2017 MUSIC

[2006_Eagles]

12 Foot Ninja in less than 2 weeks and I'm more excited than a 17 year old boy on Prom night



BEST BAND EVER

 

[kangaspurs]

I only saw what Wil Wagner looked like today. Wow. I imagined some rakey bloke in local band t-shirts wild medium sized hair and a beard he's been trying to grow but hasn't gotten very far. He's just a fat dude. I could definitely imagine him working in a Lord of the Fries; probably failed the interview stage at JB Hifi (I would too).

They'd definitely all be private schooled boys and girls; living in Northcote and Footscray but calling up mum and dad because Melbourne Bitter isn't that cheap. It's just painful. I have nothing against privilege except coming from a working class background, but ultimately this masquerading is a total insult. Chet Faker is a little bitch but at least his music is more so mopey and dull and a-political, but these guys singing about not being able to afford to live on Smith Street or social issues is outrageous. Their music is also hugely related to Aussie pub rock... something that comes with references to working class life.

But yeah, this is a good discussion on here. Enjoying some cynicism.

But I thought you said that in your experience that were absolute knobs? That can't be a very extensive experience if you've only just discovered was Wil looks like. (Edit: My bad, just seen that you said TSSB 'fans' not the band itself).

And ******* lol and inventing a bunch of details about a guy about which to dislike him. I don't particularly care if you or LA or anyone else dislikes the music or what he writes about. I'm a fan, but I don't know them personally and don't really care whether other people like them or not. I've even said that I can understand why people would find his voice off putting and his lyrics cringe worthy. But it's pretty pathetic to dislike him or dismiss his conviction based upon a premise that is entirely of your own invention and is nothing but assumption. You usually come across as a far more logical and considered poster than that when I've read your posts here and on other boards.

You're also mistaken about his lyrical content as well. It's far more, I dunno, existential, maybe, and reflective than you're making out. Rarely does he lament not being able to live in a certain place or with certain people because the system is against him but is instead critical of himself and his own choices that lead to issues of his own doing. Obviously there are a few exceptions but most of his writing doesn't make him out to be anything he's not and, in fact, might just do the exact opposite.

 

[SSwans2011]

But I thought you said that in your experience that were absolute knobs? That can't be a very extensive experience if you've only just discovered was Wil looks like. (Edit: My bad, just seen that you said TSSB 'fans' not the band itself).

And ******* lol and inventing a bunch of details about a guy about which to dislike him. I don't particularly care if you or LA or anyone else dislikes the music or what he writes about. I'm a fan, but I don't know them personally and don't really care whether other people like them or not. I've even said that I can understand why people would find his voice off putting and his lyrics cringe worthy. But it's pretty pathetic to dislike him or dismiss his conviction based upon a premise that is entirely of your own invention and is nothing but assumption. You usually come across as a far more logical and considered poster than that when I've read your posts here and on other boards.

You're also mistaken about his lyrical content as well. It's far more, I dunno, existential, maybe, and reflective than you're making out. Rarely does he lament not being able to live in a certain place or with certain people because the system is against him but is instead critical of himself and his own choices that lead to issues of his own doing. Obviously there are a few exceptions most of his writing doesn't make him out to be anything he's not and, in fact, might just do the exact opposite.

Yeah, outside of Wipe That s**t-Eating Grin, TSSB songs have rarely gone anywhere near politics. Even from Wil's solo work he most stayed away, except for his critique on the Soviets sending a dog into space, which, by the way, is an excellent tune.



I, and I would imagine most fans would admit that Smith Street Band really are a band you are likely to either love or hate, so there is no real reason to make reasons up for hating them.

 

[kangaspurs]

I think he's pretentious. Takes himself far too seriously, tries to be philosophical but isn't naturally clever (that first line in DTTL, wtf) and just has all these nondescript introspections that aren't remotely interesting unless you're Wil Wagner himself. He used to play folk-punk but actively denies it like it's not recorded history?

