Hater's Delight – June 2023
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After an unexpected month off, the Swim Into The Sound team is back with another edition of Hater’s Delight, and we’re absolutely bubbling over with bad vibes.
If you’re just now joining us for the first time, Hater’s Delight is a monthly micro-review column brought to you by our team of Swim Into The Sound writers and a guest or two. This is a space where we can vent about the things online and in music that have gotten under our skin this past month. Each writer gets a paragraph to bitch about their chosen topic, then once we expel the Haterade from our systems, we all go back to loving music and enjoying art. Speaking of which, if you’re more in the mood for some positivity, here’s a playlist of all this month’s new releases that I enjoyed (or at least found notable) to help you keep up on everything that’s happened in June.
We’re halfway through the year, so let’s get straight to it and leave it all on the field. After all, maybe the back half of 2023 will be better… but I doubt it.
Don’t Delete Your Songs!!
I started playing in bands during the MySpace era, so I may be especially sensitive to this, but I hate when bands intentionally scrub their early recordings from the internet after releasing a new album. I get it; you want to appear like a brand new band, clean up your online presence and try to make it easy for a new fan to get into. Or maybe you feel embarrassed of those early records; perhaps you’ve outgrown those songs… But I liked those early recordings!! I want to hear your progression as an artist!!
This brings up a thought that doesn’t feel controversial to me, but clearly, everyone might not agree with; once you make a song and put it out in the wild, it no longer belongs to you. It’s everybody’s, especially anybody with an emotional connection to it.
A possible alternative to scrubbing your songs off the internet: maybe rebrand your band. A great example of this is the band Now, Now. I like listening to those early Now, Now Every Children records, partially because it’s wild to see a great band grow in change over 15 years. Either way, I want your early records back!! You don’t even have to put them on Spotify, just put them somewhere. I am too scared to pirate music and want to pay you money; please, do me this kindness. I’m not the only one who feels this way.
Ben Sooy – @bensooy
Smith Vs. Smiths
Beatles or Stones? Van Halen or Van Hagar? Blue Album or Pinkerton? There are some age-old debates among music enthusiasts that never get old and are pretty fun to dive into. But let’s please, please, please be done with The Cure versus The Smiths. The two alternative cornerstones are so different and influential in their own right, it’s not fair to compare. For people who hate Morrissey outright, it’s not worth breaching the conversation. But let’s look at the hard facts: The Smiths’ catalog only spans four studio albums, two compilations, and one live album across four years. The Cure have been an active band since 1978, are currently on a massive summer tour, and have released twice the output of The Smiths in proper albums alone. The Smiths, while brilliant and innovative, pretty much stuck to one sound on every song. The Cure have experimented, with some varied results, more than a few times on albums like Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me and Wild Mood Swings. It’s perfectly okay to have a musical preference for one or the other, and it’s important to recognize both of their places in rock history. But neither are “better” than the other, there’s too much different about them.
Logan Archer Mounts – @VERTICALCOFFIN
Defending Your Fave From “Normies”
Call it gatekeeping, call it superiority complex, call it whatever you want, but some fans just plain suck. Last week, a photo of Bad Bunny and Kendall Jenner record shopping went semi-viral. That picture was innocuous enough, but what got me was a quote tweet that simply commanded, “ummmm put that down.” I zoomed in on the image to see that the second-youngest Jenner was holding a vinyl copy of Phoebe Bridgers’ debut album Stranger In The Alps. Man. Funny enough, some people in the comments were quick to point out that Kendall Jenner had posted Boygenius on her Instagram story back in 2018; about as OG of a fan of that band as you can be. I know the original tweet can be written off as a joke, but it still bugs me when people try to exclude someone they view as "unworthy" to be part of their fandom or invalidate someone else's enjoyment of an artist they supposedly love. At this point, Phoebe Bridgers is closer to a pop star than anything, you can’t be revolted when popular people like her popular music. Comparing your love for an artist to someone else’s (or thinking that your adoration is more “legitimate”) is a recipe for disaster. Give me a break, and let people enjoy “Scott Street” in peace.
Taylor Grimes – @GeorgeTaylorG
TV Shows About Great Musicians, Minus Great Music
A few months back, I saw someone tweet something along the lines of “Stevie Nicks walked so Daisy Jones could run.” I’m sorry, STEVIE NICKS WALKED??? So Wattpad Stevie Nicks could RUN????? Look, I get that replicating the magic of what is widely considered one of the greatest bands of all time is a tall order, but if you’re gonna make a show about a band that’s supposed to be a fictional analog to Fleetwood Mac, you gotta at least make the songs good. This doesn’t even sound like if you bought Fleetwood Mac from SHEIN, it sounds like if you bought your uncle’s friend’s Fleetwood Mac cover band from SHEIN. Not to mention the fact that this show’s costume designer seems to have raided Urban Outfitters’ 2015 Coachella collection for the characters’ “70s” looks, or that half the cast has a terminal case of Instagram Face.
