simon reynolds: classic or dud

honestly it just makes me a bit sad listening to this overhyped and overpushed girl (and the rest of her peers) while seeing ridiculously talented artists like teedra moses having to drum up interest on twitter for her latest self-released venture b/c so many critics and industry people are unable to recognise real talent

people who sing like five-year-olds and try to make a virtue out of inability should step BACK this year and let women like teedra through to do their thing

The idea that an artist like Micachu (who has sold, what, three records?) is crowding out space that would otherwise be taken up by Teedra Moses is ridiculous.

lex sounding oddly rockist right now

not etherial enough to be a quirky girl tbh i think that gender is a red herring and she belongs in the same catchbag as the blenderphonic post-prog of her tourmates like late of the pier, metronomy, connan moccasin etc. tho i don't know the ilx oops sorry ilm hivemind party line on those bands perhaps i can google that too

Also can we have a moratorium on loose-to-the-point-of-meaningless words like "talent" please?

I don't get a whole lot out of her music tbh, but what Micachu has got going for her though is that she just doesn't really sound like anything else much. Totally resists easy categorisation. Also she sings pretty much like she talks as far as I can make out, don't think it's affectation.

says 'oh this is genre x' when i barely even know what x is

fwiw, I never heard of "blenderphonic post-prog" until 20 seconds ago.

that's ok i made it up

The idea that an artist like Micachu (who has sold, what, three records?) is crowding out space that would otherwise be taken up by Teedra Moses is ridiculous.

her and her ilk

don't care if it's rockist to think that people with a modicum - or even a massive fucking amount - of talent should not have languishing careers while people who sing and play instruments like they're in primary school get critically fêted

'...and they can't even play their instruments!!!!' lex you are becoming more rockist by the moment any second now an emerson lake and palmer l.p. will sprout out of your newly burgeoning beard

don't care. this is shaping up to be the year i listen to nothing but sade, anyway

sade being another example of REAL TALENT

don't care if it's rockist to think that people with a modicum - or even a massive fucking amount - of talent should not have languishing careers

Never knew you went to Berklee, Lex.

Hey Lex, Susan Boyle sold a lot more records than Micachu last year, be fair here.

not heard a note of Micachu because STUPID FUCK OFF NAME

But anyway if Teedra Moses' people can't even sell her records the millions of people who already like RnB, that's probably not the fault of the publicists behind some shitty parochial indie act.

Micachu incorporates some early 80s postpunk in her sound and it sometimes works, though I am not clear why Simon thinks she's exempt from "retro" references.

is it supposed to rhyme with "pikachu"

one solution to the dilemma of micachu is to move to the united states where you will never have to ever hear her, ever

thanks to the constitution

boston 1776: benjamin franklin throws tea, and micachu records, into the sea

It's pretty easy not to hear her records in the UK as well.

rly tho

more liek micaWHO

plz say it's pronounced my-CATCH-uh

ok so maybe one solution to the dilemma of micachu is to never read an article by simon reynolds and never go on the internet

I did both of those of things back in 1991. AND LOOK AT THE RESULTS.

ok so maybe one solution to the dilemma of micachu is to never read an article by simon reynolds and never go on the internet

i'm halfway there!

late of the pier, metronomy, connan moccasin etc. tho i don't know the ilx oops sorry ilm hivemind party line on those bands perhaps i can google that too

The ILM hivemind non-UK contingent says they suck cos we've never heard of them and the UK contingent says they suck because they are middle class/English/too young/wear capes/have a stupid name/were praised by the wrong publication/toured with someone unfashionable etc etc. Pretty sad that there's only about three people on this board who have any enthusiasm for more interesting contemporary British pop music.

yes its TRAGIC

capes?

Pretty sad that there's only about three people on this board who have any enthusiasm for more interesting contemporary British pop music

yeah we need more people on funky house sceptics, let me draw your attention to this

King Boy Pato and the Capes.

"people who sing like five-year-olds and try to make a virtue out of inability should step BACK this year and let women like teedra through to do their thing"

erm right, yeah, cos if micahu wasnt about, her fans would lap up someone likd teedra.

teedra would do well to actually have some songs as good as be your girl.

*like

people who sing like five-year-olds and try to make a virtue out of inability

I don't really want to play the you-know-that-Micachu-had-classical-training card on you here, but uh, you know that Micachu had classical training? So it's not really musical inability (unless you mean an inability to make pop music?), it's an aesthetic choice.

Lex is an internet mentalist who doesn't read Simon Reynolds and doesn't listen to Micachu & The Shapes. So of course he's all over the thread where we discuss Simon Reynolds' writings on that band.

So it's not really musical inability (unless you mean an inability to make pop music?), it's an aesthetic choice.

This prompts the question, is it rockist to dislike faux-primitivism?

i am a bit surprised by this article TBH. didn't Simon coin the phrase "record collection rock"? nowadays, indie record collections are that much broader. doesn't mean much has changed on a fundamental level, does it?

i feel like a lot of indie bands seem to get a pass for trying things they are not as good at as the people they are borrowing from. its not a question of talent or the scope of what is being attempted... but something else I cant put into words...

i havent heard micachu's music. cant you still try and make a virtue of inability (which is really the sound of inability) even if you are able?

While maybe it's a discussion worth having on a general level, Micachu doesn't try and make a virtue of inability. That was something which Lex said upthread which was wrong.

For reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvuNIQO1Zrg

ah ok

at work - i will listen at home tonight

thanks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4OhRVn_b80

Vocally, the only thing I'd ping her for is the super-strong accent and even that is more a stylistic thing than an actual negative.

The song itself is a melange of minimalist ideas with the idea of DIY punk-pop mixed in with some of the sonic harshness of industrial music, in and of itself not really hateworthy but not super enticing, either.

xp: re: "Golden Phones", that's riffing on similar themes and kind of seems to be riding the "what if Gang of Four was fronted by a woman" idea

yeah, but does it have grime-shaped windowsills?

'Golden Phones' sounds kinda like Stump to me.

Lex would fucking hate Stump.

the 'untalented' point is obv deadwrong: her guitar is out of tune on purpose, dontchaknow! also the band is really tight, fancy compositions, interplay etc. i get why this would sound shitty to a lot of people, but it's not like she was trying to make anything different than what she's playing. all the micachu haters should at least admit that she's very good at making music that you don't like rather than acting like she's some poor child struggling to play gang of four tunes on an out of tune ukelele.

some poor child struggling to play gang of four tunes on an out of tune ukelele.

YSI?

j/k

xpost. The Stump comparison is a decent one. Even more like The Mackenzies or the Dog Faced Hermans at times. But with wacky keyboards and hoover sounds chucked in too.

did i or did i not make it clear that 1) i was not just referring to micachu 2) i was aware that the description was lazy and probably inaccurate because i found her so unlistenable that i couldn't get to the end of any of her songs, and as such really have no interest in whether i describe her accurately?