If there is one thing that makes my skin crawl (aside from the sight of detached hair and wet sponges, but that’s a whole different column) than it is when people decide that “we can just lump everything together” and explain it (neatly!) in 2000 words or less.
And then in their “neatness” attempt, they decide to do the lumping together through some random supposedly common denominator.
Like: geography.
Or fashion.
Or both, as was the case with this week’s NY Times article on “All Hail Brooklyn: Alt-Rock Thrives in Alt-Borough”, featuring: Deerhunter (from Atlanta), Yeasayer (really from Baltimore), Beirut (from Santa Fe originally and who has been touring so much lately, he probably forgot where he is from to begin with) and Vampire Weekend (who, lets face it, are from Manhattan, which is possibly even worse than calling someone from Santa Fe as being from Brooklyn).
Needless to say the story was picked up by everyone, their mother and Stereogum (the comments are quite entertaining).
The writing competes even with the most thesaurus-happy blog mumbo jumbo:
(and we know a thing or two about that)
Battles are branded convoluted (but playful!) and Animal Collective claustrophobic (in a good way!) by writer Ben Sisaro; the “knotty technical complexity” he ascribes to arty acts like Battles/Grizzly Bear/Yeasayer make the prospect of listening to these New Bohemians seem like homework. The scene is so dense, even NME is sick of it (”It’s gotten to the point where I had to stop constantly writing about Brooklyn,” says editor Alex Miller). Yeasayer guitarist Anand Wilder sums it up in a silly sentence.
“You have these frat guys in Atlanta who are too sophisticated to listen to Creed and Nickelback, so they’re like, ‘Maybe I’ll read this site Pitchfork and find out about this band Yeasayer or Dirty Projectors.’”
(or so it seems, Black Mountain-byt ed)
If you won’t be able to catch the new buzz bin at SXSW next week, the Times’ Men Styles Magazine shows how you can at least dress the part: “Designers searching for indie cred need look no further than a Pitchfork review. Here, a few rising alt-rockers whose style is as distinctive as their sound.”
cue, the cheat sheet (you too can look just like Zach Condon, if you just invest in some A.P.C.
this is kind of like that NY Times “DC Style” article but in reverse.
Just cower and pray for the best. And expect the worst.
On the upside, if you are ready to snatch some “Brooklyn” music for nothing but a right-clich, in their commentary Stereogum does offer a neat little MP3 sampler of the bands involved
click or the link above or just listen:
Battles - “Leyendecker”
Beirut - “A Sunday Smile”
Dirty Projectors - “No More”
Grizzly Bear (Feat. Dirty Projectors & Beirut) - “Alligator (Choir Version)”
High Places - “Canary”
MGMT - “Time To Pretend”
Vampire Weekend - “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”
Yesayer - “2080″
