July's random music post - Scouting for Girls

[mrph]

For lack of anything better to do right now, here's the slightly delayed July music post - there's plenty of serious stuff happening at the moment, so it's something a little more upbeat than usual.

Scouting For Girls

This time I'm not pointing people at MySpace, as it doesn't seem to have full tracks. So, follow the link to their site and watch the 'Heartbeat' video instead. I really shouldn't like this stuff, should I? But as 2008 pop goes, it's got a certain character - and the lyrics are nicely done.


Previous links:
Tinariwen - Dustin the turkey-  Dizzee Rascal

Comments

[zotz]

I take it you saw the "landfill indie" article?

[mrph.livejournal.com]

Just read it, actually - I missed it on Sunday.

Scouting For Girls - "the sound of Satan's scrotum emptying". Heh. Yes.

I do quite like the description of a "firework band", which seems to be quite accurate. But I think that's as much an industry/media problem as anything else.

Out of the bands they cover in that piece, I think the only ones I've actually liked are The Enemy, The Automatic and Scouting For Girls. And I'll agree that all three show hints of something good but don't quite deliver.

Really not sold on most of the others they mention; couldn't actually identify the remainder if you played 'em at me.

Is part of the problem the label, though? Indie doesn't mean what is used to mean, true - but I'm not sure that's something that can be blamed on the bands themselves. And blaming the Pigeon Detectives for 20 years of Tory misrule does seem a little harsh.

(I'm currently listening to Leonard Cohen, btw, just to redress the balance a little... :)

[zotz]

Is part of the problem the label, though?

To people who used to like actual Indie - the sort of stuff the majors wouldn't touch, as was - yes. In the main, though, it'd be the same whatever it was called. It's the current equivalent of the wall-to-wall Schlock, Fakedit and Watereddown hits of the eighties. And their less-talented imitators, of course. The problem isn't that it exists, it's its omnipresence.

[batpuss.livejournal.com]

I blame Razorlight.