The Slashes – Limo Tint
Genre: Post-Punk
I was recently in a bodega in Guatemala, drinking beer and listening to the radio. It was playing South American pop-rock of the 60s. I didn’t know most of the songs. But I recognized them. They’d been taken wholesale by Western groups and turned into hits. Some quick research revealed that the groups who’d made the songs into hits never credited or even hinted at having taken inspiration from the Latin rockers.
What was worse still is that the Western versions sounded exactly like the originals. There was no way you could mistake it for something else. Well, ol’ Oscar Wilde, may have been write about geniuses stealing ideas. What he should’ve added, however, is that geniuses cannot copy. If they take something, it’ll be their genius that will inevitably change the shape and meaning of whatever it is that they have taken.
The Slashes’ “Limo Tint” may have started as a song inspired by post-punk-revival bands like Interpol. But because The Slashes are driven by a ferocious drive to find themselves through art, the song ends up sounding like nothing else. Sure, there are hints of Morrissey-like melancholy and of 70s art-rock. But this is a ghostly, mournful tune that can be created only by someone who cares fully and believes deeply in what it is that they’re writing and singing about.
The Lovinas – Don’t Have Sex With Your Ex
Similar artists: Ramones, Jay Reatard, Turnstile
Genre: Punk, Indie Rock
The legend goes that Johnny Ramone once tried listening to a Yes record and got all the way to the third-minute before ditching prog-rock forever. And, of course, we’re all very lucky that he did. At its worst that kind of music resembles the co-worker that you politely ask about their weekend who ends up holding a half hour speech about how they washed their car.
What details could possibly be this important? And who would ever have the time to listen to all of those details? Those are questions that punk rock dares to ask as it sets about putting the world to right. Stories that are good can be told in a couple of minutes. Lessons that really need to be learned require just about the same time.
The Lovinas’ “Don’t Have Sex With Your Ex” aims to convince you that you like the band just from reading the title alone. Will the song surprise you? No, and that’s the point. Just like the advice provided by the song’s title, there are some things that you should just already know. Don’t you like Ramones? Of course, you do. Well, then, this should tickle you in all the right ways.
