Future Dogs Die in Kaiser Ferdinand's Hot Hot Car Party

[vovat]

I got the link to this article from revme. There are some great comments by Andy Partridge in it. I don't necessarily agree with all of the author's conclusions, but it's a good read. For what it's worth, I really know nothing about Coldplay. I've probably heard at least one of their songs at some point, but I can't remember. As unfair as this might be, I'm kind of turned off by their boring-sounding name. I feel the same way about Guster.

bethje and I watched the two most recent Bullshit! episodes last night. One was on hair, and the other on gun control. The former didn't really have any grand point to make, but it was funny. I especially liked the part where they looked at some of the hair care products offered by AsSeenOnTV.com, including a pubic hair shaver that came with stencils. They also looked at expensive haircuts, hair growth medicines with harmful side effects, transplants, and toupees--sorry, "hair replacement technology systems," or whatever the hell that lady called them.

Not too surprisingly, considering the whole Libertarian thing, Penn and Teller came out against gun control. I thought they made some decent points. I guess that's really an issue where it's pretty easy to find statistics and anecdotes to support both sides. I can say that I don't particularly like guns, but it really IS true that criminals are going to get them no matter how many laws are on the books. Maybe if there were some kind of magic spell that could make all the guns disappear, that would be a different story. {g} Actually, that reminds me of when I took African History in college, and, when the colonists were bringing in guns to use in subjugating a certain tribe (I forget which one), there was a belief that some kind of magic could turn the bullets into water. That would be a cool trick. But I digress.

There was a fair amount of examination of the Second Amendment, and what the Founding Fathers actually meant by it. Penn and Teller's conclusion was that the citizens should be allowed to be armed so that the government will be afraid to take away their liberties. They also argued that people saying it only applied to militias, or who think the wording is vague, had it wrong. While this is mostly true, I do think the word "arms" is a bit unclear. I mean, I know what the word means, but couldn't it be taken to the logical conclusion that people should be legally allowed to keep and bear nuclear weapons? Michael Moore made that basic argument in Bowling for Columbine. (Incidentally, Penn and Teller seem to really dislike Moore, despite the fact that they've done some similar things in the past. Am I wrong, or did Bullshit! and Fahrenheit 9/11 both have very similar segments on crappy safety products that people have tried to sell?) That aside, though, they made a reasonable point.

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Comments

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

that article looks like some good long reading, i'll save it for later. funny, the only group out of that amalgamation of groups that sounds like xtc to me is dogs die in hot cars (and in some songs, they REALLY do); the others i wouldn't even group in the same category. the bloc party/franz ferdinand/kaiser chiefs stuff, is like... i dunno. sorta, "hipster-y" (eugh i hate that word) mod, ipod mainstream-indie poprock. i think they owe more to a band like pulp than xtc. (not that they don't owe xtc, but you know..?)

and i used to like coldplay, when their first single "yellow" came out. that album had some really good songs on it. but they've slowly bored me to tears. i don't even know why people still bother...? it's like musical novicaine. auuugh.

[3x1minus1.livejournal.com]

oh, and guster grates on my nerves like a dentists' drill *after* the novocaine. :)

[vovat.livejournal.com]

I think I tried listening to a Guster album at a Borders listening station once, and it wasn't as bad as I might have expected. It wasn't that GOOD either, though. I'm generally pretty tolerant when it comes to music, but I have to say that I'd often rather hear something amusingly or interestingly bad that something that's just plain boring.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, out of those bands, I'm really only familiar with Franz Ferdinand (Beth has their album), and I don't think they're that XTC-ish. More influenced by Talking Heads, probably. Of course, XTC was also influenced by TH, so I don't know.

I can say that I haven't liked Blur as much since their music became less XTC-ish (i.e., the self-titled album and beyond). It was largely favorable comparisons to XTC that made me check them out in the first place, though.

I've never really understood what the word "hipster" even means. I mean, apparently hipsters like Dave Eggers, iPods, indie music, Doing Things Ironically, and Sounding Pretentious; but I don't know what actually makes someone a hipster. The idea I get is sort of like a yuppie, but more intellectual and less business-oriented, but I could be totally wrong.

I'm really not that familiar with Pulp, although I like the song "Common People" quite a bit.

[revme.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen those ones (and might not for a while), but the hair one sounded good, and the Gun Control one might be interesting, since that's one of those subjects where I can clearly see both sides and sort of wrestle with where I stand on that frequently.

