Terminalcoffee discussion

OK, so as I mentioned in the concert thread, I HATED the opening band at the Decemberists show. I really wanted to like them, but I couldn't, not even a little.

So this is a thread for asking others to explain the appeal of a particular band or genre.

I will ask first.
Can someone explain the appeal of Best Coast? Their wikipedia page describes them variously as lo-fi and surf rock, but I would describe it as tuneless repetitive noise with no discernible vocal or musical hooks.

On a related note, can anyone explain the appeal of Dan Deacon? Or any of the other current bands that seem to value wash-of-noise over any of the usual song elements?

Dan Deacon is too frenetic for me, but I gave him a shot.

Dan Deacon's okay.

I do like Best Coast, actually. Their album is quite catchy and very hook-ridden. Perhaps they suck live. Nothing kills a band for me more than sucking live.

I should listen to a song or two and see if they sound better to me on a recording. Her lyrics & rhymes seemed awful, and just about every song seemed to involve one line repeated over and over about twenty times to start it off. THey seemed like friendly people excited to have a chance to play such a nice venue, but their music was utterly unmemorable. Nebraska over the PA after them in its entirety just reinforced it.

I like "Crazy For You" but it has the virtue of being under two minutes long. I like the sound, it sounds very summery night-ish to me, and echoey, like it's being played by a local band in a high school gym.

It's a muddy sound, and if it got any muddier because of acoustics or crappy PA, that could ruin it.

Yeah, that's the low-fi aspect of their sound, which is another thing I'll admit I totally don't understand. I don't mind a band using deliberately old school sound as a texture on a song - I think sparklehorse did this really well - I like the crackle of vinyl or tape. But when they set about sounding muddy on purpose, I check out.

I've seen hipster bands selling cassette tapes in the last few weeks. I get the vinyl resurgence, but not that. Never that.