Resurrecting the Boy Band
By Jenn Zipp
The return of the Boy Band.
And I’m not talking about anything from mastermind Lou Perlman (who, by the way, is Big Tony’s bitch right now in the slammer… that’s what money laundering will get you). There’s a new breed of boy band in town.
They play instruments (whaaa-?), they don’t do choreographed dances (no!) and your mother wouldn’t trust them as your senior prom date (you don’t say!). No, the new breed of boy band is dirtier, grimier, and dead sexier.
I didn’t jump on the Backstreet Boy Bandwagon or prayed to a Justin Timberlake altar at the foot of my bed in high school. I was too busy trying not to conform. So at the age of 26, when I’m just too tired to give a shit about being “mainstream”, I’m taking this resurrection of boy bands seriously. (However, I do have fits occasionally when I’ve come to the realization that these bands are no longer my bands. I hate sharing my music with the population.)
I think deep down inside, there’s some really good music in there… somewhere.
Vampire Weekend
Before they were all over MTV, before they were headlining free concerts in Central Park and before they became the indie darlings of 2008, I was listening to them. I remember listening to Mansard Roof and thinking “Huh. Sounds like Paul Simon. “ I wasn’t the only one who noticed the similarity. After seeing their free in-store performance at Amoeba, just about everyone left saying the same thing. But I don’t care. I think they’re great. And I’d even say that if I didn’t want to bite the drummer’s back. What.
I love a band that can bring me back to those sweatshirt wearing days of college. “Campus” makes me think of eating on a FlexiPlan and cramming into someone’s dorm room to watch a TV the size of a ravioli. And my inner English Lit major yells out “It’s my favorite grammar song!” every time I hear “Oxford Comma”.
But there’s something you gotta hate about the band Vampire Weekend too. The fact that they’re cocky little white kids from Columbia University that wear sweaters and probably pray to Graceland like it’s the Bible. You gotta hate them… but they make such contagious music. Which probably explains their success with the TRL viewers.
The Virgins
Before they were Myspace’s Music Exclusive, before they were the background song for some cell phone commercial, and before they were picked up by Gossip Girl to be the show’s anthem band, I was listening to them.
Their EP was on constant replay at the store I worked at. We knew all the songs by heart and we (Becca, the resident fashion editor) and I dreamt of the lead singer’s mouth and how it could possibly swallow us whole. It’ something about that damn guitar hook in the first 5 seconds of Rich Girls that just sucks you in. It makes you do hip thrusts and utter words like “funky” or “oh yeah”. Their remake of The Faces’ “Love is Colder Than Death” use to be one of my favorites. Used to be. That is until they sold out and made an LP.
It’s not that I hate it. I was just taken aback when the synthesizers came in and the highly produced quality it had… I could actually understand the lead singer because some technician in the sound booth told him to “e-nun-ci-ate” and” One Week of Danger” lost all its naughtiness when they added that poppy chorus to it.
If you can find the EP, get it. And when you do, don’t get the LP because you’ll be highly disappointed.
The Morning Benders
Alright, so The Morning Benders have been around for a while before I started listening to them. I had a short stint working in Berkeley when I finally got word of this Oakland band that was sprouting onto the indie boy band scene. So I checked them out, got a copy of their EP “Waiting for a War” and loved them.
Something about their songs reminds me of watching old episodes of The Monkees and totally passing up Davey Jones for Mickey Dolenz. The intro of “Damnit Anna” transports me back to being 8 years old, lying on the top bunk, and having my sister tilt the radio in just the right angle to pick up the only AM radio station that played oldies. There’s a nostalgic quality their music has for a time period that I never lived in… if that makes any sense at all.
And like The Virgins, their LP came out with a highly produced sound to it. But instead of destroying a good thing, it only enhanced it.
Scissors for Lefty
After my stint in Berkeley, I returned to work in San Francisco (which people in Oakland apparently call “The City”) and I will always be a “City” girl at heart. Which is probably why I love Scissors for Lefty so much. They sing San Francisco’s praises in their tracks “Nickel and Dime” and “Ghetto Ways” but… I don’t know if they’re good. I listen to their album, I know all the words to “Lay Down Your Weapons” and “Next to Argyle”… but I still can’t figure out if this band is good.
I’ll tell you why I’m such a friggen groupie for this band: the lead singer, Bryan Garza, is perhaps the most attractive thing I’ve seen in a long time. The fact that he makes Michael Jackson/Prince-like noises and wears tight white pants when he struts on stage like Jagger could very well be why I listen to this band so much. I never had a thing for Justin Timberlake… but Bryan, yes.
White Rabbits
“They’re just a wall of sound,” Becca once said. “A wall of sexy sound!” And I have to agree with her. They’re perhaps the most complex sounding band out of the others that are mentioned. Call me crazy but it could have something to do with the fact that there are six guys in the band. Two of them are drummers, two of them sing, one of them plays piano, three of them play guitar, one guy bangs on his tambourine, another one will do your taxes… there’s just so many of them in the band… like rabbits.
And they’re also the size of bunnies. Rebecca and I went to Bottom of the Hill to check them out live and seriously, it was as if someone didn’t notify them that the Shire has a curfew of midnight. Little guys… tiny men… making this HUGE sound that makes you want to stomp and dance and kick.
I’m not gonna lie, that’s a little sexy… but then again, I’ve always had a thing for Hobbits.