How a pop-punk girl group became the most hated band on TikTok: Tramp Stamps

I'll be honest, the name Tramp Stamps sounds like a fake band in a '90s prom movie. Also, I don't TikTok.

But this still fascinated me. I both find it somewhat heartening that kids still care about integrity in music, but I'm also a little dubious they do and really are just looking to snark.

Anyone not yelling at clouds have an opinion?

I also haven't listened to any of their music yet, but that's just because I'm on my phone now. When I'm at my PC I'll probably listen to something.

https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2021/4/20/22392694/tramp-stamps-industry-plant-band-tiktok-dr-luke

Personally, I think the most punk thing Tramp Stamps could do is change their name to the Industry Plants and just really lean into it.

This would rule. If their manager or brand person is playing 5d chess they'd do this and kill it.

“the band version of Riverdale,”

that's pretty good

Every "industry plant" accusation I've noticed has been aimed at a (usually young) woman - Snail Mail, Clairo, Mitski, Frankie Cosmos, etc..

It seems silly with the context of this quote

“It’s almost like it’s a bunch of people who were like, theatre majors and shit who had rich parents and now they’re co-opting riot grrrl aesthetics that people literally dedicate their lives to for money,” he said in his video.

They sound like a Ke$ha, 100 Gecs and Sum 41 combo platter, I don't know how much more obvious it could be that they're just doing snotty pop music? It's not like a major label got someone to adopt the actual musical aesthetic of Bikini Kill to get streams (because that wouldn't work).

Pretty catchy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn-POduoKcA

I love how the songs seem lyrically designed to antagonize a certain type of listener. I don't normally like "novelty bands" but they've made me laugh out loud with every song of theirs I've heard so far.

Well that song basically sounds like The Offspring, so i'm not sure the people writing angry thinkpieces about them ripping off their beloved underground icons actually remember what Bikini Kill sound like, cos it ain't that.

tramp stamps is a funny name for a band -- sort of old fashioned, as i don't think those tattoos are popular anymore -- but the music is really awful

Every "industry plant" accusation I've noticed has been aimed at a (usually young) woman - Snail Mail, Clairo, Mitski, Frankie Cosmos, etc..

those artists are all in a *very* different league than this bullshit though...

anyone who's ever called mitski an industry plant needs their ears removed

First reaction to the two vids: this band are bad, but not bad in a new way, there is lots of other bad music that sounds / looks like this. Anyone offended by their use of punk / riot grrrl imagery should presumably have been equally offended by a load of other musicians over the last quarter of a century.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWIiyRPCc78

this has reminded me that The Faders "No Sleep Tonight" exists, thanks

they aren't even using riot grrl imagery at all, the guy quoted there doesn't even understand why the tik tok teens think it's cringe lol. like i have no idea whether they really are 'industry plants' but people are calling them that because their image comes across as pandering and in a really corny & out of touch way where like it feels like they're pandering to like... 2012 tumblr teens lol.

kind of amused that fantano of all the people quoted in that piece comes across the savviest.

Every "industry plant" accusation I've noticed has been aimed at a (usually young) woman - Snail Mail, Clairo, Mitski, Frankie Cosmos, etc..

eh i've only heard it for clairo and frankie cosmos and that's bc both have family connections - frankie cosmos has famous actor parents of course and clairo's dad is a marketing exec whose connections reportedly helped her get signed, but only after she already had a huge viral hit that industry connections couldn't have deliberately engineered if they wanted to, and major labels were interested in her outside of her dad's connections. both of those are just cases where 'successful' indie musicians tend to skew towards having richer parents because that gives you a huge leg up just in terms of having the time to spend on your art etc.

the industry plant term has been leveled at dozens of male rappers (female ones too, to be fair)

yeah it's super common in rap

I think the thing with Mitski is less industry plant and more her dad is probably a CIA scumbag

yeah the last person i remember referring to as an industry plant was travis scott

this band reminds me of the pale waves album i love from this year, so i don’t understand ... almost any of the controversy

lol i'd been thinking of making that comparison except the pale waves album is actually good and doesn't make me feel embarrassed for them

I've seen the term Industry Plant thrown at Khalid as well.

Also I feel like I only ever hear this term applied to American acts, whereas with British ones it's just "wealthy art school kids".

