record without wanting to punch the pretentious bass tone in the face. But as annoying as Dengler was, he was at least always in the fucking pocket. Banks, on this record, he wanders. Like, when he's right on the beat, he's great. But the one thing about Dengler was, he did always drive the beat forward. Banks often sounds like he's half a breath behind, like he's following the drums instead of sitting right on top of them. And there are parts where I find that infuriating.

My Desire is the worst case of this. I really want to like that song, it's got a lovely jaunty little melody and the shuffly drum bits are fantastic. But I swear to god, there are parts of that song where all three of them are playing in a slightly different time signature. Like Fogarino is straight down the line, his drumming is bang on. But Kessler is racing ahead because he's so excited about his little guitar trills, and Banks has slipped slightly behind the beat and the others have to wait for him to catch up. WHY. WHY YOU DO THIS.

It's so annoying, because there's so much about this record I love! The reverb it's so reverby! The guitar trills are so trilly! Do I have to say how much I love the organ? It's Brandon Curtis, of course it's amazing! I'm really digging Banks' falsetto vocals, I think they're wonderful! Fogarino's drums are so fantastic, and I can hear the bits where he's using the analogue electronics with them. And then they go and spoil the whole thing by leaving the scratch bass from the demo underneath it. Couldn't they just ProTools it into the pocket?

OK, rant over. Now I'm going to go back to abject fangurl mode and never criticise it again.

paul looks ten or fifteen years older than he is. i really need to quit smoking.

self-depreciation

is not a word

Uuuuhhhh it's probably the narcotics you really need to lay off of, too, if you want to avoid looking like that Just Say No poster boy. Ha-hem.

Hate is on trial.

What?

PB was on smack?

That's what one of 'em was hinting at in the Q interview.

Alfred, if you're misquoting what I think you're misquoting, it's "Hey, who's on trial?"

(When did I become Captain Save-a-Pol?)

kessler just doesn't seem to have progressed technically or creatively as a guitarist or songwriter in a decade, they use a very limited set of chords, keys, and tones. really sucks because i love this band, top 10 of all time, but everything after Antics is so much less inspired, and they haven't gone anywhere since OLTA lyrically or musically. and it's a shame about OLTA because half of those songs are phenomenal, but the trebly, compressed production makes it so much worse. there's so little bass! the s/t and el pintor are produced well but the songwriting is not there, and it sounds like they're at a loss for ideas. there's so little identity in these songs, no wonder they couldn't think of anything else to call it other than a fucking acronym of their name, right after a self-titled. i just think it's a lack of inspiration and musical progression, maybe because kessler keeps bringing in old riffs and patterns. paul's schtick is getting old too, can the man write a song that's not about a fucking girl?

'Couldn't they just ProTools it into the pocket?'

NOoooo! I like how it's not locked down and the bass drags at the drums. This only works because Fogarino, as you say, is spot-on, and that the bass is usually root-fifth and the uptempo BPMs. If the basslines were more complex I'd find it more bother but as it is, I like how the songs hold together.

'kessler just doesn't seem to have progressed technically or creatively as a guitarist or songwriter in a decade, they use a very limited set of chords, keys, and tones'

For some of this, this is a plus.

it's not surprising or exciting though. this record and the s/t just drone on, nothing jumps out except for a handful of songs on each (Summer Well, Barricade, Memory Serves, My Desire, Ancient Ways). the well is dry, it's just this dead, plodding sound. banks' vocals are so washed out i can't hear most of his lyrics, which used to jump right out!

Geordie! You posting on ILM is becoming a new habit or something!

I will probably get used to the more... um, organic bass-playing, I guess. I'm trying to think of a synonym that isn't "sloppy" because it isn't sloppy so much as just looser and more casual than usual. It's just that I am used to a a real *precision* from Interpol, that's one of the things I associate with them, very precise, interlocking accuracy. I believe, from interviews, that they were aiming for a more immediate, organic, "live" feel to the record. They did say that they had written songs that could go to a record, or go straight to being played at gigs, and they've certainly accomplished that. It's very immediate and direct and does sound mostly like a live performance (I hear very few overdubs. Everything is very much as they play it live.) But I guess that looseness is unexpected from *them* and I keep wanting to nudge Paul back into the pocket. I expect precision from this band. Heavens, I mean next they'll be playing gigs with their ties loosened and their top buttons unbuttoned. Whatever next.

