there's more than a few moments on the record worth checking out, and i expect i'll enjoy the show (if i go). but, the way it''s presented here, that disconnect between actually being an interesting mathy-indie-whatever band and pretending to be a silly pop band is more likely to alienate both potential listeners than it is to build a crossover audience.
i suspect they're going to need another record or two to really coalesce.
the bossy thing is a strange kind of feminism. the way i understand feminism is that it's the analysis of male hierarchy, with the intent of constructing strategies for it's abolition. opening up spaces in the hierarchy for women is a way to co-opt feminism - and the struggle against hierarchy in general - rather than a type of feminism, itself. it's reactionary. in the end, the hetero-patriarchal capitalist system remains in place, and it's effects remain in place, it just has a few women in it to give it an identity politics gloss. it merely takes away an effective argument for reform, and replaces it with this neo-liberal concept of "equality of opportunity". this tactic has actually been successfully implemented in quite a few ways since the 80s. the prime example is south africa. today, the government is primarily black, but the apartheid regime has not been meaningfully altered. the upper class has merely opened a few spaces for black faces, while the mass of the population carries on in exactly the same condition that it has for centuries.
how about "let's get together and replace the boss (whatever the boss' gender) with democratic decision making bodies"?
it kind of gets to what i'm saying about ambition. i'm used to hearing indie rock and punk musicians argue against bossiness and domination altogether. this kind of music is generally paired with concepts of anti-establishmentarianism, egalitarianism and anarchism. it's a part of the appeal. the logic of "if men are dominating then women should be allowed to be dominating, too" exists in some kind of other alien spectrum, where domination is not an inherent injustice - the injustice is an unequal opportunity to be dominating.
a part of it might be the cultural changes that accompanied the reagan revolution; i encountered this kind of chicago school logic when i was organizing with occupy by self-identifying leftists, and basically none of them seemed to understand how internalized this kind of capitalist ideology really was in their thinking. you grow up with certain assumptions, and if nobody challenges them then they just don't get challenged. reality tv shows and dramas like game of thrones are more than entertainment - they're cultural propaganda. and they work at levels that we often don't realize.
but it does expose somebody trying to take over the world...
ambition is not an inherently negative trait in a musician, it's just something that needs self-discipline and a network of friends and acquaintances to put bounds around, to ensure that plans of global domination do not interfere with the quality of the output. the talent here is obvious, and global domination may be inevitable. but i'm guessing, from the results, that those checks and balances are not currently in place.
