Franz Ferdinand at the Palladium: Let Some Professionals Show You How It’s Done
Photo via Timothy Norris
I waited all week to link to my Franz Ferdinand review over at LA Weekly. The idea was to write something in response to Maura’s request that “someone write a really funny and scathing critique of [hipster] culture, so often either rooted in stereotypes that are years and years old, or so obviously written from a personal “everyone but me sucks” perspective that it becomes completely incoherent.”
Instead, a friend came in from out of town and we’re probably going to spend the next several hours smoking joints, listening to Boosie and hitting up In-N-Out Burger and Amoeba Records. You understand–when in Los Angeles, etc. The point was that Franz Ferdinand are a really good band essentially ignored by fickle bloggers and critics because they had the temerity to release an instant-classic debut and become really popular. To me, the definition of hipster has always been someone who treated life as a trend, eschewing the notion that certain art and ideas can be indelible, regardless of how contemporary morays shift. The people who can somehow say things like, “that’s so 2004.” Or as a friend so aptly put it, “the same kids who wore skateboard clothes but never skateboarded.”
I’m not positing Franz Ferdinand as avatars of timelessness, but I think they write smart catchy songs and present complex ideas in a simple unpretentious manner. They’re the sort of band “hipsters” should embrace, but their KROQ and MTV airplay seems to preclude anyone from taking them seriously. Moreover, had their disco-ode to isolation “Live Alone,” been released prior to this year, I’m reasonably certain it could have salvaged several of my relationships. Some of us want more than just four walls and adobe slabs.
LA Weekly: Let Some Professionals Show You How It’s Done
Download:
MP3: Franz Ferdinand-”Live Alone”
MP3: Franz Ferdinand-”L. Wells”
Stumble It!
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:00 pm
Remember when their second album came out there were all these complaints about how they hadn’t matured? That’s as beside the point as criticism gets. Anyway is the new album any good? I’ve heard nothing from it.
September 4th, 2009 at 8:55 am
I don’t subscribe to treating bands like baseball cards, and I couldn’t care less about whether or not a band is my little secret, but can’t “the thrill is gone” be a legitimate, non-callous-hipster reason for ignoring an album? There is only so much time in the day.
I bought Franz Ferdinand’s second record, but I passed on this new one b/c, in 2009, there’s other stuff that I’m more interested in checking out. It might very well be good–I liked the first single, and this “Live Alone” is great–but as you say . . . not exactly “avatars of timelessness”.
September 4th, 2009 at 9:09 am
Of course, you can have any reason you like for not wanting to listen to a band. However, if you like the two songs that you’ve heard from an album, conventional logic would intimate that you might like the album itself. On “Tonight.” Franz do some really interesting things that stray from their core sound just enough to keep it compelling.
As far as any major label rock band goes, Franz’s greatest hits are in a league with the Strokes, Wilco, Radiohead, and The White Stripes. Their albums might lack the same depth, but they’re also a lot more fun.