Sure, you get campaigners at gigs, but s**t, that's playing live music. To play in a rock band and get annoyed over moshing (and yeh some of it is too far) and get angry over it is a bit petty. For all their social crusading about being welcoming, they certainly aren't very open to certain demographics.

Don't necessary disagree with some of that first paragraph, particularly the point about his introspections that wouldn't mean a lot to some people. Personally, I enjoy writers who include those details as links to the broader themes of a song or album, but I can understand that some people could find it uninteresting. I still don't agree that he's pretentious though, or that he takes himself too seriously. He reflects on his own failures as a human and in the choices he makes and he's quite often able to see the humour in those failures. In my experience he very rarely pretends to be something he's not.

I completely disagree with your second paragraph. He's not getting annoyed at moshing, he's annoyed at dudes going to shows and getting excessively violent or those who think it's cool to sexually harass/assault women at gigs. That's not a behaviour that fits a certain demographic, but is spread across social and economic groups. There's absolutely nothing wrong with calling campaigners that engage in that kind of behaviour out and saying that it's not going to be accepted.

FWIW I prefer him and the band when they are more reflective and introspective rather than when they're making a comment on social or political issues, but I really don't understand the issue you have with that particular message. Why is not ok to be critical of that type of behaviour? Particularly when it can results in serious injury, like what happened to the guy in The Bennies.

 

[La Dispute]

Don't necessary disagree with some of that first paragraph, particularly the point about his introspections that wouldn't mean a lot to some people. Personally, I enjoy writers who include those details as links to the broader themes of a song or album, but I can understand that some people could find it uninteresting. I still don't agree that he's pretentious though, or that he takes himself too seriously. He reflects on his own failures as a human and in the choices he makes and he's quite often able to see the humour in those failures. In my experience he very rarely pretends to be something he's not.

I completely disagree with your second paragraph. He's not getting annoyed at moshing, he's annoyed at dudes going to shows and getting excessively violent or those who think it's cool to sexually harass/assault women at gigs. That's not a behaviour that fits a certain demographic, but is spread across social and economic groups. There's absolutely nothing wrong with calling campaigners that engage in that kind of behaviour out and saying that it's not going to be accepted.

FWIW I prefer him and the band when they are more reflective and introspective rather than when they're making a comment on social or political issues, but I really don't understand the issue you have with that particular message. Why is not ok to be critical of that type of behaviour? Particularly when it can results in serious injury, like what happened to the guy in The Bennies.

I've got plenty of mates who know Wil from his Catfood Press days. He's always been incredibly serious, morose and just a very plain, boring dude. That's nice that you like his lyrics, but personally I find them incredibly bland and for all his attempted verbosity, not overly compelling. Someone compared him to Jordan Dreyer of La Dispute, but to me that's pretty far off the mark. Jordan has a pretty unique ability to create Edgar Allen Poe-esque pieces, which are carefully weaved together and actually have some sense of context. Compare that to -

Staying in a hotel full of pilots
I can't believe that they are smoking
If you mastered the art of fly
Why would you spend half your time choking?

What kind of bizarre non-sequitur is that? It's not poetic, it's not intelligent or philosophical; it's dumb songwriting that doesn't get called out as often as it should.

To continue the theme

Along the most depressing highways ever dropped into the earth (The best adjective he can come up with for highways is depressing? Weak)
Among the confederate flag lower back tattoo (Ah yeh, you know)
That is this part of the world we're raising
Bats and kids in carparks in the light of drive-in ATMs (* are drive-in ATMs?)
I learned to read the side effects
I am my own adverse reaction (deep yeh?)

He's a serious talent hack. I could go on, but you get the picture. For a band that prides themselves on their lyrics, they are shockingly banal and more often than not nonsensical.

I can't see any allusions to violence or assaulting women in the lyrics to that song? The whole thing runs pretty counter to itself.

