Skybox Tonight (by Taunto)
My sister often tries to push new music on me. Sadly, 99% of it is usually the latest thuggy craze sweeping the redneck wigger club she frequents. The other 1% is some pseudo-indie bullshit she heard on her boyfriend’s XM radio. She calls me from small town record stores to ask me, “Have you ever heard of A Modest Mouse?” To which I reply with a sigh and a “Yeah I think so.” But at least she’s trying.
Well, the past week or so, she kept asking me if I’d ever heard of a band called Skybox, and remarkably I hadn’t. She said they were playing in her town, and she really liked them and she thought I would too. I blew her off and told her to quit calling me, thinking it was just some more lame-o crap she heard in the dressing room at Abercrombie & Fitch. But then I felt bad, as I’ve only got one sister. So I humored her and went to their Myspace page. Then I had to stand up and wait for the monkeys to fly out of my butt: My sister had actually recommended something to me that I liked.
Three of the four tracks up there are just so-so. But the first one grabbed me with a goofy, rinky-dink piano, and dug in with a headstrong hand-clap pop-chorus. Sure, the guys sings a little like David Cross in that one Mr. Show sketch, and the lyrics are a little creepy – but I haven’t stopped listening to it for, like, two days. There’s a recent wave of this unapologetic theme pop, and I’m thankful. I hate the dark, thick wall of noise stuff. I credit Sesame Street. That show taught me about beginnings, middles and ends. It taught me about clapping along and counting, and I guess it taught a few other people that too, since it seems they’ve all grown up and started bands. So sit down – next to the Starlight Mints and the Happy Bullets – it’s not snack time, it’s time for sharing. Chicago’s Skybox plays tonight at Darkside Lounge.
Well, the past week or so, she kept asking me if I’d ever heard of a band called Skybox, and remarkably I hadn’t. She said they were playing in her town, and she really liked them and she thought I would too. I blew her off and told her to quit calling me, thinking it was just some more lame-o crap she heard in the dressing room at Abercrombie & Fitch. But then I felt bad, as I’ve only got one sister. So I humored her and went to their Myspace page. Then I had to stand up and wait for the monkeys to fly out of my butt: My sister had actually recommended something to me that I liked.
Three of the four tracks up there are just so-so. But the first one grabbed me with a goofy, rinky-dink piano, and dug in with a headstrong hand-clap pop-chorus. Sure, the guys sings a little like David Cross in that one Mr. Show sketch, and the lyrics are a little creepy – but I haven’t stopped listening to it for, like, two days. There’s a recent wave of this unapologetic theme pop, and I’m thankful. I hate the dark, thick wall of noise stuff. I credit Sesame Street. That show taught me about beginnings, middles and ends. It taught me about clapping along and counting, and I guess it taught a few other people that too, since it seems they’ve all grown up and started bands. So sit down – next to the Starlight Mints and the Happy Bullets – it’s not snack time, it’s time for sharing. Chicago’s Skybox plays tonight at Darkside Lounge.
posted by stonedranger at 3:32 PM
6 Comments:
Bienvenidos, Taunto. Great tip.
really hmm....interesting!!!!
Bordedoms(Japanese Noise Punk),Pavement(first album is a rip off of The Fall and everyone knows that is why they went limp so quick), Sonic Youth(speaks for it selfel.thurston would be ashamed), Pixies(you have got to bre kidding), My Bloody Valentine, Stone Roses(madchester is still rooted in british punk in a lot of ways), Jesus and Mary Chain, Velvet Underground, Beatles, Beach Boys, Chapterhouse, Ride, Slowdive, Blur, Pulp, The Cure, MF Doom, Brian Eno, Talking Heads(Really????), Joy Division(oh come on. are you not listening to your own collection past the rash of cute pop music that has hit the radar in the past year or two), Suicide(wahttttttt!!!!), Erasure(This makes sense for you), Talk Talk, T. Rex, Depeche Mode, New Order, Rolling Stones, Syd Barret, Fugazi(Ian is looking at ya), Blondie, Adam and the Ants, Wolf Parade, Wolf Eyes, Apples In Stereo, Bad Religion Dungen, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Caribou, Beastie Boys, Antony and the Johnsons, Devendra Banhart, Chinese Stars(now are listing this just because pitchfork told you too), Spacemen 3, Luna. Look at your own list and check out The Velvets Quine Tapes then get back to us on the hating punk rock and noise thing.
first of all... we said we hated punk rock in another comment thread.... the post you have commented on (this one) was written by a new writer that had nothing to do with the list we put up on Myspace. And just because someone that writes for this site says something doesn't mean that everyone here agrees with it. And it doesn't even mean that they are being serious either. But we really don't know.
Next, the hating punk rock thing was a joke (and also a Myspace gimmick to get you to the site... it worked!). However, I wasn't joking when I said that the kind of "punk rock" that you typically see in Deep Ellum and places like Red Blood Club is absolute and total crap, and isn't really punk rock at all. Of course when we said hardcore wasn't punk, that didn't mean that we don't like some hard core (Minor Threat, Black Flag, etc.), its just that it isn't really "punk" in the traditional sense of the word. But we weren't really even talking about 80's hardcore.
The stuff we are talking about, like those jackasses you sometimes see in Deep Ellum with chains and spikes on, has nothing to do with punk at all, and is more like an out of date fashion statement mixed with closed minded pointless macho garbage that is worthy of neither attention or time because it has nothing to do with music, not to mention good music. The Exploited is the perfect example of this kind of crap. Most of the stuff on Epitaph records and on the Warped tour are also good examples. We were kidding when we said we hated punk, but we're serious in that we hate what a lot of people consider to "Punk" today. That is what I was trying to say.
OF COURSE we realize that most of the bands on our list are punk influenced in some fashion. How dumb would we have to be to not realize that? Pretty much all of the music we've ever talked about on this site was influenced in some way by punk. We get it, dude. But you should probably learn to take a joke. Now that you know where we stand, where do you stand?
Well put sir..
'Punk Rock' is a really beautiful and inspiring thing.
Today's conception of 'Punk Rock' is a completely perverted, midly retarded form of "art". it makes me want to cry sometimes.
Yeah, dude....chillax.
I wasn't being dead serious. There are always exceptions. But for the future, you should keep in mind: I like to make big, blanket statements about things I hate - mostly because I don't have time to nit-pick and make lists, but really because it's just so much fun. And this works out for you, because then you can get your panties all twisted up in these blankets, make lists and tell me what terrible taste in music I have. It's a win-win, pal. Just go with it.
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