As for them v. Moore, I think it might be some flavor of "the greatest heretic is the one who believes almost exactly what you do". Not that P&T/Moore are terribly close in their beliefs, but I don't really know if they're as, you know, different as they put on. I dunno. Although, I've never really understood the out-and-out hatred a lot of people seem to have for him; sure, he's an asshole (well, OK, I can see why Trey Parker and Matt Stone hate him, with the whole Cartoon in Bowling For Columbine where he asked if they'd do his cartoon, they said no, he got someone else to do it in their style and then edited it right after Matt Stone spoke), but he's a pretty good/entertaining filmmaker, and actually does at least SOME research (unlike, say, Coulter, who seems to be one of the main folks he's compared to). So, yeah, I dunno. I don't really like Moore's books, but I think his films are, for the most part, pretty good (I dug Bowling for Columbine, but, I'm sorry, the Beating Up On Alzheimer's Charleton Heston was just lame).

[vovat.livejournal.com]

As for them v. Moore, I think it might be some flavor of "the greatest heretic is the one who believes almost exactly what you do".

Yeah, like how intolerant Evangelical Christians often attack other branches of Christianity more than non-Christians (see, for instance, Jack Chick vs. the Catholics).

Not that P&T/Moore are terribly close in their beliefs, but I don't really know if they're as, you know, different as they put on. I dunno.

Yeah, their beliefs are probably pretty similar in terms of civil liberties, but probably not at all in terms of government spending. The main similarity that I see, though, is in their general documentary style (serious issues interspersed with jokes and making fun of people). Oh, well.

I think I'd heard of that Matt Stone story before. I also seem to recall hearing that Moore said he would get in touch with Ray Bradbury about using the "Fahrenheit 9/11" title, and never did, but I don't know how true that is. I've heard a lot of things about how misleading his films are, and while that might be true in certain cases (I suppose the Stone issue would count in this category, although it's somewhat unimportant in the grand scheme of things; it's not like whether or not Parker and Stone actually did the cartoon would have changed the main point), I think he's often attacked for things he really didn't get wrong. I remember reading about some conservative paper called "99 (or whatever; I forget the exact number) Deceptions in Fahrenheit 9/11," and that a lot of the so-called "deceptions" were actually just jokes or opinions. Although I don't know this for sure, I kind of get the idea that Moore often isn't intentionally misleading so much as he's just more prone to run with facts he's found that support his position, while ignoring those that don't.

As for comparing Moore to Coulter, maybe I'm biased, but I get the impression that the Big Names in Right-Wing Media are almost always more radical than comparable people on the Left. Coulter is just totally ridiculous, though; by comparison, she makes Bill O'Reilly seem like a nice, intelligent man. Besides, even if Moore does stretch the facts to make points, it seems like his heart is generally in the right place, while Coulter and her ilk tend to be bigots.

I've never read any of Moore's books, but I liked both Bowling and Fahrenheit (the latter more than the former, although I can kind of see how other people might have preferred Bowling). The Charlton Heston interview was a cheap shot, though. I mean, I don't like the guy, but arguing against someone with Alzheimer's doesn't exactly help your case very much.

[revme.livejournal.com]

Also -- yes, "Guster" is an awful, awful band name. Man, I wish I could remember, there was some band that had a record that might even be new and kind of popular that had one of the most Generic Band Names Ever. Although I suppose "not being able to remember it" is one of the hallmarks of the Utterly Generic Band Name.

As for the bands: I've only heard "I Love You Cause I Have To" by Dogs Die In Hot Cars, which was kind of OK, but not really enough to make me want to seek out the record (though I can kind of hear where everyone's all "They sound just like XTC!"); Franz Ferdinand -- I really like "Take Me Out", but I haven't heard their other singles, and I wouldn't mind seeking them out to hear, but I'm too lazy to, really; only heard a little bit of Bloc Party and they seemed OK; I saw Kaiser Chiefs on Conan or Leno-right-before-Conan or something and thought they were awful; I think Hot Hot Heat would be decent if they got a singer who didn't completely suck; and I think "future" is the Futureheads? And I don't know them at all, really.

[vovat.livejournal.com]

Although I suppose "not being able to remember it" is one of the hallmarks of the Utterly Generic Band Name.

Having a band name that sounds a lot like some other band name doesn't help, either. I can't think of any examples just now, but I know that such things happen.

Franz Ferdinand is pretty good, but I can't speak for those other bands. I think I've heard something by the Futureheads on a mix CD that someone sent me, but I can't remember it at all.