RTP-area local music and culture

[Baby Messy <bilboa AT baggins.con>]

I watched them on SNL the other week and thought..."this is it?...why 
all the hype?" and I really thought I was missing something in my old 
age. I mean, as soon as you heard Radiohead you KNEW, love it or hate 
it, that there was something special there. So maybe I needed to dig 
deeper, and through the magic of Youtube, etc. I tried. Lord I tried.

My fave CD review cite, warr.org, reviewed them thusly:

Arcade Fire, Neon Bible (2007)
I wanted to get this warning out as quickly as possible: this Montreal 
indie septet is possibly the worst, most overhyped critics' fave band 
I've ever heard. I mean, at least the guy from TV On The Radio can sing. 
Lead "singer" Win Butler has no range or projection - he sounds like Lou 
Reed without the accent - and he's probably the best thing about the 
group. Pretension factor is through the roof with turgidly deep lyrics 
(title track) and pompous orchestrations (the pseudo-Springsteen "Black 
Wave, Bad Vibrations"). Meanwhile, musicianship is beneath the 
floorboards, with rote chord progressions ("Keep The Car Running"; 
"Antichrist Television Blues") and plodding tempos ("Intervention"; "My 
Body Is A Cage") - the band members play a zillion different 
instruments, but find nothing interesting on any of them. The two 
passable tunes are the typically overblown "No Cars Go" and the uptempo 
Franz Ferdinand-style rocker "The Well & The Lighthouse": they're still 
worthless melodically but at least have some energy. (DBW)


So whew. I'm not insane. Drinks on me!!!!