I'm considering starting a band called Ficus of Industry now

"wealthy art school kids".

― MarkoP, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 7:18 AM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

oops, forgot that i’ve definitely referred to king princess as an industry plant

lol DJP.

I saw their response statement quoted on twitter, looked at the replies, and realized I had no idea what the context was and didn't really care to find out

pic.twitter.com/0gKdLUqxuH

— TRAMP STAMPS (@trampstamps) April 17, 2021

Just...Why are they referring to themselves as "Girlbosses?" Why call themselves something that's only used by people hustling MLMs?

ugh at blaming "cancel culture" in the first sentence

"she will quite literally sleep with anyone" = um wot?!

"FUCK THE HATERS - WE MADE THIS TERRIBLE MUSIC BY OURSELVES!"

come back, Kitty Pryde; all is forgiven

frank kogan must love this

I like how their statement dodges the bigger issue - that they are working with Dr. Luke

are they?

yes the RX Songs mentioned in that post is Dr. Luke's company

yeah but it's a publishing company, he doesn't work on their music. the statement actually does address that

as pointed out in the worst music thread the Dr. Luke connection has been really overstated.

two out of three members have publishing deals with the publishing company Prescription Songs, which Dr. Luke owns. however, it has publishing deals with a lot of prominent pop songwriters, like "Don't Start Now" was written by songwriters under Prescription Songs for example, and people aren't up in arms about that. it is bleak that he owns such a company though

the band has a distribution deal with AWAL (artists without a label), which is owned by Kobalt Music Group (though a sale to Sony is pending), which Dr. Luke owns shares in but doesn't seem to be a prominent figure wrt it or anything. this is not 'being signed to Dr. Luke's label' as has been reported all over the place

the fact that one of them is 29 actually makes me understand a bit more why the tiktok teens have it out for this group lol

there's a lot of truth in what they wrote, most of the tik toks that started this controversy lacked basic critical thinking skills and pretty much all of the articles written about this had a poor understanding of how the music industry works. if they were guys there would never have been a controversy about how "real" they are bcuz ppl would've just grasped the artifice inherently -- there was no similar controversy when 5 seconds of summer came out, for instance. everyone just understood, "well this is a boy band heavily borrowing from the aesthetics and sound of rock music to make mainstream pop music, we all get what's going on here. this music may not be for me but i'm aware of the fact that this is not trying to be 'real' music." the whole notion that tramp stamps are trying to pass themselves off as something they're not is based on the premise that to be a female rock band you have to be "authentic" and serious and indie which is if not sexist itself than is at least rooted in simple patriarchal aspects of our society.

of course plenty of ppl will think their music is corny and there's no way for them to really address this in a note, but lots of ppl find lots of pop music corny and go on about their days. the weekend does michael jackson cosplay, dua lipa does studio 54 cosplay, nobody really cares bcuz they understand that pop stars exist to synthesize culture and sell it back to us in a way that is very often over the top, sometimes corny, but that's the job description. tramp stamps play guitars tho so it's become a whole other thing.

in reality, you only get signed to a publishing deal if you can actually write songs. if you can't write songs there is no point in somebody owning part of your publishing bcuz you only get paid publishing for writing songs. so even the aspect of their backstory that kicked off the "industry plant" narrative explains why if you look at the credits of their music, it's just the three ppl in the band who are listed. but ppl don't seem to be able to come to terms w/ the idea that three women might choose of their own volition to write glossy corny pop punk music for mainstream consumption and not "real" respectable rock music

of course plenty of ppl will think their music is corny and there's no way for them to really address this in a note, but lots of ppl find lots of pop music corny and go on about their days. the weekend does michael jackson cosplay, dua lipa does studio 54 cosplay, nobody really cares bcuz they understand that pop stars exist to synthesize culture and sell it back to us in a way that is very often over the top, sometimes corny, but that's the job description. tramp stamps play guitars tho so it's become a whole other thing.

That makes sense. I also wonder though if part of it is that the specific signifiers they're synthesizing are from currently young people's childhoods (or at least much more recent and somewhat niche)? Like MJ and Studio 54 are ancient and mass history now, but referencing tumblr and sk8r bois obviously is going to look a lot more like pandering to kids in their late teens or w/e

J0rdan OTM

The one part of this whole thing that still confuses me is trying to understand how them singing about whiskey dick is "promoting rape culture".

