Sleigh Bells: Treats

Saw this band in Denver last week. Awful. Terrible guitar tone and some sorority girl headbanging on stage.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_cKnQZ8uHAw4/S9hiAdhLPmI/AAAAAAAAAmY/Qz6VHEZqN80/s400/tresats452ss.jpg

ring ring is an okay song struggling to do anything w. and awesome sample

ok "tell 'em" is awesome

I don't "get it" either. The MBV parallels are so far off. Is this one of those things that's catching on because it seems so novel? Are they likable for the same reason people think Andrew WK is likable? Fans, talk to me. I don't hate it, but it's like elevator music in the sense that it's so negligible to me.

if you told me that MIA was gonna make a rock song, this is what i would've pictured

Great production, poor melody

It's summery?...is the best way I can put it maybe? I still haven't really figured out what it's doing/why it's doing what it does, but there's little else at the moment that really makes me feel on top of the world. There's both a swagger and a sense of fun and power to it, and it's loud and angular without being anti-catchy. Often noise is used to place a barrier between listeners and material (or it feels that way at least?). The noise and the compression and the fuzz of Sleigh Bells is inviting and raucous.

I'm not necessarily going to argue that it's 'important' - I don't know that they're saying anything or doing anything particularly novel - but if A/B Machines or Infinity Guitars don't make you want to MOVE and bob your head (not headbanging, more like you would when listening to hip hop) and shake your ass, then I'm not sure if anything I write can quantify why they rock.

yeah it's gonna sound enormous in the car

Feels kinda strangely hollow to me, not in a good way. Something about it is very...1991, for lack of a better word, and I mean that in a neutral rather than in a good or bad sense.

Feels kinda strangely hollow to me, not in a good way.

no basslines, right? just kick drums, which is pretty hip-hop.

Could be part of it, but there's also something forced here that, again, I can't put my finger on. It's like it comes close to working but because it doesn't gets really irritating.

at least in the indie world, this record is gonna be huge

Alexis Krauss' former group RubyBlue - girl group pop music circa 2002. Can we mash this up with Crown on the Ground or something?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIvZ5LLFlXU

Despite the awful lyrics, I sort of like that more than Sleigh Bells in a sort of female fountains of wayne way

sort of.

Fans, talk to me. I don't hate it, but it's like elevator music in the sense that it's so negligible to me.

I don't want to talk to you.

This just seems like a logical extension from what Sick Mouthy has been talking about for ages...except in the wrong direction. I really hope this fetishization of digital distortion and ultra-compression doesn't really stick around. Its kinda the same thing with that Dom band...kinda. I think that once people realize this band sucks live, they will hopefully dwindle away.

That Ruby Blue song above puts their live show into perspective for me. I was wondering why she was so lame on stage.

I do like the heavy bass and noise elements to this band. And other than my problems with the vocals, I just wish there was more going on with the guitar. I kept waiting for the dude to do something more–I don't know, a solo, maybe just a fill of some kind? The best part of this band's live show is what comes out of the iPod they've hooked up to the PA.

I've always been really 'pro' this band, like most people, but was taken aback when Perpetua called them "bold" and suggested that other bands "leave their timidity behind in the 00s."

At first I chalked up my allergic reaction to the backhanded belittling of 'bands who aren't Sleigh Bells', but then I read this thread and can better put my reservations into words... To crush a recording like this is a beautiful sound, but it symbolizes one thing alone: expansionism. This beat bangs harder than yours, my amps are louder than yours... I can totally get behind it, this is one fantastic band, but "big" and "loud" don't necessarily mean "bold" to me. I want to hear dozens of records from Sleigh Bells but I hope this won't set a precedent for the next five years of pop music.

holy interlocking Death Stars

i don't think Sleigh Bells will set the precedent for anything, except for maybe a handful of younger bands who they might influence

i'm sure part of their boldness can be attributed to volume & "beat[s] bang[ing] harder than yours," but i think another part can be attributed to how singular this sounds. in the context of indie at least, something like "Tell 'Em" reminds me of last year's Dirty Projectors record, not because it sounds similar, but because what the hell else sounds like this today? not much, i think, at least in the indie world

i think a lot of the "boldness" argument can be attributed to both the volume and the bareness of the songs -- i'm not surprised that perpetua would say something like that considering how much disdain he has for the vivian girls -- there's a confidence in sleigh bells that can serve as a direct antithesis to lo-fi/reverby indie rock & chillwave if you feel like those bands/artists use production aesthetics to muffle underwritten songs

