I started to hear some buzz about this band like 6 months ago and was intrigued by the name, which i liked a good bit.. i later heard one of the dudes was from Philly, and Hospital records was doing some spanky limited tape releases from them. Alright so time to google that shit and check out myspace tracks. Mind you i never download music online because as a general rule i hate listening to music off a shitty PC with $50 speakers, but myspace I'll cruise to sample shit out as its so easy. Anyway back to story, I punched up the COLD CAVE myspace page http://www.myspace.com/coldcave and the jams immediately started to flow... I was mixed with a handful of emotions, the most powerful of which was being thankful i hadn't been 6 months late to the party this was utter shit.. I lasted 20secs on the myspace page and was pronto out of there. I did get a fair chuckle thinking it was pretty funny that some one currently could take Depeche Mode and twist that into some current underground rebirth that was "cool" once again. What a fucking scam!! sheer genius. Like 3 weeks later i was cruising some audiophile nerds blog off the stereophile website http://blog.stereophile.com/stephenmejias/ Stephen Mejias who i guess is from the NNJ area as he writes about the Princeton record exchange and NYC a bunch. Anyway I'm cruising his blog finding amusement in lots of different shit when fucking cold cave pop up with a big gush attached to it.. "2009 single of the year" voted by him.. no wonder i cant sell releases anymore my taste must be even shittier then before. For the record this youtube video didn't make me burst into as much hate as the myspace track but i still don't like it. Yours truly grumpy old man signing off.
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I must admit to liking that Cold Cave album, but yeah, it's really just the musical equivalent of junk food. It's very much just like Depeche Mode, who I must also admit to liking :)
ReplyDeleteHi Scott:
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more. My pet thesis on this concept is this: There are lots of bands, good and bad, popular and obscure, that most folks younger than us (I'm 52, and I think I read somewhere you're mid-40s) never heard/heard of, so what used to be thought of as "influences" can now be sold as something knew and innovative, never mind the antecedents. Do you think most Cold Cave fans have even heard much Depeche Mode? I tend to doubt it. It happens with good groups too. I like Pavement very much, but their early stuff was, for all intents and purposes the Fall, even down to the cover art. They eventually expanded their sound, and for my money are a more significant band than the Fall in the grand scheme of things, but how many "Slanted" fans even knew who Mark Smith was? I'm not saying Malkmus and co. ripped them off (what would that be, petty larceny commerce-wise?) but fewer and fewer people seem to know or care much about the music's history. Would we have the Jesus Lizard without the Birthday Party, or the Birthday Party without the 2nd Stooges record?
Well, its getting late, so I'm going to pull my head out of my ass and go to bed keep up the great work. I wish I had more dough to buy more of your records, but baby keeps needing them knew shoes, so I have to work within a set budget, and there's just so much great stuff out there. Peace
you should give the first 7 inch (Sex Ads) a listen. It's way weirder and noisier.
ReplyDeleteyeah the old original musical idea is an elusive unicorn of sorts.. i remember i interviewed buzz some 13 or 14 years ago and this topic came up with him citing Black Flag and Motorhead not bad examples i suppose.
ReplyDeleteThe much lauded sources of praise can convince unsure listeners (and empty ones just seeking a feel good boost of "I matter"), and when most of the listeners know NOTHING about Goth or 80's music in general they will buy the gospel. Remember most of this is being marketed to NOISE KIDS, who are primarily ex-screamo and punk kids who realized they could be cool without trying to write "music". A lot of the same kids are flipping out about music that sounds like half-baked barely thought out Tangerine Dream rip offs. Lots of the championed junk is OK, but there's no excuse for the levels of praise heaped upon them, especially with all the FREE music geeks can download off of music blogs. Ignorance of the history of musical forms is really no longer an acceptable excuse for having bad taste and an uncritical ear. I no longer accept recommendations from "peers" anyways.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point you make Silvum about being marketed to noise kids, i think thats fully true in this case with Cold Cave having worked with Hospital Records and that label being a taste maker in the "scene". Hell thats what tipped the cow and forced me to remember to google the myspace page in the first place.
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