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Review: Paramount Room
Photos via The Horrors and Crocodiles myspace pages
We recently checked out two leading acts of the drug-den art rock revival, The Horrors and the Crocodiles and find ourselves left with the nagging question—fucked up, or faking it?
The Horrors have made leaps and bounds towards crafting a mature sound since their 2006 debut EP of unpolished, distorted growls and clanging guitar. Their second full length album, Primary Colours, out last month, sees the 5-piece channeling Interpol through black-tinted lenses.
On stage it was immediately evident that The Horrors have left behind every trace of their former screeching, art school abandon. The quintet began their set still as statues while minutes of distorted sound swirled around their motionless bodies. What could have been a powerful intro fell short as the audience realized early on that the band cared more about connecting with their own vanity than their fans. Throughout their set, frontman Faris Badwan never broke his mock-passionate, Ian Curtis-esque stage persona, sneering, whipping his mic cable and rolling his eyes back into his head in faux-junkie gesturing. Behind him, his bandmates looked on with blank stares affixed to the far recesses of the venue.
The Horrors have long suffered from an identity crisis and while their recorded catalog has begun to come into its own, the band's fabricated personas reveal that the harder they fight to define themselves, the emptier they become. The Horrors are, most definitely, faking it.
Relative newcomers the Crocodiles have hit the pavement hard in 2009 with their debut album titled Summer of Hate. The San Diego duo of Brandon Welchez and Charles Rowell craft the kind of lo-fi, garagey shoegaze that turns your eyes to the floor as your head nods itself. The duo's tunes are awash with nostalgia in the best possible way. Lock the Jesus & Mary Chain in a drug den on a heroin comedown in the LES circa Now and you've got the Crocodiles.
There was a familiar awkwardness in Welchez and Rowell's steps as they the took the stage at the Empty Bottle last Saturday night with beers in hand and dark sunglasses shielding their gazes. The duo didn't waste time getting down to business, firing up no less than seven distortion pedals between them and disappearing into a wall of sound. Though they made no effort to directly engage with the enthusiastic audience, it was a voyeuristic, not alienating experience. Standing inches from the stage you could feel the loneliness, the internal struggle and the raw emotion emanating from every note. The Crocodiles are not a band that are going to leap, swagger and gyrate into fan's hearts. The Crocodiles are a band who get that no matter how self-assured we present ourselves on the outside, we all stumble through this life, lost and unsure of our place in the world.
Two bands and two very different show experiences later, we've come to the conclusion that it takes not being fucked up to fully grasp the passion, conflict and power that come with being fucked up.
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Does this mean that the kids have finally moved passed the eighties?
Judging by the amount of flannel I've been seeing recently, Pearl Jam picked the perfect time to release their new album ... the problem is the kids are now mixing legwarmers AND flannel!
AUUUUUGH!
So what we get now is the bastard child of the Kurt Cobain and Olivia Newton John.
Frightening, isn't it?
It definitely is frightening. What is worse is I have lived through that trend twice now. Hopefully, this is the last that we see of that trend.
I like music.
Me too!
You're Luc Longley. I thought you only liked the digeredoo (sp?)
No mate, AC/DC !!!
Rolf Harris!
Barry Gibb!
INXS!
ONJ!
Kylie Minogue!
I like Kylie Minogue. And INXS. And (early) Bee Gees.
Anyway, you guys are being obnoxious. Please cut it out.
Sincerely,
The internet police.
Midnight Oil!
(It isn't like this discusison was going anywhere significant.)
The Saints, The Birthday Party and so on.....
It's only authentic when someone starts shooting heroin, imo.
The recent popularity of experimental acts like Dan Deacon and Animal Collective convinced music fans to think outside the box of head-nodding choral loops and drum solos and embrace the new sound of improvisation.
All sounds pretty structured and conventional if you ask me. No offense, I like both acts.
You could argue Deacon is structures given his compositional background, but Animal Collective improvise quite a bit ... which makes me laugh every time I realize the hipsters have been duped into worshiping a new incarnation of Phish.
I think if you'd never heard Branca, Reich or hell even Tortoise you might be more befuddled by Deacon, as for Animal Collective they just sound like pop songs to me (great pop, I love em'!) I've never seen them live though, maybe they stretch out a bit more.
As with any genre undercurrent, there will be the ones that forge the path, those that walk it, and those that drive a stupid fucking car up it. That said, The Horrors have stunk of desperation since the beginning, back when they were trying to hook their malnourished fingers into yet another passing bandwagon. To be fair, I think there may have been one song on the last album that I kinda dug, but the rest was completely vapid.
Crocodiles do it for me though. I would simply be echoing the above article if I were to attempt to explain why, but damn, do they 'connect'. Freewheeling and unrestrained, their album is solid front to back and I hope to see them live as well some day...
i don't understand why everyone keeps saying Animal Collective is experimental or that they improvise. i just saw them live (for the 3rd time) - they are more like a traditional band than most give them credit for. i think lumping them in some sort of "experimental" category is really lazy writing and criticism. just cause a band puts delay on their instruments and vocals doesn't make them experimental. this is coming from a HUGE AC fan. and like navin said above, they are simply playing pop songs with weird sounds.