Savages

as far as tunes-havingness goes, i think this sort of music often works just fine in the absence of strong melodies or even obvious/conventional hooks. atmosphere, structure and energy can be more than enough. like the way "i am here" finally explodes at the end, with the high whooping vocals over the top. that's awesome. doesn't need much of a tune.

also suspect that politics, gender and gender politics are helping to drive interest - that's a good thing, imo

early favorite = "waiting for a sign". while we're making ridiculous wild guesses, i imagine that's the sound they'll follow.

opening of "she will" always makes my mind jump to "she sells sanctuary"

What's the mixing / mastering like on this?

lol

mixing / mastering is great. vinyl is cut loud.

I kinda wish she her singing voice was closer to her speaking voice on the spiel at the start of "Shut Up". I want it be more shouty.

From that P-fork piece:

They’re certain the venue’s monitor tech didn’t like being told what to do by women. When Savages started performing in early 2012, too many similar experiences persuaded them to employ their own sound team.
“One guy gave us really awful sound, then came and apologized afterwards, saying, ‘Sorry, I didn’t realize you were going to be good,’” says Milton.

Not that it's going to make them feel any better but this is sort of the default setting of every sound guy in world. I'm in a band and this sort of high-hat treatment on the road is not uncommon. I can't tell you how many times a sound guy has gone out his way to be a dick to us while we load in and set up only for them to suddenly want to be our best friends the second we start playing a song during soundcheck (if there is one).

Not saying it isn't fucking annoying or sexiest but being a dude doesn't make it any better.

I do applaud their stance on cell-phones & tweeting & all that, though sadly that's a losing battle I think.

SFJ in the new Yorker proclaims savages greatest rock band of the century.

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.

I have experienced this first-hand after creating my own new wave-inspired music. People like to say you are "stuck in the 80s" and not doing anything original or think you are bandwagon-jumping and point out influences which are often incorrect. I started calling my music new wave when I started in 98/99 because it seemed to fill "genuine" punk rock fans with absolute disgust. I always found it baffling.

For my money, the post-punk and new wave era remains one of the most thrilling in all of rock music history, and a nifty propulsive song like "Husbands" still makes me feel really really excited. Have I heard 300 songs that sound similar? Probably. But it's still a really fucking good sound.

word!

I think a lot of big 80's new wave fans are just sensitive like metal and rap fans are when people make fun of those genres. *haha remember the flock of seagulls?* was kind of a normal attitude for a lot of people for a long time and I know that personally I took a LOT of that music very seriously. so, I think that's where that comes from. people never really heard a chuck berry riff or a stones riff coming from a modern band and rolled their eyes and said *lol oh god remember poodle skirts and Eddie Cochran records?* to a lot of people the 80's were a joke! so over the years when you saw people trying on 80's clothes you looked at it with your arms folded a bit. or at least I did. and I think I was justified in a lot of cases in the 90's and beyond cuz a lot of 80's-derived indie stuff was kinda haphazard and not made very well. or at least what I heard of it. and I appreciated the dance music people and goths who I felt carried the torch in a more responsible manner. most of the electroclash and indie retro bands couldn't write a good blancmange song if their lives depended on it let alone a cure song. so, that's where my attitude comes from. savages sound fine to me though. i'm a sucker for the deadpan euro accent and the guitars sound cool to me and the drums and bass are loud. I don't think the songs are great though. they seem almost improvised on the spot. but hey the stones improvised on the spot too so I got no problem with that.

(though post punk music is obviously taken more seriously by SERIOUS people than new wave is. its rockier, so rock fans can can safely like it. but my point still stands about the 80's stuff.)

it's loud, scik

ahh glad they're getting some hype! nico and camille were using what is now my synth room as their studio when i first moved to london, cool people, very hard working, very focussed, more so than any other musicians i've met here. kinda cool to see that kind of dedication actually work out.

used to enjoy hearing savages practice here too. they had very serious / productive practices.

each time my gf and i discuss savages i've always been like "they'll never get anywhere, sound is too derivative, critics like the ilm lot will rip it apart" where my gf has always been "nah cammy and nico know what they're doing just you watch, they'll be huge"

I am hoping that CREEP decides to do a single with Jehnny Beth

lol dan that's like some inevitable prophecy

ha I hope so! I could just as easily see them swinging towards Kirsty Hawkshaw (yay!) and Kelli Ali (yay?)

so what's up?! do we like the album?

