My Five Stages of listening to Trail of Dead albums made after "Source Tags and Codes"
1) Initial Disgust. What the fuck do these guys think they're doing? Instead of rocking, they're engaging in these fucking weird piano interludes and stupid ambient passages in between the rock. What the hell is with the tribal drumming? Why are there accordions here? Why aren't they rocking.
2) Slight Bemusement. This isn't terrible, but they just keep layering on the schmaltz. What is this supposed to be -- irony? Oh look, they're covering a Guided by Voices tune, and they're doing it with a full orchestra and a glossy, hi-tech studio production! That's funny! They're so cute... or at least they would be if it weren't for the occasional passage that fucking ROCKS and tears my skull out of my head and beats me to death with it.
3) Mild Enjoyment. This is pretty good. They sound like a 70s arena rock band that has no instrumental skill and a terrible vocalist, and so they're just making up for that by throwing in the occasional blast of punk rock energy.
4) Serious Enjoyment. Goddamn... this band sounds like Pink Floyd on some serious uppers. Or... David Bowie, if he were a Sonic Youth completist.
Every once in a while, I go through all four stages in the span of one song. For example, as I was writing this, "Life" off of the new album came on, and my initial reaction was "holy shit, what is with that piano sound? It sounds like they're throwing the goddamn piano down the stairs." My final reaction was "holy shit, it's 'Have A Cigar 2: Electric Boogaloo.' This is awesome."
2) Slight Bemusement. This isn't terrible, but they just keep layering on the schmaltz. What is this supposed to be -- irony? Oh look, they're covering a Guided by Voices tune, and they're doing it with a full orchestra and a glossy, hi-tech studio production! That's funny! They're so cute... or at least they would be if it weren't for the occasional passage that fucking ROCKS and tears my skull out of my head and beats me to death with it.
3) Mild Enjoyment. This is pretty good. They sound like a 70s arena rock band that has no instrumental skill and a terrible vocalist, and so they're just making up for that by throwing in the occasional blast of punk rock energy.
4) Serious Enjoyment. Goddamn... this band sounds like Pink Floyd on some serious uppers. Or... David Bowie, if he were a Sonic Youth completist.
Every once in a while, I go through all four stages in the span of one song. For example, as I was writing this, "Life" off of the new album came on, and my initial reaction was "holy shit, what is with that piano sound? It sounds like they're throwing the goddamn piano down the stairs." My final reaction was "holy shit, it's 'Have A Cigar 2: Electric Boogaloo.' This is awesome."