I have received enough response from this article that I am going to cross out what I have written. I spoke to the artist herself and she was very upset that I had blasted her band and her music. I think her band is good, but I think I didn’t make my point with this article. I am not taking it down, but I am showing goodwill by admitting I may have pushed the button onto someone’s feelings who didn’t deserve it. Nonetheless, I will continue to write as I have done in the past. I got work so there won’t be too much going on for a lil’ bit.
Titties. Tame Music. You want a better Review? Give me better Music.
Never. Ever. Ever. Never. Please. No. Fucking. Way. You would call yourself the anti-thesis to bubblegum pop music and then show me this type of music. It is this type of hyping, to reason that somehow this band stands above the rest on the edge, only to fall into a pit of monotony & soft-core guitar work & vocals that has now run rampant in every Americana/ Hipster bar in the Northeast. Also, she showcases a great deal of “bosom” exposure in her fan introductory page on Facebook. She has an amazing body, but I think both the advertising and the photo permits an aura that her music may only be catchy enough only with a supplement of boobies to stand alongside her musical talents.
Things Bands Should Not Do Case #37: Do not pose as something against the mainstream marketing & production of music ( “Tired of the Bubblegum Crap”, was the gracious 1st line of the advertising to introduce this band), and then unveil yourself with partially covered bosoms and a Myspace introduction song with these intense once-in-a-lifetime lyrics:
“Maybe I should change the way I look… Maybe I should feel like everyone else”
Really bad lyrics. How many songs have started off with “Maybe” or “What if” or something about a woman following the crowd but with the essence that the singer is somehow independent and against the crowd. I am not trying to shoot down her talent, but this is the pure example of bands who are trying to stem the tide of the mainstream sweetness that gets bombarded from my drive home from work ( when I ever get a car) and replaces it with the underground tastes that is familiar with the same type of pop music they strive disassociate from their “vibe”.
Leslie Gore: I put this in because she says maybe; and its a good song:)
Her sound and production is really good. It does remind me of Dave Matthews a little bit. But it is so tame that if mainstream music needed more members for its Casey Kasem Club, Yvette will probably get a handwritten letter and a lunch date with Avril Levine.
The song “Promise” sounds like a compromise between Kansas and Jewel. When I listened to Zombie Party, I thought it was pretty good, but at points it could’ve hit me in the face, the song promptly stands rigid as a decent bar song. But if I had a dime for every song I heard from a live bar band I thought was decent, my bank would close my account because I would then be an asshole for depositing so much change.
This music is good, but how is this isn’t better than bubblegum music I have no clue. Acoustic instruments, piano interludes, Americana vocals and violins CAN a mediocre song make!
I really don’t see her music as bad. But this is NOT better than bubblegum music. It might have an edge here or there, but like a papercut, it’ll get you riled up for a minute, then you remember bands who are actually playing something different:
Esthero in 1998, when she was probably only 17-18
If anything, it only justifies that most genres, regardless of their appeal, talent pool, and marketing, presents a great deal of people who pose themselves against other genres claiming to be superior. The sad fact is a lot bands are hitting the neo-Americana and hipster music scenes to produce music that is different from mainstream. Yet these new sonic pioneers have failed to witness the deterioration of music in GENERAL is the essence that both mainstream and non-mainstream music have a lot of horrible music. A lot: I’ll go on to say that my band sucks ( but I will weep in my pillow once the post is written).
But in addendum and conclusion to all of this, my hypothesis to the bad music that has risen and permeated throughout the industry is due to too many people pretend to bend the envelope into a territory of greatness by comparing themselves to the simplicity and cookie-cutter designs of corporate music structures. For every band that goes against the grain of the 50 Cents, or invokes disdain of Jack Johnson in their ballads, or re-invents sexuality in contrast to the submissiveness of MTV Video vixens, fails to compare themselves to their own limits, their own styles, and their visions of what they can offer to music. When they pay more attention to how different they are, in some fucked up ironic way, they end up becoming just a tame & and unrecognizable as the other millions of bands that now exist in the new Myspace arena. And as I finish writing this post, I am slowly forgetting the band I was even reviewing. Whether they become famous, they are just another blip on the radar of bands trying to make a name for themselves, falling short of even writing the first letter on the wall, falling short of doing something better than what has already been done.
The Zach Hillyard Band
