A kung fu fighter in a disco

I hate this "ah the kids love it" thing about nu-rave - everyone my age loathes it as do all the actual teenagers I know!

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Given that the primary audience for the Klaxons seems to be old giffers like me and

jauntyalan who remember the Inspiral Carpets, you may have a point.

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Yeah the (two) non-poptimists I know who are into the Klaxons are both in their 30s! as was that dude who turned up on the thread to rant at me.

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The poptimists last.fm chart is like the wimpiest thing ever, there is no RUFFNESS on it at all! Toughen up, people!

Though mine is looking alarmingly 'credible' this week. Thank christ for onset of summer and consequent 'Ride Wit Me' obsession innit.

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piratemoggy.livejournal.com

My bf played that about ten times on repeat earlier. He does not realise he is pop yet.

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I must say my request for ruffness looks a bit silly when next to love for smooth and gorgeous 'Ride Wit Me'...

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katstevens.livejournal.com

If they weren't being marketed as the saviours of indie-dance or whatever then I'm sure I wouldn't dislike them so much. They have one or two tunes that are listenable but I wouldn't have given them a second glance if there wasn't all this fuss.

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We argued this one back and forth on the other place - I don't see this as especially the Klaxons' fault, it's more that, post-Libertines, the musical outlook of successful new British bands seems to be *so* conservative that just smattering a rock record with keyboards and presets (and working with a few remixers) makes you a genre-buster.

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katstevens.livejournal.com

Totally. It's not their fault, and as such I can bring myself to admit that one or two of their songs are ok. But they should still be cubed, just to teach the others a lesson!

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Haha in this case it is TOTALLY their fault - they caned the nu-rave label for all it was worth (in interviews, in their PR), and they did it well enough for the press to pick up on it. That's not really the reason I dislike them though. 'Golden Skans' is their best song by miles and even that's, like, 5/10.

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

When is the Judge going to turn his attention to some proper pop music for once? I can think of a few likely candidates already (GWEN PLEASE).

The Klaxons have about four decent tunes but then again I really like those four. The rest is a bit meh but I think they have a great second album in them once they settle down a bit.

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awesomewells.livejournal.com

Now of course what I really want is for them do do a Bloc Party and release an entirely remixed version of their first album. That would make me happy.

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bengraham.livejournal.com

They claim that the early sessions for their second album are sounding all prog-rock. I'm looking forward to the Klaxons doing Floyd!

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I KNEW THEY WERE THE NEW INSPIRALS!

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"They claim that the early sessions for their second album are sounding all prog-rock"

b-but the 1st album is prog rock already.

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are they officially touring with Muse yet? i know they were chatting about it

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this is what judge pop is here to judge, citizen

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blue-russian.livejournal.com

Hardly worth bringing to court, even (although I guess in Britain you are deluged by press, so I understand why.)

Also, does anyone else think they are the second coming of Simian?

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jeff-worrell.livejournal.com

Not really. Although Simian's sound varies quite a bit, so depends which song of theirs you are talking about really.

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bengraham.livejournal.com

Simian did an excellent remix of 'Magick'.

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Ha you know Simian Mobile Disco produced their album!

(nb I like SMD a lot, having despised Simian, but for whatever reason they decided they wanted to make the album unlistenable.)

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bengraham.livejournal.com

1. 'Nu-rave' is the NME trying to give everything a genre. I believe that this phenomena dates back to Britpop, when circulation massively increased. But what the NME misses is the fact that people didn't buy it then because of crude stereotyping of bands, they bought it because it made for interesting reading. Their "next big thing" approach wore thin a long time ago, and their failure to keep up in this day and age of the World Wide Interweb has just made them more desperate to create the next "biggest band in the world" or the next new genre.

2. Klaxons are GREBT. I refuse to hear a bad word against them. Sod the hype and listen to the album. It's full of excellent beats, minimalist production and catchy melodies. We had it on in the car yesterday during our charity car rally (driving from Mill Hill to St Albans), with the roof down and the sun shining. It's brilliant and mental and original and everything new music ought to be.

3. If you listen to the album and give it a chance, you'll discover that it's not just "a couple of good tunes". There are, like any album, some standout tracks... noticeably 'Atlantis To Interzone' and 'Gravity's Rainbow' (the singles) and I believe there is a lot of love for 'Golden Skans'. But there's plenty of other brilliance on there... 'As Above, So Below' is class, 'Four Horsemen of 2012' is a little bit crazy, 'Magick' is loud and shouty and dancey... it's all ACE.

Discuss.

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NME scene-creation goes WAY back, late 70s/early 80s at the very latest (older heads can no doubt go further).

Bands have always hated it but finding connections between stuff going on is surely part of a critic's JOB so s0d them. Also it WORKS!

I wish Pitchfork (say) tried to create more scenes and genres. I am glad the NME still does.

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jeff-worrell.livejournal.com

Must be more difficult for a website with a (somewhat) international outlook, or at least an international target readership, to do the scene-creation thing.

Out of interest, does Pitchfork have editorial meetings in the same sense that a print publication has?

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I assume so!

I think American publications are slightly more ginger of making up and hyping genres. But I'd be happy for Americans to contradict me on this.

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jeff-worrell.livejournal.com

I think they are happy to do it if the genre is readily identified with a single city, e.g. NYC and (1) electroclash and (2) the whole post-punk-funk revival thing

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koganbot

Creem magazine, May 1971, Dave Marsh trumpeted a Question Mark & The Mysterians reunion gig, called the music "punk rock," the first known use of that phrase. In the very same issue of Creem, Mike Saunders used the words "heavy metal" to describe the music on a Sir Lord Baltimore album. First time that phrase had been used to describe music. But without those coinages, I doubt that those musics would have developed into the genres they did.

Granted, that's 36 years ago.

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carsmilesteve.livejournal.com

yes, the Trad Jazz scene was "created" by NME/MM in an attempt to undermine this rubbish rock & roll nonsense, it's like one of the key tropes of UK music journalism, writers describing scenes and bands denying they're part of it...

MORE IMPORTANTLY, has that perp in the picture got a glo-stick in his hand???

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i love that standard 'tight lip' portrait of dredd - it makes him look like beaker off of the muppets

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