A couple of years ago - somewhere around the time that Pitchfork started dictating people's tastes and I started getting bored and/or angry at any show that wasn't absolutely rock 'n' roll or that I could guarantee would include at least one song that on most days would make my Top 20 of All Time (which of course fluctuates a lot, but almost always includes songs by a number of people/bands that are no longer with us, so that decreases the likelihood of that guarantee by a pretty high percentage) - I started to ignore those bands that, for lack of better description, could be categorized at indie pop. One of the main reasons for that were the influx of '80s-sounding synthesizers. Yes, I love Devo. And I adore Duran Duran's "Planet Earth". Yep, The Cars, too. Hell, I'd put Kajagoogoo on that list of bands I'd go to see because give me "Too Shy" over anything in the Top 10 today. But I don't like irony and there was a time in the early '00s when everything was too quirky or just too wussy. Not twee, not sweet, not cute... wussy. I love a boy in a cardigan as much as - more than - the next girl, but I don't want to listen to some boy opine over his lost love when it doesn't even seem like he had a love to lose in the first place.
Then there was the post-Neutral Milk Hotel cavalcade of random noises. If you can't write a song as good as "Holland, 1945", please don't start clanging pots and pans and thinking you're innovative.
Basically, I got older, crankier and far more interested in Dan Kroha than in The Decemberists.
But today I put on Inside Your Guitar by It Hugs Back for the second time. Then I played it again. And then I went back to the song "Back Down" and played that a couple more times. Then I watched the video for "Work Day." Then I stopped myself from skipping down the hall -- actually, the height of my heels stopped me because I can barely walk in those damn shoes, but I'm trying -- to tell the person who loaned me the record how much I was loving it. While I initially balked at the band's name - It Hugs Back? Reeeallly? - I've now embraced it (heh.). Toe-tappingly catchy, there's some genuine songwriting here and some of those lead guitar parts remind me of Doubleday, one of the best bands to not see its potential to ever come out of Toronto.
It Hugs Back is signed to 4AD, which is also a good sign for both band and label.
Then there was the post-Neutral Milk Hotel cavalcade of random noises. If you can't write a song as good as "Holland, 1945", please don't start clanging pots and pans and thinking you're innovative.
Basically, I got older, crankier and far more interested in Dan Kroha than in The Decemberists.
But today I put on Inside Your Guitar by It Hugs Back for the second time. Then I played it again. And then I went back to the song "Back Down" and played that a couple more times. Then I watched the video for "Work Day." Then I stopped myself from skipping down the hall -- actually, the height of my heels stopped me because I can barely walk in those damn shoes, but I'm trying -- to tell the person who loaned me the record how much I was loving it. While I initially balked at the band's name - It Hugs Back? Reeeallly? - I've now embraced it (heh.). Toe-tappingly catchy, there's some genuine songwriting here and some of those lead guitar parts remind me of Doubleday, one of the best bands to not see its potential to ever come out of Toronto.
It Hugs Back is signed to 4AD, which is also a good sign for both band and label.
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