I think I can guess that argument but it's pretty tenuous.

That makes sense. I also wonder though if part of it is that the specific signifiers they're synthesizing are from currently young people's childhoods (or at least much more recent and somewhat niche)? Like MJ and Studio 54 are ancient and mass history now, but referencing tumblr and sk8r bois obviously is going to look a lot more like pandering to kids in their late teens or w/e

― rob, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 1:23 PM (fifty-three seconds ago)

there's def an aspect of ppl bristling against their culture being commodified -- in this case the culture is posting memes about how men are trash. i'm not saying tramp stamps are beyond criticism in how they're going about their careers. but it got taken to this whole other level where a narrative was started that they were created by a major label and planted into pop culture when there's no evidence of that being the case. the idea of a lou pearlman figure was invented out of thin air ... meanwhile the same ppl who hate that tumblr culture is being sold back to them also love backstreet boys, n sync etc, groups actually created by lou pearlman. tramp stamps are basically saying, you can call us corny but at least grant us our agency here, and i think that's a valid point

I liked their songs already, but I definitely like them more after reading all of this...

instead of shitting on media for getting it wrong we should be celebrating tik tok kids for seeing through bullshit also this music sucks shit but of course ilx ppl like it

I mean, their entire aesthetic screams American Pie 2 soundtrack pop-punk.

J0rdan S. at 11:50 21 Apr 21

yeah but it's a publishing company, he doesn't work on their music. the statement actually does address that

this is not a meaningful distinction to me

instead of shitting on media for getting it wrong we should be celebrating tik tok kids for seeing through bullshit also this music sucks shit but of course ilx ppl like it

^^^

.... seeing through bullshit, ok

seems like they came up with a bunch of additional bullshit instead

J0rdan S. at 11:50 21 Apr 21

yeah but it's a publishing company, he doesn't work on their music. the statement actually does address that

this is not a meaningful distinction to me

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, April 21, 2021 2:12 PM (seven minutes ago)

nonetheless, it is a meaningful distinction

i think having a deal with a publishing company owned by dr. luke is an interesting angle from which to harangue artists and look forward to the further exposure of abusers in the music industry bc they are literally fucking everywhere

I remember some of this same rhetoric lobbed at the Regrettes, because they came off as very polished out the gate, and on Warner Bros. to boot. I think the Regrettes are a much better band than Tramp Stamps (with a better name, too), but in both cases it seems like lazy sexist stereotyping to talk about them as industry creations.

And if you want to connect it to Riot Grrrl, a big part of the entire point of Riot Grrrl was to normalize women and girls starting rock bands of all kinds. The point wasn't that you had to be on tiny Northwest labels to be real, it was that those labels were some of the few places girl-punk bands could get traction.

I am trying to figure out the best way to compare them to Greta Van Fleet because I instantly hated both bands in virtually identical ways. Like, there is a veneer of something I like being refracted through multiple prisms of pure awful but I'm having problems defining what those prisms actually are.

i was thinking of them in relation to greta van fleet too. greta van fleet got clowned on pitchfork but are otherwise respected/protected by rock fans and the rock music press (not in the general sense but publications that actually cover rock music) bcuz they are reviving an "authentic" (i.e. male) version of rock music even if it's in a way as artificial, commodified, and corny as tramp stamps (while being signed to republic)

i can't decide whose lyrics are worse

Tempted to start a 'Bands Whose Sole Raison d'Être Is Oiling the Discursive Machine' thread.

frank kogan must love this

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, April 21, 2021 12:28 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the harshest burn

Good choruses tho

The Strokes always seemed like industry plants. Clairo really is a glaringly obvious one.