Spazz, I find your commentary frankly mystifying. Like, are you sure that it's Interpol that's changed, and not you? Maybe you have grown out of them; maybe your life and your interests have changed, and you just don't like them any more. But "I don't like them any more" is not the same thing as "they have run out of ideas and failed to progress."

Are you actually still listening to the older albums, or are you just relying on your memories of what they sounded like to you at the time? Because this complaint of "the vocals are obscured now, they were never obscured in the early days" DUDE have you listened to TOTBL recently, because every single vocal on that record is shouted, distorted, buried, spat out through a mouthful of ice and otherwise obscured. I would suggest that you sit down and listen to the first four albums, back to back, in order, and listen to the actual records, not your memory of the role they played in your life, in 2004.

Kessler not progressing technically as a guitarist or a songwriter? I think you are mistaking two things here:

1) Interpol are a band with a very defined, and specific identity. They have a distinct Style, they have distinct moods and sonic palettes. I don't know what you're expecting Kessler to do differently - but expecting him to turn up and start shredding on a solo or something is like expecting him to turn up in sweatpants and a tank top. That isn't who he is. Complaining that Interpol have a stylistic schtick and that they stick to it is like complaining that the Jesus and Mary Chain only have 3 songs. Yes, they do. That's the point. (They're fucking fantastic songs, though.)

2) Kessler progressing as a songwriter/musician. I'm kinda lucky here, in that they came to me as a single body of work, that I could listen to each album for a week, and compare, and see very easily what progressed and changed and what didn't, rather than having the expectations of these songs soundtracking periods of my life. It's quite obvious when Kessler learns a new trick, because he ends up using it on every song on an album. He got a Gretsch with a tremolo arm on OLTA, so you get a tonebend on every song. He learned how to play piano just before the S/T, so there's piano on every song on that album. He learned how to do trills and hammer-ons for El Pintor, so he's doing those little flamboyant trills on every song now. It's kind of adorable, actually. He is not a particularly technical guitarist, has never pretended to be, and has never expressed any interest in being. He very deliberately uses a spare, minimal style which is enough to play the songs he writes, and no more. But if you think he hasn't progressed as a musician, then you haven't been paying attention to what he's been playing.

Coming to the body of work as a whole, it's really easy to see the progression. Sound-washes and tons of effects on TOTBL. Stripping off the effects and riffing away on Antics. Getting harder edged and more RAWK on OLTA. Becoming more dense and layered and "left field" with the arrangements on the S/T (OK, I kinda laugh when Kessler said that because it's about 5 degrees off centre, but I see what he means.) Then stripping it back and going for a more immediate live sound on El Pintor. It's true, they never stray very far from their Stylistic Statement, but there's a lot of movement around that Style.

The only album I'm not "in love with" is OLTA - that seemed like a couple of really good songs (though I pick really different songs to you - Mammoth, Rest My Chemistry and The Lighthouse) with some less successfully stuff around. But I skip songs on Antics and TOTBL,too (especially Antics; I never play the first or last track if I can help it)!

You're allowed to say "I don't like what Interpol does any more." But the idea that nothing is moving in there, because you don't like it, that's just stupid and kind of annoying for you to keep repeating.

paul's schtick is getting old too, can the man write a song that's not about a fucking girl?

And this? This is just fucking stupid. For real? OK, you can't actually make out any of the lyrics any more, but you are convinced that they are just about "a fucking girl"?

For a start, seriously, what the fuck? Yes, it's terrible to write songs that are about or from the viewpoint of women. Absolutely appalling. He should stick to writing about males and male subjects and male interests. Because that's what lyrics should be. None of this girl shit.

Do you think that because there are women in many of these songs, that they are all just about Paul's romantic relationships? Named women, characters in stories, some of them romantic props, yes, some of them fully formed human beings who run rings around him, or even occasionally have lives independent of him. (One of the things I like about Banks' lyrics is that they are full of women, and those women are often Rose Tylers, not Amy Ponds.)

But the thing is, that they are not. They're sometimes about "you and I" and you're projecting if you think that always has to be a romantic relationship. Sometimes they're about "he and she" like characters in a play. Sometimes they're named girls with their own back stories, whether they're Stella or Sandy or Rosemary. He writes a lot of songs about humans. Half those humans are females. That's the way humans work. And sometimes he writes songs that turn out to be about crabs watching a father and a son from the side of the boat.

