Those of you who lived through the ’90s, when “alternative music” broke and was subsequently broken, may remember the unfortunate cycle endured by a few bands who stormed out of the gate with a strong first single: The song would be inescapable, the album would be mostly decent, and the follow-up would sound like the band in question had all of its edges shaved off by producers, executives, and self-made delusions Apparently the Brazilian glam-punk band CSS, known by many as “that band from the iPod Touch ad” but who I hold near and dear to my ears because of the still-infectious “Alala,” is now in stage three of that evolution.
The band’s new single “Rat Is Dead (Rage)” strips the band’s swagger and replaces it with a Q101-ready stomp; there’s a sparky guitar riff buried way down there, but it’s underneath so much alt-by-numbers production that finding it almost seems like a worthless cause. A note to CSS: Maybe you should try and find Bob Rock between now and June, so he can at least help you slap together a “Volcano Girls” before you ship Donkey out to stores? [CSS]
I really like this song, swagger be damned.
I feel like the line between reality and fiction has blurred dangerously when an idolator post makes me weak thinking of my eighth grade crush on Nina Gordon, remembering it more fondly than 90% of my real relationships.
Watched the video for Seether afterwards.
Man, I wish I’d been a couple years older in the early 90s… I would’ve posed the HELL out of that scene.
Um, will my beloved frontwoman continue to wear awesome, sparkly, texturized spandex catsuits? The alt rock producers cannot take that away too!