Should you be called upon to write a longish essay on the Next Big Thing...
...and should you adopt the common strategy (trade name: procatalepsis) of establishing the NBT's exceptionality by stipulating first what's not exceptional about them, in this case their form, like so: The Arctic Monkeys are a fucking great band. No, they don't have some earthshakingly original sound—in the broadest terms, it's much the same funk-tinged postpunk we heard from bands like Franz Ferdinand, the Strokes, and Kaiser Chiefs, albeit with occasional fuzz-rock passages that recall the White Stripes...
...and should you then make your essay's rhetorical turn, signaled not once but twice — by a section bar which is followed this lay-your-cards-on-the-table explanation of the argument: So no, it's not the Arctic Monkeys' form that sets them apart; it is, rather, their content...
...you should then not, repeat not, totally fail to turn, nor should you instead immediately launch into a very long paragraph extolling the band's sound — their musical form — as if it reasonably followed from the rhetorical turn, rather than refuting it, like so:
So no, it's not the Arctic Monkeys' form that sets them apart; it is, rather, their content. There's a furious drive to all of their songs (as opposed to just the singles), a righteous energy that can come only from utter self-confidence. Band lore has it that both singer-guitarist Alex Turner and Jamie Cook received guitars for Christmas in 2001, and it's readily apparent that the two of them learned to play guitar with one another, as it's rare to hear such precise and intricate interplay between a band's two guitarists even in acts 15 years older than these guys. The rhythm section—especially Helders—more than maintains the often ferocious pace right behind them. The drummer cites a somewhat surprising source as a band-wide influence: "We were rap fans more at school more than now, but yeah, it's still there," he says. "It still influences in some ways, like for me, it's the drummin'. The groove element, like foon-keh music."
Friends don't let friends write like that. Neither do competent editors. What's up, Village Voice?
Posted by jane at June 9, 2006 01:10 PM | TrackBack