While we’re on the topic of TV shows about musicians that feel lightyears removed from the reality of the music industry, Max’s The Idol makes Daisy Jones & The Six look like the fucking Sopranos. The brainchild of the ~twisted minds~ of Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye has been rife with controversy from the start, from alleged workers’ rights violations to accusations that the show’s content is misogynistic and exploitative. However, the show’s greatest sin seems to lie in its inability to pinpoint exactly what kind of musical stardom they’re trying to represent, and when they fail to do that, whatever critiques they might have of celebrity culture or the music business just kind of free fall without anywhere to land. Who is Jocelyn supposed to be? Throughout the show, she’s presented as a sort of Britney Spears stand-in (in ways that are, frankly, pretty insulting to Britney), but she’s a Gen-Z (or young Millennial) popstar coming up in a post-Britney landscape. She’s billed as a world-famous, boundary-pushing bad girl, but er the song that’s supposed to save her career (titled “World-Class Sinner”) sounds like something you’d stumble upon about five songs deep into Spotify’s algorithmically-generated radio that plays automatically at the end of a Dua Lipa album. Also, as many others have pointed out, what the fuck kind of pop diva mononym is Jocelyn? Apologies to all the Jocelyns out there, but Jocelyn is the name of the girl who restocks perfumes at the Victoria's Secret PINK store in the mall. It’s not the kind of first-name-only-name you’d see lit up Madonna/Rihanna/Beyonce-style for a sold-out stadium show. Moreover, The Idol seems to suck all the fun and opulence out of its portrayals of Hollywood debauchery. The sex scenes are boring. The drug montages are boring. They even managed to make an extravagant Rodeo Drive shopping spree look about as fun and sexy as a consumer report on the five o’clock news.
For now, I think I’ll stick to the Refused and Wilco needle drops in FX’s The Bear.
Grace Robins-Somerville – @grace_roso
Austin’s “Hot Girls Have IBS” Billboard
There is a billboard in East Austin—and yes, I’m aware that it exists in a few other places, but the Austin one is the one I’ve seen with my own eyes AND seen tweets about—that says, “Hot girls have IBS.” The aesthetic is vaguely retro-Microsoft Paint-Y2K, emulating a meme style made popular in the past few years by accounts like @dollarstoremakeup. I’ve seen MULTIPLE people, not just Austinites, post/repost this billboard with great amusement.
Here’s the thing: ~relatable~ jokes about IBS? Not my cup of meme tea, but whatever. This aesthetic? Again, I think it’s a bit played out, but am I a full-on hater? No. It’s the fact that corporations are harnessing those things to create a successful viral ad campaign that smart, funny people are falling for—TALKING ABOUT, unsponsored, online. Have some fucking self-respect, people! You’re giving this bullshit wellness company exactly what they want: free promotion. It’s giving cringe millennial that doesn’t realize they’re being advertised to. But, of course, the primary target of my hate in this situation is the supplement company. A scourge upon my East Austin journeys, the internet, and, I would assume, bank accounts of the women this kind of advertising is apparently working on so well.
Katie Wojciechowski – @ktewoj
Respecting Others at the Gig
Although this post is titled “Hater’s Delight,” this is much less me “hating” on these people as it is me calling out these clowns who go to shows and act stupid. One would assume it’s common sense that just because you are at a punk/hardcore show, it does not give you free rein to grab and touch whomever or whatever you’d like. Just over the past month, there have been two notable instances of this happening.
The first one that popped on my radar was a tweet by @hate5six on June 5th. In the post, he attached a video portraying a member of the crowd coming onto the stage and grabbing his camera. In true 300 style, hate5six uses this opportunity to Spartan kick the concert-goer off the stage, as he is 100% right to do. As stated in his tweet, “Play stupid games like having main character syndrome, win stupid prizes.” Despite the usual Twitter discourse that this situation stirred, I think most sane people can agree that you should not touch anybody’s property without consent.
Speaking of consent, the second instance of cringe buffoonery happened at Heart Attack Man’s Denver concert on June 24th. The band's frontman Eric Egan took to Twitter after the show to apologize for losing his cool after someone went on stage and forcefully attempted to kiss him. Rightfully upset about this, Eric used the mic stand to defend himself. People with little concern for others’ space or property deserve their assed kicked with zero remorse. These same people then act shocked when there are repercussions to their immature actions. In conclusion, having main character syndrome at the gig = likely getting rocked in some way, shape, or form.
Brandon Cortez – @numetalrev
Terrible Stage Banter
“WHAT THE FUCK IS UP, PITCHFORK?” is followed by the softest acoustic performance I’ve ever heard. It’s the fifth artist of the day to start their set with that tired six-word refrain. At the risk of sounding like a square, let’s talk about the terrible stage banter of indie artists. If you write incredibly interesting, creative, and thoughtful music, please, for the love of the English language, stop opening your set like you’re band 3 of 7 at a Denny’s All-American-High School-Mosh-Fest.
We get it; you’re “edgy.” Congrats. If you actually want to go against the grain, say something different to introduce your set. Allow your stage banter to be as interesting as your music. Have a catchphrase. Make a joke. Tell everyone you’re U2. Make up a fake band name. Just stop starting your festival set with that cliché, profanity-laced rhetorical question.
Here are a few intro lines I’ve heard/used at shows with some success. Feel free to steal one:
“How’s everyone’s pandemic going?”
“Good evening. My name is [your name here], what’s your name? (play loud guitar part as the crowd confusingly answers at the same time).”
“Are you ready for some soft rock?!?” (to the tune of Hank William’s Monday Night Football song)
“We’re all going to die.”
Jack Droppers - @jackdroppers
Left Behind
In 2010, my middle school theater teacher shared her theory for why Taylor Swift was becoming so popular. She told us that Taylor’s voice was light, easy, and refreshing compared to the bombastic voices of pop stars in the 2000s. I might be the only person from that class who remembers our teacher saying that, and I remember it because that was the first time I had ever been prompted to think about music beyond “I like” or “I don’t like.” Also, I remember what my teacher said that day because I still cannot understand why I am unable to breathe in the same fresh air (Taylor Swift) that others around me seem to be luxuriating in. I am a person who likes to love things, and during this month, I have become increasingly bothered by my inability to love Taylor Swift. What made sense to be seen as refreshing in 2010 has long since felt tired and unchanging to me. Her songs have too many words in them – my friend Rose said this, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it because she put words to what I feel every time I listen to Ms. Swift’s work. The Eras Tour has been a tough time for me, mainly because I cannot join in on the fun.
Kirby Kluth – @kirbykluth
