Gayngs Chub Licker

"meander pointlessly" and "ersatz" yes ("affectless" no) - but listen with "balearic" ears and these qualities make a lot more sense. Which is one reason that they make me think of (early) A Mountain of One, who operated according to a similar dynamic (and repelled a lot of people in the process I think).

This is something I said about neo-balearic stuff a couple of years back and I think it applies here:

"Perhaps the other key difference between Balearic and disco-punk is the way in which the two styles pursue their strategies of intensification. Disco-punk approaches its desired fusion very seriously, combining urgent disco rhythms with the most honest-to-goodness rock signifiers it can think of (jagged guitars, shrieked vocals, songs about girls and politics), as if to say: “I can be both of these things absolutely without compromise.” Balearic’s strategy is more oblique, preferring to fail on both rock and dance music’s terms, as if by doing so it could establish a new yardstick. As dance music it’s too torpid, decadent and tentative; as rock it’s simultaneously blanched-out and excessively manicured. A lot of my favourite records this year felt a bit like inspired failures: on Kathy Diamond’s gorgeous ballad “I Need You”, the arrangement drifts from deep sublimated bass riffs into an unnecessarily loud and showy percussion work-out, the yawning gap between Kathy’s delicacy and the robustness of the drums coming on like some lurid combination of alcohol and pink lemonade I can’t stay away from."

i'm still undecided as to whether how to dress well is the worst music ever or if i'm actually kind of into it. constantly catch myself oscillating between feelings of disgust and groovin

me 2

How To Dress Well is surprisingly brilliant live. Or at least he was when I saw him in London over summer.

Faded high is such a great song off Relayted.

me 3

"meander pointlessly" and "ersatz" yes ("affectless" no) - but listen with "balearic" ears

if i do this, it's just a less-satisfying version of actual balearic music, without any of the detail or lush sound design that i prize there. (bear in mind i never particularly liked a mountain of one ,or anything that veered too much to the beardo end of the spectrum)

i'm still undecided as to whether how to dress well is the worst music ever

give me a how to dress well song to listen to so i can decide for you

dude you would hate this shit i don't even need to

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnoIjY4aPTM

like, the first three seconds will repulse you

i really like that song tho

hahaha otm about the first three seconds

is it meant to sound like that?

like, recorded in a toilet?

yeah i guess, that's one thing i've never understood

(genuine qn, it could well be shitty youtube quality)

(not that it sounded like it'd be good anyway)

oh so it is meant to sound like that

an insult to well-dressed people everywhere imo

haw

anyways yr totally right, its awful music -- blatant incompetence mustered up as art. just sometimes, idk, you catch yourself nodding your head to the hand clap beats & getting into that big lo-fi reverby wall of sound. against all better judgment

a lo-fi wall of sound seems to fundamentally misunderstand what's good about a wall of sound

http://www.audioheritage.org/images/jbl/photos/pro-speakers/grateful.jpg

a lo-fi wall of sound seems to fundamentally misunderstand what's good about a wall of sound

disagree completely, but that's to be expected. massive walls of sound are one of the few things that fuzzed out, bargain-basement lofi recording can really get across.

soz really didn't mean to post such a big image...but look at those fuckin stacks!!

Whose sound rig is that?

grateful dead's (circa '74 - you can actually see em rehearsing at the bottom of the pic) - they called this set up 'the wall of sound', hence...

you wont need me where im going is pretty affecting imo but it has nothing to do with r&b

How To Dress Well is an exercise in nothingness. I don't get the adoration at all.

― Johnny Fever, Thursday, October 14, 2010 5:28 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark

cf dubstep

guess you don't like beats

Thing is: strip away the appalling production on HTDW's records and when you see Tom Krell live, suddenly he's ace. He does a particularly good song over a loop from Jacko's Baby Be Mine which is great. I don't get what all the 'fashionably distressed' piss poor recording technique is about on his studio output... (which there's also too much of).

his cover of "i wish" is really good

agree w/ doran's last sentence

'gaudy side of town' is A++++++++++ top ten

btw idg why 'chub licker' is in this thread title

trip hop >>>> dubstep

I don't understand why How To Dress Well is getting all the critical plaudits and everyone has forgot about Gayngs. I enjoy this much more.

totally

man i need to start paying attention to music again. this is great! and its been out for months!

cynical answer: how to dress well fits into a storyline

yeah shit, this is totally max music

gayngs is from minneapolis (right?) and htdw is from brooklyn/germany?

yes altho i think HTDW is/was based in chicago when he started poppin off

also gayngs doesnt use enough triangles in their aesthetic

I love this album! It's like if A Mountain of One had decided to make an entire album out of "Freefall" rather than "Innocent Line".

― Tim F, Monday, July 19, 2010 6:50 AM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this got me really excited but if anything i wish the album sounded MORE like freefall

I was sat in the garden listening to it at the weekend and still love it. I really worry about stuff that's got a bit of a pot head sensibility to it but this is amazing *in spite* of all that stuff - especially the sleeve 'concept'.

― Duran (Doran), Monday, July 19, 2010 12:42 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

*shakes head sadly*

this got me really excited but if anything i wish the album sounded MORE like freefall

Well this is a general principle w/r/t all rock pretty much, I would think.

Poor Gayngs, so close to being triangulastic:

http://potholesinmyblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Relayted-Gayngs_480.jpg

yeah, if only there were more freefalls. but ill settle for more im not in loves, i guess. is that old kevin godley in the "cry" video?

ah i see thats been covered. good sport.

OK, I give up. This rules. Wish I didn't wait so long to hear this, as I have a few friends involved. I don't love Bon Iver, I think that's why I avoided it initially. Hope the rest is as good as "The Gaudy Side of Town."

haha this whole thing sounds like it's been made up for a WFMU Best Show call-in

"Mick Nick Pick Mick Nick"

love this album so much i can even tolerate the rap at the end

http://www.thejump.net/id/more-fish/bluehead-chub.jpg

"last prom on earth" is actually one of my least favorite things here, but it seems to get high praise? idgi. "faded high" people!

besides gaudy side of town and cry, i like 'no sweat,' unsurprisingly

drummers are two of the best in town, esp ben ivascu

btw played a show about 1 1/2 ago with this singer called Mayda who is being groomed/produced by michael bland, so he plays in her live band

he appears not well at all :(

still played like a metronome tho