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The Films
The Films
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As an indie rock fan, you’re probably feeling pretty conflicted these days, aren’t you? What are you supposed to think? On one hand, it seems as if the music you love more than anything else in the world is finally getting the attention you’ve known all along it deserves: the White Stripes are winning Grammies, Antony and the Johnsons are being sold at Best Buy, and the Arcade Fire are being played on radio stations your parents could listen to. And yet, through all of this, your gut tells you that something’s not quite right. You can’t help shaking that deep-seated suspicion of all things “major” and “corporate” and “popular”. You worry it won’t last. You worry that they will find a way to co-opt the sounds you love – to make them a little more accessible, a little more mainstream. You worry that soon there will be nothing left but an ocean of indie-ish bands. And you worry that these bands sound like the Films.
Track listing:
01 What Kind of Day
02 Black Shoes
03 Come On
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Oh sure, there are things you like about the South Carolinian fourtet. You are perfectly willing to admit that their self-titled debut EP is a collection of three irresistibly catchy tunes. The kind that you find yourself singing along to the first time you hear them. Before you even know the words. You even find the middle track, “Black Shoes”, very nearly likable. The one with the handclap opening, ’50s style backbeat and distorted guitars. It has garage rock revival written all over it. Oh yes, there is plenty about the Films to remind you of the music you know and love.
But these three songs, they drift from your mind, forgotten, the moment the music stops. There are no great moments. Nothing really stands out. The lyrics aren’t clever or deep or even offensive. The production is a little too glossy for your taste – it lacks that rough edge that really excites you about this kind of music – and as for the vocals, well, they have that same annoying faux-sneer you recognize from that pop “punk” band your little sister plays alllll the time because she thinks the lead singer is just sooo cute.
You imagine your little sister will like the Films, too. And she’ll probably end up buying their album. And so will all of her friends. And then, well then, the Films will get signed to a major label and get all of their videos played on MTV and they’ll sell millions of records and everyone will fall in love with them and forget that they ever even heard of the Strokes or the White Stripes or Death Cab for Cutie, and that will be the end of the whole indie thing – everything will return to normal, you know, the way it was in back in 1998 when people would ask you what your favourite band was and you’d tell them and they’d look at you with that Wha? Who? Huh? _expression that you absolutely loathed (but also kind of liked because it made you feel special). And within a few short months, it will be like the whole thing never happened. It’s inevitable. Just a matter of time.
Sigh.
-Adam Bunch 3/15/06
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