Seeing as how this is the first time they've been kind enough to provide lyric sheets, I've been reading the stated lyrics, and some of them are, yes, about romantic relationships. Some of them seem to be about familial relationships. Some of them aren't about relationships at all; they're about the Ocean, or the City and jeez, I'm not actually sure what Everything Is Wrong is about, it could be about personal disaster, it could be about something more societal or political. The lyrics are vague and abstract and allow many interpretations.

But, y'know, if you're listening to every vague and abstract lyric, and you've just decided that they're all "about a fucking girl" man, that really might be a problem with your interpretative facilities, not with what is happening in the actual lyrics.

alright branwell, let me ask you this - how come they never do that screaming guitar chord in untitled live?

Which screaming guitar chord? Untitled is another of the tracks I tend to skip.

And mostly they don't do anything live in Untitled because they've played it, like, once in the past 5 years?

They've brought a lot of stuff from the first two albums back into the set list for this tour, but jeez "they don't play the old material like they used to" is kind of a lamer complaint.

I know we're coming at this from 2 different sides, where you have this 12 year history to be disappointed, and I'm a brand new fan who had the whole catalogue dumped in my lap 9 months ago.

But I seriously do not understand the mentality of people who are like "It's all downhill from TOTBL" when I just feel like "WTF, TOTBL isn't even their best album?"

they played it first at nearly every single show for three or four years. the chord first occurs at around :53 seconds into untitled, repeats throughout the song, sometimes it slides down the neck, sometimes just a stab. really cool cutting part that sorta makes the song, and paul doesn't play his guitar at all live until midway through. always mystified me. it's not a hard part to replicate live or play...?

Maybe they got *bored* with playing a 12-year-old song exactly the same way, every day for three or four years?

What do you want me to do, ring them up and ask them?

(That was a joke, by the way.)

i was a casual fan since antics came out when i was 12, liked OLTA when it came out, then got super duper fucking obsessed with them when i was 16 and madly in love with a girl. it was such a great time. i'll always love Interpol for those first two perfect records. i thought Paul Banks circa 2000-2005 was the coolest fucking dude on the planet, i dressed like him, i watched and listened to hours of interviews and bootlegs, i mean total obsession. it was great. the only way i can think of right now to describe my reaction to them post-2005 is they're just not as subtle. they've been unspooling their beautiful weird inexplicable coolness into boring and uninspired songs, lame vocal tics... ehhh, honestly, it's most disappointing to me that kessler isn't able or doesn't want to progress as a musician or a guitarist, in his playing, his melodies, or his tones.

no, they've never done that guitar part live

Spazz. If you were 12 when Antics came out, that makes you 22 now. It's HIGHLY LIKELY that you will no longer enjoy the music you liked when you were a pre-pubescent now that you are in your early adulthood. You do not like the music now, because you are not the same person now. I was embarrassed as fuck, when I was 22, by the music and artists I liked when I was 12. (I came back to that music in my 30s, and was surprised to find that I had changed, my opinion on that music had changed back to good.) It's called growing up.

I've given three specific examples in which Kessler has progressed as a musician (tonebends, piano, trills) and you're just ignoring that in favour of the example of: one chord from a song they wrote fifteen years ago?

It's not going to be helpful to either of us to continue this conversation.

But "I don't like them any more" is not the same thing as "they have run out of ideas and failed to progress."

but it is. "They have run out of ideas and failed to progress" leads to "I don't like them anymore."

You can say "you've reversed the sentence" but that's how it works

"A 22 year old doesn't like the same things he liked when he was 12" is not the same thing as "the band have run out of ideas."

And you never liked them, Alfred, so I don't know why you're taking this tack.

You know what I liked when I was 12? Duran Duran. They'd just released Rio and it blew my mind, and changed my life and I went back and absorbed the first album, and read every interview I could get my hands on, and they deeply informed my preteen ideas of What Glamour Was, and What Music Was, and all that shit.

Then puberty happened, and punk rock happened, and I grew up, and when I was 22, OMG, I was really into My Bloody Valentine and Ride and Lush and Stereolab and amazing exciting music like that, and OMG, it was so fucking *embarrassing* that I had ever liked Duran Duran.

