Authenticty? I think they're authentically stupid and tragic.
Love this band.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Wednesday, September 22, 2010 6:45 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
I know them personally, and they are absolutely 100% authentic. It's actually a great word for them. They have personalities that, on first impression, one assumes must be acts. Trust me, they're not.
― Indexed, Thursday, 23 September 2010 13:57 (fourteen years ago) link
That's just it. They remind me of Girls, in that, I feel like the 'realness' is palpable, just as palpable as when you see a band with an overt LACK of authenticity (like a hundred thousand college age dudes aping Animal Collective ad nauseum, etc), it's striking if you know anything about underground music at all.
This would all be meaningless if the music was terrible. Yeah, they're fucked up junkie screwballs, throw a dart, amirite? But as many have also said upthread, this band is doing something special. They may not be meaning to, but I don't care. I love that there are already scores of imitators, and there's even that Witch Haus blog, and all these compilations of bands trying to jump on the Now That's What I Call Witch House bandwagon, and, true to form, Salem are nowhere to be found on any of these dumb comps. Totally cool.
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 23 September 2010 16:45 (fourteen years ago) link
Dash Snow Lives, VICE Magazine The Band, you're a sucker if you get into intentions. If they can afford (through acceptance of poverty or benefit of wealth) to ignore expectations, critics = no moves left.
― cee-oh-tee-tee, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
i'm relieved to learn guys aren't acting like insufferable, entitled, talentless dipshits; but actually ARE authentic insufferable, entitled, talentless dipshits
― ^^^that's lightweight jammin (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:03 (fourteen years ago) link
can't wait to see how this simplistic murky insular twaddle translates to a 4pm performance at Pitchfork Festival
― ^^^that's lightweight jammin (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
it's almost as if you're asking for the fader fort video to be posted again
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:07 (fourteen years ago) link
i mean, this voice thing nails it but then still ultimately champions them?
Their sound isn't rooted in a codeine-laced desperation to escape the trap life, but they still betray a deep admiration for the culture; what they produce as a result binds eerie, menacing lyrics to soaring, triumphant vocals, almost parodying the more violent aspects of the sounds that influenced it. Nowhere is this more obvious than on "Trapdoor," which begins, "Nah, I ain't tryin-a look bad/My expectation has my mouth run dry/I see a bitch run/But I doubt she know why." It's a celebration of image over substance, a celebration of swag, the embodiment of distancing ourselves from the darker elements of the music we enjoy. It's the appeal of hip-hop, without the accountability; though obtuse, Salem appear to be sincere, at least, but still, without that accountability, there's the constant danger of lapsing into caricature.
you know who else did that? AL FUCKING JOLSON
― ^^^that's lightweight jammin (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Al Jolson, hip-hop scholar.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:27 (fourteen years ago) link
lol at
'tryin-a"
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:30 (fourteen years ago) link
ha
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:32 (fourteen years ago) link
OMFG listen to this shit LOOOOOOOOOOOL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA13-Ykrob4
― ^^^that's lightweight jammin (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:33 (fourteen years ago) link
i love that hipsters laugh at Reh Dogg but find this transcendent, uplifting and emotionally stimulating
― ^^^that's lightweight jammin (Whiney G. Weingarten), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:36 (fourteen years ago) link
http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kr9qzslFpS1qzu5n3o1_500.jpg
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:40 (fourteen years ago) link
Worst song on record tbhI can't believe I feel inclined to defend this band in the face of this thread
― The Bartered Bride (Ówen P.), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:41 (fourteen years ago) link
Like, so many great records out there have been made by talentless, insufferable dipshits who have bad press releases
― The Bartered Bride (Ówen P.), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:42 (fourteen years ago) link
it's almost as if you're asking for the fader fort video to be posted again― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:07 PM
― J0rdan S., Thursday, September 23, 2010 1:07 PM
http://i46.tinypic.com/14udeeh.jpg
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:43 (fourteen years ago) link
i hate when you post that photo cuz it looks like an ostensibly normal performance
w/ the video you get the part where he's doing 'rapper from texas' blackface
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:46 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ZetW6bQ7Q
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:47 (fourteen years ago) link
haha god that never gets old
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
adore the intentional half-cough/half-laugh at the end
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:48 (fourteen years ago) link
y'all down with shit
Do you love it, really? You love it? Well, I'm certainly no hipster, nor do I find this 'transcendent, uplifting and / or emotionally stimulating.' Who said they did? I don't find The Knife to be any of those things, either, but this record pushes the same buttons Silent Shout or even Burzum does. Do you dislike Silent Shout, Whiney? How bout Burzum?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:49 (fourteen years ago) link
i can't tell if these guys are worse than telepathe -- they come close i think
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:49 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm embracing the overt ridiculousness of this band, I guess.
i don't even like the knife but i think it's an insult to karen dreijer to compare her to some dude mumbling lazy raps & then screwing his voice
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:51 (fourteen years ago) link
oh there's the al jolson
hadn't seen that vid
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:51 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i53.tinypic.com/209507p.jpg
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:51 (fourteen years ago) link
But as many have also said upthread, this band is doing something special. They may not be meaning to, but I don't care. I love that there are already scores of imitators, and there's even that Witch Haus blog, and all these compilations of bands trying to jump on the Now That's What I Call Witch House bandwagon, and, true to form, Salem are nowhere to be found on any of these dumb comps. Totally cool.
this doesn't even make an argument for why the music is good
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
yeah ok dude deliberately lowering his voice to sound "black" while mumbling lazy fake southern accent swag rap
.......more than suspect.
whiney wins.
