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

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.