Anthony Aquilino, Sal Garro, and Max Goransson make no apologies for exerting popular music’s flagship lineup, kneading out of the most orthodox hardware some of the freshest music this side of Pavement’s career. It’s really nice to see it go.”įortunately for the rest of us, however, the three fellows comprising Quiet Loudly don’t seem aware – or, perhaps more likely, don’t seem to care – that, were it not so catastrophically premature, Decca Records’ prediction might have scored a few more sympathizers. And this very publication recently quoted a member of Gang Gang Dance, an act besotted with the seemingly inexhaustible possibilities presented by the melding of dance fundamentals with tribal beats, as rejoicing over this progressive shift: “…Rock ‘n’ roll has been happening for so long. The term “post-rock” was coined so as to classify untraditional rock music (which basically means the absence or unconventional use of the guitar). Hercules and Love Affair cropped up in countless 2008 best-of lists right next to Titus Andronicus. Technological advances exceeding the limitations of the amplifier and the wah-wah have of course enabled this overturn, but, more significantly, our collective idea as to what is simply acceptable to listen to is continually expanding (let’s just say that the past 15 years have been very, very good to the Pet Shop Boys, if you know what I mean). Because now, courtesy of a number of factors, the dominance held by the guitar throughout the second half of the 20th century has undeniably suffered a destabilizing assault: where alternative styles of music were once equivalent to a guerrilla movement in the realm of Western postmodernism, they now constitute a formidable world power. But there’s still a bone to be thrown here. That is, one of the most notorious misjudgments in history can really just be chalked up to bad timing. Now, however, that explanation – “guitar groups are on the way out” – is laughably quotable, not simply because the following six decades have embossed The Beatles’ fabled stature into the crowded annals of pop culture, but because “guitar groups” were just about the only thing that were in for a good 30 years or so after that statement was issued.īut if Kranky founder Joel Leoschke or even Sub Pop cheese Jonathan Poneman were to dismiss some hopeful signee today or tomorrow for the same reason, it might not seem like such a boneheaded move. When executives at Decca Records politely informed four moppy Liverpudlians that they would not be offering to them a contract despite the relative strength of a nerve-wracked audition, not much of a second thought was given towards the explanation.
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