Great Decemberists Slam article (Village Voice)

[zero]

I taunted the indie rock kids to come up with a good example of a harsh and critical article and they came up with this. Quite good and quite critical.

Decemberists

[Jaimoe]

It makes me wonder what the reviewer thinks of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand.

[zero]

It's incredibly well written.

In the past, the Decemberists' 17th-century laments were merely soaked in solecism—coy cunning from a clever aesthete with a woodcut fetish who'd seen Rushmore too many times. But Meloy is increasingly emboldened by success, becoming more and more literal. You get the sense he scans encyclopedias for his cautionary chides, casually selecting tales famous as the boogeyman in their native lilt and fashioning them into cuddly Wes Anderson pirouettes, an indefensible, objectifying condescension born of bravado and ignorance. Meloy is so embarrassed to be from Helena—and America generally—that he wraps himself in pasts and cultures he could never understand, in an effort to co-opt their dramatic import. I'm sure somebody in his family is Irish, but it's the predefined, tidy, and glorified certainty of this history that's Meloy's inspiration, not his ostensible, however distant, roots. He's overreaching—at best, he could gradually improve and evolve into our generation's Andy Partridge.

[Jaimoe]

Their fate was sealed before the first note was played. The reviewer used the concert as a platform.

[zero]

Sure that's what he did. I'd love to do that more often.

[dimafleck: the living legend.]

its a shit review cuz the guy comes off like like a jerk.

he's way more pompous than the guy he's shitting on.

[AdamH]

Not surprising you'd like a verbose, negative review like that one. One of his biggest beefs is mispronunciation of a Gaelic word? Amateurish.

He comes off as one of those blowhard writers with alot of self-loathing who is "resigned" (oh boo hoo) to reviewing concerts instead of publishing his masterpiece.

What were the words he used to describe such people? Oh here it is, "self-pitying white people looking for reasons to be unhappy"

I guess I'm just saying I don't know what's so impressive about it.

[Alexis]

the weirdo fake accent the guy from the band sings in is actually what makes me like the music and smile when i hear it.

and i'm pretty sure the only people who AREN'T increasingly emboldened by success are the dicks who were like that to begin with.

[zero]

touche (you know tou-shay - I just can't find the egu)