I fucking love the album (shocker)

The only record store near my job is Best Buy and they don't have it.

Predictable comment from Turrican coming up...

...I love this band, and this album :)

I love this record.

not great, better than good

re: comparisons to garage rock, etc.

garage rock is boring and useless when it's overly reverent or studied. it's boring when the music and sensibility don't bring anything new to the table. you can get by on sheer energy, but that's gonna limit your appeal to die-hard fans of the style you're copping.

retro garage rock bands catch the same shit that savages do. retread, played out, no tunes, etc.

I love the way that 'I Am Here' speeds up towards the end... a la 'Sin In My Heart' by The Banshees.

By the way, I love that whenever a new band of this ilk comes out, people are always quick to shout "Joy Division!!!"... yeah, because Joy Division were the only post-punk band. Yeah.

Anyway, I was obviously going to like this band/album. Everything about 'em seems to be a musical wet dream to me.

not got it yet, but flicking through a random pile of skinny promos in the archive today i found that i have had the first 'john and jehn' in the pile left unloved.

ok 4 tracks in - now i know why john stopped singing ...

anyone hear jennie beth's earlier band?

oh ha

One listen in and the whole thing doesn't knock me out like "Husbands" did as a standalone single last year. The album does feel curiously backloaded, too: "She Will," "No Face," "Husbands" and "Marshal Dear" are the definite standout tracks, for me. But yeah, still too early to know what I'm gonna end up thinking about it.

I'm on my third listen now... still loving it :D

By the way, I love that whenever a new band of this ilk comes out, people are always quick to shout "Joy Division!!!"... yeah, because Joy Division were the only post-punk band. Yeah.

I share your love of this phenomenon, but it's not a new thing. The Wake, Section 25 and other "new miserablists" got labelled JD copycats back in the day as well.

I bought the LP on my lunch break and am midway through Side 1's maiden voyage - I managed to hold off streaming it beforehand. So far so good, but I will defer judgement for a few plays. The pressing sounds really good though - I wonder who Matador uses? Modern pressings often leave me un...erm, impressed with loads of surface noise etc., but this is pretty quiet (besides the music).

It would not have occurred to me to liken this to Joy Division.

Shut UP is a phenomenal song, I love it when the reverbed guitar comes in. Very John Mcgeoch

Music sounds great. I thought all the little gifs of them in the pitchfork article on them were super cheesy though.

Yeah, they aren't the most original ever. Still they're definitely good, probably the first new rock album that I've been fairly excited about in a while.

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

― Call me at **BITCOIN (DJP), Wednesday, May 1, 2013 1:42 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^ Completely agree with this... and the best thing is, we're not even halfway through the year yet so there may still some really really great stuff to come!

When you rip off the bass line from "Colony", people will compare you to Joy Division!

just the singer's look and dance moves and all those black and white live clips on youtube with the band all in dark uniforms made me think of JD.

they are obviously just stealing their sound wholesale from modern eon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbEX2NwPdsE

just kidding. (modern eon one of my fave 1981 JD rips though)

there is a part of one savages song that reminds me of The Sound. the band. can't remember which one though.

they don't sound nearly as morose or gothy as joy division though. they are more on the punk end of the post punk spectrum, i think: a lot of headstrong energy, the manifesto "turn off your cellphones" element that pitchfork made such a big deal out of... i think i like it.

they are more on the german end of post punk.

what are the german bands they sound like? that sounds cool.

"no face" sounds like something jay reatard would have written (closing the garage rock loop)

not saying they're copping his style. i imagined a blood visions version of it last time through. was p cool.

i listened the record a couple days ago. they remind me of erase errata!