Greta Van Fleet does get a lot of shit. Even a lot of the old farts on the Steve Hoffman site call bullshit on them and their horrible music

Wasn't Billie Eilish also accused of being an industry plant?

has any young emerging artist of the last decade plus not been accused at least a few times? standard operating procedure at this point

Yes, Eilish has been. The obscene amount of money spent on marketing/Payola for her is interesting to look at

none of these other artists are as egregious as this band. this is like an snl skit of a band -- a terrible digital short from 2011 making fun of bands from 2002.

the essential issue with tramp stamps is not that they are an industry plant.

maybe young audiences are just more hip to nepotism and co-opting of queerness idk i mean billie eilish comes from rich industry parents and its ok to call that kind of stuff out imo

They exist for us to talk about them. A resounding success so far.

xp

the biggest problem with this band is aesthetic. you can see the join.

ironically the problem with them is that they need more Industry Plant action. Then they might sound less awful.

like, if this was the best the all powerful INDUSTRY can come up with, they're in trouble

"sex with me" is perhaps the shallowest depiction of sex and relationships ever presented in song. and i have heard every song lyric.

We've been hanging out for a while now
When I say hanging out I mean fucking around
And not only in the bed but on every couch
In your best friend's house, god we're really loud

So why you telling all your friends I'm psycho?
Like you think they don't know how much we bone
Maybe if I told them that you cry in bed
You'd have little respect for the pussy you get

this is like dialogue from that tom wolfe novel about "hook up" culture

As expected, 'I'd Rather Die' is currently rated the worst single of 2021 on RYM. Two spots ahead of Tom MacDonald's 'Fake Woke'!

oh i realised what it reminds me of
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErUJAJs--dA

it's weird how out of date it sounds.

Get used to it. It hath been decreed that pop punk and ska punk are making a comeback this year.

@treeship Haha! I AM Charlotte Simmons, fellow kids

Pop punk never went away, unfortunately.

Well I guess this is growing up.

xxp

yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSFWTNbuteQ

teens calling this band 'industry plants' seemed to me to be initially more about them seeming like they're some record exec's out of touch idea of trying to pander to 'what the kids like these days' based on like 2012 tumblr-era 'i hate men' memes etc. even though that seems bizarrely unlikely as the actual story behind them if you think about it. then people went digging for proof of them really being plants or whatever and found a bunch of stuff they wildly misinterpreted

musically they're just kinda mediocre pop-punk. not terrible but not really great either & if they didn't have the image & lyrics they do no one would have cared at all.

yeah it's the hello fellow kids thing. infinite cringe

There definitely needs to be a distinction between having huge industry connections and being insanely wealthy, and using that as leverage to get into the biz (Lorde)

Or Taylor Swift.

and it's often funny how they'll get their breakout success criticising the excesses of existing pop stars ('royals')

Very true. The irony behind “Royals” is really something

then people went digging for proof of them really being plants or whatever and found a bunch of stuff they wildly misinterpreted

yeah i am for one not proud of the tik tok teens for being really good at confirmation bias

eilish also piled in with some not-like-the-other-girls bs

Everyone who's young and creative thinks they're not-like-the-others, it's not really worth pointing out

yeah eilish and her brother at least have a musical clue

xps i mean typically cases of huge industry connections are also coming from significant enough wealth for the obvious reasons. are lorde's parents really 'insanely wealthy' though i can't find anything about that?

yeah i am for one not proud of the tik tok teens for being really good at confirmation bias

and it wasn't just the tik tok teens lol there were actual adult music writers on twitter coming to the same conclusions

rename thread 'rolling industry plant thread 2021'

Royals was kind of bad but she made up for it

one of these other artists are as egregious as this band. this is like an snl skit of a band -- a terrible digital short from 2011 making fun of bands from 2002.

― treeship., Wednesday, April 21, 2021 3:30 PM (five minutes ago)bookmarkflaglink

i mean, not really. how are tramp stamps more egregious than post malone? "white iverson" is like a half degree away from a lonely island sketch if we're being generous. and from there he started working w/ the biggest producers in pop music making slick mainstream pop, started doing rock star cosplay... the tik tok generation "seeing thru" tramp stamps is the same one who has made him one of the three biggest artists in the world. i don't even find tramp stamps more egregious than travis scott, who was as corny and blatantly imitative of his influences as tramp stamps.

i would like to point out that they use the term "cancel culture" in earnest, the surest of red flags

it's funny though because in the early 10s tumblr era from which they have time travelled, cancel culture has a different resonance

are lorde's parents really 'insanely wealthy' though i can't find anything about that?

yeah I don't like Lorde at all, but I read her wiki and don't see anything particularly remarkable

xp early post malone is maybe as cheesy as this, but snail mail, frankie cosmos and clairo (the groups mentioned) don't have this same parody energy

ok but what makes snail mail, frankie cosmos, and clairo more relevant to tramp stamps than post malone and travis scott other than the fact that snail mail, frankie cosmos and clairo are women who play guitars

rename thread 'rolling industry plant thread 2021'

― ufo, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 3:00 PM (thirty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol that was the name of the 2016 rap thread

how are tramp stamps more egregious than post malone?

