She Wants Revenge
Shewantsrevenge.com
I have to be honest, I happen to know and like this band. Saw them tour with Electric 6 a few years back – they played the side room at Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas, great set – and have been loosely following them ever since. So, it’s probably not right that I included them in this competition, but I’ll try to be as fair as possible by excluding the following songs from review: Tear You Apart, True Romance, All Wound Up (since those are on repeat rotation in my iPod.)
1) Take the World – (watching the video) Wait, is this Justify My Love? Are all these all the women he’s slept with? Nice eyeliner. I feel dirty watching this, is it SFW? Clearly there isn’t anything about this video that I need to watch to understand the song more clearly; it’s just a black and white home footage of women seducing the camera. (Have fun with that, boys!) As for the actual music, I’m going to download it of course. “Is this the life, the one you imagined? Is the life, the one from your dreams?” There is some hook in here that makes me feel like it should be in the movie “The Craft” or “The Lost Boys” … something dark and possibly vampirey. Oh crumbcake, I bet it will show up in the next Twilight movie.
2) These Things – Meh. It’s a little bit of a downer on this one and I say that with love. The “thing” that She Wants Revenge has is Justin singing in a languid, sexy drone. On this song, not so much of the awesomeness. Although, I am intrigued on what she’s doing with the popsicle stick in the bathroom. I mean, who wouldn’t be?
3) Out of Control – I realize again that the reason I dig She Wants Revenge is that each song is a story unto itself. That and you just want to grab someone and screw. This song particularly, which I have not heard before, has a great back and forth sway beat. And that’s all I’m going to say about that. Let’s move on to the competition…
Les Handclaps
leshandclaps.com
Electro-pop? French Canadian? Oh, this should be interesting.
1) Cacti Are Delicious Fruit – Un deux trois quatre? Yup, all in French. Except “Cacti are delicious fruit” yet they don't tell me why... but damn it, the poppy, hip-shaking happiness of the Casio keyboard makes me not want to care. Imagine bouncing around your house, cleaning and dancing in between dusting the blinds; that’s when I would listen to this. Or drunk. Very drunk playing Twister while shooting sake bombs.
2) Pastich – Had to watch a video for this one… the woman sort of frightens me in a Helga of the Vikings way; she’s buff, tall, blond and sassy. Would totally beat up the other lead singer, (who is a smallish, suspenders wearing goob,) most likely she wears the pants in the family. And it’s kind of painful to watch her dance. Is she cross-eyed? Not that any of this matters, I’m downloading the song. I like it.
3) Sunny City – I feel like I’m on speed and bicycling through a portion of a trialthlon, but I’m covered in cotton candy and bees are attacking me. Don’t understand it? Yeah, that’s kinda like the craziness that is happening in this song.
AND THE WINNER IS…
It would have taken quite a feat to beat She Wants Revenge, and je suis très désolé Les Handclaps, but you just didn’t do it. Although for all your positivity and bounciness Les handclaps, She Wants Revenge counter spells you with their dark twistiness.
Congratulations guys, you are still in the running to become the BEST BAND NAME AT 2011 SXSW! (Feel free to send me a lock of your hair Justin. I’ll add it to my donation to Locks of Love)
Up Next: Say "No!" to Architecture versus Slapping Purses
3 comments:
Finally I have a minute or two to get on here and give my input on things, so here goes.
First off, I think I misgauged your idea on a Band Name Bracket by your actually listening to the band's music before deciding who won. I kind of thought you would judge their names on aesthetic alone, much like that one skateboard magazine used to judge band 8x10s to see if they "sucked at a glance" but you had to go and take a gander at their "art" and judge them on some kind of frivolous "merit". What do you think this is, a Democracy? Of course not. I alone am King Judge of Style and Substance and you will all bow before me! Silly plebes, with your artistic merit. Sheesh.
That said, I did look up Say No To Architecture on youtube and the first video that came up for "Fall in Love at Tape Mountain" was pretty good so they win by default. No point in listening to Slapping Purses as I'm sure they suck, and their name sounds like angry lesbian lovemaking. So good luck with all that, guys.
And then there's this She Wants Revenge business I gotta say something about. I too am familiar with this band, as I saw them some years back play a show with Louis XIV. They were awful. Not one ounce of stage presence. Which is sad, because I really liked them back when they were still called Joy Division. Such a shame. So the verdict is Les Handclaps wins in a runaway. Even though I didn't listen to them either. And mostly because they are Canadian and the Arcade Fire are giving all Canadian bands a leg up in my book for being Canadian alone.
Well done, fuckers!
I figured I would jump here and offer my input. I listened to She Wants Revenge as well as the crazy ass 80's pop Canadian band les handclap or whatever they are called. For me, She wants revenge wins by a landslide. Mainly because I don't care for the French Canadian, get over it and start speaking English.
Now I must go and catch up on the other music you have posted.
Oh, please no les handclap on the next mix memory stick.
Cheers
Dude - You were never able to know which direction I might go, so I think it rather appropros.
J - Man, I got an awesome stick waiting for you. No Quebecois to be found.
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