the strongest emotion I have toward this album is resentment, specifically for ushering in carles nostalgia
― theorizing your yells (katherine), Saturday, 5 January 2019 20:11 (five years ago) link
GAPDY was not about those albums being similar or linked other than that they all dominated critic lists that year. There was a sense in 2009 that critics were relieved to be able to frame indie rock as embracing the weird and experimental and danceable and fun and electronic and worldly (and each of the albums seems to fit at least two of those adjectives), thus allowing them to go back to ignoring all the non-indie rock music that otherwise had been supplying those vibes. But that dynamic was as much about albums that had come out in the preceding years like Sound of Silver and All Hour Cymbals and the first Vampire Weekend album (and Strawberry Jam to an extent, but more importantly Person Pitch). 2008 was just the year it seemed to verge on the all-consuming as a critical frame.
In retrospect of course
― Tim F, Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:04 (five years ago) link
... 2008 was not indie rock’s resurgence but its last gasp?
― Tim F, Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:05 (five years ago) link
As for this album, I liked it at the time but haven’t listened in ages. I agree that Fall Be Kind was better and better still was the live version of these songs I saw in Berlin in late 2007 where it all sounded more like “#1” and the second half of “Safer”.
― Tim F, Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:07 (five years ago) link
Eh I dunno though there seems to be a sort of permanent pro indie rock circuit where bands play large clubs or small theaters, like acts like Chvrches or Kurt Vile
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:28 (five years ago) link
Tame Impala headlining Coachella seems like as much of a high point as it'll get at present.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:30 (five years ago) link
I mean it beats working!
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:42 (five years ago) link
Though I'm not sure any of the GAPDY bands got much bigger than that anyway
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:43 (five years ago) link
CHVRCHES aren't an indie rock band!
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:56 (five years ago) link
I guess the other thought I have is that 2009 looked like Fever Ray and Two Suns and Abnormally Attracted to Sin in my world, so all of this discourse is perpetually baffling to me
that and the vocals are not listenable, but that is my thought on most related bands
― theorizing your yells (katherine), Saturday, 5 January 2019 22:58 (five years ago) link
Well yeah, to me 2009 looked like Electrik Red and The-Dream and lots of uk funky and etc. and to others it was other stuff again, but to (it seemed like) 80% of critics it was mostly GAPDY, and that’s what seemed stifling at the time.
― Tim F, Saturday, 5 January 2019 23:23 (five years ago) link
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Saturday, January 5, 2019 4:56 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Yeah they are, they are electronic but they are totally indie rock
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, 5 January 2019 23:24 (five years ago) link
"this band isn't indie rock!" - an argument in 2019
― theorizing your yells (katherine), Saturday, 5 January 2019 23:43 (five years ago) link
It's not an argument, just mere fact. CHVRCHES are a pop band. If CHVRCHES are indie rock, then so are Erasure. Erasure aren't indie rock either.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:14 (five years ago) link
Yeah they're indie stop being obtuse
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:25 (five years ago) link
Like 3 people in indie bands in glasgow start a synth pop group = it's indie baby
lmao none more indie
― twitter is bad not good (||||||||), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:31 (five years ago) link
Then by that logic, if they'd started a jazz fusion band you'd still be calling it indie, which is pretty idiotic.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:35 (five years ago) link
They wouldn't do that tho because they're too indie
― ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉) (jim in vancouver), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:37 (five years ago) link
Cool. Well, I'm gonna crank The Innocents now - that legendary indie rock classic.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:40 (five years ago) link
Oh god I just cited them and Vile because they both seem in that middle class career wise, didn't know this was gonna get Turricanned.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 00:50 (five years ago) link
I can’t really extract my overall feelings for AC from my feelings for Panda Bear solo which are very positive. Tomboy following Person Pitch is one of the nicest build upon/reinventions and frankly a breathtaking follow up to a widely-considered-classic-album (I think it is, too)— those two albums are prob my favourites of this entire GAPDY thing
My favourite of all this era tho was GGD both live and on record
― flamboyant goon tie included, Sunday, 6 January 2019 01:07 (five years ago) link
Agreed GGD were the best.
