Amelia’s Magazine | Pyramiddd: Medicine: A Single Review

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When bands start out bursting with energy and ideals and the prospect of tours and radio play seem remote, the bass player’s girlfriend might be heard to mumble, “What the heck, why don’t you call yourselves Starfucker?”

A good idea at the time when it didn’t really seem to matter, but career-forging reality appears to have kicked in for multi-instrumentalist Josh Hodges and his bandmates.

After consulting fans they’ve announced they are now to be known by the more polite and search engine-friendly name Pyramiddd.

Watching MGMT and Passion Pit whiz by in a blur of retro-future synthpop into the chart sunset – even missing out on a tour with the latter supposedly due to the sweary name – it seems Pyramiddd/Starfucker have thought, “Hang on, We fancy a bit of that”, or however they talk in Oregon.

Valiant attempts in interviews to fend off accusations of careerism haven’t been convincing, but who can blame them for wanting a piece of the action? Or wanting to discuss their band name with their Gran?
In a more candid moment they say they’d “Rather be like eating dinner and paying rent than being cool, You know”. Which is fair enough.

Medicine is catchy electropop, polished and radio-friendly. Not as effortlessly cool as previous single Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second (though that doesn’t sound quite so cool soundtracking a cloying American TV ad) they seem to have pulled the less-Hot-Chip-more-Cut-Copy lever, which is a shame.

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With their sights seemingly set on cracking into the mainstream and freely admitting they’re making “simple pop stuff”, there’s a bit more sheen this time round, the expensive-sounding end result not unlike a poppier MGMT without Dave Fridmann at the controls.

Opening lyrics like “never remember your birthday, or anything you like” are not going to knock Dylan off his perch, but as my old music teacher used to say, nobody listens to the lyrics if you wear a nice hat.

This particular Medicine might not make you walk naked around the streets grabbing strangers by the lapels shouting “GET INTO PYRAMIDDD IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!” into peoples’ faces, but it’s a decent slice of pop Now. And I’ll bet they’re better live, when sheen usually drips off with the sweat.

If you like your rock’n’roll dark and dangerous then steer clear, but if you think what the world needs is a hybrid of Hot Chip, Cut Copy and MGMT then you’ll love it.

Last word to my flatmate – when I passed her the cans for an opinion, she listened for a bit and said, “I like your headphones.



Categories ,Hot Chip, ,mgmt, ,music, ,Passion Pit, ,Pyramiddd, ,review, ,single, ,Starfuckerss

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