Thoughts on Things - Music

The Thing About Surfer Blood
Floridian power poppers Surfer Blood, only a year into their existence, have been getting a heaps of good press. Pitchfork gave their debut album, Astro Coast, a phenomenally high rating (8.2 out of 10), stating, “first and foremost it's a great guitar album”. The notoriously hyperbolic Brit weekly NME labeled Astro Coast a “superb debut” and the band “excellent”, concluding “we like ‘em a lot.” Jumping on the bandwagon, Rolling Stone has published their name countless times, covering the band for the “Breaking”, “New Music Report, and “Hype Monitor” sections. NPR has reviewed Surfer Blood’s live show, and online indie distro giant Insound decided to launch its new “Studio Sessions” section with a live performance from the band. After all the hoopla, I couldn’t help but feel it was my duty to listen to these guys, given how much I love melodic guitar rock.



Power Pop Lineage: (clockwise from top left) Cheap Trick; Weezer; Surfer Blood

When I listen to Surfer Blood, I hear Cheap Trick, The Cars, Boston, Weezer, the sunnier side of Ride, some Pixies, some Pavement,The Beach Boys, and even a little Oasis. Swim, the first single from Astro Coast is an infectious, silly pop song. It sounds a little like Rick Springfield, a little like Weezer, a little like Vampire Weekend, and a lot like the Cars.

But that’s the thing: it’s just a pop song. I nod my head. I hum it for a minute or two after hearing it. I might tap my foot. But. I’ve listened to it dozens of times, waiting for some magical point of penetration, some insight to justify the hype. And nothing. So there are three places we can go from here. (A) The music press is completely bats. (B) The deficit of great mainstream guitar records has left us desperate for some good, old-fashioned power pop. (C) There’s a problem with my perception of guitar rock and pop music.

So let’s start with A. It’s been suggested time and again that the music press is, in fact, nuts. Really, probably, this is true. It’s happened time and again that bands show up, are hyped within an inch of their lives, and turn out to be completely forgettable. Off the top of my head, there’s The Vines, The Darkness, Damian Rice, and even blockbuster snooze fests like Snow Patrol (admittedly, I think Final Straw is a fantastic record. I could take or leave the rest.) and The Killers.

However, a good deal of bands bolstered by the press as “The Next Big Thing” have actually earned their hype, not just on a single record, but over the course of a career. I’m thinking Oasis, The White Stripes, Arctic Monkeys and, if we go back far enough, groups like U2, Dinosaur Jr., and R.E.M.. So then maybe the press really just likes Surfer Blood, and this is the start of something special that I just don’t get yet. The band is new enough that the situation could go either way, but to write them off simply because of hype is unfair.

Let’s look at the charts right now. As of 4/13/10, the top twenty is, with the notable exception of Ludacris’ new record, Meth, Ghost, and Rae’s Wu-Massacre, and country mainstay Alan Jackson, all pop, faux-R&B, and dance music, most of it synth heavy. Lady Gaga has both an LP and an EP up there (admittedly, I like Lady Gaga, but still), the most recent heap of Black Eyed Peas refuse is still going strong, teen pop sensation Justin Bieber appears twice, pop compilation Now 33 has the third spot, and Usher sits at number one.

On the singles chart, apart from an Irish pop band called The Script I’d never heard of until about three minutes ago, there’s not a guitar-and-acoustic-drumset-based group on there. It’s all heavily synthesized, heavily affected, auto-tuned to hell and back glam pop (again, apart from Luda, who somehow has managed two singles in the top 20). And really, other than U2 and Coldplay, neither one of whom would know a power chord if it hit them in the face, Kings of Leon have been the only rock band to make much of a splash in the past year.



The State of Pop, 2010: (A) Lady Gaga (B) Usher with protegee Justin Beiber (C) Kanye West (D) Taylor Swift

There seems, however, to be a sea change in the making. Indie favorites Vampire Weekend debuted at number one on the billboard charts not long ago, while the soundtrack for New Moon (that's the second Twilight movie) featured Grizzly Bear, Bon Iver, and Death Cab for Cutie. More and more pop stars are wearing skinny jeans, thrift store tops, and retro Nikes. In the middle of all of this, Surfer Blood (let’s not forget that’s who we’re discoursing on right now) show up.

