International Music – Guter Ort
The democratization of pop-rock music is a strange thing to witness. Sure, it’s great that everyone can and is encouraged to do it. But be careful what you wish for. If you start letting everybody in, the next thing you know, folks like Chris Martin are plucked away from what surely would’ve been a wonderful career in accounting or teaching geography, and they end up headlining Glastonbury.
Nobody looked The Beatles or The Velvet Underground and exclaimed: “Wow, they look just like us!” Everyone looked up at those bands and exclaimed: “Wow, I wish I looked like them!” Sure, there’s a bit of a focus on superficiality here, on fashion and appearance. But, for the most part, the music of those bands sounded exactly like what the band members looked like.
International Music sound and, most importantly, look like they had exactly one hour to decide what underground art movement they were going to join. They picked music, and with “Guter Ort,” the band tries to blend pop-rock hooks with the kinds of sounds that a band looking to be invited to play in an art gallery might produce. Most importantly, these German folks do not look ordinary. That must’ve taken some effort, and I commend them.
Goddamn Wolves – Seven Days a Week
Brand new bands, and artists in general, are told to follow their muse, to bravely go with their gut instinct, and to be themselves. What the vast majority do instead, however, is distort themselves to fit the ideal image of an artist that they’ve seen in other places. That’s only natural. Most of us want to be liked and will go to great lengths to ensure that we improve our chances.
Still, that approach helps almost nobody. Just scroll through YouTube videos of 1980s poodle-metal bands. You’ll easily notice how much work those people put into getting their hair-dos to stick out just right. And you’ll also notice that many of them could sing brilliantly and play zapping guitar solos. Finally, you’ll notice it all sounds dated and, worse still, the same as any other band of that era.
Maybe artists, even the ones operating among the grime of the pop world, should be encouraged to focus on the things that make them weird and undesirable. Goddamn Wolves do this for “Seven Days a Week,” a tune that feels like it could be the soundtrack to an athlete making a farewell tour. It’s honest, funny and heartbreaking. That’s where the great songs usually come from. A bit of embarrassment never hurt anybody. And writing about it might certainly help make your music more memorable than everyone else writing about their cars or girlfriends.