Sure, call out campaigners but outing 'lads' and discouraging them from attending gigs is lame. I'd rather hang out with footy loving blokes who like Cold Chisel and knocking the top off a few frothies than oversensitive Poison City fanboys any day. I swear most big Smith Street fans have almost the exact same character traits as Wil himself.

I had mates there the night Jules got stabbed and the bloke who attacked him was a big ice head and not even remotely in the demographic The Smith Street Band rail against. Strange comparison.

 

[Silent Alarm]

Lads are generally pretty pissweak; the ones that song is about. Footy boys go out once a fortnight and drink nine VBs in a night and call it quits while the train is still going. I get the feeling Wil was one of those blokes that nobody at school even knew existed. Now he's moved to the trendy inner city and got a political trendy bent – it is the classic story of trendies and most of the population of Brunswick. He's just jealous 'footy lads' generally have a large circle of friends. And old Wil wouldn't be able to drop punt if his life depended on it. Long story short, some bloke who was playing in the EDFL earlier that day is not going to stab someone. More likely to piss in a pint glass.

I can't get over that lyric you posted there too... I just don't get it... it's bizarre. It reminds me of that corny Editors lyric ("the saddest thing that I've ever seen was smoker's outside the hospital doors") but at least that one makes some sense. Yeah people go to hospital to try not to die, and people in it struggle to stay alive, while these people outside are contributing to their own... but what parallels is there between piloting for Virgin and smoking?! And how many proper smokers choke? And why is it so bizarre that people good at something might be ignorant or dumb or hold poor judgment, which is his implication.

I think he sort of wants to be Billy Bragg. But he isn't a romantic nor is he critical of the right things, and he is way too wrapped up in expressing minute observations rather than representing what those observations observe. FFS even Jamie T was doing stuff like that but way funnier, and he had lyrics like "take her 'round the back, she'll come back limpin' / home to the missus who sits on his tongue."

 

[SSwans2011]

ITT: Posters use one song and invent further reasons to s**t on a band they dislike. BTW, the song has nothing to do with EDFL footballers, unless they are attending concerts and starting fights or making women feel unsafe.

Really like the new single!

 

[La Dispute]

So all lads are blokes who start fights and make women feel unsafe? The Smith Street band really do cater to the most risk-averse, cerebral individuals.

If you want to pull out more examples of shoddy Wil Wagner songwriting, we can go down that path. I'm just using that particular tune as the most obvious and recent example of how mundane, pointless and non-cohesive his songs can be.

Lads are generally pretty pissweak; the ones that song is about. Footy boys go out once a fortnight and drink nine VBs in a night and call it quits while the train is still going. I get the feeling Wil was one of those blokes that nobody at school even knew existed. Now he's moved to the trendy inner city and got a political trendy bent – it is the classic story of trendies and most of the population of Brunswick. He's just jealous 'footy lads' generally have a large circle of friends. And old Wil wouldn't be able to drop punt if his life depended on it. Long story short, some bloke who was playing in the EDFL earlier that day is not going to stab someone. More likely to piss in a pint glass.

Exactly. A pretty big indication his music isn't as high-brow and intellectual as he thinks it is as well.

 

[SSwans2011]

If you want to pull out more examples of shoddy Wil Wagner songwriting, we can go down that path. I'm just using that particular tune as the most obvious and recent example of how mundane, pointless and non-cohesive his songs can be.

Laika that I posted above is a good example. Anyway, nobody has actually said Wil Wagner's a beautifully philosophical songwriter, so I don't know why you were going down that path. You don't have to be philosophical to be a good songwriter though. I, and most TSSB fans love him for the sincerity of his songs, which is what you should be analysing.

This website got me into TSSB, and the author of this article explains it better than I ever could.

