In honour of the bitter, blue-grey winter with which this city is afflicted, I think I'm going to present a week of moody, whinsome rock.
It's a tricky genre, because all of its bands orbit the same creative gas giant: Radiohead. That doesn't mean that they can't do creative work, but, well, comparisons are going to be made.
It's funny, then, that the group with which I commence Moody Week - The Stills - is a band for whom Radiohead isn't the first point of reference. Or even the second. Listening to Logic Will Break Your Heart, which made an astonishingly small splash when it finally arrived, I can understand why the A&R people were shitting themselves, why the band was hyped. The Stills sound like Interpol crossed with Coldplay, plus streaks of U2 and the Strokes (not to mention Joy Division). From this description, they should be the very recipe for alt.rock superstardom, and yet - and yet - has anyone heard them on the radio? I dunno if the Stills' PR people simply suck, if their live show is too heinous, if the band's ska origins are too laughable, or if I'm simply the only person who thinks they're any good, but the Stills' continuing anonymity doesn't make any sense to me. Is this anti-hype backlash?
In any case, submitted for your approval, two cuts from the Stills' debut LP, Logic Will Break Your Heart: yearning, wintry rock'n'roll, straight from the streets of Montreal (via NYC).
The Stills - "Lola Stars and Stripes". The song that opens the record, "Lola" boasts brilliantshining guitar over the simple smack of drums - I like best the way that guitar sound comes and goes, and that it's only used to mark the end of the chorus (which is casual and lovely), and not to jolt us at the beginning.
The Stills - "Let's Roll". Not sure if the thumping bass drum sounds more like something ripped out of Radiohead's "There There," or outta an Offspring or Green Day record. The band loses points for their line about a "wormhole," but the shiny Coldplay-esque chorus is the sort of thing that warms me right up as I tramp the streets. It's banal but absolutely reassuring.
(Oh, some web notes: 1) There have been some great songs posted on fluxblog lately, for any here who don't stop by (particularly the Tussle, DJ Dangermouse, Tussle, and Jose Gonzales tracks). 2) I've seen the Charlie Brown-does-"Hey Ya" video, and I think it's unexpectedly lame - cool idea, but the same shots repeated endlessly, and with surprisingly little whimsy beyond the initial concept. 3) I was similarly unimpressed with the 40+ minute All-of-the-20th-Century mash-up by Strictly Kev (a contributor to DJ Food). Things were worked together in certain interesting ways, but the matches didn't reveal any of the deeper (melodic/thematic/rhythmic) connections which usually make mash-ups so fun. As I remarked in the MeFi thread, it sounds more like a run-of-the-mill soundcollage than a bona fide remix/mash-up for dancing or active listening. Also: how the heck is this representative of the 20th Century proper, and not just tiny slivers of it [particularly 1999-2003 hip hop and late 1960s pop]?)