Line Out - Comments on Cave Singers @ The Crocodile

Comment by jz

jz — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:09:39 -0800

man, they sounded fucking great on friday. they played two brand new songs, both of which really focused on petes vocals, as well as some kinda cool south american percussion doodad. youre right, sam--theyre getting more confident w each gig.

i saw a couple dudes sorta pogo dancing to the cave singers, so its not entirely sit-downable.

black mountain was alright but i needed a whole lot of mushrooms to really make the music work.

Comment by Torvalds

Torvalds — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 13:34:53 -0800

Uh, anyone notice that every song sounds exactly the same? Same picking pattern/chords/mumbled singing/etc? This bothers nobody?

Comment by jz

jz — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:19:56 -0800

@2--youre not listening right.

Comment by Yes

Yes — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 14:29:39 -0800

I totally agree with Torvalds here. I saw Cave Singers at the Croc for one of those free Dewars shows back in March (along with The Can't See and Whalebones). Since that show, it is apparent that their live performance has become "tighter", but what kind of compliment is that really - especially when you take into account the snooze inducing simplicity of their compositions. Is this music for dumb people? Is it music used to sell VW's and iPods? Yes. Oh, and Black Mountain kicked all asses, hands down.

Comment by jz

jz — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 15:05:00 -0800

@4--right, its music for VW-driving dummies, like the entire crowd that was loving their set, not to mention black mountain, who picked them as tour mates and invited them onstage for the encore.

Comment by Torvalds

Torvalds — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 16:43:42 -0800

This is not folk music as it is lyrically vapid/sophomoric and thus communicates nothing important/meaningful to the "folk" from which that genre name is derived.

Real folk music is unadorned so it's easy to play and the lyric can be easily heard and remembered with few listens - so why is this "folk" music so sparse, considering the truly uninspired and unnoteworthy lyrics? If it's then meant to be pop music, it lacks any of the excitement and complexity that pop music implies.

This album mostly just lacks creativity.

Comment by jz

jz — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 17:02:24 -0800

torvalds, your argument over whats folk and what isnt is not only tired but completely misplaced. i dont even know where to begin to counter it.

"lyrically vapid?" wha? talk to me about "woke up this morning, i believe ill dust my broom"--one of the oldest lyrics around and not exactly lyrically profound. vapid just isnt the right word, torvalds, bc you could argue that a vast amount of what youd probably hold dear as "folk" is lyrically vapid. its all about the delivery, which cave singers certainly have.

besides, i think if you actually listened to/read the lyrics, youd realize theres nothing vapid about them.

the album has one of the more original sounds ive heard all year.

Comment by Jethro

Jethro — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:32:00 -0800

The only place that these dudes are a BFD is at the Stranger.