Street Style

I apologise for straying into the subject area of my esteemed colleague Jo Jo Zep, but some things just need to be said. Sneaky Sound System are the without doubt the most creatively bereft, musically ignorant, worst ‘band’ in Australia.

I know, I know, it’s a tough call to make with competition of the standards of Jet and Thirsty Merc plying their trade out there, but it’s become clear that these people deserve to be abused in the street and their fans made to feel like the losers they are.

My ire was stoked recently by their comments in a sycophantic article in the lame celebrity section of the Fairfax press (itself currently in the throes of a death spiral which a few puff pieces on the latest musical flashes in the pan will do nothing to arrest), which seemed about as divorced from reality as ‘serious’ journalism could be.

We’ve all seen bands get carried away with ill-founded delusions of relevance but SSS appear to be suffering from a prolonged hallucination if they actually believe the drivel that they subject the public to.

Examples? Sure. This from band member Angus McDonald - he’s the creepy looking old man who stands up the back pressing ‘start’ on his mp3 player during live sets:

The word ‘pop’ was certainly a dirty word and dance music was like a poor cousin. I don’t know, it seemed like there were a lot of bands that didn’t have the courage to make electro-pop.

It’s done a lot for these other bands, who would never have imagined being in the top 40, and all of a sudden charts are dominated by electro-pop bands.

Huh? Presuming those comments were actually made seriously, it’s fairly safe to assume the actual musicians from the likes of The Presets and Cut Copy who McDonald seems to be referring to were doing just fine when they released albums and EPs that predate anything SSS ever put out. The late 90s wave of French electro groups will also no doubt be thankful (if confused) that SSS cleared the decks for the electro revival that they pioneered in the late 90s.

Drop the pretensions to legitimacy, losers. SSS are the just the latest tired evolution in corporate record label rubbish piggybacking on the success of actual trendsetters. You have nothing anybody needs or wants. You’re a waste of space.

I’ll leave it to lead singer Connie Mitchell to hang herself with some final remarks: “We’re very lucky like that - you can’t fake it. People will spot it a mile off.” Consider yourself spotted. Fuck off.

Photo by Martin Kingsley