They’re indie enough to be part of this new revolution, catchy enough to be mainstream, and, in a climate of one over produced synth anthem after another, refreshingly simple; guitars, amps, drums, hooks, some reverb. Their 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s influences make them an across-the-board attraction for older generations, while their association with the proliferating DIY indie scene makes them perfect for the kids these days.

So the hype might be a bit much, but can we really blame Surfer Blood for hitting the zeitgeist? It’s not their fault anymore than it was Nirvana’s fault for putting out Smells Like Teen Spirit as the 80’s underground punk-Sabbath-Beatles fusion thing was reaching the mainstream and Hair Metal was nailing it’s own coffin shut with horrid self-parody.

In addition to the Surfer Blood’s context, as I dutiful writer I must also exam my own context. When I read that Astro Coast is “a great guitar album”, my pulse quickens. I think maybe a new band has popped up that will allow me to put away Siamese Dream and You’re Living All Over Me for a few months and dig on something different. Yet already I’ve done Surfer Blood a disservice, by comparing them, before I’ve heard a lick of their music, to two of the great guitar records of all time. Or, if you disagree with that assessment, I’ve set myself up for disappointment by hoping that a debut record from a year-old band will compare to two of my favorite albums of all time.

Everything is relative. When I first listened to Weezer’s Blue Album (on cassette, on my walkman, after buying it at Sam Goodie), my mind was completely blown. What was this wild new amalgam of power chords and pop hooks? When my dad heard it, he thought it sounded like Cheap Trick, to which my immediate response was: What the fuck is Cheap Trick?

Smashing Pumpkins’ Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness changed my perception of reality. When I played it for my dad, a devotee of The Beatles, The Who, The Clash, and Hendrix, he asked why there were so many guitar overdubs. But, my taste having veritably been formed by the sound of the Pumpkins, I couldn’t fathom a great guitar record without 10,000 overdubs. Listening to Dinosaur Jr, my dad told me he liked the chord changes, that it reminded him of Neil Young. By which of course I was revolted, because who who’s worth their salt listens to that old crap?



Everything's Relative (A) Hendrix (B) Journey (C) Surfer Blood (D) Smashing Pumpkins in a Box

Now, of course, when I listen to a new band like Surfers Blood, I think: Wow, they sound like Weezer. But to some 13 year old kid in Vermont who’s never heard Weezer and reads about Astro Coast on Pitchfork in the school computer lab or in Rolling Stone at the local library, and runs to pick up the record (or, more likely, download it), Surfer Blood may very well be a life changing experience.

When I look back to the 90’s guitar rock renaissance, I can’t help but think that it was the last great pop music epoch. Pearl Jam. The Chili Peppers. Nirvana. Smashing Pumpkins. Rancid. Soundgarden. Radiohead. Even groups like Hum and Deftones were moving units. And from the UK: Oasis. Blur. Ash. Supergrass. Ride. But what were those bands to people who’d lived through the 80’s? Who had Dinosaur Jr, R.E.M., The Pixies, Melvins, and Mudhoney? Or, on the otherside of the pond, Jesus and Mary Chain, The Cure, and The Smiths?

And what was the music of the 70’s to my dad, who had grown up with The Stones, Cream, The Kinks, and The Byrds? How could Rancid and the rest of the 90’s punk resurgence impress someone who had seen The Clash in 1978? More than anything, it’s the relativity of my own musical ideas and taste that make me think that maybe a band like Surfer Blood is just another rock band, and doesn’t deserve the hype. And I guess that makes me, at the ripe old age of 27, a crotchety old man.

So Surfer Blood, at just a year into their career, have been hyped to hell and back. And maybe they deserve it. After writing these last few paragraphs, I go back to Swim and I think: Damn, this a pretty good song. Especially in the context of contemporary pop music. Especially to a wide-eyed kid with a brand new guitar and some skinny jeans who doesn’t have the endless parade of music references to pull from the trunk that I’ve accumulated over the years. Maybe I’m just being cynical. Maybe Astro Coast is a damn good album, and it’ll keep the youth boogieing the way Weezer did for me. Good for Sufer Blood. I think I like these guys. A lot.

Thoughts on Things - Music