Bonsai Silverback bigs up the Laughing Hyenas, and calls me a gent in the process. I guess all is forgiven for that Young Gods live post, then. And suggests via email (they've clearly developed a keyboard that doesn't require the user to have an opposable thumb!)that Foetus is just as guilty as any of those below being taken to task for courting the great god Sardonicus. Not sure that I'd be up for launching a defence of Foetus post "Nail" myself either, really (or pre, as it goes.) So..... that's one to Team Silverback.
5 comments:
Foetus? No way! Where's the smirking, the "am I joking or not?" business? To belong to the sardonic bunch the artist has to have that "I could give a shit about doing this, really" thing, and although I've never been entirely sure what his intentions are, I can't think of Thirlwell as being anything other than serious about what he's doing, or at least *really into it*.
Can I nominate Throbbing Gristle instead?
Can you say "a woman's place is on my face" without smirking? Or the words "Throbbing Gristle", for that matter. More frat boy sexism perhaps?
I think it's closer to that, yeah. The way Thirlwell delivers it it's *nasty*, not smirking.
I think a distinction needs to be drawn between straightforward contempt and amused contempt. Yer sardonic types stink of the latter - amusement suggests detachment. Thirlwell doesn't present himself as being detached from the nastiness he's, er, up to his neck in it.
How about Luke Haines?
If not a smirk then a cheap, sniggering leer perhaps, but I feel we are splitting hairs here. Naming a band "Scraping Foetus off the Wheel" sounds too bloody silly to be genuinely nasty to my ears, there's no real horror here, just facetious cabaret.. "Free James Brown so he can run me down" etc etc. Musically my enjoyment of Foetus is inevitably spoiled by his lyrical own goals, maybe it's just me, but I suspect I'm not alone.
I really wish you hadn't reminded me of the existence of Luke Haines.
Oh yeah, there's plenty of silliness, cabaret, etc, which moves it away from the category of 'earnest', but not neccessarily into 'sardonic'. I just don't hear enough mocking derision or sarcasm in there, just black humour. The music is too bloody good for it all to be a joke, even a sophisticated one. Musically he'd have to be doing something as dull as Shellac for me to peg him as an Albini/Melvins type.
Divine Comedy?
Post a Comment