Noisy!
Ringo Deathstarr – Rip
FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS!
Tonight is Austin’s terribly-named but still fun Ringo Deathstarr.
It’s right there in the track up top’s title: they are intent on plundering the shoegaze/Creation/C86 noise-pop of the 80’s and 90’s for influence. The usual suspects – MBV, JAMC, et al – are all present and accounted for, in a way that is maybe closer to “plagiarism” than “homage”.
But these kids do it with such knowingly-impish good spirit (plus, I am a sucker for that style) that I can’t fault them too much.
Ringo Deathstarr – Tambourine Girl
This melody on this one is a dead ringer for a Primitives song:
Ringo Deathstarr – So High
And this is their Slowdive one:
Ringo Deathstarr – Summertime
A little too loud for my tastes. I’ve discovered as I get older, my ability to put up with loud music gets lower and lower. LeeEsq can tell you that I fled from a dive bar with blasting heavy metal music over the summer. I can do some power pop but not too much pure head-banging. Sleater-Kinney and Wild Flag are about as loud as I can go.
Is there a band that you do not know about? I think you are the person I know who keeps most up with all forms of music.Report
Nobody can keep up with all forms, it’s just not possible. Even pre-internet it wasn’t possible, and now there’s more being made than ever, and instant access to it (not just current stuff, but older stuff that would’ve been impossible to get your hands on before and now is unearthed & just a click away).
There’s plenty of louder music out there, ask dhex or Will H. (two guys who are into varying flavors of metal, whereas I am just a dabbler in some of them).
I don’t always want loud music, but sometimes you gots to get the rock out.
Speaking of Wild Flag, for some reason I have been on a Helium kick the last couple days.
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I find that music is the hardest thing to keep up with unless you are being very proactive. Keep in mind that I don’t go to local clubs very often to check out unheard bands. I suppose I should.
Helium is good.Report
Dude, get out to see as much live music as you can, while you can. Nothing better than a good show (well, maybe ONE thing….but trust me, even THOSE times, you usually won’t remember quite as well, and you certainly can’t tell stories about them when you are old).
One day you’ll be like me, just hoping for a few free hours, then lacking the energy to go even when they roll around.
In the meantime, thank goodness for YouTube. I can just watch Helium shows at home:
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Glyph,
I’m going to see Stars next week.
I have a hard time getting people to go to concerts with me.Report
I used to have a working knowledge of books that (not trying to sound snobby here) covered most of the 20th century, and a good chunk of the 19th. It was my job, and my main hobby. Once you start really following something, and you spend years doing it, your memory starts to work its way around that info, and it becomes the basis for how you think. In my case I started recognizing cover artists, learning imprints, memorizing ISBN prefixes. You start recognizing editors names, and have read the blurb on the back of a 100K pocket books.
After a while you, you are answering the mothers question “Do you have the book “Stuff breaks?”
“You are looking for “Things Fall Apart,” by Achebe. Its over here.”Report
At first I was hearing Miki Berenyi, but it all kind of disolved.
You’re right, awful band name.Report
I guarantee that they have a Lush song too. They aren’t particularly sly about downplaying their influences.
But yeah, that is one bad bandname. If they didn’t already have a couple records out, I’d recommend they change it, but too late now.
There are a lot of bad bandnames out there. AVClub does an annual list that usually has a few gems:
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-year-in-band-names-2012,89829/Report
Summertime is a good song.Report
HA! Makes you miss the Band of Susans.Report
Hmm, the band name is bad in a trying-too-hard way, but especially in Austin, it wouldn’t be the first thing that jumps out at me.
When I left Austin, I’d sometimes meet people (back when I still did that kind of thing (meet people)) and the conversation would go like,
Them: Austin, hey, that’s a great town.
Me: Sure is, great food, music all over the freaking place, 100 degrees nine months a year, but hey, a lot of the people there look good in shorts.
Them: Must be counting the days to when you move back.
Me: If I ever do, it’ll be a million years too soon.
Part of that is because I’m a jerk, and part of it is seeing so many hundreds of bands and thinking, not terrible, give them some time to play live, learn from each other, and develop a style of their own . . . then learning that said band has put out three records nationally and is touring Europe with the Jesus Lizard this summer (getting out of Austin at exactly the right time).
The great bands and the terrible bands almost never get what they really deserve, anywhere, but in Austin there’s just so many of both that it’s exhausting. It’s a nice place to visit, though.Report