It’s really that capacity to translate the difficulties of real life into words and songs — without losing any of the honesty — which makes Wagner such a fascinating frontman. He blurs the lines between those small personal battles everyone faces – love, loss, hope – with the kind of conclusions you draw from thinking too much at 3am, like the universe, what we’re doing here and whether or not we’re totally ****ed. In fact, Wagner might be the only man who can make me feel like both a worthless pot-smoking thief and a misunderstood romantic in the same song.

http://notedmusic.co.uk/2013/08/08/spotlight-the-smith-street-band-dont-*-with-our-dreams/

I'm done arguing though. I've never had, and never will have time for music elitists. You have your taste, I have mine.

 

[Silent Alarm]

So all lads are blokes who start fights and make women feel unsafe? The Smith Street band really do cater to the most risk-averse, cerebral individuals.

I hate this. This is a weirdly massive social issues, and some people in some corners of the Tote would lead the belief that this is more pressing than melting ice or soft politics or wealth inequality.

I remember I went to see the Cribs once at Ding Dong lounge, tiny venue, and everyone there was an ex-pat Pom. I can't remember how it started, but long story short a girl ended up threatening to punch my teeth out because I looked at her when she kept standing on my feet and her boyfriend was shouldering me to try and get me to move. The irony. If you go to a show you'll find a place where you feel comfortable: jumping up and down, standing and taking it in, or somewhere in between with some mild movement... sometimes I also feel like girls are massive arseholes for the sake of it too. I make a point to try and distance my groin from a girl when I'm pushed up in front of her with a few thousand people behind me, but yes it can happen. I don't like bloke's knobs in my back either. But it happens. Stop being so precious and on high guard. I remember a girl had a Life Aquatic background on her phone at Jamie T at the Astor in Mount Lawley years ago... she got pushed and I asked if she was okay because she was looking for something. She picked up her phone and I said "ah, I used to love that movie!" and she goes "that's my dead dad" (it was Bill Murray. He is neither dead nor your dad) just to shut me down. What the *?

Then again some girls at shows are awesome. I made friends with one at a Bloc Party concert when I was alone and she was too. She was pretty ugly though. Yes I'm a chauvinist. I came in too early in "is your bed maaaade?" at Vampire Weekend when they were touring Modern Vampires here, and she laughed and said she was following my lead all night and I owed her. Ended up having a good chat and a laugh while we lost our mates. Only lasted a song and a half but the bond was there.

Unfortunately, mostly, the bond ain't.

 

[Kakkle]

While it's not a return to form, it's got a feeling of Strawberry Jam/Water Curses AC era in there. Not something I'm going to listen to a lot of, but I'm actually surprised by how OK this is.







Not long until Dedekind Cut is being sampled by Kanye West and doing scores for Hollywood.

 

[Richard Cranium]

BigSmithStreetBandy

 

[Highly Evolved]

I've got plenty of mates who know Wil from his Catfood Press days. He's always been incredibly serious, morose and just a very plain, boring dude. That's nice that you like his lyrics, but personally I find them incredibly bland and for all his attempted verbosity, not overly compelling. Someone compared him to Jordan Dreyer of La Dispute, but to me that's pretty far off the mark. Jordan has a pretty unique ability to create Edgar Allen Poe-esque pieces, which are carefully weaved together and actually have some sense of context. Compare that to -

Not a hater of TSSB, (although they are a tad overrated, but JJJ hype does that to most bands), but there is no way that Wil has lyrics comparable to Jordan Dreyer.

Personally, I can't see him writing something as great as the brilliant Nobody, Not Even the Rain and that is pretty close to a throw-away track on that album.

 

[La Dispute]

Not a hater of TSSB, (although they are a tad overrated, but JJJ hype does that to most bands), but there is no way that Wil has lyrics comparable to Jordan Dreyer.

Personally, I can't see him writing something as great as the brilliant Nobody, Not Even the Rain and that is pretty close to a throw-away track on that album.