They aren't, they are just as egregious. Post Malone was repurposing Black music so society decided that's okay; Tramp Stamps are repurposing Avril Levigne with more overt sex so society decided that's not. I feel like we're all old enough to see how society is working here to make two very similar tracks of bullshit seem different.

This band seems like they were designed specifically to elicit a backlash for publicity. Wouldn't be surprised if there's even some astroturfing going on.

So like: anti-industry-plant industry plants?

Journey Through the Secret Life of Industry Plants

they are totally going to be flirting with alt right stuff in a few months

avril pink

those artists are all in a *very* different league than this bullshit though...

― treeship., Wednesday, April 21, 2021 5:21 AM (fifteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

anyone who's ever called mitski an industry plant needs their ears removed

― imago, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 5:31 AM (fifteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Sure, but my point was that the entire "industry plant" thing is inherently stupid - it's the music industry, major labels (and big indies) promote artists for profit. Wait 'til people who use that phrase hear about A&R guys!

/r/indieheads /r/hiphopheads and TikTok teens are just realizing they're demographics being marketed to and not special snowflakes

I remember some of this same rhetoric lobbed at the Regrettes, because they came off as very polished out the gate, and on Warner Bros. to boot. I think the Regrettes are a much better band than Tramp Stamps (with a better name, too), but in both cases it seems like lazy sexist stereotyping to talk about them as industry creations.

Interestingly I like both of of those bands even though I am most definitely not their target audience.

I still haven't listened to Tramp Stamps yet but now I am afraid to.

--This band is absolute dogshit
--The music they rip off was absolute dogshit the first time around
--The non-"industry plant" bands that lame nerds seem to want them to be are, in fact, also absolute dogshit
--An indie band at the height of their publicity cycle issuing a tweet apologizing for practically nothing and telling every message board and publication to go fuck themselves is unequivocably cool

Like, if you're over the age of 19 and like this music you should be put on a list, but props to these girls for making the cool kids mad

thank you DJP, I was trying to figure out what annoying thing that I generally avoid that this band reminds me of and it is, Avril Lavigne. ... it's so weird that when I see the word "pop-punk" I think of stuff that sounds like Elvis Costello or Rock the Casbah or The Waitresses ... and this is just like ... I don't hear any punk in this? It's probably because I'm an old that I'm like, "these are words I'm familiar with, but these aren't the words I would use to describe these sounds?"

Okay, this is my token post about "relevant" music for the year ... I'll go back to my regularly sporadic posting about old music for old people when someone in the band dies.

yeah these days (and probably for like the last 25 years) pop-punk overwhelmingly refers to green day, blink 182, and their 00s mall-pop descendants etc.

thank you DJP, I was trying to figure out what annoying thing that I generally avoid that this band reminds me of and it is, Avril Lavigne. ... it's so weird that when I see the word "pop-punk" I think of stuff that sounds like Elvis Costello or Rock the Casbah or The Waitresses ... and this is just like ... I don't hear any punk in this? It's probably because I'm an old that I'm like, "these are words I'm familiar with, but these aren't the words I would use to describe these sounds?" .

it's more like 25 minutes ... and the last time I went there the two bands I saw were Captured By Robots and uh, fellow ilxor kurt schwitterz ...

by that token I should have great knowledge of all the genres of music because I live close to like every club in Oakland ...

i'm gonna see how long i can go without hearing any music by this group

been interesting to read about tho

i will be impressed if they can leverage this bizarre anti-hype into some sort of actual success

Shame on you. It’s sad that all it takes to be labelled an industry plant are ties to Dr. Luke and Max Martin.

haha

lol moka

That's interesting. Even in 1995, I would have called Green Day "pop-punk" and Elvis Costello and "Rock the Casbah" "new wave".

What if the viral criticism that they are "industry plants" *is* an industry plant?

