A sober commentary on my drunk Instagram posts
Words by Maxim Buckley
Ahhh being drunk and posting on social media. Is there anything more freeing? I suppose if you’re Elon Musk, being intoxicated (allegedly) and posting on Twitter probably hasn’t worked out so well for you. But for the rest of us who don’t command seas of mad fans, it’s probably not so bad. The following is a critique of some drunk posts I made a while ago. Disclaimer: my feelings toward Gang of Youths still remain the same.
1. Gang of youths is legit the most trash band on the planet. Seriously, you have a song called “the heart is a muscle”. Come on, we get it, you write emotional music. I have a song called “the liver is a regenerative organ” which is about how my love life continues on regardless of the bad break ups I may have.
Good start, you can reassure yourself that I high-fived myself. I’d been using the joke about the song for a while, perfecting it as I went. This highlights my first big issue with Gang of Youths, the obvious wankery and need to appeal to the lowest common denominator is just not endearing for the band. In my opinion, their music is boring, follows an extremely consistent beat and song structure along with the same theme of every single song.
Now, you can also say the same about one of my favourite bands Camp Cope. However, Camp Cope has an extremely important message to deliver that is often in-your-face but also well hidden amongst their lyrics and the general message of the song. An extremely good example of an in-your-face song is The Opener, the lyrics of which are, in a large portion, exerts from hate mail, negative comments and things said to the members of the band by the general public and even “professionals” they’re meant to be working with. An example of a song with a deeper message is The Face of God which is about sexual assault and a person’s experience with that. This is interesting in that prior to releasing the song, Georgia Maq feared she may receive backlash or wouldn’t be believed because there was no evidence. Don’t believe me? Watch Camp Cope’s interview with Marc Fennell. The fact the Georgia Maq was concerned about discussing her own experience with sexual assault prior to the #MeToo movement is telling of the music industry as a whole.
The Heart is a Muscle falls by the wayside as a shitty “love-lost but will find love again I swear” song.
2. Legit, I actually think Gang of Youths may be the worst band I’ve ever heard. Legit, they are so shit. They play songs that “appeal to people’s sensibilities”. M8, my sensibility is to do ketamine and talk to my mates about Donald Trump, when you start writing songs about that then maybe I’ll listen to you. My heart isn’t a muscle, it’s an organ that should probably give in. I don’t give a fuck about some made up word called “Magnolia” and come on m8, I’m not going to let you down easy, I’m going to let you down like the shit band you are. Charlie Sheen did a better job of being emotional.
Okay so I’m not so proud of this one, probably was also my peak drunkness. Can you tell from this post that I bring up politics the moment a Furphy hits my lips? I’ve since discovered that a ‘Magnolia’ is a flower. My reference to Charlie Sheen is his performance in Platoon, which is arguably his best acting role.
If you want a great song about modern issues of a broken heart, listen to Just Gotta Breathe by Hugh Fuchsen on your music streaming platform of choice.
3. Listen, Gang of Youths are okay…that is if you like talentless drivel. Every single song just has to be about some emotional rubbish, which is fine, but that being your only point of contact with an audience eventually becomes a bit monotonous. I mean, back in the day I thought ‘Magnolia’ was a cracking song, with great drive and a magnificent crescendo, but after all of the same over and over, I’m just worn out. One album of that would be fine, not a continuous drool of metaphors, allegories and similes to the point of boredom. You might argue that their music has a good message that is in need of delivery to a generation starved of emotional expression, but come on, let’s all be real here, being in a lawful good situation isn’t always worth it, so just tuck the plastic bag under the bread and leave.
So as you can probably tell, I’ve sobered up a little by now and am in my room listening to All I Need by Radiohead, not because I’m a pretentious idiot (which I am), but because I’m a big sap who thinks that the lyrics are really well thought out. I will probably learn to play it on the piano so I can bring it out at my wedding.
The worn-out part of the post is something I think is telling of a number of bands that are popular. I thought The Smith Street Band was pretty good once, but now I believe they’ve gone the same way as Gang of Youths, releasing boring, tired music that appeals to the lowest common denominator. And that isn’t to say I don’t like music that is arguably simpler in nature. I love local Adelaide bands such as Stork, who’s garagey sound married with fun lyrics are the perfect way to start your morning with a bang. The difference here is when I hear a song released by one of these artists I think “I get it, you’ve done this before, we all get it”. It’s a problem with the triple j music scene as a whole, well represented by the Falls 2018 line-up, however that’s an issue for another time (but honestly I’m surprised Tkay Maidza isn’t on it).
The last section of the post is in reference to a meme I saw showing all the different ways housemates leave bread once it has been opened, which when you think about it is extremely accurate.
All in all, the message here is don’t post horrible critiques whilst drunk. Perhaps just don’t post at all. Personally, I still don’t like Gang of Youths, which you more than likely disagree with, especially after seeing the number of people in the crowd for their show at Splendour. In my opinion, Gang of Youths are just a Coles brand City Calm Down or American Football. My opinion on them may change in the future, but right now they’re just the band I turn the radio down for.
