May 21st, 2007
You may notice something about this blog: the posts are not fast and frequent. They are lethargic. They often times get lost before they even make it here. They frequently take wrong directions through back alleys. They make eye contact with the wrong guy in the wrong place and are shanked, left to die behind a seedy bowling alley in the town two greyhound stops down from yours. Stillborn, these posts weren’t fit for your eyes anyway. Your level of Aural Fitness is too high — you expect better from us. I understand. Nay… I APPRECIATE it.
Hopefully you are the type of reader that I imagine you to be: patient, thoughtful, self reflective, elitical (fuck you. it’s now a word.), and highly concerned with the finer things in life. I treasure you and your appreciation for all the grande’ things. I do my best to cater to this and make sure that any of the posts that are born with missing fingers, moon faces, or plain old slooowwwwwness are weeded out before they ever make it here. Sure… your other favorite blog may post 6 new bands a day… but how many of those are you going to catch when they come to town the time after next? Yeah… I thought they were boring before you did. That’s why I get a kickass blog and you are stuck in the saltmines with everyone else.
I realize there are plenty of places where you can get quantity. I want to cater to your reflexive desire for quality. We may not come fast and furious with the posts, but we’ll bring the quality. We’ll do our best to only cover the stuff that’s worth covering — and if there isn’t anything worth covering, you can rest assured will be out by the lake enjoying a big ole’ bottle of Jim Beam. Hopefully that’s the reason you stick around.
On to the french band Prototypes. Joie De Vivre is french for “joy of life” (at least I think it is… I don’t speak french.) It’s really the reason that we all seek out the brilliance that we do. Food that tastes better, art that looks better, music that sounds better creates a certain chemical reaction in our bodies that our brain interprets as joy. This enriches our lives.
I spend most of my days wading through swamps filled with the “latest/greatest/shiniest” bands wearing the loudest track suits and playing jazzmasters — they can’t really impress me anymore. I’ve been desensitized to that trash. I keep my nose turned upwards to try and better detect freshness when it comes near. I keep my eyes pointed down to avoid you and your skinny tie and white belt.
Unless you are a girl, of course. I’ll give you far more of a chance to impress. I’ll go out of my way to lob one right into your strike zone. Sure…. i’ll still be disappointed when you strike out, but I won’t be as surprised. It’s ok. Hate away. I’m a misogynist. I don’t really have a problem with that. I rarely expect girls to impress me with their taste in music (the queen of online music blogs is an obvious exception to this). When a new acquaintance asked me a few months ago to track down a copy of Mutants Meditiques by Prototypes, I did so solely out of a desire to do something nice for her. I had every hope that it was something good, but every expectation that it was something terrible.
Imagine my surprise when it was more than good…. it was fresh, it was new, it was exciting, it was pure JOY. Upbeat, catchy, witty, inventive, FRENCH, good, and a fine female broke it to me?! Pitter patter goes my heart.
Give yourself the same joy. Listen to the songs below. Then feel free to check out other Prototypes tracks here, here, here, or here (in french, even).
From Mutants Mediatiques
Prototypes – Air Au Pigeons
Prototypes – Dis Moi
And Live from the Current at SXSW:
Prototypes – Je Ne Te Connais Pas
Prototypes – Medicalement
Prototypes – Who’s Gonna Sing?