I'm not joking -- the first time I ever heard of GVF was "controversy" around the fact that they were "ripping off Led Zeppelin," as though I was supposed to already know who they were. This feels very similar.

Plenty of great bands have been formed within *the industry*. It's not like Led Zeppelin was a bunch of kids that got started in a garage. The "industry plant" thing sticks because this band sucks.

"yeah I don't like Lorde at all, but I read her wiki and don't see anything particularly remarkable"

Lorde, Swift, LDR, Mitski (I'd not heard that before); 'having no talent' 'bought/fucked their way to the top' is always being thrown at successful female artists. But yes its quite some time since we've heard these same accusations against male artists/bands; note: I'm generally out of touch with shit but I do recall this being one of the main arguments against the authenticity of Interpol and the Strokes.

"You literally live 15 minutes from 924 Gilman" so do I but I agree with sarah also I have not been there in a hundred million years and I suspect she has not either.

I'd never heard "industry plant" thrown at Mitski, just the whole thing about her dad being a CIA operative.

But yes its quite some time since we've heard these same accusations against male artists/bands

for like the third time, the term "industry plant" comes from hip-hop culture and has been used to describe dozens of male rappers (fairly or unfairly) for about a decade

fwiw, I think part of what maybe feels *inauthentic* about this band is that they are supposed to be describing the sexual experiences of a generation of either teenaged or twenty-something women (not entirely sure which), but I find it a little hard to believe stuff like refusing to "go down on" a woman is very common these days (do people even say "go down on" anymore)?

but I find it a little hard to believe stuff like refusing to "go down on" a woman is very common these days (do people even say "go down on" anymore)?

"go down on" is my preferred way of referring to it! and uh pretty sure it's still at least a little common

But I mean like "I'm tired of guys never wanting to do it" common?

But yes its quite some time since we've heard these same accusations against male artists/bands

for like the third time, the term "industry plant" comes from hip-hop culture and has been used to describe dozens of male rappers (fairly or unfairly) for about a decade


yeah I mean it was a rolling rap thread title one year because it is such a cliche

is this the thread where man alive tells everyone how much he loves to eat pussy, v cool

#onethread

also I think kids these days call it "crunch-a-munch"

kids eat ass now

it's 2017 grandpa we eat ass now https://t.co/gw0ChFSdsY

— elijah daniel (@elijahdaniel) August 16, 2017

they aren't mutually exclusive, mr culture knower

kids eat ass now

^ rejected Smiths song

What is going on in this thread.

they are supposed to be describing the sexual experiences of a generation of either teenaged or twenty-something women (not entirely sure which), but I find it a little hard to believe stuff like refusing to "go down on" a woman is very common these days (do people even say "go down on" anymore)?

uh these experiences span generations tbh.

also, it is quite awkward to read posts like this from married cis-het men in their 30s/40s

"Kids Eat Ass Now (It's 2017, Grandpa)"

xpost always a groomsman never a groomer

'I Ate Ass Before It Was Cool (Suck It, Zoomers)'

Even Ford was on board xps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMIQWRsYxak

kids eat ass now
K.E.A.N.
get the booty
gobble gooble yum, y'all

okay I shouldn't have posted that, sorry everyone

idk when I was a teenager the most prominent female artist that had songs about sex stuff was Madonna, who was by no means close to being a teenager, but a lot of teenage/pre-teen girls liked Madonna and could relate to her songs ...

Actually, when Congress passed the 20 Fingers Act of 1995 it made it functionally illegal not to lick it before you kick it

My god, why did I read this entire thread? I don't care about any of this

new board description

^^^^^

anytime someone invokes 20 Fingers I feel compelled to post this

feel like it should be new internet/life description really. So sick of all of my impulses and misplaced curiosity

xxp

i think what i find most perplexing about this band is why someone would deploy a "pop-punk" aesthetic to appeal to kids nowadays. what was the most recent popular new pop-punk group?

