We Are Scientists
Value For Money
We Are Scientists
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User Reviews
Value For Money
Case In Point, Why Must We Judge The Music By It C
Case in point, why must we judge the music by it cover/image. Listen to the We Are Scientists album a couple of times and you will find it will start seeping into that background music you sing in your head when don't realize you are doing it. This album full of tracks you think you have already heard not because that are similar to another music but because good music is at once familiar and known. These guys are very very good. As with all top albums there is no point in a track synopsis as it is full to the brim with quality not one or two good song mixed in with the rest of Is This It?
Are you suggesting that the W.A.S. don't have a carefully crafted image? You have SEEN them and their "zany" website haven't you? Don't kid yourself, people don't dress themselves in comedy fashion for anything other than projecting an image, even if it's an image of non-fashion or whatever. They want very very very much to be seen as quirky and different and do everything in their power to cultivate that image.
If you really want to listen to a band that is not concerned with how it looks you're going to be looking a long while.
Music is intrinsically wrapped up in image. Metal bands look a certain way and have certain types of names. Indie bands look a certain way and have certain types of names, etc. Jam bands look a certain way and wear certain clothes and have certain types of names. Usually the scenesters who follow a band share the look, to a point. It's a way of identifying oneself with people who share the same aesthetic ideals, cultural markers and to an extent the same values. Go to any indie gig what do you see? Trendy haircuts, jeans, converse trainers, t-shirts with clever slogans and lots of secondhand clothing. Go to see a jam band and you get long hair, tie-dye, birkenstocks. Go to a metal gig and you get leather and ripped jeans and eyeliner. It's fine, it's one way of feeling you're part of a larger community. The ones who get it right manage to fit in and be easily identified with where they are on the cultural landscape, but they also look very much like themselves and are comfortable with their "image" as it were and it seems natural for them.
The problem lies with the bands who try to pretend none of this is important. If it's not important than why bother with album art? Promo videos? Photos on your website? Why do music mags have photos? Why are there galleries dedicated to gig poster art? Why has there recently been an exhibition of rock photography in my city? Why do we remember Bowie, the Beatles, The Sex Pistols, The Smiths, Suede, Nirvana as much for the fashion and the visual imagery they brought to their work as for the music?
Sorry, but W.A.S. are just as wrapped up in their appearance as everyone else. And as such, surely that visual image they convey should reflect their music. And it does. They look like clowns and they sound like clowns as well.
Umm, isn't this supposed to be a review of their live show, not their album?
As for their album, the only place it seeps is into the gutter with all the other rubbish in the NME these days. Hey hey scenesters, there's more to life than what magazines tell you is cool! And there's more than one style of music around, so why listen to 20 bands that sound the same?
Value For Money
Imagine This: You Keep Hearing About This Band Th
Imagine this: You keep hearing about this band that are meant to be incredible live. They're from New York and they're apparently as good as the Strokes. They're noisy and perky, and they have a great sense of humour. Then you hear that they're opening for a band you've already bought tickets to see. Yippee. So you get down to the venue early and wait for them to come on stage. When they do come out, imagine the horror to discover that the bass player looks like the father of a friend you had when you were 6, in about 1979. Or, more to the point, he looks EXACTLY like the guys out of the 118 118 adverts, only it's not a wig and a fake moustache. Imagine also, that not only does the bassist look like a complete fool, the lead singer thinks he's funny and tries to banter, but his jokes make you want to punch him in the face. Well, OK, but what about the tunes, you ask? Tunes? Yeah. Tunes. They have some. Some sound like Hot Hot Heat. Like we need another Hot Hot Heat when the first one is annoying enough after about 10 minutes listening. Some sound like second-rate rejects from Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur. Some sound like Menswe@r. Oh goodness. It's 1995 again and you're stuck in a horrible time warp.
But no, it's not 1995, and it appears 3 Americans with poor fashion sense, dodgy facial hair, and an inflated opinion of their own verbal skills, have discovered British indie guitar bands from the 1990's. Only it also appears that they discovered all the rubbish ones like These Animal Men, Dodgy, Powder and Denim.
OK, they were energetic and catchy enough, but really, the world does not need a Brit-pop revival. And the world does not need We Are Scientists.
The Kaiser Chiefs are a joke too. In it for the fame and trappings. One good song and the rest are just garbage.
You know, you don't have to like every band in a scene. Some are good, some are ok and some are just bandwagon-jumpers.
I pride myself on being discerning.
I am an indie goddess. Sellouts beware. Bow to my might! ;)
b***s mate these guys will inherit the earth. best thing since bloc party, i suppose you think the kaiserchiefs are good.
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