For the first night of their month-long residency at Spaceland, Princeton seems to have taken one of a few possible routes. It could be that they chose supporting acts who would make them look better in comparison or it could be that they invited artists with a young-ish following, in order to try and snag a few fans for themselves. Of course, there’s always the possibility that they actually like both of the performers that opened for them, but for that to be true wouldn’t speak too well of their taste.
Rafter
The first person to play was Rafter, from San Diego. At least on this one night, Rafter was Rafter Roberts accompanied by a drum machine pedal. He is deft with the pedal, never falling out of synch, but the programmed beats get tired quickly, once it becomes clear that they’re really just there to fill the space between his guitar playing and singing. The electronic drums and electrified guitar give him an air similar to Ratatat, but his white-guy-yelp singing over it establishes a decidedly different tone. At times, he uses a vocoder to sing the notes he plays on the guitar. This adds to the disco-lite, get-down-and-boogie feel he’s undoubtedly trying for. That feeling falls flat, though. Rafter is a nerdy white guy trying very hard to be sexy, and the fact that he’s trying so hard makes him entirely un-sexy, as any self-respecting girl will attest to.
Casxio
The second band was Casxio, from Los Angeles. Casxio continued the trend of “white funk”, but amplified it by about 50 degrees. They feature the requisite cute girl on keyboards, who was wearing a pink unitard over disco ball-material leggings, a wide decorative belt, and high heels. It would probably be a safe bet to assume that most, if not all of her outfit came from American Apparel. The lead singer juts his chin out and bites his lip while playing bass. He creates a disorienting sight, looking like a James Mercer-type, but singing like Jason Mraz. Their music is reminiscent of a Flight of the Conchords song, but totally lacking any of the irony or self-awareness that the FotC music is laden with. For example, a lyric like “I just want to wrap myself with you” could read humorously in the right context, but Casxio seems to mean it as a genuine expression of affection toward somebody. Again, these are people trying their damnedest to be sexy, which is a failure, in and of itself. They’re clearly trying to recapture a certain style of music, but the fact is that style is terrible, and there’s no glory in recreating it, regardless of authenticity. They covered “Nothing Compares to You”, which tops the charts, in terms of pure cheesiness.
Princeton
At this point, I have to confess that I was about ready to go home. I was intent to give Princeton a fair shake, though, and all in all, I’m glad that I did. The Santa Monica band has been getting a lot of attention over the last few months, and it’s easy to see why. Their music is a combination of catchy rocking guitar and lazy, subdued singing. The singers seem to even be disinterested in their own lyrics, barely making the effort to sing them into the microphone. This is fine, though, as the one lyric I did catch, “Put on your dancing shoes”, wasn’t impressive, to put it kindly. This music could be set behind an 80′s coming-of-age movie (preferably one set mainly at the beach). After a few songs, it began to get too same-y for me, and even bordered on tropical lounge music at certain points. The members of the band are endearing, though, and this earns them a lot of favor, beyond their music. They’re all good-looking kids from Santa Monica, who probably haven’t had much in the way of troubles, but when they talk about how suddenly their lives have changed since releasing their initial EP, there is a genuine humility that reveals them to be a group of friends who seem to have had a great streak of good luck. They very well might be rich kids slumming in the spotlight, but their on-stage personalities work hard to make up for their heritage.
Princeton ‘Calypso Gold’ from kay kanine on Vimeo.
Clever title. Great review. I’m looking forward to the next one!