But if you asked me, in 1993, what was wrong with Duran Duran, I wouldn't have said "eh, I grew up", I would have talked about how shallow LeBon's lyrics were and how tedious their idea of glamour was, and what was with all those dumb songs about fashion and girls. And my god, they had made no musical progression at all, they were still mucking about with synths like it was the goddamn fucking 80s and didn't everyone know it was all about shoegaze and Cathedrals of Sound now? I mean, for fucks sake. The Wedding Album, how limp, how lifeless, how embarrassing, i mean, yeah, I still have this nostalgic sense that Rio was once very important to me, but my god, don't ask me to listen to this Come Undone and Ordinary World bullshit, they are totally out of ideas, and my god, Nick Rhodes hasn't even changed his haircut, let alone his sound, there's no development here, and this is a TERRIBLE. ALBUM.

Of course, I was wrong. Duran Duran were a band with a specific style, but with many peaks and troughs, and huge amounts of development and change and progression over the years. I was just embarrassed, at 22, that the band they were in 1993, was not the band I remembered from childhood. It wasn't that Duran Duran hadn't changed, it was that I had. A lot.

And of course, now I listen to Come Undone and know that 22 year old me was a fucking idiot.

But you know, growing up, that's how it works.

I look forward to the day when bands are obliged to fill in personal development plans with smart objectives so that progress becomes objective and measurable, avoiding this rather subjective debate.

I'm about to be REALLY FUCKING MEAN. Avert your eyes.

https://33.media.tumblr.com/d1dfb918879f11833e0389769ea47f4b/tumblr_nbpavnAORU1qgze9ho1_400.pnghttps://38.media.tumblr.com/52ac9b477a8c19be6294477e38c37781/tumblr_nbpavnAORU1qgze9ho2_500.png

One of these men is 40. The other is 35. One of these men is a nonsmoking vegetarian. The other? Well, the less said the better.

CHOOSE YOUR LIFESTYLE WISELY, KIDS.

OK, that was deeply and unacceptably mean.

JE NE REGRETTE RIEN!!!!

Sometimes I think BraNwell is the only person on this forum who understands fandom.

No, I just think I'm the only person left who actually *is* still a fan, as opposed to a jaded music critic or jaded wannabe music critic. Sigh. :-/

ILM is not a kind place to fans.

ILM is not a kind place to fans

this record is good, the only song that edges out of their comfort zone is "tidal wave" and it's probably the best song here, the rest is kinda just reexploring the boundaries of antics but i'm into that

I feel really disloyal loving Tidal Wave (which is probably my favourite song - that or Everything Is Wrong) because it's the only song that Brandon *doesn't* play on.

(Oh! It's Roger Manning Jr of Jellyfish/Moog Cookbook etc. No wonder.)

omg roger manning jr.

Bran, like I said, I didn't become OBSESSED with Interpol - complete fandom - until ages 16-18. Also, I never said I didn't like TOTBL, Antics, or parts of OLTA anymore. I still listen to them regularly. There are so many bands that I became OBSESSED with at the same time or several years earlier, that I still follow and am surprised & impressed by. I hope you don't think I'm any less of an Interpol fan than you, if I wasn't I wouldn't have bothered to listen to everything they do and each member does despite being continually disappointed, because of the quality of the early work. I have not grown out of Interpol. I want them to make something good. They have, IMHO, run out of ideas and keep writing and re-writing the same songs into the ground. It doesn't resonate with me.

one thing i don't quite get is when branwell suddenly became a huge interpol fan. did not know about this at all until some veiled references a year ago or so.

When? February 2014.

How? Can You Force Yourself To Like A Record Through Blunt-Force Repetition?

I did a project to see if I could make myself like an album I'd previously hated by listening to it 22 times in a week. I accidentally made myself completely obsessed with the band in the process.

WHY? Two words: Brandon Curtis. (I think my obsessed with Secret Machines and Los Bros Curtis is long documented on this board.) He made me go see them back in February and again over the summer and I was kinda like a cat watching them, like "hmmmmm" and when I told him "I don't want to see your new band any more, I'm starting to get kind of a crush here" he started deliberately feeding me all kinds of KesslerFacts to deliberately provoke and feed the crush. And now I'm obsessed with Interpol.

I'm trying to work out what it is that produces and drives obsessions like this, and I definitely think that, like, other people loathing them (and being hugely outspoken about it) really actually drives and reinforces that kind of "no one loves them like I love them!" sense of persecution that really feeds obsession. I'm finding it very curious as a phenomenon, even as I'm being tossed about on the horns of the obsession.

Y'know, when I accused them of "turning into Ride" I didn't think they'd go whole hog and use the cover for Nowhere as the backdrop of their current stage design:

http://38.media.tumblr.com/b421a323fdd1e5153848f3ee5855559c/tumblr_nc1b4mWdhZ1tfqokdo1_1280.jpg

Seriously, that's kinda shameless, guys.

