Rough Trade, 2006
Acquired: Love Garden Blowout Location, New, 2009
Price: $3
Oh, 2006! When the blogs were just starting to ruin perfectly good bands or get their claws into the next possible next big thing only to toss them aside bloody and wasted. Well, actually it's not the blogs' fault, a lot of these bands were boring to being with. The Long Blondes aren't boring, though! They're not very innovative, and they're not anything special, but their music is good. However, I distinctly remember seeing them tacked at the end of the Pitchfork Top 50 Records of 2006 as a sort of precautionary measure. You know, just in case the Long Blondes got huge in 2007. They didn't. Probably because they sounded like everything else that was trending in 2007 and only really came to an end in the middle of '08. They seemed to be cooler-than-thou brits making dancey indie-rock. They had the girl singer, which made them sound like X Ray Spex or something, but more chic, less punk. More post-punk, because post-punk was FUCKING HUGE in 2006/7...or at least the post-punk revival. No one cares about that shit anymore because as all trends do, they get old and die and are resurrected after enough time passes. I'd love to trace musical trends like the zodiac. “The Year of the Post-Punk,” “The Year of Neo-Garage Rock,” “The Year of Hipster New York Rock Bands,” etc. I won't lie, I knew the only song I really liked on this record was the Anna Karina name-checking “Lust in the Movies,” and as you already know, I have a thing for all things Anna Karina related (god, I sound like a 16 year old girl whose 22 year old film school boyfriend told her to watch some Godard and then she cut her hair short and died it black). Anyway, that song is the jam. The rest of the record never quite hits that high watermark, although “You Could Have Both,” which features a spoken word breakdown (one of my favorite aspects of british music), and though it has that post-punky/dance punk drum beat, it's still a lil' jam. I will also tell you that I only really REALLY bought this record because I think it has amazing cover art. The record looks cooler than it tries to sound. It seems like all the British bands are caught up on this sound though! Still! I mean, the only UK band that is really killing it right now is Los Campesinos! I'm probably forgetting some really rad bands, but the NME scene seems to be caught up on that perceived cool that the US had in the early 00s with the Strokes and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and that NYC poseur-chic. Oh, and I almost forgot, most of this record sounds like No Doubt, which is bothersome. And you know what I DO love, is how the reviews I've read tend to laud the female-centric lyrics (see: riot grrrl) despite the fact that 10 of the 12 songs were written by a dude.
Omg look how kewl they r!
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