Is the (Traditional) Rock Band Dead?

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


mojo-photo-noage.jpgNouns, the new album from the Los Angeles-based No Age (left), is fast becoming one of the most acclaimed albums of the year, with high marks from Pitchfork and NME. The album’s sound, as Pitchfork put it, is “cacophonous” and “gorgeously thick,” punk rock with a swirling, tone-bending My Bloody Valentine sheen. What might surprise you is that the band is actually a duo: just two guys, Randy Randall and Dean Spunt, playing guitar and drums respectively, their sound filled out by loops and samples. Lately, this seems more and more common: most of the interesting developments in rock music are coming from “non-traditional” band lineups. Is the good old rock four-piece an endangered species?

After the jump: I still haven’t found the U2 I’m looking for… but I do have a No Age mp3!

Bands seem to be both shrinking and expanding. The rock duo is turning out to be one of the trends of the new millennium, whether it’s bassless wonders like the White Stripes or the Kills or thudding bass-driven experimentalists like Death From Above 1979. Then there are the lone wolves, like PJ Harvey, off in her own world, and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, too much personality for just one band. Probably the leading hard-rock combo of the last ten years, Queens of the Stone Age, is essentially a solo project, with rotating “session musicians” backing up Josh Homme (some of whom just happen to be really famous). On the other end of the tour bus, Arcade Fire’s Wikipedia page lists seven current and six former members, and New Pornographers count as many as eight. So, where have all the U2s gone?

Examining the Village Voice 2007 Pazz & Jop Poll 2007, the top 40 Best Albums list includes the following groups who could be considered “rock bands,” more or less: Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Spoon, The National, Wilco, The White Stripes, Battles, The Shins, Against Me!, Band of Horses, Deerhunter, Grinderman, Okkervil River, and Rilo Kiley. Okay, that’s actually more than I expected, but let’s take a closer look. Out of those 14 bands, eight are groups of four or five (discounting Wilco and Okkervil River because of their goofy rotating memberships, and Grinderman because it’s got Nick Cave in it). Of those, Battles makes freakish prog jams in 6/8 time, Rilo Kiley just made an strange, funky album inspired by “’70s L.A. coke-rock” (as Wikipedia puts it), and Deerhunter and Okkervil River are so quirky, they’re almost not even rock any more. So, that leaves us with Radiohead, Spoon, The National and Against Me!, four combos who are apparently leading the traditional rock band pack. All quite good, don’t get me wrong, but is that all there is?

Clearly I’m defining “rock” in pretty strict terms here to prove a point, but still, the rock band seems to be in a state of reinvention: take away as much as you can like No Age, or just bring everybody up on stage like Arcade Fire. Otherwise, you’re just, I dunno, Seether. So, Riffers, is the rock band just in a rough patch, or are we truly in an era of reinvention, watching the old forms die out? Either way, don’t miss out on the new forms: No Age’s Nouns is out now on Sub Pop.

MP3: No Age – “Eraser”

No Age – “Eraser” (Live):

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate