Friday, March 04, 2011

one thousand times yes

not totally the same as what Carl's raging on, but overlapping: this excessively embellished American post-indie strain i call "cutesy poo": kind of indie-maximalism.... probably brought into existence through the very same technological enablements that led to other fussed-and-gussed-up styles like micro/minimal in Europe (not, in fact, the least bit minimal) and postdubstep/twinklestep. of course there is more to it than technology and the over-garnishing it enables, it's got a lot to do with just grievous failure of taste

a good example is Karen O and the Kids's O/S/T for Where the Wild Things Are, where she completely departs from what is good in the Yeah Yeah Yeah's sound





(as well as Elephant 6 i wonder if Stephin Merritt is also, somehow, to be blamed here. Saw the new documentary and for the life of me couldn't remember what was supposed to be good about him. All those quirky little instrumental textures.)