2012 & the Abysmal Company You Kept
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Tame Impala were given loads of credit this year for bringing back psychedelia and pioneering new sounds in a forgotten genre. The only problem was Tame Impala thought they gonna beat The Beatles to their own reissue campaign and just try to wrap up all the Beatles albums in one album. I hate to break it to the guys, but Tame Impala are just a poor man’s ‘Sowing The Seeds Of Love’ by Tears For Fears.
(for some reason the actual video is not online)
Liverpool’s Clinic scouted their own hypnotic and altered state of psychedelia while not as much druggy but more formed around distortions, reverberations, and full spectrums of musical enlightenment.
t)
In the depths of the most shallow place on earth Brooklyn the Captured Tracks label knocked out a series of bands (Widowspeak, Beach Fossils, DIIV, Wild Nothing, Naomi Punk) that all look pulled straight from the catalog pages of an Urban Apparel catalog. If I have to hear one more sad song by some model who was taught to rip off New Order bass lines and play one note keyboard parts I’m gonna scream. It’s actually on good word from a friend that weight, looks, and style are as important if not more so than the music with how they market the records. I’m guessing in their world bands like the Pixies, Minutemen, or Yo La Tengo would have been sent packing.
In the Bizarro world this band of misfits known as The Bastards Of Fate would be huge, and each new fan would erase notes one by one from every Captured Tracks release [even the Cleaners From Venus reissues? – Ed] until we were rid of this horrible label.
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Dum Dum Girls had a massive year — the Coke Zero of the indie world. You know, same taste as the original formula but not as filling. I mean it’s cool that you can get Coke almost anywhere, and it’s super popular, but I still find myself more of an RC Cola fan. I mean you just can’t trust Coke (Dum Dum Girls). They keep fucking with the formula (Yeah Yeah Yeahs/C86/Mazzy Star), changing for trends (hipstamatic sleeves/fake diy releases/fashion to follow sound), and spending money out the ass to sell you something.
My RC Cola that I can always depend on is The School from Cardiff, Wales. They know their thing, don’t follow the trend of the day, and they love doing what they do. Future classics from a classy bunch of folks.
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Symmetry is getting on my nerves lately. I’m tired of pin ups like Twin Shadow and Bats For Lashes — unscented Frebreeze tributes to the 80′. I don’t want to hear their glossed-over preppy pop collar pleated pants shoulder padded belted new wave or look at their mall mannequin faces. I used to really love the 80s, but somewhere it was recycled so much that it’s now just the worst parts are making the cut. (Insert Scott’s the real 80s article.) It’s almost like these bands just watched intros and credits to 80s films and thought this music here is what it’s all about. The truth is if either of these artists were scarred, fat, and disfigured these vapid rehashes wouldn’t even get the time of day.
t)
Thank bouncing baby Jesus on a pogoball that Micachu & The Shapes exist. I hear so many of the best elements of the 80s that yearned for the future. This could very well be the blueprint to be followed and how music could change.
(continues overleaf)
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