Let’s face it, overly happy music sucks. In fact, sugary-sweet/cheesy-ass music more than likely causes more harmful behavior than anything. There is plenty good reason why a record number of cars were driven over cliffs when The Bay City Rollers were dominating the charts. Not only is cheerful music bad on its own, but in a lackadaisical attempt to get people to conform to foolish government/religious/capitalistic ideologies, cheesy/lame music constantly litters mainstream airwaves in an attempt to transform society into a conglomerate of complacent idiots; bad music blends well with public service announcements, fear-inducing news, and advertisements for bad products. And thanks to a select few corporations monopolizing the media, this tactic has worked brilliantly.
As a result, many others have become miserable. These people hate everybody; they hate the radio, hate reality shows, hate re-makes of bad movies, hate tabloid magazines, hate the government, the war, bad drivers, and everything else that comprises what is now known as “American societyâ€. In the midst of despising 95% of popular culture, there is a sudden attraction to art that explores the darker side of life and often focuses its’ attention on those who are most at odds with what society is trying to dictate- often laced with heavy doses of sex, drugs, violence, obscenity, political righteousness, etc.
The name Candy Bars suggests that they may be a sugary pop band who appeals to people in the first paragraph- just like Joy Division suggests their music may represent joy and fruitfulness- just like The Jesus & Mary Chain suggests maybe they could be appealing to gleeful Christians. However, Candy Bars has the definitive sound people from paragraph two live for. Whereas Joy Division and The Jesus and Mary Chain represent their own categories of transgressional music (and rightly so because they are possibly the two best bands in history), Candy Bars is on target to create the next genre of transgressional bands.
Not Goth like Joy Division, nor noisy like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Candy Bars music is often acoustic-based that perfectly fluctuates from beautiful to nightmarish; these guys are very well-trained on their instruments and play a wide assortment of them. The instruments are tuned perfectly with one another that when combined (particularly the dark, fierce strums of the violin) create the perfect sound that defines neurotic-depressive-insomniacs. Furthermore, the vocals are hushed, almost whispered, yet up front and easily heard and understood… They are sung with angst, with a sneer, but as if they moved passed the initial rage and allowed discontentment to linger too far. Do not mistake this for an ambient sound, or post-rock, or something like A Silver Mt. Zion…these songs have catchy beats, choruses, and meaningful song structures.Â
Simply put, Candy Bars belongs in the same category as Joy Division and The Jesus and Mary Chain, but explores new territory that neither of them ever attempted. 9.5/10 (potentially a 10 in a few years; the song Enough to Choke a Cold Air is a classic already)
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If they explore territory that the JAMC didn’t, that’d be pretty impressive, because the JAMC covered a whole hell of a lot of territory. I’ll have to give these guys a listen.
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Comment by Sam E. — December 8, 2006 @ 10:11 am
Isn’t that kind of a sweeping dismissal of “cheerful music?” I like Joy Division quite a bit, but in addition to my life’s many low points, there are plenty of times when I’m having a pretty good day, and rather than play Closer or Still, I’d rather hear something that’s more in keeping with my mood. Sure, plenty of cheerful music is bad, but conflating the two seems neither reasonable nor accurate.
I liked that Candy Bars song though, and I’d like to hear more of them.