19 year old Towson University student Stephon Smith isn’t a hipster. He isn’t a music nerd either. He’s a college student who happens to listen to the radio and follow popular trends. He’s the average “uninformed” listener who likely up until Pitbull began rapping over electro only knew Bmore club as the stuff they played on Friday night on 92Q in Bmore, and certainly had no idea who David Guetta was or even how to spell his name. Truth is, Smith represents the average American musical consumer, someone just not covered by the blogosphere, until now. TGRIOnline.com has decided to loose Smith, and his “uninformed” opinions on popular artists and musical styles that are all the rage in the underground we know and love. Today’s victim, Brooklyn’s experimental rock superheroes Yeasayer.
It’s sad to say but Brooklyn’s Yeasayer are 40 years late too late. Producing a sound that in my opinion is the sonic equivalent of counterculture hippies getting stoned out of their mind in a field, they’re seemingly anachronistic with this generation. Described as a mix of psychedelic pop, world music and krautrock, this is certainly a mind expanding listen. In fact, it’s so different from my universe of music that it’s completely disarming. You just don’t expect music like this to be produced at all and for it to ever gain traction with a wide audience, but Yeasayer has managed to do this. With a funky sound and a whirlwind of flower power charisma flowing from lead singer Chris Keating during their live performances, it’s arguable that they far outmatch hipster favorites MGMT despite the success of the latter.
What’s interesting about Yeasayer is that they don’t want to be accessible to the mainstream if it means losing their artistic freedom. Chris Keating’s emotionally damaged sounding vocals are what makes some of their songs come to life. They have gone the route of what has been described by band member Anand Wilder, in an interview with The Guardian earlier this year, as “tricking people into liking really uncool music.” Wilder is telling the truth, because their musically isn’t something that could be deemed cool which is evident when you read stories of how prior to their recent success, Yeasayer was playing to crowds of less than 40 people. But even with the recent success and the burgeoning fame, one has to wonder whether or not this will translate into big money.
The problem with Yeasayer is that their music isn’t translucent and there are no catchy hooks to make the average Joe Blow want to listen to their music over and over. They aren’t the paint by numbers definition of what pop music is even though their recent album “Odd Blood” is more pop friendly than their first album “All Hour Cymbals”. Without anything that could gain traction with a mainstream audience, it’s possible they could just be another festival band or favorite of the blogosphere that never make it to the real big time. Songs like “2080”, “Tightrope”, “Sunrise”, “Love Me Girl” and “O.N.E” are definitely good songs to check out by them.
In conclusion, Yeasayer are good but they’re not mainstream pop. Keating does however say that “Rome’s gonna be mine/It’s just a matter of/It’s just a matter of/It’s just a matter of time.” Time will see how far Yeasayer is going to go but at some point they may come to a crossroads where they have to give in to big record labels or fade into obscurity.
You’ve just been informed.
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