STILL SINGLE

A space for thoughts on music and culture, as written by Doug Mosurock and a select handful of individuals. This is intended as a supplement to our regular feature Still Single, published on Dusted Magazine. Updates will run here more frequently, and may feature writing on music not covered in the column. Compact discs are still not accepted for review -- we have more than enough vinyl and the occasional cassette to worry about.

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November 7, 2010

Colossal Yes/The Good Fear – split 7” (Gold Robot)

History is important, and the history of HOW WE GOT HERE is especially important. To clarify: How did we arrive at a musical landscape littered with bands like Colossal Yes and The Good Fear? Well, the first offender/step in this direction is a little something we used to call “alt-country”, or when indie and punk rockers woke up one day and decided to slum because whatever previous genre they were toiling in, well, it had too many constraints or it was boring or they grew out of it. All of those excuses can be translated into: “I sucked at it.” So, hordes of mediocre bands and musicians simply migrated to where mediocrity was the order of the day (yet shrouded by the toning-down that comes along with getting “back to one’s roots”) … alt-country. So while these lemmings were “feeling a connection” to “you know, GOOD country music,” the actual sounds they made were little more than Americana-flavored indie rock with all of indie-rock’s interesting bits removed. Enter NPR. Enter Wilco and Radiohead. Enter Letterboxed Indie-Rock (vocals up front, more than 5 members, boring as watching dragonflies fuck). Enter bands like these two.

The tempo is slow. The chords are minor but devoid of any emotional pull. The instruments are many and most are “quirky” or “adult” (pianos, mandolins, etc). Colossal Yes (side project of Utrillo Kushner from Comets on Fire) turn in the lesser of evils here. The production doesn’t sound like Butch Vig circa ‘91 and the tune is catchy enough to make it. The Good Fear, by virtue of name alone, should be a forgotten 7”-in-a-paper-lunch-sack screamo band from 1995. Featuring a former member of Lucero (who long-ago ditched the alt-country thing for their own thing and who should be respected for an intense work ethic and total disregard of trend-saturation), The Good Fear does that despicable, neutering beast of boredom with a yawn-inducing professionalism. If people still give a shit about Arcade Fire and getting culturally disgraced at giant summer festivals, then The Good Fear will do just fine. Oh, and by the way…there’s no such thing as a “good” fear. (http://gold-robot.com)
(Andrew Earles)

1 year ago • 0 notes