Mar 272014
Kinda taken by these guys and their Animals/Mod/Yardbirds vibe. This clip is pretty sweet so I picked up (downloaded) their album which is a real joy from beginning to end. Their take on Nick Lowe’s “Heart of the City” endeared me instantly. I think they’re 18, too. This could be the first band AndyR might actually buy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRs5G5j0SEs
I liked that! That’s a terrible name for a band, though. I’d have never just checked them out with a name like that. But I thought they were great.
I think they’re fun — noted the comparisons to Jam in and Jet in the You Tube comments. Hipsterz at my online radio station of choice are divided. One guy says it’s like someone dusted off the Georgia Satellites — c’mon man!
http://www.thecurrent.org/feature/2014/03/26/virtual-music-meeting-the-strypes-blue-collar-jane
agreed about the name. and the spelling!
I have highly mixed feelings. For one thing, they can play and they’re are playing an old style of music this old guy digs. They do it well. No complaints. However, they are so precocious as musicians that their decision to be a young, hip version of Dr. Feelgood seems like a total pose, like they have chosen to adopt this style and stick within its confines. They’re like 14 years old! How can they be completely lacking in loose ends and any sense of searching, yearning, chomping at the bit, discovery? I feel like they’ve got a stage dad telling them exactly what to do – and they’re buying dad’s plan lock, stock, and barrel! I feel the breeze of a disturbing air of complacency. That part of the equation disappoints me, if unfairly, so be it.
I think they picked a great place to start things off, and I don’t think you’ve got enough to go on to decide if they’re just aping some schtick or genuinely trying to turn their generation on to something they like. They can’t be going for the under served Dad Rock market, because Dad’s have plenty of old Beatles albums to listen to. How about we let them reinvent Rock Music on their second album?
2K, I totally agree you’ve got a fair and reasonable take on this. These are not qualities that come natural to me. I’m not looking for them to reinvent music, but to make an effort to be themselves. They are truly fantastic being Dr. Feelgood with shades of Jimi Hendrix sprinkled in. Truly!
I’m inclined to get on my high horse about their seeming more like a costume designer’s idea of a rock band than a rock band. But funoka’s invocation of the Jam makes me wonder if I had been older if I would have felt the same way about them when they came on the scene. So, I’ll try to withhold judgement, but, geez, they seem too slick by half.
I’ve seen articles about them in MOJO recently. The clip was pretty good. They remind me of a Boston band called the Click Five that was around the mid-2000s that attempted to sell power pop to the current youth.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQBu5whSgC4
Whoah, whoah, WHOAH> Say what you want about the Strypes, but that Click Five band is fucking AWFUL. Hyper-produced, auto-tuned anthem-pop for addle-pated 13 year-olds. Give me the Bay City Rollers any day — and I hate them!
Yours bilefully,
HVB
I agree with you, HVB, now STAND AND DELIVER regarding The Strypes. I keep thinking of you and mockcarr and your love for that Swedish band that wore matching suits from a few years ago. They had tons of Mach Schau! They had catchy songs. I actually liked those guys better, but I was a tiny bit put off by the schtick. At least they were old enough to know what they were doing. I’m holding true to my possibly unfair belief that The Strypes have some chicken rancher pulling the strings on their act. Those kids look like they were recruited from a “Fame” school.
I liked ’em okay. I suspect your Fame-school fears would be lessened if you knew these cheeky lads are from Ireland. Here’s another track to chew on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGOMirYfevA#aid=P-CQlqpMbcc
The main emotion I feel watching them is: holy fuck, these punks are much better musicians than I was at that age. I mean, it’s not even close!
And let’s talk about that for a second: when I was a punk, the hot-shot “shredders” all played shitty music by shitty, proggy or metal-y bands. That left us mediocre twangers, plunkers and bashers with the good music, which seemed a fair trade. Now this — man, it would suck to be a garage-band rat in a world where the really talented musicians are also cool enough to want to play high-quality garage band music.
To say nothing of their sartorial splendor! Leave some cool points to the mediocre teenage musicians, willya!
Rant, rant, etc. I got a one year-old who’s not sleeping much these days, and I fear my sense-maker is somewhat miscalibrated.
What, the Irish don’t get to have Fame schools? I’m sure some of the cats from The Commitments went to an Irish Fame school.
I am glad you get at the fact that these chops-laden guys are taking the musical genre from those of us who need a chops-light genre to grow in. That bugged me, too. I wouldn’t feel so negative about these kids if they were playing prog, metal, or fusion.
Say, this track pretty well smokes!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZM6L6SUSBc
I’m pretty impressed by the Strypes. Maybe I can see Mr. Mod’s hesitation but I think that makes you an awfully tough grader; no one will want to take your courses.
I band I’m currently infatuated with is The Len Price 3. A few years ago I picked up their album Pictures. Great Kinks/Jam kinda stuff. They have a new one out that I haven’t bought yet but I did last month get Rentacrowd which came out on 2008. Like Pictures it’s on LIttle Steven’s Wicked Cool label. Easily my favorite “new” music of the last several years.
