Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[testtone]

So i've been listening to some "newer" alt/indie artists recently and am noticing a somewhat reminicent backbeat that brought people to burn records back in the 70's...bands like Franz Ferdinand, The Killers, and The Rapture have this same disco bass/kick drum groove that just makes me laugh. Is this a new subgenre splitting off, or just some folks rediscovering some (non maimed) Donna Summer & Bee Gee's records?

[j.hall]

history is just doomed to repeat itself...................................................

[mogwailoveyou]

i think bands like the rapture, xiu xiu, !!! and the rest of the nyc revival owe their sound more to electroclash, post-punk, and dancepunk. But on the other hand i think disco is making its way back in. case and point: I just bought leslie feist's (most known for her singing with broken social scene) new album "let it die" and amid the wonderful folk/jazz/frenchpop a few disco songs arise (including a bee gees cover!) but overall a delightful album, she has such a beautiful voice... like a hip norah jones (a secret love of mine...)

[Chad Sims]

Music was made for people to dance.  This does not only mean slam dance.  So many bands have gotten so self indulgent and stopped caring about the audience.  So what these bands have a dance groove  . Oh, no people might have a good time dancing to their music and guess what if u don't like it don't listen to it.

[mogwailoveyou]

nothing better than getting smashed and dancing like a fool (i always dance better drunk  ). there is definately a place for downcast introspective music, but keeping that in mind, i think ian curtis (and you just can't top ian curtis for downcast and introspective) sums it up perfectly...

Ian Curtis:

...No language, just sound, that's all we need know, to synchronise Love to the beat of the show. And we could dance. Dance, dance, dance, dance, dance, to the radio!

...god joy division rules!

[Zoesch]

Disco already came back and died in its ass again, or do you think that the late 90's disco revival craze+electro craze was a hip accident? (Think, it was a very French moment, Cassius, Daft Punk, etc.)

As mogwailoveyou (Could you please consider a shorter name? ) pointed out, these guys owe it all to the early post-punk stylings of Wire, Gang of Four, Television, ESP and Killing Joke.

Actually, one thing that bugs me a lot about the current dancepunk bands like FF, !!! or The Rapture is how uncanny the resemblance is with say Pink Flag-era Wire or Entertainment!-era Gango of Four.

I blame Pitchforkmedia for it... but at least it shows that their big brothers or dads or uncles had a great musical taste

[Fibes]

Zoesch wrote on Thu, 05 August 2004 09:16

or Entertainment!-era Gang of Four.

Yep, almost like the lost album...

[Chad Sims]

Do u mean ESP or ESG? If u havent heard ESG and are a fan of the above mentioned bands(Gang of Four, Talking Heads) u need to hear ESG an all girl band from early 80s NY great fun and some really cool sounds.

[Hint]

Disco never really went away.

As pointed out above, after the initial scene in the 70's, it then lived on in alternative "guitar" bands through the 80's (No Wave / Punk Funk / Whatever), then reappeared in the house / electronic scene in the 90's with the whole filtered disco movement (DJ Sneak / Daft Punk etc).

Now we have a kind of sychronisation. Guitar bands such as !!!, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers are drawing heavily on disco (sometimes 3rd hand, by way of being influenced by those 80's bands who were themselves influenced by disco). Plus there's a new wave of house and electronic producers who are now putting out "original" disco tunes (i.e. not just looping existing disco tracks) - Metro Area, Daniel Wang, Kerrier District... You can see the evidence of the synchronisation when you check the remixes - Metro Area's Morgan Geist remixed The Rapture and Franz Ferdinand, Daft Punk also remixed Franz Ferdinand. The DFA also straddle the line between the two camps.

There has also been a resurgence of unofficial "re-edits" being released - producers doing dancefloor edits of tracks on the sly. This is another legacy of the disco era I guess.

So much for trying to kill disco with that huge vinyl-smashing rally in a baseball stadium.   You can't keep a good thing down.

And yeah - ESG are incredible. Check the best of on Soul Jazz.

