The Darkness

just bcz a punk rock fan doesn't like 'em does not mean they are classic or dud. must try harder.

And isnt Tom, like thirty two or something? Not really down with the kids unless you are a paed.

this line is funny on many levels. not perhaps the ones it was intended to be funny on.

ps: Tom, if that's the case then I am happy to have 5 years of listening to great music before it all goes pear.

(Actually one of the reasons I like the 'Ness is that they are the brilliant return of everything that was left out of the Creation "international guardians of rock and roll" canon.)

explain??

ps. yer sources must be really old - mcgee has been djing the crue and ratt since 2000.

Is it because AWK & The Darkness use guitars prominently that the realness/irony issue irks some of you?

What puts me right off the darkness is the same as what puts me off about the strokes, anyway, this sense that i have of listening to an "also ran" act, but w/o the big act that they are an also-ran to. Like, I, being old and crap, remember seeing Girl on top of the pops. Girl were this glammy pop-rock band, who were an also ran to def leppard. The darkness remind me of girl, and there is no def leppard. Also, whenever there is a hype band like the strokes, or gay dad, or the darkness, there's always this bit of me that wants them to blow my cynicism into the weeds. Gay Dad were the most frustrating of these bands, because in retrospect I can see how if they'd been just a little bit better, they'd have been really good, but they just weren't good enough. With both the strokes and the darkness, there isn't even that for me. I get all cynical about them, b/c of the stupid hype, but what I really want inside is for them to live up to the hype. What I really want is for the darkness' album to be as good as boston's first album, or asia's first album, but there's just nothing there. What they should have done, and I'm totally serious here, is ditch all their shit songs, and get diane warren to write them a set of awesome power-ballads in the style of "nothing's gonna stop us now", or "sole survivor", or "more than a feeling" BUT THEY DIDN'T!@# AND THEY =k-SUX0R!!!1!!!@#

(btw doom-e, i finished the popol vuh piece, and have nearly compleded this long stream-of-conciousness rant on human league. will mail them to you tomorrow or saturday.)

Other easy answer - you might already have all the Hanoi Rocks records you want. I don't though.

Maura to thread, btw, as she and Jel are about the only people whose opinions I respect on this kind of music.

I don't understand the appeal of the do they mean it frisson.

I mean surely it makes as much difference to the sound of a record as oh I don't know, whether the artist writes their own songs. Sorry that was low but it's casual day and I forgot

It's a frisson because it's not telegraphing its intentions quite as boringly as a 'novelty' or 'serious' record - it's only a frisson when you can't properly answer the question, unlike the instruments thing where there's a fact of instrument-playing-or-not waiting to be discovered.

You can't properly answer the question of intention with loads of records, I always felt the do they mean it/don't they question to be something indie fans did in their quest for cliched ideas of what passion is. This is a bit like that inverted, I'm not saying it's stupid, I just don't really understand where you're coming from and hence am trying.

You may be right, basement jaxx acid love to thread. (which maybe you should check out!)

That about sums them up for me. I watch them with a big silly grin because I can't believe what I'm seeing but they seem to have the songs to back it up. I think they'll be a short term thrill, I'll be surprised if they come up with something as good for a second record and lord knows I don't want the music press to start some kind of new hair metal scene around them, but right now they're a lot of fun and who cares if they don't follow it up. Similar to Junior Senior in fact. They make me smile.

Plus, I hoped when I first saw them that they took themselves seriously. It would have been disappointing to find that to them this was just an ironic piss take, another Spinal Tap or Bad News. It's more interesting for them to be serious and doing this style of music and performance when it is so out of place. I like them because there is no Def Leppard.

Best thing about them is they write great lyrics (and avoid most of the metal cliches that eventually turned me off British Heavy Metal by early '81). The cover is a bit misleading, there's no tasteless sexism in the words; the protagonist in the relationship songs is way more vulnerable than you'll normally find in a hard rock lyric). I also think they are generally being serious - that "Friday" song is basically the story of my adolescence! - except on tracks 1 and 6 obv. And I just love the final song - tees up to be a Foreigner-style lurve power ballad, and it's actually turns out to be an ode to masturbation.

They don't deserve 50 threads though, and neither did The Strokes.

The Darkness rock in much the same way Beyonce or Girls Aloud rock, but the prominence of the guitars and the general band setup/ugliness lead to people assuming they should be within some arbitrary set of imposed rules.

They are not making hair metal. They are making POP! MUSIC! that is influenced by hair metal.

It can't be pop music if most people don't get it, whether due to ignorance or anything else.

I don't see much of a hair metal influence in the darkness by the way, more Classic Rock/AOR than anything.

Chart placings would appear to show that people ARE getting The Darkness in increasing numbers. Plus you can buy the album in my local Tescos, and everyone knows that it the ultimate barometer of pop success in this country.

You wouldn't call the White Stripes or Coldplay pop would you?

I think this is a very interesting comment and makes me wonder whether maybe it's because I'm old enough to remember a time when giant creatures similar to these stalked this land devouring everything before them, that The Darkness immediately make my hackles rise; even despite the fact that they are in fact clearly only a dwarf version of the species, safely neutered, completely domesticated and a threat to absolutely no-one.

"They are not making hair metal. They are making POP! MUSIC! that is influenced by hair metal."

Yes indeed, but do you think the band - or indeed their fans - actually realise that?!