Reconciling paradoxical tastes: Fleet Foxes vs. Crystal Castles

My two favorite bands right now are the Fleet Foxes and Crystal Castles. The problem is, when it comes to writing an editorial music piece, the two bands have nothing in common — the first being a beautiful, back-to-basics, vocally harmonized folk rock band, and the second a rabid, blog buzz-fuel, 8-bit distorted electropop massacre.

How do I reconcile this? I theorize that each band represents a divergent form of emerging popular music. Together, the Fleet Foxes and Crystal Castles personify a split in the underground music scene (as viewed from Seattle).

First of all, indie is dead. Death Cab for Cutie and the Shins have had their time in the spotlight. Secondly, hardcore and post-hardcore are also dead. Seattle’s Botch will never reunite and the Blood Brother’s side projects will dwindle into nothing. Both simple, emotional indie music and complicated, emotive loud music are out of fashion in Seattle.

Hip-hop, of course, is in fashion still. But the genre is so massive that rock, folk, electronic and disco combined can’t really compete. For the purposes of this exercise we will ignore hip-hop/R&B/rap and simply call those genres the dominant formation of pop music.

Lesser popular genres that compete for a place in album sales and the Friday or Saturday night spot at Neumos have recently fallen in one of two categories, each of which have many names, but both of which share common traits and influences.

Electro/discopunk/dancepunk/new disco/electronic dancerock/electropop is a genre that I define as emerging post 2000, with bands like Death From Above, Ladytron, the Rapture, Fisherspooner and LCD Soundsystem. All these bands make simple, youthful music with electronic instrumentation. All these bands became intimately involved in remixing and reproducing, not only a sound but also a re-invigorated culture of night club disco and colorful, minimal visual aesthetics.

More recent additions to this genre include Cut Copy, Hot Chip, MGMT, CSS, Justice, the Teenagers and maybe even the Klaxons. The list goes on. Of course, Crystal Castles is included in this giant category. “New rave” might be a short-lived term that for about six months described some of these bands.

This massive genre has its own specific culture that exceeds clothing and music. This genre is about youthful decadence, the ‘80s and ‘90s, ironic critique of consumer culture and international urban living.

On the other side of the cultural spectrum is the folk/experimental/retro-rock/retro-punk/country western genre. Bands included in this genre owe debts to the ‘60s and ‘70s, cowboys, the West, hippies, generational conflict and populist social movements a la Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.

The beginning of this genre is less easy to define, but recent adherents include Animal Collective, Panda Bear, Japanther, No Age, Ariel Pink, the Strokes, the Black Lips, the Black Angles, Band of Horses and of course, the Fleet Foxes. The category includes bands ranging from total pop to un-listenable. The defining features include grubby clothes, old guitars, honesty and anti-sociality.

On one side are the slick neon ‘80s irony children ready to dance all night for who-knows what reason; on the other side are the grimy kids with their attention divided between American politics, the local music scene and their mom’s old vinyl collection. I wear either hat, depending on the evening.

Is it a good idea to theorize two Über genres of pop music and then consider how they will compete and reconcile one another? Maybe these genres tell us something about a contemporary youth culture that divides itself by decade and a vague mixture of politics and aesthetics. Regardless, the cutoff point for the culture war seems to be the Reagan presidency. Not a surprise.

Crystal Castles will be playing Club Pop (Chop Suey) March 6 with HEALTH. The Fleet Foxes just canceled their EP release/tour kickoff show at Healthy Times Fun Club, but they can still be seen on the final leg of their first American tour, April 18 at Neumos.