Comments on: L.A. Concert Calendar: March 6 – 12

By: Pete

Pete — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 02:42:46 +0000

To me, Interpol always sounded more like Echo and the Bunnymen than Joy Division, apart from Paul Banks’ voice. Their last album had a pretty heavy Pixies influence, too (viz “Evil” and “C’mere”).

By: Shannon

Shannon — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 02:22:28 +0000

She Wants Revenge is, no doubt, a rip off of Interpol, which, in turn, is a rip off of bands preceding it (see the myriad comparisons to Joy Division).

The Still and Elefant are not Interpol rip offs. They might be rip offs of other bands, but they don’t sound like Interpol.

By: Losanjealous Music Referral Service

Losanjealous Music Referral Service — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 17:09:59 +0000

Hello Weipengchen!
We would be delighed to give you the names of a few bands that are similar to Sigur Ros and Mew. I am assuming you mean have a similar sound to those artists– that dense, atmospheric, miasmic textured bringdown-then-uplift meditative otherworldly post-rock rock. Some contemporary bands that spring to mind are: Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You Black Emperor (see Constellation Record label, in general), and possibly Low (Pete?). Several defunct “shoegazer” bands of the 1990′s that operated in this mode–Slowdive, Pale Saints, Chapterhouse and the like–are well worth checking out today; those records were surprisingly innovative for their day. Those bands were in turn hugely influenced by late My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins, so you should be familiar with their material. Historically, while this sound probably has its origins in the early 70′s solo work of Brian Eno, especially “Here Come The Warm Jets,” early demos of “Tomorrow Never Knows” show the Beatles might have in fact anticipated this blissful sound, so the Beatles Anthology Vol. 2 is recommended. Hope that answers your question! Happy record shopping!

By: weipengchen

weipengchen — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 12:25:14 +0000

hello I just wanted know if you guys can give me names of bands similar to sigur ros and mew, well thanx

By: Spike

Spike — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:45:53 +0000

While the professor’s gibberish is intriguing, I stand unwavering upon my belief that The Stills are in fact much better than Interpol, and in no way a rip off.

By: superfrye

superfrye — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 06:36:53 +0000

Just letting people know Afurirampo is amazing live. I just saw them in Tokyo and did a podcast
interview with them after the show.
You can find it here
http://friends-world.org/afrye/
Just letting you know.
Ayme Frye

By: Pete

Pete — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 03:53:02 +0000

Why can't I access the Journal of NYC Independent Rock through USC's proxy server? Man, this PhD program I'm in is such a gyp!

By: Professor of Indie Rock Studies

Professor of Indie Rock Studies — Tue, 07 Mar 2006 00:49:53 +0000

I did my B.A. in Eastern Prog Rock (minor in Kraftwerk) at Brown; M.A. at Columbia (thesis: David Bowie’s Berlin Period) and, most recently, completed a Ph.D. in U.K. Postpunk Ethics.

It’s complicated. I will try to explain what my colleages and I have found. Imagine if you will a 3D spectograph wherein the X-axis is rhythm, the Y-axis is melody and the Z-axis is a composite variable “wildcard” containing weighted aspects of vocal tonality, lyrical content, visual imagery, and average amount of eyeliner of female fans. The 0 point represents a constant tone of pink noise. As as a song is played, the spectograph will record peaks and attack times of rhythmic elements as well as vocal melody. The Z axes values will be input manually and randomly distributed across playback of all 12 tracks.

I should note here that we formulated a “baseline” Interpol sound, which was built using the average of “Say Hello To the Angels” and “NYC” as extremes of the uptempo/lowtempo scale. We determined that plucked eighth notes of minor thirds in the higher registers were the dominant lead guitar component 76% of the time, a chorusing/reverbered effect employed more or less always, while 2 note power chords were the singer’s primary mode on the guitar. Bass guitar was found to be primarily a plucked sound of chromatic scales, synced with the “off beat” hi hat work, for what is known as Algers’s Disco Rock Effect. (see: Algers DF. “Convergence of uptempo disco rhthyms with guitar-based rock.” Journal of NYC Independent Rock. 2000;3:19-37.) Vocals were equality divided between a shortened stacatto phrase length of 8ths, mixed with a drawn out “moaning” quality.

I should note here that the vocalists do differ in terms of tonality, but in our composite variable, voice was weighted equally with lyrical content and visual imagery, so this might be why it is difficult to accept the comparison on a cursory listen. A Stills song such as “Yesterday Never Tomorrows,” for example, scores a 7.8 on the Interpol scale; “Gender Bombs” came in at 6.7. We rated anything above a “6″ as a primarily Interpol-based composition. (As a comparison, Elefant’s “Misfit” came in at 8.9 and She Wants Revenge’s “Tear You Apart” scored a 9.8) I can send you a copy of our abstract, if you like.

By: Ron

Ron — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 23:04:07 +0000

How are the Stills an Interpol knock off? Can I see some credentials, Prof?

By: Professor of Indie Rock Studies

Professor of Indie Rock Studies — Mon, 06 Mar 2006 22:35:40 +0000

The Stills were the original Interpol knock-off act. Then they took too long making the sophomore LP and a bunch of others (She Wants Revenge, Elefant, Editors) jumped their train. Sad, really.