The Lumineers

i think "of monsters and men" are worse in terms of corny indie these days but yeah these guys can suck a fuck

The bass drum at the front of the stage wasn't miked. Dude kept hitting it, no sound. Maybe it needed suspenders for it to work.

was already having one of those "what is the point of our pitiful striving when the frozen nothingness of extinguished consciousness is all that awaits" kinda mornings and then i saw those hats.

ok just listened to this hey ho thingy on youtube - not really sure what people are getting worked up about. I remember a time when breakaway "alternative" hits involved the likes of Live or Bush

I object to their constant smiling and phony earnest lyrics and their terrible awful name.

fwiw gis for "lumineers" is a thing of beauty

i do like this but i am a posner apologist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuBlZ9jW2Qk

I always get a little resentful when an otherwise mediocre band is propelled to stardom by stumbling onto an easy but catchy hook gimmick (hey/ho, or the whistle thing in that pb&j song)

also, they have a vaguely evangelical stink to them. i will not be surprised if

the hats

Yeah they have a ”youth group” vibe

high on life

googling hasn't turned up anything yet

I dunno I kinda like them as a mainstream "indie" folk type band but they're not exactly Andrew Bird or Ryan Adams or something...

Their lyrics are really simple and bad, I can't imagine writing an article about how uplifting or deep they are. These fucking smilin' banjo hat bands should not be the face of Americana though, it makes the whole alt-country pursuit look like a fucking joke.

I like the phrase "smilin' banjo hat bands"

Nailed

these fuckin smilin banjo hat bands are running this here town

someone on twitter called them "indie barn people music" ... i lol'd

I knew not to click as soon as I saw the "hellogiggles" in the url

don't have an opinion on this band yet but this is the most moronic website I've ever seen in my life. it's like Jean Teasdale crossed with Pamplemoose

SNL tonight was my first exposure to them, I believe. I knew they were around, but I'd been successful in never hearing or really seeing them. My hands were turning into fists as I sat there watching.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, January 20, 2013 6:04 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Their presentation of that first song was so annoying---they were kind of like an Up With People Disney World take on folk music

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130120094036/snl/images/2/2e/SNL_The_Lumineers_temporary.png

"Civil War Wave"
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2013/01/fuck-lumineers-and-all-other-mumford-sons-civil-war-wave-sounding-bullshit.html

I'm actually kind of fascinated by this aesthetic, tbh -- like how and why it's taken root so strongly right now. It goes hand in hand with all those Etsy-designed weddings held at farms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPKe9OfWs-M

I'm pretty ambivalent about The Lumineers, but I don't find any "THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN white supremacist confederate flag... etc" in them at all.

Yeah not at all

Do some pop music listeners simply like it better than the euro-disco beat hits

I also find it strange that this aesthetic is big right now. Is it just freak-folk reaching the mainstream? Too bad the bands that make it big, like these guys and Mumfords, sound more like banjo versions of U2 songs rather than the old, weird Americana of Joanna Newsom or Devendra Banhart. It kind of makes me want to go back and listen to some old Palace Brothers records (by old I mean from the 1990s).

"Civil War Wave"
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2013/01/fuck-lumineers-and-all-other-mumford-sons-civil-war-wave-sounding-bullshit.html

http://i.imgur.com/GQ1ahuL.png

I also find it strange that this aesthetic is big right now. Is it just freak-folk reaching the mainstream? Too bad the bands that make it big, like these guys and Mumfords, sound more like banjo versions of U2 songs rather than the old, weird Americana of Joanna Newsom or Devendra Banhart.

yah based on the description in this thread i expected them to sound completely different than they do. then i realized i had heard the ho hey song in a drugstore a couple wks ago and at the time i thought 'oh weird i guess this is a new song, but something about the vocals sounds like a very particular strain of nineties alt'

Oh this folk-pop thing is a collegtown staple, has been for several years, even before Mumford invaded. Only a matter of time 'til some rising star of it brings their New Christy Minstrels, Peter Paul & Mary etc collection up for Uncut and/or Mojo's perusal, if they haven't already. Really liked the girl when she was playing cello on SNL. So stern, *then* so smiley--then so stern again. then...also, she's cute and I like cellos. But the yelping in "Ho Hey" was an instant pissah, way back when World Cafe previewed it.

I'm actually kind of fascinated by this aesthetic, tbh -- like how and why it's taken root so strongly right now. It goes hand in hand with all those Etsy-designed weddings held at farms.

yeh tho i don't think there's any big meaning in it such as ppl searching for perceived authenticity of a bygone era or craving a respite from feeling smothered by digital environments or what have you. think it's more just another direction to look towards for entertainment, novelty. not much different than why ppl go to medieval times or something

Yeah this whole Victorian-era throwback thing doesn't seem to have anything to do with Lost Causers or Neoconfederates or anything like that at all. Now, one could say it seems nostalgic for the time of Manifest Destiny but that is a completely different can of worms.