New video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nu1SEZNPcBk

(For Twice As Hard, which is weird, coz I thought they recently filmed a video for My Desire? Guess I was wrong about that.)

First the surfing, now the boxing? Hmmm. They do seem to presenting themselves in a certain way at the moment, and that way is coded particularly sporty and, well, jock, to use the American term. It's... well, it seems a deliberate counter-image to their previous image. But personally, I still find it, well, hmmmm. Wish Paul could keep his little hobbies out of the band, eh, but who am I to complain.

p.s. Number 7 on the album charts in the US. Apparently!

I think the first three songs on the new album are stupendous, but I haven't been able to get into the rest of the record. That's par for the course with everything after the debut: 3 or 4 songs I absolutely love, and then a bunch of filler I'll never again listen to. Not that I'm complaining: put 'em together, those 3 or 4 songs per record are worth it.

That's ridiculous because this specific album is so back-loaded. If it were up to me, I'd skip the singles and listen to the album from My Blue Supreme on out. (Heh, iTunes tells me that's exactly what I tend to do.)

But I do realise I may just be listening for a different band.

album gets more oceanic as it gets deeper.

speaking of there are a lot of ocean metaphors on this one? or maybe i'm just noticing

Yeah, there's a lot of sea, of ocean, of tide, the colour blue. It seems to be a recurrent theme. (I still wish The Depths wasn't left off the album, either.)

Finally bought it this morning at Target. $9.99, two bonus tracks ("Malfeasance" and a live version of "Slow Hands").

Annoyed about that bonus track not being available in the UK. I still haven't heard it. :-(

Surprised Boots (or whatever) didn't make the same deal Target did. Or do big grocery/drugstore chains in the UK not get deluxe versions of albums?

Boots don't sell albums! I suppose the bigger Sainsburys or whatever might sell the top 10 albums, but they certainly don't make a draw of it.

Ugh, Interpol are on One Week One Band this week, and even just the first fucking entry has reminded me of all the reasons that I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAATED them for so long.

http://oneweekoneband.tumblr.com/post/98130387039/an-introduction

Every. Single. Fucking. Cliche. just trotted blithely out. I don't hate the band any longer, but I really REALLY hate the way that people write about them. I mean, clearly I enjoy feeling conflicted, but seriously, just... argh.

Paul Banks on Comedy Bang! Bang! today

(the podcast)

Wow, what do I haaaaate more, Paul Banks or ~comedy~.

(There's a reason Kessler is my favourite; he goes on podcasts to talk about yummy vegetarian food for an hour.)

In other news, Kessler has just announced that he's done a solo album of Selected Ambient Works to be released under the name Big Noble next spring.

"It’s a good record to probably hear with headphones and walking around and letting the sounds of the city or nature or wherever you’re at kind of seep into the background."

Yes, I'm just waiting until he arranges for Robert Macfarlane or somebody to design some special nature walks to hike while listening to the album, to maximalise the "relevant to my interests" target-shaped appeal of this idea.

*wanders off muttering something about how he can stop trying to get me adore him now because it's already worked*

I recently found out that a friend's BFF once dated Sam Fogarino. I didn't pry for any juicy details.

please do though

Does anyone have a WSJ account? This is behind the paywall. :(

http://online.wsj.com/articles/interpols-dan-kessler-on-five-electrifying-albums-1412287964

Curious as to which his favourite PJ Harvey album is (I'm guessing the other 4 are all Fugazi records)

Daniel Kessler, 40, is the guitarist for American rock band Interpol. The group's latest album, "El Pintor" (Matador/Soft Limit), came out last month. He spoke with Marc Myers:

I sound American, but I didn't move there with my family until 1985, when I was 11. I was born in London and lived outside Paris from age 6 to 11.

Music hit me early. My two older brothers were constantly listening to something interesting and covered their walls with magazine cutouts of rockers.

I started playing guitar when I was 14 but didn't start on the piano until I was an adult. I've always loved music on the edge.

The Clash, "Sandinista!" (1980) // The band's follow-up to "London Calling" remains a fascinating listen, mostly because it marries punk with dance beats, '60s soul, reggae, electronic, rockabilly and other forms that were all crashing together then. Each track is completely different from the last.

