4 Comments

  1. talty

    This post reminds me of a great scene in Metropolitan: (Audrey Rouget) What Jane Austen novels have you read? (Tom Townsend) None. I don’t read novels. I prefer good literary criticism.

    S&H’s albums Volume 1&2 have been well received, and they had a great appearances on Sound Opinions and at SXSW this year. You are wrong about most of their music being covers (ZD wrote 10/13 songs on Volume 1 and 11/13 songs on Volume 2) and linking videos of her movies isn’t relevant to her music.

    I’m surprised at your disbelief that so many people were at the show, they were there to see by your very eyes. Did you suddenly realize you weren’t at the Empty Bottle, and in some way your personal “indie” credibility would be tarnished for appearing at a free show on a beautiful night in Chicago. I was unable to go to the show, but thanks for opening up a spot for someone else. Remember for your next post, if you want to critique something, you should see it.

  2. Leor Galil

    What’s funny about your comment is that you claim I’m making something of a straw-man argument while you do it yourself. Did I ever claim I was actually critiquing the live performance?

    I was pretty up front about everything – what I saw, what I didn’t see, why I didn’t see it. That doesn’t mean I can’t critique something, especially when She & Him’s music is everywhere and not just onstage. I could see your point if I was actually criticizing their live show, but I wasn’t.

    This whole post was about image, so the Zooey Deschanel movie clips were apt. Far more people are willing to pay $10 for a ZD movie than a She & Him album, and it would be daft to say that her presence as a movie star in the band didn’t draw people. I talked to some folks who didn’t know anything about the band but willingly brought up her role in “Elf.”

    You also entirely missed the point of the piece, that being to skewer “indie” chic and cred: That She & Him is basically the equivalent of a well-manicured concept of cool. I could care less about cool, and I’ll go to any number of free shows regardless of level of cool. Nice Empty Bottle jab, but that clearly shows you have an understanding of “cool points” perhaps more than me: I’ve been there maybe three times. I’ve probably seen more “uncool” emo shows in Chicago than indie-cred-approved sets.

    Cool in relation to music is relatively meaningless to me. Or perhaps you missed the post where I thanked Slipknot for all their music and a sense of stability.

  3. Fruzsina Eordogh

    Oh. I was by the Art Institute yesterday and I was wondering what the commotion was about.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *