I think okay is the whole album like this, because if so LOL might be a good indication that I wasn't listening to the entire album...?
― DJP, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:15 (thirteen years ago) link
also the fact that my listen concluded in 5 minutes
― DJP, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:16 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, OK Ming The Merciless I get it... I didn't read your post very well and you're very clever and dastardly and run circles round me. I will pay more attention in future.
― Under Me Smang Tang (Doran), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:23 (thirteen years ago) link
haha I don't think I've been called Ming the Merciless since high school
― DJP, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:26 (thirteen years ago) link
guys lets not fight, the important thing here is that DJP has learned that this song is terrible and this band is embarrassing and awful
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:34 (thirteen years ago) link
It's a quality murk.
― Under Me Smang Tang (Doran), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:37 (thirteen years ago) link
not a great big fan of this band for reasons that aren't entirely about their music.
this 'crystal rope' tune is pretty good tho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F_yoxY2Njk
for what it's worth, (i think) the leisure suits etc in that video aren't like a regular uniform for these guys, there was a big concert at first avenue here in mpls that was billed as a "prom", i think the video was filmed then. maybe that makes it worse if you're not into it! heh
― goole, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 22:50 (thirteen years ago) link
also, people complaining about the white tux lololwinkwinknudgenudge barfaroni party and i immediately thought of grady, who then came in to complain about it. hmmmm. caught you bro :D
― jaxon, Wednesday, 23 February 2011 23:01 (thirteen years ago) link
As always, when we first hear a new band, it's usually just a CDr with a one sheet. So the stuff that gets you into it is just the music. With Gayngs it's been a long and at times painful process of seeing a symbol made from a ganja leaf and a vagina, seeing loads of guys in white leisure suits, seeing the inner art sketch of them all in a hot tub with the singer getting blown, reading some of the goofy interviews, then finally hearing that they can be all fucking hipster irony and bro-ish live.
But the stuff that made me like the album in the first place remains cool and gripping despite this stuff. As someone hinted at upthread, none of this stuff is binary. Yeah, I wish they were sincere, genuinely cool people and not smug hipsters but that's got nothing, or very little, to do with the music they make.
― Chap With Wings... Five Rounds Rapid (Doran), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 23:04 (thirteen years ago) link
aaaaagggggghhhh wtf i just found out that the dude that drew the infamous hot tub picture is someone i used to hang out with all the time, its like this band is trying to singlehandedly make me hate all of these people i used to get along with ffs
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, 23 February 2011 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
next thing you know it will be revealed that Slough Feg and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum contributed members to this and justen will lose it forever
― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 24 February 2011 01:04 (thirteen years ago) link
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:10 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
if you like all these people have you considered that maybe problem is... you? (i mean that in a nice way no/zing)
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 02:23 (thirteen years ago) link
is this like a minneapolis thing tho where these guys are huge/unavoidable there? and sucking up all the oxygen or something?
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 02:26 (thirteen years ago) link
i can see it being annoying if thats the case
jjj it's weird that you ostensibly like these guys personally but absolutely thoroughly refuse to give them the benefit of the doubt
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 24 February 2011 02:40 (thirteen years ago) link
It's kind of weird that people find it really difficult to think that your attitude/opinion of a person can't change because of a visceral reaction to their artistic choices, positive or negative.
Also weird: people taking hyperbolic statements on ILM wholly at face value.
― DJP, Thursday, 24 February 2011 03:11 (thirteen years ago) link
all kinds of stuff is weird!
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 24 February 2011 03:13 (thirteen years ago) link
but if u want to have a different conversation, i've known people in bands i really liked, people in bands i was indifferent to, and people in bands that sucked. it never changed how i felt about them personally!
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 24 February 2011 03:18 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah wtf. i have friends who are struggling in bands and maybe not making artistic choices i would or whatever but it doesn't effect how they treat me, our history, etc.
also what is with this unreconstructed notion of 'authenticity' (here, thought of as a lack of irony/smugness) as some sort of relevant factor as to how the actual arrangement of notes and timbres sounds? reminds of the vampire weekend backlash -- "just ... look at them! i bet they're really mean, and richer than me!"
i dunno it's like all music made by white dudes in northern cities has to be some sweaty prole flannel thing or what? is this what the 90s revival is going to look like? if so ugh. i don't know what's worse, that or this arch popist idea that tropes of 'high' (highly produced, selling, eg aor modern r&b) pop can't be appropriated by indie (whatever that means anymore) acts. it's just kneejerk and annoying. to be fair i had a kneejerk reaction to das racist much in the same way
but i dont know why im wasting my breath; ilm can't be any other way. maybe im really just baiting and hoping for the next round of flailing at trying to distinguish personal taste from some sort of objective reality, laden w/ obliquely hinted at class and race undertones, right?
also can we please never call any musician a 'hipster' ever again pls
― teflon dawn (uptown churl), Thursday, 24 February 2011 03:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I'd just like to state for the record that my objection to their cover of "Cry" has nothing to do with irony or hipsterism and everything to do with deeply annoying vocals over a boring, plodding beat. Basically if you think that cover is worth listening to, I can make you some fart recordings that will BLOW YOU MIND.