Tappa Zukie, "In Dub" (1977) // Tappa Zukie is a Jamaican reggae DJ and producer. I discovered this album in a reggae record store in New York's East Village. Dub is reggae with high levels of production, and liberties are taken to bend the music, like elongating the snare drum or bass.

Aphex Twin, " Richard D. James Album" (1996) // Aphex Twin is an alias for Richard D. James, an English electronic musician and a melodic genius. The music here has aged well. When released, the album created an entirely new genre and had an everlasting influence on me.

Fugazi, "In on the Kill Taker" (1993) // I love Fugazi's energy. On this album, you can hear the progress of punk from hard core to a more innovative interpretation. The band's two guitarists-- Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto--play these tremolo-picked riffs that are really interesting.

PJ Harvey, "To Bring You My Love" (1995) // This album is incredible from start to finish. The production is terrific, especially on "Working for the Man." It's kind of loose and relaxedin the best of ways, with these little moments and big surprises. I was obsessed with it.

Thank you so much! You've made my day!

#RelevantToMyInterests

http://www.factmag.com/2014/10/23/interpol-my-desire-factory-floor-remix/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FactMagazineMusicAndArt+%28FACT+magazine%3A+music+and+art%29

(Maybe I should have put this on the Factory Floor thread instead because it sounds like FF are hitting their Technique phase rn)

OK, I fully understand that the interface between "Interpol fans" and "people who are interested in weird little wibbly SAW type noodlings" is precisely ONE, but we have a release date for Big Noble*?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWEwGG2SVNE

*Kessler's ambient side-project with Joseph Fraioli, which is basically big reverb-laden shoegaze guitars over the top of ambient electronic textures because: because he is trying to kill me, that's why.

Release date of February 3rd. I'm kind of excited. Because of all the boys I adore, the one I thought least likely to ever come out with an album of SAWs, Kessler was probably the least likely.

i would much rather read PB's poetry, i don't mean that sarcastically, i would buy like 3 copies of his poetry book if he wrote one to give to friends

http://www.timeout.com/newyork/music/interpol-interview-theres-something-about-new-york-its-still-pure

Fogarino: God, oh, yeah. Carlos had his pants pinned with the seams together. It all looked good in the photographs, but when you got up close to it, it just, like, whew. Everybody thought, Oh, they’re in their Prada suits. No, it’s just this vintage-store stuff, pieced together—J.C. Penney jacket, Sears pants. It was all crap.

<3 so much <3

(They still looked 10x better in shitty JC Penny suits than most dudes will ever look in Prada. Sigh.)

http://38.media.tumblr.com/010e19e8dc8e90fc6f237c961e0c0902/tumblr_nez7zsaw411qllbb8o1_1280.jpg

I recognise at this point that absolutely no one cares about this but me, but... two pieces of news in the past few weeks.

1) Kessler finally released his long-threatened Shoegaze / Selected-Ambient-Works project, Big Noble.

http://www.musicomh.com/reviews/albums/big-noble-first-light

It is possibly the most Branwell-friendly collection of music ever made, so much so that I'm slightly suspicious and feel like I'm being pandered to. Of course I love it. How could I not? I'm still not recovered from him eating ice cream and helping old ladies across the street.

2) Carlos D is writing a book. Sorry, 'writing' is far too pedestrian a term for what Carlos is doing. Carlos 'has begun drafting a book of autobiographical essays'. It will be the most annoying book ever written. I will no doubt read it eight times. Oh, and he's written and has been performing a one-man-show performance art / talk at the audience about himself monologue called Boy, Interrupted.

https://40.media.tumblr.com/c1a3c1f0810a76f87a5274ccebdf738f/tumblr_njewx0GV6A1qgze9ho6_1280.png

Promo photos like this make me suspicious that Mr D might be getting into ~evolutionary psychology~ and I know that he is on a 15-year quest to become the most ANNOYING human being in the history of annoyingness, but I really will beat him about the head with Mary Midgley books if that's the course he's chosen to go down.

http://40.media.tumblr.com/574dc62e816235d8b495bf977c06cc27/tumblr_njb342bfsB1rjw8sqo1_400.jpg

(Yeah yeah, I know, there is a dedicated ILX Carlos D thread I should be putting this on, but it's full of herpes and Jon Williams and I'm not sure which is a greater impediment.)

damn I think this might be my fave Interpol record now, flab-free and rich with detail. also a surprisingly good summer album. probably all the surfing mentions help.

"my desire" isn't terrible but boy do i miss carlos