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
khaaaaaaaaaaaah!
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:52 (fourteen years ago) link
xpost to Jordan - It doesn't attempt to. I just think it's cool that they're avoiding such trappings.
Why? Because she's detached and creepy on purpose and these dudes are detached and creepy because that's how they are IRL?
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:53 (fourteen years ago) link
in a sonic sense i still dig it, but conceptually it's indefensible afaic
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:53 (fourteen years ago) link
XP to WW: Hang on, I thought we were all hipsters now?
They look like horrible fucking scrotes to me Salem, but so were, y'know, Joy Division, PiL, The Fall etc. They look like horrible bratty hipsters messing about with stuff they didn't fully understand to me but so were, y'know, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Velvet Underground etc.
Anyway, so one of my writers got back from spending a few days with them outside of Chicago and said, no, actually, I was dead wrong, they're pretty decent people. Dude with long hair started crying during the interview about the Butt magazine interview, said he really regrets it but was quite 'ill' at the time. He said they seem like very sensitive, very insular people who've got a very fixed vision of what they want to sound like. (Which for me is the main point, given that they do have a pretty unique sound - apart from people like oOoOOO who have just ripped them off mercilessly.)
I mean obviously, when you met them Whiney, your experience was quite different. How were they? Maybe you caught them on a bad day. I don't really get the Al Jolson thing either... don't you think hip hop as a 30 year old monolithic institution can withstand some arty, drug addled, middle class white kids messing about with some of it's minor offshoots on the periphery?
(This is all by the by... they live in some white picket fence neighbourhood with stars and bars over every door... if they'd been camped out on the river Styx nailing babies to crosses or reading off a script written for them by some guy at American Apparel... I dunno, I'm never going to meet them... why does it matter?)
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:54 (fourteen years ago) link
http://i56.tinypic.com/f36iox.jpg
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:56 (fourteen years ago) link
uh i don't think it's about whether or not hip hop can 'withstand' salem, it's whether the music is reprehensible or not
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:56 (fourteen years ago) link
― If Assholes Could Fly This Place Would Be An Airport, Thursday, September 23, 2010 12:53 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark
this is about as reductive as you could possibly be an attempt to somehow level salem with the knife, congratulations
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:57 (fourteen years ago) link
Define reprehensible in this context.
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Dude with long hair started crying during the interview about the Butt magazine interview, said he really regrets it but was quite 'ill' at the time.
Good lord, everything IS emo.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 23 September 2010 17:58 (fourteen years ago) link
All music is reprehensible to someone given that it means open to criticism.
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:00 (fourteen years ago) link
everybody loves Tapes n Tapes
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:00 (fourteen years ago) link
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, September 23, 2010 6:58 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark
how about "an act that is clearly racially exploitative"
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:01 (fourteen years ago) link
How is it clearly racially exploitative? I don't get what you're talking about.
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:02 (fourteen years ago) link
well i think it's really boring music -- beats are aight but they're pretty dime a dozen, the raps are... i mean, i don't see what the salem dude brings with his screw rap that actual screwed music doesn't -- even w/o comparing salem to the shit that it's copping from, there's nothing really interesting aside from maybe 'mood' -- they lyrics aren't 'good' & neither are the hooks
reprehensible in the fact that the performance posted above makes it seem like they're pretty much doing blackface, altho it's not really all that offensive more just rolling my damn eyes
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:02 (fourteen years ago) link
Markers: I'd say that Creedence are my exception to this rule.
lol
― markers, Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:03 (fourteen years ago) link
mood
ding ding
Jordan: Right, I get what you're saying and I appreciate it. I just don't get all this wailing and hysterical gnashing of the teeth that's going on elsewhere like we're dealing with Burzum fronting Skrewdriver.
How about a little perspective!?
― Duran (Doran), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:04 (fourteen years ago) link
like, i didn't realize dude was doing his own shitty rapping and had just assumed it was some hollertronix style theft which, while suspect in its own right, is nowhere near the level of dude appropriating southern rap slang and a fake accent and digitally creating ~A BLACK VOICE~ for his vague non-rapping
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:04 (fourteen years ago) link
buncha xps
― "SEX" drought, 2 wisks (zorn_bond.mp3), Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:05 (fourteen years ago) link
but like, if you dig the 'mood' of salem, actual screw music is soooo much more emotionally resonant & evocative of loneliness & sadness & all that then this stuf
― J0rdan S., Thursday, 23 September 2010 18:05 (fourteen years ago) link