Savages

I don't know about slick marketing, or even what the "hype machine" means these days. When I first came across them it was through genuine buzz around their live shows. Of course if you don't like the music then you'll read excitement as hype.

Yeah, if you have gripes with "cool and slick marketing" take it to the daft punk thread

I take DL's point - if I liked the music then the hype probably would not bother me. I am not enraged by the ineptitude of the music by the way just kind of underwhelmed by something which is clearly so special and exciting to so many. Maybe I am just jaded and old.

just think they lean a bit too hard on post-punk during a time when that period feels like it's been wrung dry as a source of inspiration.

idk unless there's a big tranche of stuff I'm missing I think this is a pretty good time for a band like them to stand out. the only currently-happening stuff that came to mind as soundalikes for me is all these American anarcho/goth/postpunk bands that are springing up now, but I doubt most ppl who grab the Savages album are gonna hear any of them. bits of it also reminded me of Throwing Muses somewhat. liked it way more than I was expecting overall

Was that Pitchfork piece actually linked yet? Looks like not, so:

http://pitchfork.com/features/cover-story/reader/savages/

Keep in mind I had to switch computers to actually get the darn thing to load fully. Good use of the technology.

I am into their unsmiling meannesss. I like this record.

that Later.. performance was really something IMO

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neRGpHLj1EQ

When I first came across them it was through genuine buzz around their live shows.

Same here. I first heard about them over a year ago when one of the UK music blogs I check in with mentioned their live show and to keep watch.

When did Pitchfork start formatting features like that? That's pretty cool.

holy fuck @ everything about this group

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

I love this year

xp Matt, I think the first P4k feature like that was Bat for Lashes, but it didn't play with video like this does. I got so unsettled by the band staring at me that I couldn't concentrate on the text and had to read the lo-tech version instead.

Is everyone else able to read that feature OK? I couldn't read half of it in Chrome, tried it on Linux & Windows.

I read it fine in Chrome on a 2 month old computer

wow @ the p-fork article ...
thats impressive ...

whoever mentioned east bay ray in relation to the guitar O T M. i half agree about this being almost comically boxed in by the period perfect postpunk costuming, but that later performance is astonishing. fuck yeah. reminds me a bit of his electro blue voice (italian band), but less heavy, noisy + psychedelic.

Great ambient music, in the sense of "It's definitely Siouxsie/East Bay Ray with further noises and therefore easy to have playing without worrying too much." (I assure you, a compliment.)

streaming the album now; 1:40 into "Shut Up" and I have another new favorite band

most things are worrisome

And happily this is not!

I guess no surprise that SFJ is writing about them in the New Yorker (piece behind paywall)

I streamed about half the album yesterday and liked it enough that I don't want to risk having my enjoyment ruined by reading whatever SFJ has to say. I will just buy it next week and listen to it for pleasure, like a normal person.

streaming the album now, damn good

here are a couple hebv tracks, in case anyone's curious. both from a few years back:

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

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

I think I first heard them back in 1980.

with music this good i really don't care how it's packaged. great to finally be excited about a relatively new band.

i like the album and live tracks quite a bit, but i'm still half on the fence. i mean, i've seen a lot of similar stuff come and go over the last 6 or 7 years without attracting this sort of attention tsunami. (look at me, i'm the lex.) then again, most didn't have the pop & human interest appeal, so no surprise i guess.

Yes, love that the feted indie rock album of the year sounds like early 80s Siouxsie crossed with Throwing Muses.

Hmm, hadn't thought about the Muses in comparison.

Don't get the Muses comparison - they had way more more personality and always the capacity to tip into bubblegum. They had interesting songs not just po-faced versions of cool style. This crew sounds more like a fashion statement.

yeah i'm also on the fence... feel like the british are distinctly good at ruining their young bands

the marketing push on this band is ridiculous

the album art appears SEVEN TIMES on the Quietus review page

http://thequietus.com/articles/12140-savages-silence-yourself-review

“From the first rehearsal, it was very productive— we weren't just there to tell each other we're great,” remembers Milton, who arrives for her one-on-one grilling carrying a copy of The Fountainhead.

: /

it's allowed if someone is 21 or younger.

well, preferably 18 or younger, but let's be kind.

they are like teeny tiny fashion models and that can only help their cause. i like the singer's lil' ian curtis dancing. what DO the people who were in elastica do now, by the way? do they have bbc chat shows or something? after britpop you never heard about the singer anymore.

but anyway i like these guys way better than something like interpol cuz these guys are adorable. like xmal-lite. i dig the guitar sound too. if you are gonna have the 485346634th 80's revival you could do worse. i mean who needs vampire weekend now?

squares

I really don't get the Interpol comparisons. Everything I ever heard by Interpol was enervating and terrible, pretty much the polar opposite of what I get from something like "Husbands"; which Interpol songs are the ones containing barely restrained fury and violence because I'd love to hear them

I can't take Husbands seriously because the chorus sounds so much like Horses by Patti Smith. Along with the Ian Curtis aping - it was an unfortunate way to put yourself out there I thought.

I was obviously wrong though since they do seem to have got people genuinely thrilled.

the interpol comparisons are lazy shorthand for "postpunk revival" imo

and the attendant hype cycle

80's pastiche is 80's pastiche. both Interpol and this band are taking from the same sources.

Read the guardian profile at the weekend, couldn't decide between "they seem cool" & "they seem like tossers". Think the author of the piece was trying to suggest the latter tho.

Read the guardian profile at the weekend, couldn't decide between "they seem cool" & "they seem like tossers". Think the author of the piece was trying to suggest the latter tho.

