What am I missing here? What do those of you who like this band hear that I don’t? Isn’t there some Celtic folk-rock group like this playing in any given $7/pint, faux-Irish, nouveau-yuppie, downtown pub most days of the working week?

Whenever I hear them I imagine them shooting a video on the pirate ship in West Edmonton Mall, just like the terrible Edmonton bands that sounded like this used to.

Does someone in the band write for Pitchfork or something?

What the hell.

There is a rather good political blog done by a former Democratic speechwriter entitled The Decembrist that is not crap, but this band is parrot crap.

they're a total shitfest. i listened to one of their albums once. they'd be kind of cool if they just took a lot of pictures of themselves,




but they record also.


-noah

Arrrrrr matey! I'll take Flogging Molly instead...

crap

when i first heard them i thought they wrote really effective pop songs, but the more i listen to their albums now i have this image of a guy huddled up writing lyrics that are trying too hard to be smart and ironic/funny. but they come off sounding a triffle banal. like when he's really emoting and singing the line, "my mother was a chinese trapeze artist?" i don't know- maybe it's supposed to be tongue in cheek- but mostly it's just pretentious indie nerds like pitchfork that take pleasure in it.

The success of this band is a complete mystery to me. When their first record came out critics were claiming it was the return of Jeff Magnum, but it turned out to history class They Might Be Giants folk rock.

it's very satisfying to hear you peeps say these things, as i've been totally surrounded by this band's many worshippers for too long. i don't think there has been a time in the history of "indie rock" where the bands most frequently identified as "indie pop" have been so vapid. the decembrists, the shins, the frames, etc., have a way of making even versus or, shit, teenage fanclub seem immediate/vital/whatever. compared to vintage guided by voices or pavement...well, enough....

I give them a NOT CRAP. His voice is very annoying but the music is pleasant enough to warrant their existence.

Angry_Dragon wrote:I give them a NOT CRAP. His voice is very annoying but the music is pleasant enough to warrant their existence.

well, it's not really HIS voice, seeing as how he's biting of jeff mangum... but jeff did it way better and the music/lyrical depth was about as good as can be.

segerandpriest wrote: i don't think there has been a time in the history of "indie rock" where the bands most frequently identified as "indie pop" have been so vapid. the decembrists, the shins, the frames, etc., have a way of making even versus or, shit, teenage fanclub seem immediate/vital/whatever. compared to vintage guided by voices or pavement...well, enough....

I completely agree with you. I can't think of a time when I've felt more out of touch with "popular" "indie rock/pop" in the ten or so years I've been listening to the genre.

Angry_Dragon wrote:I give them a NOT CRAP. His voice is very annoying but the music is pleasant enough to warrant their existence.

i don't know if it's fair to keep a tally, but... the decembrists not crap the homosexuals crap? honestly.