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koganbotErika once again holds forth gloriously on a Jukebox comments thread, this time telling the story she hears in Sleigh Bells' Treats.
And Jaymc asks, "Did they come up with the title once they realized that their band name shared initials with Soulja Boy?"
And I'm still late to the party, but this is what I wrote:
Sounds like an intro - I keep waiting for the song to kick in, for a release, propulsion, progression that never comes. So it's like fanfares and fusillades, but nothing ever rolls out of the trenches.
It's a strong intro. Lex is simply wrong when he calls this incompetent. The quick triple drum, the answering laser shots, the guitar launching out of that, are all precisely timed, as are all the dissonances, which are used to both exploit and disrupt harmonic overtones. Whatever one thinks of the decision to play beyond the equipment's capacity - a decision that's been a rock 'n' roll staple ever since Ike Turner decided in 1951 to go ahead and play through his ripped speakers on "Rocket 88" - it's not incompetence.
That said, the complaints here other than Lex's can be summed up by saying, "It doesn't rock," and I agree. I'm sure the juxtaposition between the instrumental clamor and the dreamy schoolgirl-doing-her-circular-throat-exercise singing is intentional, but the result of that circularity is that the vocals aren't leading anywhere, there isn't a musical narrative to draw me in; and since Miller and Krauss choose not to give this a pulse, it doesn't move. Maybe they thought the ricochets and the power chord were sufficient, but they were wrong.
A bass or some equivalent (tuba, thumb on lower guitar strings, low notes on the keys) gives you a sonorous throb, is probably the most important instrument in rock 'n' roll and r&b. That and voice. Krauss played bass in RubyBlue. Don't know why she eschews it here.
I'll bet the Soulja Boy reference that Jaymc noticed is deliberate. I'm sure these guys study Collipark and Swizz Beatz etc. As Perpetua said in Pitchfork, "Crown on the Ground" lifts its riff from "Party Up." I can see how Sleigh Bells are working towards the underload/overload that a Collipark and a Beatz achieve. The band are a work in progress. I'm only on 6 for this song, but I'm curious where they go next. (And I've not yet heard this track in the context of the album. Maybe its function is to set up the track that follows.)
Mark, I don't think your analogy to a practiced painter trying to draw like a 4-year-old works. If anything, these guys aren't Apollonian enough, need more study. To successfully sound "chaotic" you don't want to be chaotic (randomness is usually boring); you've got to have a strong sense of form, to use the form for whatever visceral or suspenseful kick it gives you - and also get a kick from violating the form you've set up. But for the violation to occur the form has to be there. What I'm arguing is that "Tell 'Em" needs to add one more form to what it's got: needs a beat, or chordal development, or something.
Legal (free) download for "Tell 'Em" over at Paste.
And we talked (and linked) a whole bunch about Sleigh Bells a couple of months ago, if you missed it.
By the way, whoever Katherine St. Asaph is, she's really good.
And Jaymc asks, "Did they come up with the title once they realized that their band name shared initials with Soulja Boy?"
And I'm still late to the party, but this is what I wrote:
Sounds like an intro - I keep waiting for the song to kick in, for a release, propulsion, progression that never comes. So it's like fanfares and fusillades, but nothing ever rolls out of the trenches.
It's a strong intro. Lex is simply wrong when he calls this incompetent. The quick triple drum, the answering laser shots, the guitar launching out of that, are all precisely timed, as are all the dissonances, which are used to both exploit and disrupt harmonic overtones. Whatever one thinks of the decision to play beyond the equipment's capacity - a decision that's been a rock 'n' roll staple ever since Ike Turner decided in 1951 to go ahead and play through his ripped speakers on "Rocket 88" - it's not incompetence.
That said, the complaints here other than Lex's can be summed up by saying, "It doesn't rock," and I agree. I'm sure the juxtaposition between the instrumental clamor and the dreamy schoolgirl-doing-her-circular-throat-exercise singing is intentional, but the result of that circularity is that the vocals aren't leading anywhere, there isn't a musical narrative to draw me in; and since Miller and Krauss choose not to give this a pulse, it doesn't move. Maybe they thought the ricochets and the power chord were sufficient, but they were wrong.
A bass or some equivalent (tuba, thumb on lower guitar strings, low notes on the keys) gives you a sonorous throb, is probably the most important instrument in rock 'n' roll and r&b. That and voice. Krauss played bass in RubyBlue. Don't know why she eschews it here.
I'll bet the Soulja Boy reference that Jaymc noticed is deliberate. I'm sure these guys study Collipark and Swizz Beatz etc. As Perpetua said in Pitchfork, "Crown on the Ground" lifts its riff from "Party Up." I can see how Sleigh Bells are working towards the underload/overload that a Collipark and a Beatz achieve. The band are a work in progress. I'm only on 6 for this song, but I'm curious where they go next. (And I've not yet heard this track in the context of the album. Maybe its function is to set up the track that follows.)
Mark, I don't think your analogy to a practiced painter trying to draw like a 4-year-old works. If anything, these guys aren't Apollonian enough, need more study. To successfully sound "chaotic" you don't want to be chaotic (randomness is usually boring); you've got to have a strong sense of form, to use the form for whatever visceral or suspenseful kick it gives you - and also get a kick from violating the form you've set up. But for the violation to occur the form has to be there. What I'm arguing is that "Tell 'Em" needs to add one more form to what it's got: needs a beat, or chordal development, or something.
Legal (free) download for "Tell 'Em" over at Paste.
And we talked (and linked) a whole bunch about Sleigh Bells a couple of months ago, if you missed it.
By the way, whoever Katherine St. Asaph is, she's really good.
And the kids LMFAO robo-synth song more strange
Date: 2010-07-05 05:38 pm (UTC)(1) This is the start of her Jukebox review of David Guetta ft. Fergie, Chris Willis & LMFAO "Gettin' Over You":
David Guetta churns the Black Eyed Peas' past year into a slurry, Fergie and Chris Willis take turns wailing, and the LMFAO guys robo-chant over freaky synths as if they're commissioned to do the soundtrack...
(2) This is that same passage as rendered in Spanish by some Spanish-language search site (perhaps a bot) doing a word search for "LMFAO":
David Guetta bidones Eyed Peas en el pasado año el Negro en una papilla, Fergie y Chris Willis se turnan para lamentos, y los chicos LMFAO robo-canto más sintetizadores extraño como si estuvieran encargados de hacer la banda sonora de...
(3) And here is that Spanish text as translated back into English by Google translator:
David Guetta drums Eyed Peas Black last year in a slurry, Fergie and Chris Willis takes turns wailing, and the kids LMFAO robo-synth song more strange as if they were responsible for making the soundtrack...