I was all set to listen to this and actually quite excited, so I listened to the first few songs, but it was beautiful and sunny outside and it just sounded so wrong in that context and also just fucking rote and y'know eight years too late so I just couldn't be bothered. I might come back to it in September but it just feels like the wrong time for them in every way.

Savages are a serious band. They named their first single, Husbands, after a grim 1970 Cassavetes film, whereas their other inspirations include Philip K Dick, pornography and German industrial band Einstürzende Neubauten.

artsy types pronouncing that they're influenced by pron is just the funniest thing

dudes like pitbull and ranking and tom zanetti should totally start dressing like quakers and communicate solely in edicts like DEGRADATION IS THE ONLY TRUTH while not changing their music one bit

Multiple xposts: okay sure, but Interpol was always super boring and terrible and Savages are not so far

I've been chuffed about this band since I heard the single last year, and love the album. There's a handful of bands dipping into post-punk influences lately, like Grass Widow, Talk Normal, Pins, New War, Big Joan, Deep Time, Merchandise, etc., but I don't know that you could call it another revival. Most of the 80s influences are blended with all sorts of other stuff. Beth's vocals may occasionally sound like Siouxsie Sioux, but not anymore than she does Karen O. Music and arrangements don't make me think of the Banshees all that much. I hear fleeting moments of Stranglers' bass sound, Birthday Party in the guitar. But the muscular sound/production has more in common with Fugazi, Converge or Coliseum.

People seem to be okay with the fact that you can find literally thousands of bands influenced by Chuck Berry, Little Richard, the Stones, Cream, Zeppelin, Free, Sabbath, Lynnyrd, all the way up through White Stripes, but as soon as there's a whiff of anything from the post-punk era, the originality police come out in droves. Look at the comments on the Quietus review. They can grumble all they want and stay at home fondling original editions of Metal Box, but they'll be missing out on some great stuff.

Pins just finished recording their full length. The Savages album will be hard to top but I hope they get close.

I am all for the blending. the old and the new. which is why this band sounds better to me than other lesser 80's-aping stuff. like, I can see these women getting as much inspiration from people like sleater-kinney and pj harvey as they do from all the usual suspects.

the singer's group before Savages:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpAqUfu91GI

very very PJ here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bWojuvmwuU

Solid reviews are one thing but if there isn't any buzz around it I wonder how long it'll take before everyone's moved on.

Huh -- I haven't listened closely yet but over the course of a few distracted commuting plays I've been finding it more interesting than the first. I'll have to give it a better listen this weekend but at least with the first one I had to hear it a dozen times or so before I decided it was worth buying, whereas I already know I'll be picking this one up. So much of the buzz last time around seemed to revolve around their live performance -- if they can maintain that intensity and keep touring I think they'll be fine even if the consensus comes out against this album (though I just took a peek at Metacritic and both the critic and reader scores are currently higher for this than Silence Yourself).

OK so the second half does drag a bit. Overall I dig it though.

i really don't understand why i don't like this band a lot more than i do

here's a post punk throwback band I love, Oaks

https://modernradio.bandcamp.com/album/animal-life

> the first one I had to hear it a dozen times or so before I decided it was worth buying

I'm impressed, there's no way I'd give a dozen listens to anything I was on the fence about. Unless it was more of a case of something in the back of your head kept pulling you back, but even then... kudos for your perseverance. I'm sure I've missed out on things that simply required more time.

I think the first album is much more immediate than the second, largely because the drums feel muffled to me on the second album.

> I'm impressed, there's no way I'd give a dozen listens to anything I was on the fence about.

Generally I wouldn't either but I loooved the 1st single and all signs pointed to it being something I should like. Plus most of my listening time these days is during my relatively long commute or in the office where I'm trying to get reading or work done at the same time, so I can easily play a new album a dozen times over the course of three or four days and still not have a great sense of it. Probably took me close to that many plays to realize I loved the last New Order album which I thought was terrible during the first listen.

You may be right that you've missed out on things that required more time, but I've probably missed out on just as much by giving things more time than they deserve when I could've been trying something else.

i really don't understand why i don't like this band a lot more than i do

Same. As my friend quipped when I took him to see the band a few years back, "I've shopped in that used record bin already."

Never heard the band before but I checked out the new album on Spotify and it's great!

I was ambivalent at first, but it finally clicked with me. "Adore" is still the standout, but song for song, I probably like this just as much as I liked the debut.

I still like the debut more but this is a fun album.

Saw them last night. Furious energy, charismatic and the guitarist makes beautiful Belew noises.

holy shit the performance tonight at Glastonbury was something else, just *shockingly* good.

it'll be up here at some point http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/ewcj5v/videos/p03ybmmv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KMLyQjI5mI

disgusting band

― wack nerd zinging in the dead of night (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, June 1, 2012 2:44 PM (four years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

she has too many h's in her name

really liking the kite base album (ayse hassan's other band). kind of a cross between young marble gientsy sparseness and an update of the sort of thing too pure were putting out 20 years ago (e.g. laika, early peej)

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

more from ayse hassan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkWNyDFqrro&feature=youtu.be

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

Suddenly struggling to hear "Adore" without imagining Morrissey singing it.

Man, this band dropped off my radar really quickly. Dug the first album, ditched the second, and I never had that itch in the back of my head making me play their stuff.

I'm hoping a third album produces something different.

Goat Girl have the missing ineffable thing that kept this band from sticking for me.

I'm not very familiar with band outside of the music on its first album - which I love - so I had no idea Jehnny Beth had been acting in films. I only discovered this at a screening of Anatomy of a Fall (the Palme d'Or winner at this year's Cannes Film Festival) and I thought "that caretaker looks very familiar, where I have seen her before?"