This is how out of it I am: I never heard that stupid Owl City “Fireflies” song until right this minute Not until this post showed up on Gawker comparing them to the freaking POSTAL SERVICE.
I LIKE the Postal Service, even though they are now a dated staple of the O.C. TV show. Remember 2003, when Death Cab for Cutie were just getting big and the Postal Service LP was released? I heard the Postal Service on a roadtrip to the Bay Area right after it came out, and I *hearted* it. (I was listening to a lot of dance music in 2003 and 2004, thanks to a couple DJ friends in Vancouver.) Comparing something this trite to the Postal Service is like comparing Twilight to Interview.
Anyways. I’m listening to “Fireflies” now, and recalling a KROQ segment on it. It’s a genuinely catchy song, and with better lyrics, I’d like it. But I have to agree with our local loudmouth radio personalities – these are genuinely the worst lyrics I’ve ever heard. It sounds like an inspirational novelty track from the 80s wandered into Williamsburg, like the Disney Channel version of Vampire Weekend. This also totally justifies my reluctance to find out what’s actually popular out there, lest I be forced to cringe in pain at lines like “I get a thousand hugs from ten thousand lightning bugs // As they try to teach me how to dance”. And the only resemblance it has to the Postal Service is that they RIPPED OFF THE SYNTH SAMPLER.
Gah.
Ever since Indie 103.1 shut down, I’ve been without contact with the new music world. Sure, I could probably read SPIN…but then I’d have to read SPIN. And I’m too short on time and effort to keep up with new indie music. Paul occasionally goes out looking for new music and new indie bands to listen to, so occasionally, I’ll hear them as part of his Rhapsody playlists. My new music sources come from the Bar Sinister playlists and the reviews in Gothic Beauty magazine. When you only have so much bandwidth to put into stuff like “finding new music to listen to”, it tends to go into the top priority genres.
I am making one foray into pop culture tonight though. I’m going to see the new Twilight movie. It’s New Moon on Monday!, as my friend Wendy titled the email about it. Ha. Duran Duran reference. I’m not even quite sure what the appeal of the Twilight franchise is, and I actually did read all the books, under much the same compulsion that I read any sort of plot-driven books (I read both The Lost Symbol and Under the Dome in the last week or so, and both were equally un-put-down able). Maybe I just want to see a pretty movie shot up in my homeland of the Northwest. Maybe I just don’t want my brain to work too hard. Which is pretty much the same reason I was compelled to listen to that Owl City track twice, even while mocking it.
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