Contemplate and Respond Thoughtfully to This Remark from Torquil Campbell of Stars

[Yablonowitz]

AVC: In response to Pitchfork's review of the new record, you wrote a pretty scathing blog post that included a line about art being dead. Do you still stand behind what you wrote?

TC: I simultaneously completely stand behind it and utterly disavow it. This is the thing about the fucking Internet—anybody can say anything, and sometimes what they say is profound and fascinating, and sometimes what they say is pretentious nonsense, and sometimes it's both at the same time. I don't need people to think I'm a nice guy or that I'm even a sane guy. I'm trying to make music and to write words and to operate as an artist in the public world by inciting feeling in people—inciting love, inciting hatred, inciting laughter. I feel like Stars gets criticized a lot for this aspect of who we are, that we are so forward in our wish to communicate, and we are so open about the fact that a lot of what we do is ludicrous and melodramatic and untrue and silly and all these things.

God bless Animal Collective, but they really have, in their own strange way, made indie rock a much more conservative place than it should be. If you can create intellectual distance from your work, then critics will feel clever for getting it and give you good marks; if you create music that fucked-up 13-year-old girls might enjoy, then critics will feel like you're trying too hard and not give you good marks. The Pitchfork phenomenon in particular is bizarre because it seems to have altered the fundamental way in which people get into music. I really do think that people should probably lose their virginity before they start writing reviews for Pitchfork. You should keep things in order in your life before you become an éminence grise—you should do some drugs and fall in love, and then start judging people. Because then you'd actually know something about life, as opposed to just being afraid of it and, you know, thinking Menomena are important.

[full on idle]

<3.

[bug on your lip]

i like cheesecake

[tessalasset]

i like this gentleman.

[PassiveTheory]

I'm so glad that I love Stars.

[RotationSlimWang]

Passive likes them? Alright, then his band must suck, shame that dude is in them.

[reverb]

i really don't like stars very much...and the singer guy in particular...but after reading this statement...i respect them way more than i had previously. kinda like when i heard phil collins on this american life talk about heartbreak.

maybe this should have gone in the confessions thread.

[PassiveTheory]

Passive likes them? Alright, then his band must suck, shame that dude is in them.

Shame on you, man, shame on you for saying Portishead sucks.

[wmgaretjax]

Menomena have more passion and resolve in their music than Stars could ever imagine pulling together. That was a childish potshot that just shows that these guys are as obsolete as I thought they were when my 16 year old sister played a few of their songs for me. Trash.

How the fuck can you "respect" this guy more for taking juvenile swings at bands infinitely better than his band, as well as making ridiculous comments about virginity.

[RotationSlimWang]

Shame on you, man, shame on you for saying Portishead sucks.

No, I use you as a rule for bands that I've never heard of. If I've never heard of them and you like them, it's for the wrong reasons.

Also, based on Jared's defense of Menomena they clearly suck, but in a really arty way.

IN CONCLUSION: Both these bands suck, the only one winning in this thread is Yablo. And Radiohead.

[Calamity Jane]

Menomena have more passion and resolve in their music than Stars could ever imagine pulling together. That was a childish potshot that just shows that these guys are as obsolete as I thought they were when my 16 year old sister played a few of their songs for me. Trash.

How the fuck can you "respect" this guy more for taking juvenile swings at bands infinitely better than his band, as well as making ridiculous comments about virginity.

You feel clever?

[Tylerdurden31]

I'm with Torquill. Maybe it's because I've found Animal Collective to be overtly pretentious(save for Feels).

[PassiveTheory]

*shrug* I don't know Menomena, but the rest of the statement he made I agree with.

[Tylerdurden31]

*shrug* I don't know Menomena, but the rest of the statement he made I agree with.

i thought maybe i'd like them after I heard one of their songs, but they're kinda boring IMO

[sonofhal]

The recent Menomena album is one of the best of the year. The same cannot be said for Stars latest offering. (I much prefer the stuff he does with Memphis, although the previous Stars albums were pretty good).

Hating Pitchfork is fine, but badmouthing bands just because Pitchfork likes them is a bit childish.

[TomAz]

the guy is idealizing the past. there have always been trendy fucks. there have always been music fans overly influenced by what the critics write. it's not a new phenomenon let alone a "fundamental change in the way people get into music".

[miscorrections]

i'm going to break the rules and like animal collective, menomena, and stars.

[Yablonowitz]

I like Menomena and Stars.

[bug on your lip]

the new Menomena CD was great...
and i don't see why he took a shot at them, since Pitchfork isn't completely glommin over em and they aren't that popular yet

i don't think i have ever listened to the Stars

[bleep]

i've always thought that the music of Stars would be very suitable for a Broadway musical production

[MissingPerson]

I'm not a huge fan of Stars, honestly, but I adore Torquil Campbell. I just don't groove with the band's music, but after seeing a video of him speak at the Future of Music Summit, I've decided that anything he says is worth hearing. I tend to root out interviews with him. Actually, that whole video is well worth watching and he discusses Pitchfork as well.

Watch it here, and do watch it, it's a really interesting discussion about modern music

What makes it extra interesting is that a certain Mr. Win Butler of another Canadian band now to be forever associated with Pitchfork is also there. And the girl on the panel has two of the best bandnames I've ever heard.