Greetings, humans.

I went to see the Editors and stellastarr* at Higher Ground last night.

Editors were better live than on record; way more energy and charisma. Nevertheless, I woke up with Interpol songs in my head.

I’m getting a little annoyed with the “washed-out, atmospheric delay” guitar sound, though. The Edge has no idea what he unleashed upon the world. Or maybe he does. I’m sure Eddie Van Halen has had moments where he wished he had never developed two-handed tapping. Sure, it was a revolution in sound and technique. But it also heralded the arrival of Blues Saraceno and Nuno Bettencourt. Yeah, that’s right. Don’t pretend you don’t remember.

stellastarr* are a perfect example of artifice over ingenuity. Every single thing they played was pilfered from a handful of immediately identifiable sources. A pose from start to finish. They really only impress young kids who never heard Echo & the Bunnymen, Oingo Boingo, The Cure or any of the other of the New Romantic/Goth-pop/New Wave bands from the ’80s.

But they too were better live than on record. Give ’em a cookie.

In case you haven’t seen it. (Courtesy Neil Cleary‘s comment on Candleblog).

Who’s opening for The Pants?

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Casey Rea was the Seven Days music editor from 2004 until 2007. He won the 2005 John D. Donoghue award for arts criticism from the Vermont Press Association.

3 replies on “Good day.”

  1. Yeah, I love that site. It inspired me tto comission an article for our last Music Issue: “How NOT to promote your band.”

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