Monday, August 22, 2011

Ununlikable: Music Monday

Oh blog, my August stats are going to be something terrible. Luckily, I no longer check them. And I'm going to blame the fact that I live in Arizona in August, and living is all that can be expected of me.

One of my strengths in trivia is that I have a pretty good understanding of what is common knowledge, and what is uncommon knowledge. Trivia tends to come right from the boundary of the two. Similarly, I think I'm pretty good at knowing what will be commonly liked, and what will only be appreciated by a niche audience. I'm not using common to say lesser or base, only universal. There are things that most everyone should like pretty well. I'd reccomend Community to most anyone, but Louie to only a select few. I'd reccomend Ender's Game to most anyone, but Clockwork Orange to only a few.

I'm far too late to give you the indie endorsement of Foster the People; I think they're on the radio and even commercials by this point. I saw Fright Night this weekend (niche endorsement to fans of horror comedy) and they popped up in the soundtrack. So if you're at all current with music you've likely heard Pumped Up Kicks. What I would like to say for them is that the whole album is quite good. The songs are all quite varied, which is both good and bad. I like that you can always tell that a song is a Pixies or Offspring or Flaming Lips song. I think having a certain sound is important. Each track on Torches sounds like a different band, whether it be Death Cab or The Eels or Spoon or nearly a dozen others. And while I appreciate the diversity, I do hope they settle on a particular sound by their next album. Anyway, most everyone will like Foster the People.



Another band that most everyone will like is Cults. They've been pretty heavily buzzed over the last year, so if new music is your thing, you probably already know them. But if you don't, you should get to know them. They're fun, and if fairly innocuous, they have a good sound. I'm always a fan of female vocals and the washed out Supremes sound present on most of the tracks is endearing.




1 comment:

katilda said...

i want to click play on "pumped up kicks" so bad....but it's been stuck in my head for app. 2 weeks, and i just got it out after looking up the lyrics and finally realizing what it's about...but oh, you tempt me. stupid catchy song.