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by steve_Archive
This is an interesting topic, and I suspect it will seperate music fans into two camps:
1) People who value sound as a thing unto itself and
2) People who see sound as one component of a band's aesthetic, but not the most important one.
Number 1 - types generally conclude band commenarty with phases like "if you like (a band), then you'll like these guys," or append those preposterous "recommended if you like..." lists. I suspect that nearly all sampling/contemporary electronic artists and marquee DJs are #1s.
Me, I'm a 2. I don't think what anything sounds like (as differentiated from what it is altogether) is particularly important. This implies that I can like two things that sound similar, yet have little in common, for different reasons. Or like one and hate the other. Or like things that sound different for the same reason.
The Ramones and Stooges, for example, are two band who have meant the world to me. They both have identifiable "sounds," and quite a few bands can mimic these sounds convincingly. As a result, I dismiss these similar bands, generally, because they are mimicking the superficial aspects of a great experience in an attempt to co-opt the underlying greatness. I think of this as a cheap trick, like a hooker in a Marylin Monroe wig with a painted-on beauty mark. It makes me think less of these bands.
There are also some bands (Dead Meadow come to mind) who are capable of evoking an authentic essence which just-so-happens to sound a lot like other bands (Blue Cheer, Crazy Horse, Uriah Heap, Black Sabbath, Budgie...), and I like them despite it. That it sounds like other stuff is unimportant to me, because I get the feeling that the intent underneath the sound is genuine expression rather than mimicry.
This is on point currently, as there are many retrograde impressionists out there today, doing kitschy pastiches of sound in an attempt to remind us that Joy Division, the Cure and Slint were once great bands, and in the process attach some of their value like a mortgage-holder. This makes me think less of these bands.
Isis? Eh, I think they sound a little like Neurosis, especially when the epic parts kick in, but I can't say that's a problem. I'm more bothered by bands trying to fool an audience with sound generally than with particular bands who happen to like the same sounds or effects.
I appreciate the argument that all we are listening to is sound, and that's all that should matter. I grasp that argument, but it doesn't ring true to me. I hear through the sound to the people on the other side of it, and if I can't get with them, then fuck their sound.
If, when you listen to music, all you hear is sound, then I pity you. The sound doesn't matter very much.
steve albini
Electrical Audio
sa at electrical dot com
Quicumque quattuor feles possidet insanus est.