[xonlocust]

if i hear another contemporary band with the off beat open hi-hat thing i'm gonna vomit.  with the exception of pretty much all the first wave bands mentioned who i think will go down in history as the dance-punk subgenre whatevers, but that genre is dead as far as im concerned.  we're already in what, 5 years past the first inklings of that scene?  i saw !!! open for at the drive-in for god's sake... what about peaches?  same thing - teaches of peaches was in like what, 99?  i think this time will be written in the history books like the rococco period, short lived and reactionary but ultimately insignificant.

i guess what i mean more, is that if i would make a "grunge" analogy, we've already seen "nirvana", and we're to the "candlebox" stage right about now.  FF is pushing it for me, they might just sneak in before the candlebox cutoff point, but if they're in - that's about all. but i guess unlike "nirvana", the first wave isn't going to be as hugely influential as nirvana was.  

it's not a new idea that timing is everything in rock, but imagine if six finger satellite or brainiac came out today... they would be HUGE.  but those guys helped pave the way i guess.  severe exposure is such a brilliant record.  recorded on an 8 track in the basement (i think a MX-5050) too. sooo brutal sounding yet totally catchy and dancey with all the moogs and totally gritty sound.  they were great.  

oh, and there;s the obvious connection between 6FS and DFA, the one dude in DFA was 6FS's live sound guy....

and yeah... it's gang of four everyone's ripping off not the bee gee's.  but to be fair, despite all my shit talking, my band's guilty of some of this stuff too, so uh, what are you gonna do?!   i just know i will never play that fucking beat.... hahaha!

sign me up for chunklet, i'm jaded robot!

[Zoesch]

Chad Sims wrote on Fri, 06 August 2004 01:38

Do u mean ESP or ESG? If u havent heard ESG and are a fan of the above mentioned bands(Gang of Four, Talking Heads) u need to hear ESG an all girl band from early 80s NY great fun and some really cool sounds.

I meant ESG... you can call that an EST (Extra Stupid Typo )

[Fibes]

xonlocust wrote on Fri, 06 August 2004 14:54

if i hear another contemporary band with the off beat open hi-hat thing i'm gonna vomit.

Blame it on Ponch's return to TV via surreal life. CHiPs roks.

[Hint]

xonlocust wrote on Fri, 06 August 2004 19:54

i guess what i mean more, is that if i would make a "grunge" analogy, we've already seen "nirvana", and we're to the "candlebox" stage right about now.  FF is pushing it for me, they might just sneak in before the candlebox cutoff point, but if they're in - that's about all.

I disagree, in the sense that I don't think any of this first wave of bands has delivered yet. The Rapture, Franz Ferdinand, !!!, LCD Soundsystem.... All of them have one big "hit" and follow it up with a patchy LP. I think we're still waiting for the real scene leaders to emerge and add a bit of substance by producing something solid. Franz Ferdinand have hit the top ten over here, so I hope that the labels stick with this sound long enough for something fresh to see the light of day.

Certiainly, here in the UK, there are a couple of promising contenders on the horizon: Bloc Party and Art Brut are perhaps the prime examples. Yeah, they're still derivative, but I think there's something significant there.

[Lee Knight]

In high school, my buddies and I listened to ZZ Top, Deep Purple, Aerosmith, etc. We learned every nuance we could and played that stuff with heart. Then I'd go home to my room, get stoned, and listen to... Donna Summer's Bad Girls. I never told any of the guys. I'd have been taunted then cast out, I'm sure. When I hear Franz, etc. I hear Gang of Four. Just like the big boys they're trying to emulate, they can't write. It's not the open hats and synced bassline you hate, it's the shitty song with attitude you despise. The Bee Gees wrote great songs. Donna Summer's "On the Radio" is a great tune. Jive Talkin'? Sure, that one too. Attitude, however, is not a song. Johhny Lydon knew that. He wrote songs too, then put in the attitude. NOT the other way around. Disco, rock, polka. It's all cool. Bad songs suck.

[mogwailoveyou]

I like that last point. After a weekend of listening to almost nothing but centro-matic and songs: ohia on my own and hearing nothing but ff and the rapture in my friends cars and homes put me into a fit of near hysteria. as for my taste (and this is definately a taste issue) passion is critical before attitude... I mean there's definately a place for sex, drugs, dancing, and lipstick (dirty electroclash glam-rock castaways...) but music relates so much better to the soul than your dancing shoes. that's what bands like joy division had over these modern day incarnations, they had substance (no pun intended... well maybe just a little). even with all the synthetic happiness and energy (not to mention hi hats) you just can't replace passion and talent