Somewhere.. is one of the best lyrical albums of all time. Perfectly structured, cohesive, dynamic and captivating. They'll never get a wide audience because of the kind of music they make, but Jordan is up there with the best - at least on that LP. Wildlife there was less emphasis on the technical aspects of the writing and I didn't really listen to Rooms of the House much.

 

[La Dispute]

While it's not a return to form, it's got a feeling of Strawberry Jam/Water Curses AC era in there. Not something I'm going to listen to a lot of, but I'm actually surprised by how OK this is.

It's reasonable. It could almost be a lesser track on Feels, but agree on Water Curses too. I think they're pretty cooked as a band, but had a major run back in the day. They produced 4 outstanding albums that all varied and had their own flavour. I feel Feels gets pretty underrated when talking about their best, and Strawberry Jam gets overhyped. Sometimes you're just not in the mood for those slow-builders like For Reverend Green and Fireworks.

I thing Sung Tongs is an exceptional record too, and probably sits behind Feels and MPP as their third best.

 

[eDPS]

New Linkin Park is absolute garbage, new Incubus is decent on the other hand

 

[palmomagpie]

New Linkin Park is absolute garbage, new Incubus is decent on the other hand

L.P's new song sounds like a desperate attempt to make Triple J or mainstream radio. Have stood up for Linkin Park over their last few softer albums, but hearing Shinoda say this song is the best representation of the new album is horrid and has ruined any chance of me getting it. When Nickelback releases a better new single than Linkin Park, you know the world is going crazy

 

[eDPS]

L.P's new song sounds like a desperate attempt to make Triple J or mainstream radio. Have stood up for Linkin Park over their last few softer albums, but hearing Shinoda say this song is the best representation of the new album is horrid and has ruined any chance of me getting it. When Nickelback releases a better new single than Linkin Park, you know the world is going crazy

Sounds exactly like everything else on Fox, Nova ect. I absolutely hate it and I'm usually supportive of bands trying new things

 

[palmomagpie]

Sounds exactly like everything else on Fox, Nova ect. I absolutely hate it and I'm usually supportive of bands trying new things

You can just tell they will use it as background music in some crappy TV reality show like Married at First Sight or The Bachelor during a dramatic scene. Not a happy chappy! My linkin park band merch is just going deeper into the cupboard now haha

 

[Roobs321]

haha, my dad considers Linkin Park one of his favourite bands. I remember him enjoying Numb and Numb/Encore back in the day, but certainly a telling moment when your dad admits he is a Linkin Park fan (the sort of Dad who banned The Simpsons and South Park as a 90s kid).

 

[SSwans2011]

Loving the new Fog Lake record!





HOMESHAKE's new album goes alright too.

 

[vanders]

 

[Nantes]

Not a hater of TSSB, (although they are a tad overrated, but JJJ hype does that to most bands), but there is no way that Wil has lyrics comparable to Jordan Dreyer.

Personally, I can't see him writing something as great as the brilliant Nobody, Not Even the Rain and that is pretty close to a throw-away track on that album.

Both are young navel gazing styles of writing, I think Jordan is far more creative though, whereas Wil is still kind of using generic teenage angst as his driving point.

Both styles will hit people differently and will be relatable to a range of groups. Hence why both are doing well in that young demographic.

 

[BILC]

Checking in as a Smith Street Band fan fwiw.

New Holy Holy dropping tomorrow, this was one of my favourites from their debut.

 

[Cotchin 9]

Then again some girls at shows are awesome. I made friends with one at a Bloc Party concert when I was alone and she was too. She was pretty ugly though. Yes I'm a chauvinist. I came in too early in "is your bed maaaade?" at Vampire Weekend when they were touring Modern Vampires here, and she laughed and said she was following my lead all night and I owed her. Ended up having a good chat and a laugh while we lost our mates. Only lasted a song and a half but the bond was there.

Unfortunately, mostly, the bond ain't.

I wanna meet cute girls at gigs.