No Vacancy
Aaaand we're back.
Sorry for the lack of activity in this humble little corner of the interwebs of late. What can I say? It's been an interesting week. But enough excuses already. Let's get down to business.
Agenda item number one is some nifty exposure for one of this writer's local favorites, the Vacant Lots. The duo was recently featured on a mixtape over at Altered Zones, Pitchfork Media's sister blog. The band got some love on the big site too. And a nice review of the track that appears on AZ's August mixtape, "Confusion."
Here's the Pitchfork link to the mixtape. And here's the AZ review. Congrats, dudes.
In other news, the town seems fairly abuzz over tonight's full-band David Bazan show at Metronome. Count me squarely among those giddy masses. But also count me among those who will try like hell to make it to the 'nome on time (for once) to catch the evening's opening act, Omaha's the Mynabirds. Check 'em out.
Maybe I'm just a curmudgeon here, but I find The Vacant Lots music to be completely unoriginal. It's pretty much a direct rip off of Brian Jonestown/Black Angels and the myriad other bands (albeit, west of the Mississippi) that are exploiting the 60's psychedelic sound. I'd guess mainly this is popular among young bands because it is pretty easy to recreate and doesn't involve a lot of creative and musical talent. It's kind of one dimensional. Don't get me wrong, I loves me some BJM/Black Angels/Darker My Love etc, etc.... Those bands completely overshadow The Lots and (pardon the phrase) did it first. Guess I'm saying The Lots are overrated.
...and I hate Pitchfork, meh.
Posted by: Bryan Dondero | Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 03:52 PM
Way to go Vacant Lots. tooth ache. was also mentioned on Altered Zones and the NNA Tapes boxed set was on a similar Pitchfork-related blog called Chocolate Bobka. Music blog press may be kind of a joke, and everybody obviously hates Pitchfork, but I'm still excited to see these musicians get some attention. After quietly kicking ass for years yet being mostly unable to attract audiences in this sorta square, mid-nineties nostalgic town, they all deserve a little spotlight.
Sadly, as creative and hard working as these people are, they will never be as original or full of integrity as Grace Potter's band.
Posted by: aaa | Monday, September 27, 2010 at 05:35 PM
Somehow I knew my comment would incite some personal digs since I've got the guts to not be anonymous. This is just my criticism of their music, nothing personal. I'm sure they're nice blokes n all - and lord knows it's better to see a band like The Vacant Lots get some attention, over the plethora of banal mersh bullshit out there. I'd just like to see them push their creative boundries more, do something more original, earn their merit etc.....
Posted by: Bryan Dondero | Monday, September 27, 2010 at 07:06 PM
It was a cheap shot, but it must be kind of cool that I recognized who you are. You're a non-anonymous person who appeared to be taking cheap shots, and as an actual anonymous person, it was irresistible. Anyway, thanks for elaborating, your shots gained some value, and really, no hard feelings.
Posted by: aaa | Monday, September 27, 2010 at 11:33 PM
I did preface my remarks by saying that I may be being curmudgeon here.... Ain't no thing AAA. And for the record, I don't disagree about GPN, hence me not playing with them. Though I totally shoulda waited until after making a stripper music video to quit. Sometimes the bear eats you....et al.
Posted by: Bryan Dondero | Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 01:10 AM