I heard Les Savy Fav on Twiple Jay yeterday. Don't look at me like that, I was surfing.
Anyhoo, embarrassing admissions aside, Inches goes very nicely indeed. Primary influences are the early Police, Gang of Four, Echo and The Bunnymen, but you could pick out any one of the British post punk-funk bands. Strange considering LSF are from Brooklyn. Thrown in for fun is also a sprinkling of Sam Spade, Firesign Theatre and Dick Danger type shtick. Also some childish political nonsense.
Apart from the political toolery, my main criticism would be that Inches goes on a bit, becomes quite remorseless, in fact.
Wolfman(?) likes them, though.
Wolfman
Even before the release of its debut album in 1999, The Cat and the Cobra, Les Savy Fav mustered an idea that would either become a musical triumph or an utter failure. The plan was to release nine seven-inches on nine different labels, an idea that would turn enthusiasts of Les Savy Fav's art-punk drama into either devouring completists or failing incompletists. It was the latter case more often than not, as some of these seven-inches were near-impossible to find (French Kiss put it best when they said, "Even the band doesn't have copies of some of these songs"). But with Inches, all nine seven-inch releases have been conveniently compiled onto one disc, completing the prophesied cycle that was premeditated even before the first song was recorded. And it just so happens to be Les Savy Fav's strongest release yet.
I have no idea what Dave McGonigle is on about. Les Savy Fav, presumably. I think he gets to them eventually.
Dave McGonigle
First of all, I have a bad habit. Several, actually, but let's start simple: I have a tendency to use terms in conversations that I don’t fully comprehend the meaning of. Take ‘high concept’, for example. I think I first heard it in an article about the movie producer Don Simpson, supposedly the foremost exponent of the ‘high concept movie’; yet it seems easier to define what isn’t high concept than the reverse (a bit like emo?). My only excuse is that no-one else really seems to be able to do any better: in Robert Kosberg's "The Bottom Line of High Concept" chapter in his book, How To Sell Your Idea to Hollywood, he credits the idea to Barry Diller and Michael Eisner: apparently "Diller and Eisner had to devise a way to grab attention in a TV Guide listing with just one or two lines... that one sentence had to convey just how exciting, sexy, provocative, and entertaining the movie was going to be for them to watch." Great. So why, if it’s just a way to sex-up a boring movie and can thus be theoretically applied to any film, do we have the term ‘high-concept movie’? Am I missing something? Does this, in the grand scheme of things, matter?
AGB Rating - Distinction
The singer looks a bit like Iggy Pop crossed with an amorous Viking. That's a good enough reason to like them.
Posted by: Tim | 18 December 2004 at 08:17
You're not the only one who thinks that, Tim. Tim Stelloh at Popmatters (You're not him, are you?) ...
"Tim Harrington still flails around stage like an overweight Iggy Pop, and the band can still whip up a dose of raw rock and roll."
They played here about a month ago, but while I'm off the sauce, I've given up going to bands.
Posted by: Tony.T | 18 December 2004 at 12:33
If their primary influences included Echo and The Bunnymen then they must be pretty cool- i've got their hits album but haven't heard all their albums- which one to reccommend ?
Posted by: Brett Pee | 18 December 2004 at 21:05
Coincidentally, Brett, Crocodiles.
Posted by: Tony.T | 19 December 2004 at 00:42
Does this mean I'm thinking like a Popmatters critic? God. I s'pose it could've been worse...NME, for example.
I don't hear much Echo and the Bunnytwats in them, to be honest.
Posted by: Tim | 19 December 2004 at 06:58
Not a fan of the 'Twats, Tim?
Posted by: Tony.T | 19 December 2004 at 10:51