i'm not a fan of lo-fi/chillwave myself but i'm not sure i want to see sleigh bells setting trends either

i think you're mostly OTM, but i wouldn't mind a little more confidence in my indie

i mean, the "confidence" thing is really a slippery slope because it's really a borderline conspiracy theory -- there are tons of indie bands who aren't doing lo-fi/chillwave who don't sound like sleigh bells/don't produce their music like sleigh bells

it's weird tho--sleigh bells isn't this 100% kicking your ass thing--yeah the production is ridic but she still has a really delicate and girly voice. i think that's the contrast they're working with and a "sleigh bells vs chillwave" narrative makes less sense to me

uh except yall r deaf they *are* a chillwave band?

What is this chillwave of which you speak

ok plax, why are they a chillwave band

yeah i don't see that

neither does plaxico

classic sample+lo-fi laptop production "post Ariel Pink" indie. like i dunno how specific the def. of chillwave is that something that incorporates all the elements would be set up as in like opposition to the rest of it. I mean, i feel like this straight up sampling thing still has enough of a novelty factor attached to it in the contxt of Modern Indie that it functions pretty well as a classificatory signifier. also, shit sounds like an aggro washed out.

i feel like chillwave = music you fall asleep to, and sleigh bells is certainly not that

obv its the opposite end of the continuum from like Julian Lynch for eg but i mean

i mean u r deaf if sleigh bells is "chillwave" because they use samples and laptops?

i do think they are pretty lol in a "hey i can't find any dece rips of ur tracks" "no that is our sound" way

sayin they use samples in a lo-fi indie way, that is simple loop, semi-recognisable (the dreams of the passt) w. melody sung on top.

the guy at Sam's club that gives out samples probably has a laptop at home too, so he's also chillwave

BIG LAUGHS aka the joketeller over here

tape store played a song for me off this today and all i could say was "stunning"

they sound like Atari Teenage Riot doing soulless pop

its not like im saying they use guitars so they are rock, they use an instrument in a way that is contiguous w. standard chillwave practice to make a sound that is basically like an slightly bitcrushed vers. of same

i dunno the songs i've heard have way more slammin beats and distorted guitars than some chillwave bullshit but whatev

i think they violate the central tenant of chillwave, which would be "chill"

if glo fi had stuck none of u would b arguing w. me except for ksh

yeah i mean plax you're hearing them structurally not viscerally which is fine i guess but wouldn't be my go-to move in this particular discussion

btw why have i never heard of these ppl before? is this one of those things that i've slept on but rly their whole catalog is great or something?

they are new

oh

don't have an album out yet

No, Reign of Terror is actually phenomenal. I much prefer it. I'm kind of disturbed how bad these guys got afterwards. I'm not sure what happened. I guess the band couldn't adapt to their own ambitions, which never seemed especially clear.

Come think, surprised Lynch did not feature them in season 3. Maybe not his palette. I viewed all his featured his bands as in some way a force of Americana, which Sleigh Bells obsessively are.

I still play "Run the Heart" a lot. Reign of Terror as an album doesn't work for me but you can pull an A+ EP out of with "Comeback Kid", "Demons", and "Never Say Die"

still sad the entire music ecosystem didn't rearrange itself to sound like treats

With you 100% there.

I could never get into this group, which is weird because I absolutely love Andrew WK and The Go! Team, and this kind of fits in a nexus between those. On the other hand, I could also describe that last Crying album in a similar fashion, and I loved that.

I admittedly resented them upon first contact for reasons beyond me. I think seeing them live zilched whatever concerns floated. The bass was so thick at the concert I was at I ran experiments on my jaw to see whether I could feel it in my teeth.

top ten album of the decade imo

It's way up there. The follow-up is highly underrated too.

I'm kind of sad that tinnitus-pop never really took off as a Thing

I feel like 'Give Yourself A Try' by the 1975 owes something to Sleigh Bells

Excited to hear this - sounding better than they have in YEARS
https://sleighbells.bandcamp.com/album/texis

haven't kept up with them for a while but that song sounds great

It's out - seems quite low key thus far, like minimal maximalism. Beats are more EDM than the digital Bonham stomp they once had, and the guitars are equal parts glass and shred. Preview track "Locust Laced" is the most fired-up, but I'm optimistic it's all gonna grow on me.

almost an EDM Chromatics vibe interrupted by TRVE SHRED GVITARS

ooh "True Seekers" is a sweeping pop ballad with very specific vibes, Berlin maybe?