― Tim F, Sunday, 6 January 2019 01:12 (five years ago) link
yeah person pitch is my favourite ac-related album easily. tomboy is decent but not as like texturally rich so i never got into it in the same way though
ggd were and still are the best, eye contact is one of my favourite albums ever
― ufo, Sunday, 6 January 2019 01:32 (five years ago) link
Well yeah, to me 2009 looked like Electrik Red and The-Dream
These were two of my favorites too, and outside ILM I felt like an outlier. It took only, what, a couple more years for us to stand in place for the rest of rockcrit to catch up.
― Your sweetie-pie-coo-coo I love ya (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 6 January 2019 02:19 (five years ago) link
Black Dice put out their best album in 2009, to me they were second only to AC as the most exciting and unique band of this era (and Eric Copeland has a similarly stellar solo career, arguably eclipsing his main band just like Panda Bear). GGD were good but I always found them kind of boring, though they have tracks, and God's Money is pretty great all the way thru.
― flappy bird, Sunday, 6 January 2019 05:02 (five years ago) link
I don't consider GGD or Black Dice from the GAPDY scene, they feel like no1ze ppl that got dancey
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 14:40 (five years ago) link
― flappy bird, Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:14 (five years ago) link
GAPDY '09 sounded like they were taking cues from BTTLS (SING THIS HOOK OH AY OH) and Anco in particular from YES
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Gl6kI1_Xw
who burned down the MPP 9012live when they boys were in kindergarten (?)
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/yes/1984/merriweather-post-pavilion-columbia-md-6bdf2296.html
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 6 January 2019 15:37 (five years ago) link
Black Dice did a bunch of collabs with Wolf Eyes... That's not GAPDY vibes
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 16:32 (five years ago) link
Black Dice and Lightning Bolt show pics
http://www.self-titledmag.com/2009/10/31/microwave-only-devils-night-with-black-dice-lightning-bolt-and-a-bunch-of-brooklynites-dressed-up-as-bat-for-lashes-miss-piggy-more/
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 16:34 (five years ago) link
I'd agree there's a link between Black Dice and the earlier Animal Collective stuff, they toured and released a split EP together at some point right?
I still love this album although I admit I haven't played it in a while. Sung Tongs is by far my favourite of the group records at this point.
― Gavin, Leeds, Sunday, 6 January 2019 17:05 (five years ago) link
Avay Tare and Eric Copeland had a band together! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Tones
― Frederik B, Sunday, 6 January 2019 17:14 (five years ago) link
Maybe I'm off on this, but for a minor band AC plays some pretty big venues. I remember them selling out Stubb's in particular.
― campreverb, Sunday, 6 January 2019 17:35 (five years ago) link
Put it this way, AnCo is like Randall "Pink" Floyd in Dazed and Confused, they can travel between groups but he's still GAPDY, whereas Wolf Eyes are like Slater.
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 17:48 (five years ago) link
Like they can be cool with each other and do a side project/go get Aerosmith tickets but fundamentally they aren't from the same scene
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 17:50 (five years ago) link
Haha!
― Gavin, Leeds, Sunday, 6 January 2019 19:09 (five years ago) link
AC played with Wolf Eyes a lot in the early days
― flappy bird, Sunday, 6 January 2019 20:20 (five years ago) link
On sure but then AnCo joined the football team and they kinda grew apart, but they still got together sometimes
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 21:08 (five years ago) link
haha
someone said it upthread, but the whole GAPDY thing wasn't a scene, it was just that those 5 bands were the favorites of a particularly strong critical consensus that year (5 of the top 6 albums AND songs in the PnJ poll came from the GAPDY). And they were all to one extent or another "established" indie acts, and therefore pretty easy to yawn at.