I guess some variation of folk-pop has long been a college staple. Though this new style seems to be crossing over a bit more than the perennial singer-songwriter, coffeehouse folk that produces occasional stars like Ani Difranco or Dar Williams, who enjoy a small but dedicated following. This new style is more anthemic, stadium-ready, band-oriented.

xxp

I guess you could blame The Decemberists but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater here...

folk-pop=quaintly poignant cuteness, not all aggressive and hairy and (sometimes) musically Downtown like Ani--see enduring success of Cracker Barrel restaurants etc. But where is our Gilbert O'Sullivan?

no, let's

xp

oh yeah, the decembrists started that whole chimneysweeper sea shanty bullshit. as far as youth trendz go old timey stuff just a cornier version of whatever else people get into.

Yeah the Decemberists were good sometimes, before this latest REM clone album, which is so popular. And I like Ani, sometimes Andrew Bird, nothing against the poppier aspect in principle either (like Gilbert O, Mamas and Papas)

Pop's always been part of the Wainwright-Roches clan's appeal too.

A friend of mine just linked to this on Facebook. Seems relevant:

http://stereogum.com/1203672/phillip-phillips-the-lumineers-and-the-mumford-ization-of-pop/top-stories/lead-story/

My gf told me her teen and tween nices listen to the Lumineers and they're playing 5,000 seat places already. These young listeners are not discovering this sound through the college sound influences and antecedents

nieces

No of course it's not collegetown only, but that's the launching pad/farm league.

Because with the overall collapse of old music biz models, shows are so important for exposure; collegetowns have venues on and off campus. schools aren't that big on booking death metal etc.

Something like the Les Miz movie seems to pertain also: miserablism padded by nerf music

Maybe the fact that as a teen I loved (and still do) The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has something to do with the fact that this latest batch of "costumed" folk-poppers doesn't really bother me a whit.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/music/images/artists/542x305/ac8a45f8-5520-4463-9fda-f63f8844cb50.jpg

"Hey, Soul Sister" kinda feels like the unofficial beginning of this trend, that was really the only 'acoustic' song on pop radio besides Taylor Swift for a while before the Lumineers/Phillip Phillips/Ed Sheeran onslaught

I also find it strange that this aesthetic is big right now. Is it just freak-folk reaching the mainstream?
― o. nate, Tuesday, 22 January 2013 16:06 (47 minutes ago) Permalink

I used to think that the way these things worked was that a sound would become popular in the "underground" or "indie" scenes and then gradually bubble up to the surface, becoming steadily more popular, but now I have a different theory that there's kind of a death and rebirth cycle where something (like vintagey freakfolk) gets played out beyond belief, has a dormant period, and THEN explodes into the mainstream

interesting idea. i remember when the italians do it better style was big for a while, then disappeared for a few years, then reappeared in the drive soundtrack. no idea if it ever took off from there.

So you're the guy.

You and your heartfelt singalongs, your armwavers.

http://www.trbimg.com/img-520560a3/turbine/ct-ae-0811-jobs-kutcher-interview-20130809-001/600/600x400

About that brown hat: Kutcher had a story.

“I was outside of London when the bombing happened in Boston,” he said. “I happened to be wearing a Boston hat at the time. Just coincidentally. I'm not really a Boston fan. I just had a Boston hat, and I was wearing the Boston hat, and this kid asked me to trade the Boston hat for his hat.”

“You're kidding me,” said Gad, 32.

“And I was like, ‘I think you need the Boston hat,' and I gave him the Boston hat, and he gave me this hat.”

“It's a good hat,” Stern said. “Also, you have the face that could pull off any hat.”

“I feel like Mumford & Sons,” Kutcher said. “I feel like one of the Lumineers.”

lol

who the fuck asks anyone to trade hats unless they're drunk

i don't understand

once you trade hats you are hat bros 4 ever.

Now if they traded neck beards...

Of Monsters & Men "Little Talks" is on regular rotation every day outside my office building and it makes me want to beat these men monstrously

this seems to be the only thread to mention lumerians but i have some bad news
i think they might belong here

not that they sound anything like the lumineers, but i saw them last night and it took 100 years for them to get their sequined suits on and decorate the stage
and then i was expecting some far out music but it was pretty blah imo
disappointed

funny that this thread was bumped. i've never heard the Lumineers but i happened to catch one of their backup players (Stelth Ulvang) with his own band in a little coffee shop last night and he was great.

i saw U2 last night at the Rose Bowl, they played The Joshua Tree. It was good! However The Lumineers opened for them. my impression of them is they seem like very nice folks who have exactly one song played at the same tempo with the same obnoxiously loud bass drum which exists exclusively to inspire handclaps, and they don't wear trilbys but some other kind of hat for strummers and foot stompers. their banjo player was pacing back and forth in suspenders and he was barefoot.

the other opening acts for U2 on this tour are Mumford and Sons and OneRepublic.

Black Eyed Peas in 2009 at the same venue was a better opening act.

also people were getting extremely turnt to them.

A-YO AYO HEY AYO AYO HEY AYO AY-O

^ chorus of all the songs, what do i win?