Future Islands - On The Water

i mean i said paul young karaoke. I'm acknowledging the amateurish elements.

shouldn't you be like "oh yay, now i have all these 80s synth-soul hams i can check out!" rather than complaining they're being brought up?

― da croupier, Sunday, March 9, 2014 8:34 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

(xps)

it's like, when my mom would overhear me listening to heavy metal and say "jesus, this is worse than AC/DC!", it didn't make me want to listen to AC/DC, y'know?

sorry dude but if someone making a cynical "lol are people really getting into Some New Group That Sounds Like This Old Thing" crack gets you upset that people are making reference points you don't know and not taking it seriously suggests you maybe shouldn't be passing around a clip of a dude doing a herky-jerky dance to 80s synth-soul on letterman

indie favorites often resemble unfashionable shit from 20-30 years earlier, you know? life is hard.

just given it to us straight, maaaan

da croupier you must have missed the memo, "caring what the 80s were like" is no longer a thing my generation has an emotional investment in :)

i still remember when the mean ol' guys at the record store brought up vanilla fudge when i made them listen to the afghan whigs. it hurt, but i'm grateful in hindsight.

WOMEN DANCED BEHIND TOM JONES, AND MEN THEY FOUGHT THE WARS
THE CHILDREN LISTENED TO PAUL YOUNG, AND EVERYONE WAS POOR

(last post, then I gotta bounce)

1. Dismissing a contemporary band because they sound too much like the sum of their influences without appearing to break any new ground stylistically
2. Dismissing a contemporary band because they remind you of stuff you never liked in the first place and resented having to hear during its window of mainstream popularity

I do not believe that the difference between 1. and 2. could be totally lost on you, da croup

actually, i'm a little young for description #2. But i'm sorry if you don't think it's fair to say (again, based on their hit) that these guys sound like an amateurish version of something that was popular a while back.

Letterman clip made me think "if Rick Astley had never met Stock Aitken Waterman."

HOW DARE YOU

like the children of the eastern seaboard have any responsibility to care about your precious SAW

this is machine-tooled for ILX & will probably go top 5 in the EOY

― You cannot interrupt his tea stirring because it is his holy trick (imago), Sunday, March 9, 2014 4:04 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

bookmarking

"machine-tooled"

3d printed for ILX

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

I thought that was it, but after reading da croupier's latest replies, I'm more confused than ever

croup, I'm not sure why you're hung up on the notion of this performance being "amateurish"—the band is perfectly tight, & Sam goes all-in on his schtick despite having an audience of mostly indifferent non-fans... which is basically the definition of "professionalism"? like, when I think of "amateurish" TV performances, I think of 90s alt-rock bands mumbling thru their one hit as if they were just dragged out of bed and thrown on the Letterman stage by major label hired goons.

... maybe you woulda liked them better when they sounded like New Order, idk

man they're way more meatloafy than sprinsteeny, thank god

haven't watched the letterman yet but it's probably awesome, only saw them once a few years ago and it was one of my favorite lead singer performances ever, he was like a campy hamlet belting every line to poor yorick

nice description. definitely gives that feel on letterman when he lifts his right arm up. it's all very theatrical, but he seems so genuinely in it that it's mesmerizing. felt like young sufjan seeing idioteque on SNL with this performance.

Saw the Letterman clip and to me its kinda of an amateurish take on Simply Red

am I right that the argt being presented here is "you whipper-snappers don't know the roots of this music"

nope

lol xpost

Local band done good. Lovin it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is yr argt dc, I'm not getting it either. Also just watched/loved this

My argument is that it struck me as Paul young karaoke. Amateurish vocals over eighties synth soul. After that its just variations of saying "sorry but tough shit" to Bernie's various qualms with that estimation.

I never said the kids gotta learn, just that the kids gotta toughen up if they're gonna boo Hoo when cranky old farts in other towns aren't "zomg these guys are from a college town, transcendence!"

Fair enough. Mostly loved how it looked exactly like a guy singing along to something in his room bt onstage

amateurish vocals says da croupgeir

I used to be with it, but then they changed what *it* was. Now what I'm with isn't *it*, and what's *it* seems weird and scary to me. It'll happen to you...

can you elaborate on what makes herring's vocals amateurish? he doesn't sound pitchy to me. it's about the quality and strength?

Dude can def sing, tho. Just awesome to see no polish or selfconsciousness, given that I've seen many indie bands play live

lol you guys

Otoh listened to their new single and wasn't interested, so

can i say "unpolished" without bruising your souls or is that still too harsh a take

when someone calls something amateurish, it sounds like they might have a good idea of what'd qualify it as such. i just thought you may have had some more interesting information about what made his vocals amateurish.

there was some of that on the Haim thread that I found interesting.

fyi if you're going to respond with "oh really, sir, are you a musicologist?" when someone says these guys sound like a rando singing 80s shit you better hope this little shimmy is the peak of their mainstream awareness

I am not making a "hey man I'd like to see you try argument", I just honestly thought you might have some more insight to add to one of your posts.

but it sounds like you meant "unpolished" so I get it now. and I realize there is no way for me to convey this information via post without sounding sarcastic, but I am not being sarcastic.

i mean, yeah, if you're genuinely assuming everybody on ilx has a technical "insight" to back up terms like "amateurish," lemme tell ya that's not the case.

I have no problem with calling Sam's vox "unpolished", but "amateurish" comes pre-loaded with a "professional" opposing term, which in this case (as you've made clear) is Paul Young—the problem is that I can't tell whether you genuinely think the music would be improved by singing that sounded more like Paul Young, or if he is just a red herring you're using to draw attention away from the fact that you dislike this musical style in toto.

Dude I'm describing what i hear. People can decide for themselves whether they agree with the description, and whether its something they would or would not want to hear. And if you don't like someone sounding dismissive or reductive in their description of a performance on letterman, sorry but tough shit.

So glad that Letterman performance has made finally made American indie safe for overenthusiatic amateurish dorky dudes who can't really sing.

I like overenthusiastic dorky dudes who can't really sing - Fred Schneider is one of my biggest life heroes - but this seemed kinda sub-Har Mar Supertar to me. Meh.

He's a better singer than Bryan Ferry and that's good enough for me

Ouch.