Every so often, there is a band that comes along, that sends the blogosphere into a frenzy of discussion, and over the last few days that band has -rightly, in my humble opinion been these guys The Black Kids.
Hailing from Jacksonville, Florida, The Black Kids are: Owen Holmes on bass, Kevin Snow on drums, Dawn Watley and Ali Youngblood, both on keys+vocals, and Reggie Youngblood on vocals+guitar.
To these ears, they sound like a Marvin Gaye meeting The Shins. They have made the four tracks on their MySpace page which make up the Wizard of Ahhs EP (quite a cute pun, I like it) available to download.
They have, as I said before, had a fair bit written about them across the blogosphere. I first read about them over at Hello Vegetables, it seems Pitchfork have given the EP 8.4 (read about it here, and Good Weather For Airstrikes has another mp3 and a live review. 24 hour Party Pooper has yet more here
Their song 'Hurricane Jane' has also been remixed by an artist called Beige -who I hadn't heard before, but I'm impressed!- which can be found at his MySpace here
Go and make friends with them, I think the hype is justified here...
The Black Kids -'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You.' mp3
The Black Kids -'Hurricane Jane.' mp3
The Black Kids -'Listen To Your Body Tonight.' mp3
9 comments:
BOOOO!!!!
http://idolator.com/tunes/you.ve-got-to-be-kidding/an-idolator-real-talk-special-report-the-black-kids-hype-must-be-stopped-313517.php
The below is not a response to Ben but to the what the Idolator seems to have stirred up.
So a lot of people have indeed got their knickers in a twist. I slagged off Arctic Monkeys for being a Libertines rip-off band, and then I suddenly heard their music in a different light.
Yeah, there's hype around. Maybe one of the reasons they're getting written about is that you can get their stuff for free instead of paying a fortune for it.
But: I stand by the post I originally wrote; I think they've done some great songs. After all, some bands do get a massive amount written about them when all they've not released much. Thinking about it from the English/scottish perspective, sometimes it's justified, thinking about the coverage that Oasis and suede received, sometimes people can be left with egg on their face, (Menswe@r, anybody?)
Yes, there are cliques of blogs, and I don't think I'm in one. There are people who read 17 seconds regularly who leave encouraging feedback and that's great, and there's clearly more than five billion people on the planet who don't. I can live with that.
Sure blogs do rave and froth over stuff, but the nature of blogs is that they only post one or two tracks, and it is far easier for a new band to be written about and get the word out across the world's mp3 blogs, than, say ,trying to get coverage in a monthly magazine that may only get very established artists on the cover.
If the artists are good they will prosper. Not every act will find favour with every blog -I quite like the National and Voxtrot, and am starting to get into the latest Feist album, but some blogs have gone absolutely mad about these acts.
And at the end of the day, if individual blogs (as opposed to one or two that are almost paid for by the music industry) are writing about acts and getting them heard, rather than a handful of music industry bigwigs who are in it for the money rather than the music, that has got to be positive at the end of the day.
Rant over. And like I said, Ben, this was a response not to you but the article
Oh, and in what seems to be the most elitist thing I have ever seen, you have to audition (sic) to leave comments over at Idolator.
bloody hell!
I definitely understand your point of view on the whole thing and I love that you aren't in a blog clique, they can be quite pompous. But when you compare the hype love that The Black Kids and The National are getting, Im not so sure I get it. The National are four albums and an EP deep, whereas The Black Kids just released an EP. To me, it seems that such a young act is basically getting set up for failure in the long run. But, with that said, I do love your blog!! Keep up the good work!!
man, i still remember the lead singer from the Christian ska band he used to be in. honeylocust.
as far as i'm concerned, that was the peak of his career. the guy could skank with the best of 'em.
hup, hup.
Ben -glad you like the blog. Like I said, this rant was not a reflection on you but I suppose what might be termed blog politics in the twenty-first century. I know The National have been around longer, but I sometimes find that there are certain acts that get raved about on blogs to the extent where people feel the need to slag them off just because everyone else likes them (which is so childish). Still, the black Kids are coming to London very soon, so it will be interesting to see what happens...
I'm not so sure about The Black Kids, those tracks sound like half-formed demo's to me. I'd never in a million years give those tracks an 8.4/10 like Pitchfork did. But they certainly have a unique image and you can see why such sites are drwan to them. For now i'll reserve judgement until their first release proper.
But right now, I'm listening to Efterklang's 'Parades'. And if there was any justice in the world, all hype should be directed towards them. There really is no other band around like them.
Efterklang...will investigate. Always up for hearing new stuff.
Ed
Black Kids = OK but overrated.
Efterklang = good shit.
Post a Comment