Just Who Are These So and So’s, Anyway?

Is it just me, or do Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s – whose name, naturally, I was drawn to – sound like they're cynically regurgitating Saddle Creek-style Flyover Indie?  Their CD is streaming at AOL this week and – here, just listen to this:

Margot(etc) – Quiet as a Mouse (m4a) (buy)

Now, listen to this:

Cursive – Driftwood:  A Fairy Tale (mp3) (buy!)

Normally I’d be all a-gogo about the sudden left turn into bouncy CTA-style jazz-pop, and the strings, and the horns.  But the bits of polished pop-punk, whatever lyrics I’ve bothered to catch (“I felt apathy and hate infest in my bones?!”) and the secondhand sincerity throughout the thing have me racing for the toilet, then the shower.

It makes a little more sense when I find the titular Margot is a character from Wes Anderson’s inert Royal Tenenbaums.  Perhaps the band’s art direction is superb.

Also streaming at AOL this week:  The latest Shakira CD, which you really should give a shake.  What you hear might surprise you.

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Over at OneLouder, Jason’s suggesting music bloggers do the honorable thing and disclose when they’ve gotten free merch/tix in relation to a post.  Not that such and such is doing tit for tat – I’d like to think most bloggers write what they do because they want to and that a free CD or ticket won’t influence their opinion.

I’m of a couple minds on this – and luckily I’m insignificant enough it’s not an ethical dilemma I have to face, much.  In general I was brought up to pay my own way, and feel uncomfortable accepting gifts.  It’s easier to stay sin-free if you pass on the apple in the first place.  If I’m your guest at a show, I don’t feel as free to talk shit about your band.  And I will talk shit about your band.  I’ve recently started telling people to stop sending CDs – I’d really only gotten a few, anyway, and nothing worth discussing.

But journalists don’t disclose this stuff.  You don’t read a magazine or newspaper review and see X rock critic say “Free tickets provided by...”   You just assume no one at Rolling Stone has ever had to buy a CD.  What’s more, I hate reading about privileges others are getting.  “In the pile of free music that came in the mail today I found...”  Screw you, man.  Y’know what I got?  People asking for money.

Tomorrow:  A rockin’ review of last month’s energy usage in my apartment, sponsored by Consolidated Edison.

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