Savages

anyone hear jennie beth's earlier band?

oh ha

One listen in and the whole thing doesn't knock me out like "Husbands" did as a standalone single last year. The album does feel curiously backloaded, too: "She Will," "No Face," "Husbands" and "Marshal Dear" are the definite standout tracks, for me. But yeah, still too early to know what I'm gonna end up thinking about it.

I'm on my third listen now... still loving it :D

By the way, I love that whenever a new band of this ilk comes out, people are always quick to shout "Joy Division!!!"... yeah, because Joy Division were the only post-punk band. Yeah.

I share your love of this phenomenon, but it's not a new thing. The Wake, Section 25 and other "new miserablists" got labelled JD copycats back in the day as well.

I bought the LP on my lunch break and am midway through Side 1's maiden voyage - I managed to hold off streaming it beforehand. So far so good, but I will defer judgement for a few plays. The pressing sounds really good though - I wonder who Matador uses? Modern pressings often leave me un...erm, impressed with loads of surface noise etc., but this is pretty quiet (besides the music).

It would not have occurred to me to liken this to Joy Division.

Shut UP is a phenomenal song, I love it when the reverbed guitar comes in. Very John Mcgeoch

Music sounds great. I thought all the little gifs of them in the pitchfork article on them were super cheesy though.

Yeah, they aren't the most original ever. Still they're definitely good, probably the first new rock album that I've been fairly excited about in a while.

this is really shaping up to be a phenomenal year for music

― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Wednesday, May 1, 2013 1:42 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ Completely agree with this... and the best thing is, we're not even halfway through the year yet so there may still some really really great stuff to come!

When you rip off the bass line from "Colony", people will compare you to Joy Division!

just the singer's look and dance moves and all those black and white live clips on youtube with the band all in dark uniforms made me think of JD.

they are obviously just stealing their sound wholesale from modern eon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEX2NwPdsE

just kidding. (modern eon one of my fave 1981 JD rips though)

there is a part of one savages song that reminds me of The Sound. the band. can't remember which one though.

they don't sound nearly as morose or gothy as joy division though. they are more on the punk end of the post punk spectrum, i think: a lot of headstrong energy, the manifesto "turn off your cellphones" element that pitchfork made such a big deal out of... i think i like it.

they are more on the german end of post punk.

what are the german bands they sound like? that sounds cool.

"no face" sounds like something jay reatard would have written (closing the garage rock loop)

not saying they're copping his style. i imagined a blood visions version of it last time through. was p cool.

i listened the record a couple days ago. they remind me of erase errata!

going to dive in, will report back. the one song i have heard is wonderful in a Yeah Yeah Yeahs way.

do you guys like soft kill?

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

Another view:

http://www.collapseboard.com/reviews/albums-reviews/savages-silence-yourself-pop-noirematador/

i am slightly baffled that this reasonably middling album is getting the hype that it is. it's alright but other than 'husbands' it's not especially moving for me. and joy division isn't exactly the first (or tenth) thing i'm hearing..

Listened all the way through yesterday - they strike me as one of those bands who will make an amazing second or third album but at the moment there's just something missing. They get a long way on sheer energy and at least they sound like they give a a shit but I'm not hearing much of THEM in it really.

Scott Creney might be the worst music writer in the entire world circa 2013

Tamsin calls it MAMOR — Middle-Aged-Man-Oriented-Rock. She’s a sharp one, that Tamsin.

exquisite combination of gender puppetry and "this ain't for you, gurls" rhetoric trying to pass itself off as a 'pro-woman' statement. hard not to tip the hat tbh

is it weird to prefer "Marshall Dear" to almost anything else?

I dunno but it's my favourite too

why do they look so moody in press photos

Jim DeRo ogling them

i did not enjoy this album much at all. the second-hand poses didn't bother me, the total lack of personality was what dulled it to me. erase errata is a v on-point comparison

i don't know if this is about me getting old or something but moody press photos are so silly to me now

i'm not asking that all bands make funny faces and clown for the camera

and being in front of a camera is awkward and out of that awkwardness come things that people wouldn't ordinarily do

so i should give them a pass

but part of me feels like, 'you guys make music, it's not all that grave'

fwiw this isn't the whole sexist 'give me a smile, honey' thing. i feel this way whenever i see a photo of the cure. lighten up, bros.

but i guess young people are often very self-serious (sometimes old people too)

the music is ok.

lolling at the idea that '80s revivalists are somehow these poor maligned underdogs. pretty much everything that pitchfork has liked for the past couple of years sounds completely '80s.

No one is an underdog on Jools Holland.

I don't know if I like this or not yet, but has anyone felt that the vocals sounded somewhat Geddy Lee at times? Kept thinking that, and thinking that it probably wasn't what they were trying for.

it just occurred to me i have no idea what geddy lee sounds like

this is probably still my fave 80's-evocative thing I've heard lately. rudi rockist posted it on ilm a couple of months ago. so cool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSWRgx8dATg

but has anyone felt that the vocals sounded somewhat Geddy Lee at times?

definitely

I've just heard two songs but they are both doozies. I get the feeling some people complaining about them would have said the same thing about Wire in 1978, or The Clash in 77.

they would have said that wire and the clash are just a tepid rehash of joy division?

After googling "Savages Geddy Lee" it appears that amazingly I'm not the first person to notice this. Damn.

I've just heard two songs but they are both doozies. I get the feeling some people complaining about them would have said the same thing about Wire in 1978, or The Clash in 77.

― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, May 8, 2013 8:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you know, it's possible to look at reviews from 77/78. i don't recall many digs at wire and the clash that resembled the (very few) digs at savages

anyway most people (who care) seem to like this band to differing degrees, so it's not like they are some kind of lightning rod of controversy

although i'm sure ilx will work hard to make them one

most i just don't want them staring at me

i have realised recently that life is better when you have no idea what a band looks like

unless they are kiss

Someone said something about personality - that's it for me. They lack it. The songs lack it. The whole package is just not interesting. Every song has an inevitable predictabilty. Wire had a weird personality and much better songs -same with The Clash - so its a nope from me on the above comment. I don't think there is any need to denigrate someone who doesn't like this though - there is no accounting for taste after all - I simply don't get the massive amount of hype and consistently wow reviews for what appears to me to be a 6-7/ 10 type of record. Expertly played and pouted though it might be.

let's try to score to the decimal

Ok then - good idea. I'm going with 6.3 - thats without seeing the cover, otherwise I would take it down to 6.15. If I was listening to this in 1982 it would move to 6.85 with the caveat that I am aged 22 (or at least up to 23 and one half)