Of course AnCo emerged from the early 2000s noise scene (covered in this Whiney thread), "GAPDY" status doesn't eliminate that or give their noizier fellow travelers "GAPDY" status
― intheblanks, Sunday, 6 January 2019 21:25 (five years ago) link
that said GGD was one of my favorite bands of that era, always glad to see them get love. I liked that "noise bands" get blissed out era, high places was another band that had similar vibes to me
― intheblanks, Sunday, 6 January 2019 21:28 (five years ago) link
I've accepted that I have zero idea of how popular anyone is in real world terms these days. Like, I thought Kurt Vile was indie-famous and doing fine, but I didn't know that he could sell out a 2500 capacity venue in Wisconsin.
Similarly, I hadn't heard of this band Lake Street Dive until a few months ago, but all the 40+ year olds I know were like "oh yeah, of course" and they sold out the same venue. I'm not sure where they would even hear about a band like that (inoffensive folk-y r&b) besides NPR?
― change display name (Jordan), Sunday, 6 January 2019 21:30 (five years ago) link
Kurt Vile has made Obama's top songs/albums list a couple years at least, including the recent one.
― flappy bird, Sunday, 6 January 2019 22:22 (five years ago) link
Xpost Jordan - I'm sure your familiar with the Current npr station in Mpls, stream that and you'll get a great view into that whole Lake Street Drive hip for basics (tm) scene
― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Sunday, 6 January 2019 22:56 (five years ago) link
idk how we got here, but kurt vile is one of the most played artists on alt rock radio
― bros before HOOS (voodoo chili), Sunday, 6 January 2019 23:01 (five years ago) link
I've relistened to this album all the way through and my conclusions are:
- I'm not a lyrics person and I never cared about AC's lyrics because half the time they're way too obfuscated to understand, so it's strange to see so much emphasis on the lyrics to My Girls - I'm surprised that this was such a crossover hit in the US (playing at frat parties etc). Hardly the case in the UK. - The lyrics are one thing - you could interpret them one of many ways - but for me the production on My Girls is representative of the downfall of this album. This song would be a million times better if the production had been bigger. Those big bass hits just don't sound very big at all. It's like dance music with all the oomph sucked out of it. The semblance of bass, without the low end. The vocals should be beautiful and soaring but they're flat and sit awkwardly in the mix. - I'd love to hear a remixed version of the whole album. Tone down all the horrible squiggly deteriorated synth noises, let the thing breathe a bit, get rid of the DAW reverb that suddenly so many bands were flooding their music with at that point. There are good songs in here, but they're so overstuffed and compressed and undynamic that something like Daily Routine just wooshes past without touching the sides.
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, 7 January 2019 14:04 (five years ago) link
Good to see some Tomboy loving. I prefer it to Person Pitch and MPP by a considerable stretch. Never got the hang of Person Pitch
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, 7 January 2019 14:05 (five years ago) link
completely agree about the mix - i do like my girls a lot as it is but it could have been so much better than it was. it at least sounds much better on record than most of the dreadful live versions
― ufo, Monday, 7 January 2019 14:11 (five years ago) link
Person Pitch's appeal was really about "Comfy In Nautica" being such a shock in its simplicity, brutally repetitious production and a sing-song melody, I remember feeling incredibly wide-eyed wow the first time a friend put it on. It's a very aesthetically extreme album and the extremity of what-it-was-doing has probably become less impactful, but it seemed so bold at the time
― flamboyant goon tie included, Monday, 7 January 2019 15:59 (five years ago) link
I was a big fan of AC and Panda Bear's Young Prayer at the time but Person Pitch made very little impact. I revisit it occasionally and it leaves me totally cold other than maybe the last track which is quite pretty. Again, it's a production thing for me - a sound that had become increasingly popular between about 2007-2011 where indie types were experimenting with dance music and, at the same time, shoegaze, but getting them both a bit wrong.
Whatever continuum encompassed both Caribou and Grizzly Bear: 4/4 beats stripped of bass, devoid of funk and played reed-thin; Beach Boys-influenced harmonies with all the blood let out; layer upon layer upon layer of twiggly folk guitar; electronic reverb applied with a spade. I hated it so much.
― frame casual (dog latin), Monday, 7 January 2019 16:55 (five years ago) link