― DJP, Thursday, 24 February 2011 04:17 (thirteen years ago) link
pls bring cd-r when we chill in a few weeks
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 24 February 2011 04:18 (thirteen years ago) link
done and done
― DJP, Thursday, 24 February 2011 04:19 (thirteen years ago) link
ysi?
― rendezvous then i'm through with HOOS (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 24 February 2011 04:20 (thirteen years ago) link
:)
fwiw my official position on this record is that it's prob a little more miss than hit but i'm glad it exists and i rock "gaudy side of town" all the time
― call all destroyer, Thursday, 24 February 2011 04:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Hahaha sorry thread was out at bar
1. Peeps that are taking me srsly re: "oh no now i have to hate these people that are making music I don't care for" obv don't know me uh at all, also if this were true my day job would be a long slog through abject misery
2. I hate the cry cover because it is terrible pretty much for exactly the reasons that djp said - I hate the lazily pitchshifted vocals and the dragging pace and the clear feeling that the band seems to think that the original is laughable/lampoonable/shitty. All the hipster (did I actually use this because I try to never do so) irony etc stuff is ancillary to the major problem that this song is imo just musically and experientially unmistakably awful to listen to.
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh and to max wondering if the backlash was because they are some ubiquitous mpls band - pretty much the opposite, because afaict no one here could give two shits about them.
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:13 (thirteen years ago) link
the clear feeling that the band seems to think that the original is laughable/lampoonable/shitty
i do not get this even 1 bit!! i mean i get your other criticisms, they are definitely going for a "sound" that i dont blame people for disliking, but i dont hear any kind of snickering going on at all.
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:16 (thirteen years ago) link
oh huh
God I was wondering why this thread was revived. Don't think I listened to this again after I reviewed it.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:25 (thirteen years ago) link
No reason to break that perfect record Ned
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:28 (thirteen years ago) link
I shall maintain my streak. (Partially because I'm quite happily listening to the new Fabio Orci instead.)
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:31 (thirteen years ago) link
He has beautiful flowing hair
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I find this to be a proper thing.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 February 2011 05:35 (thirteen years ago) link
I think the problem is that the "Cry" cover is so bad that you kind of think they HAD to be joking when they recorded it, because the idea that they went into the studio going "this is an awesome song, we better do it justice" and ending up with that as the final output generates cognitive dissonance on par with watching the cutest kitten you can possibly imagine eat your screaming mother's eyes.
― DJP, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:05 (thirteen years ago) link
Any typical Cure b-side lyric from 1984, then.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:09 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah ok DJP so otm it hurts
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Tempted to do a Gayngs vs Owl City poll
― DJP, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:18 (thirteen years ago) link
Like I kinda think that my feeling that this is a fucking lol lol pisstake is somewhat based on the fact that I respect some of these peeps and don't like thinking that they could make something this shitty without realizing how bad it is.
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:20 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.gifsoup.com/webroot/animatedgifs2/1127092_o.gif
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Hold on guys I have this strange feeling that max doesn't get my objections to this song but until I get a few more animated gifs I can't be sure
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:31 (thirteen years ago) link
dude! i said that i get (some of) your objections! that is a "agree to disagree" shrug
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah tbf at this point this is pretty much hate this song vs. don't get it so I'm kinda just irritated at myself for beating a dead horse I guess
― O_o-O_0-o_O (jjjusten), Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:37 (thirteen years ago) link
you should have taken me up on my "agree to disagree" last night
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 06:40 (thirteen years ago) link
nothing to do with irony or hipsterism and everything to do with deeply annoying vocals over a boring, plodding beat
otm (also the coldplay comparison)
i think a lot of the other arguments made here are reactions to the idea that people can think execution like that is acceptable
― lex pretend, Thursday, 24 February 2011 07:59 (thirteen years ago) link
fwiw the other songs besides the 'cry' cover have different vocalists and different beats
― max, Thursday, 24 February 2011 08:05 (thirteen years ago) link
"gaudy side of town" singer is horrible as well
― lex pretend, Thursday, 24 February 2011 08:15 (thirteen years ago) link
Hating on "Cry" --> I can respect, it's one of my least favourite moments on the album.
Hating on "Gaudy Side of Town" --> I feel for bad for you.
― Tim F, Thursday, 24 February 2011 08:18 (thirteen years ago) link
I had no clue as to what this band sounded or looked like or whether they sported wry smiles in their music videos when I heard this, and to be honest I don't think I want to. I'd find it very hard to accept that Gayngs are making music that sounds like this and yet doing it ironically. There's very little funny in this music at all. Just sounds like 10CC as covered by Spiritualised, which is a great idea in my book and executed very well.
― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Thursday, 24 February 2011 12:58 (thirteen years ago) link
Also - guys, really? Have you actually heard Coldplay? How the fuck is this like Coldplay?
― chandelier falling through a bar in a batman costume (dog latin), Thursday, 24 February 2011 13:00 (thirteen years ago) link
insipid weak vocals and extremely boring arrangements and lack of any apparent songcraft
― lex pretend, Thursday, 24 February 2011 13:02 (thirteen years ago) link