They are probably twice as old as the Strypes but that still makes them young for me (an ever growing demographic for me at this point).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIL8IhIngEM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERq9tDNqVvY
Well, no one else is being Dr. Feelgood right now, so I guess I’m cool with it!
I’ve got Rentacrowd and their first one, Chinese Burn. I like them, but they kind of keep making the same record over and over. It’s a really good record, though!
Dare I ask: has anyone here actually heard The Strypes? Or is much of this back and forth based on their mod buttons and haircuts?
Sure, every band does a bit of posing and there’s only so many ways to wear a blazer or a haircut. It was refreshing to me that what these kids are doing is based on something I actually dig. So I have to applaud them from coming from a good space to begin with. The album (which I’ve listened to about 5 times) is pretty darn tight. And given their age they seem even more worth of applause — meaning there has to be something going on above dad coaching for thees kids to do what they do.
I don’t care if they reinvent the wheel. Who does?
Well, with only two, I’m not tired of it yet! I’ll see soon if two more get me there…
Yes, I listened to a half dozen songs today – a few before posting my initial response and a few after feeling bad for beating up on the kids.
They are REALLY good, REALLY tight and professional and all that. I knew a lot of their covers (and they put a lot of juice into that well-worn “Heart of the City”), but their lyrics are a waste of my time. They remind me of The Romantics, a perfectly excellent band that offered me nothing personal. It’s like trying to get worked up over Pamala Anderson in her Baywatch prime. It’s just too predictable for me to get a meaningful hard on.
As I said to someone else, I don’t expect them to reinvent the wheel, but I expect them to take their own ride on it. Then I could piggyback on their ride. I’ve been on this ride a thousand times.
I sincerely think these guys are tremendous. And I sincerely think these guys are boring. Someone objected to a hipster friend’s characterization of these guys as the new Georgia Satellites. Maybe they’re better than that, but that only makes them as interesting to me as the Black Crowes.
I SUMMON BIGSTEVE! He’s a wise and open-minded Townsperson – way wiser and more open-minded than I – who, I bet, will back me up.
On the other hand, I’m banking on my close, personal friend chickenfrank disagreeing with me and almost convincing me I’m wrong. Almost.
To restate, I feel very bad about my negative stance on this topic. It’s not right to do to the kids.
I really enjoyed this comment thread because I’ve been living with the Strypes for a long time now. They come from Cavan, a backwater county here in Ireland, and blew away a hip/retro club crowd at their first big city gig a few years ago when they were like 14. I’ve kept an eye on them since. Maybe two years ago they started making it big-ish in Ireland, appearing on TV, and they were getting accolades from people like Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher in the UK. Then Elton John raved about them and signed them to his management co.
In the last year, they’ve had hits and their songs are on TV commercials. And my high school age daughter is a megafan. My 20-something son who is a musician made the comment that if they 30 instead of 17, they would be regarded as tired imitators.
So, I kind of agree with Mod’s stance. Good but boring. However, despite the big muscle management now behind them, this group of teens are proper fanatics when it comes to 60s beat, the blues and R&B that inspired it, and some bits of 70s punk/pop. THey were laughed at by their friends and schoolmates when they started. But they stuck to their guns and have won over some teens as well as older hipsters.
Short and sweet: I like them, despite their apparent distillation of The Strokes (minus 20 years) and The White Stripes (note red trousers).
I’d listen to more of their stuff.
AND, it’s nice to see discussion of a more recent band 🙂
I almost bought that album yesterday, as a sort of atonement. Instead I bought something by a San Francisco artist named Tony Molina. On first listen I dig I. It’s loaded with fuzz guitar harmonies. More on that and some other recent purchases I’ve been getting my head around, including the new St Vincent, as soon as I get time for my next SNSI.
You mean the Hives? Yeah, for a garage-rock band they seemed very corporate.
I have the other two albums (Heck, I got all 4) & I highly recommend them all. There are enough suble tweakings in the songs to show a bit of difference of progression in their basic Who/Kinks approach.
Speaking of “ride”, I noticed that they did a cover version of “Come Together” for a Harley-Davidson TV ad over the weekend.
Yes, that’s the band whose name I couldn’t remember!
Since I was specifically name checked by Machinery. I like the songs I have heard. I think they are more authentic than other “hot new bands” in that they have always (relative term when you are talking about 18 year olds) been into the pub rock/R&B thing. It’s not like they just picked up on the genre because they thought it was going to be the next-big-thing.
I have to say -when I look at bands that young – I can’t help to view them through the lens of what my reaction would be if my son or daughter were playing those songs. So even if the dads have played a important role in shaping their music/style, then BRAVO to them!
Misterioso said “I’m inclined to get on my high horse about their seeming more like a costume designer’s idea of a rock band than a rock band.”
I, for one, would kill for a green suit like that.