Tramp Stamps FOMO is real.

xpost, dogg all the famous soundcloud rappers love that garbage

i know kids like pop-punk but when was a new pop-punk act big

maybe it's an aesthetic they like and they just want to put their music out to anyone they think would also like it? Good lord, considering how many of us are/have been music writers, publicists, club bookers, etc. ... the existence of music sent for our approval that there's no chance in hell we are going to approve of should not be a question

young ppl h8 this band bcuz they tried to be "we hate men we are gay and do crimes" and then they found out they were in hetero normative regular ass str8 relationships and hoo boy you dont do that to the kids without them hating you

tbf when I went to Gilman to see kurt play, they were showing Repo Man on the screen during soundcheck

last time i played gilman it was with literal babies and little kids for a "kids punk!" class lol

this was when you opened for Captured By Robots ... and I actually didn't know until like, a week ago, that dude had been in Skankin Pickle! That band was rad.

apparently he is neighbors to our friend Eth@n and he kinda hates all his neighbors, in addition to hating most of humanity

he was in skankin pickle and the blue meanies! the two best 3rd wave ska bands!

Skankin Pickle are like the Adolescents of Ska imo

maybe it's an aesthetic they like and they just want to put their music out to anyone they think would also like it? Good lord, considering how many of us are/have been music writers, publicists, club bookers, etc. ... the existence of music sent for our approval that there's no chance in hell we are going to approve of should not be a question

― sarahell, Thursday, April 22, 2021 10:14 AM (thirteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it seems very much to be "put on" to compliment the tumblrite lyrics. all of which the tiktok teens took umbrage with when they did the research and found that they are extreme norms

though this is relevant to the thread topic, in that I feel the existence of No Doubt! and Gwen Stefani's solo career are what led to this band sounding like this.

It really is amazing that so many outlets wrote up aggregated articles on "band not popular on TikTok"

It is equally amazing how many people (including me) are reading and posting on this thread that really don't give a fuck about any of this! ... It's really fucking funny and is one of the reasons I love ILX

The best thing I know about tramp stamps is I have a friend who has one that she got on her birthday at an age when it seemed like a good idea. And so now instead of having birthday parties for herself, she has them for her tramp stamp. Maybe she could get the band to play at one of them.

ooh that's a good idea tipsy! ... Also bachelorette parties

"My god, why did I read this entire thread? I don't care about any of this

― silverfish"

give it an hour and you will find out that you secretly do care about all of it

do we have a thread for Things We Secretly Do Care About?

These are the things we secretly care about, c’mon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQhX8PbNUWI

...in spite of the protests.

the pop-revival is right on schedule given that these things take twenty years, and it was already showing up in the music of acts like 100 gecs.

has any young emerging artist of the last decade plus not been accused at least a few times? standard operating procedure at this point
― intern at pepe le pew research (Simon H.), Wednesday, April 21, 2021 3:29 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

As a pop music-averse old, whenever I somehow hear about a band like this, I have found that 90% of the time it’s because someone’s mom or dad is rich and / or famous

There definitely needs to be a distinction between having huge industry connections and being insanely wealthy, and using that as leverage to get into the biz (Lorde)
― beamish13, Wednesday, April 21, 2021 3:48 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I don’t see that there is any distinction. Being insanely wealthy means if you want to be a pop star, you can probably be a pop star. And of course this has always been true. How many young working class baristas and etsy side hustlers and Uber drivers have industry connections, anyway? It seems to me you can obviously come from money without having so-called industry connections, but having industry connections while not coming from money seems like really, really unlikely scenario?

btw I am happy ilx is having these conversations

i know kids like pop-punk but when was a new pop-punk act big

― 《Myst1kOblivi0n》 (jim in vancouver), Friday, 23 April 2021 3:13 AM (sixteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

machine gun kelly made a full-on pivot to pop punk last year. 5 seconds of summer are a little older but were at the pop end of the spectrum. halsey & yungblud (with travis barker) released a pop punk single in 2019 and i think each have delved a little more into the genre separately. i feel like it's only a matter of time before some new pop punk band that sounds pretty much exactly like that machine gun kelly album blows up huge

with the comparison to post malone etc. being similarly corny in their blatant imitation of their influences, i really don't think it's the musical content that has anyone up in arms about tramp stamps. teens like pop-punk. it's the the lyrics & image feeling so "hey fellow teens", not teens being mad they're ripping off avril lavigne or anything. maybe some are but that's not the driving factor behind the hate lol

"Eat My Ass, My Ass (I Won't Eat My Ass)"

I didn't say that people being mad about poorly ripping off Avril Levigne was the driving factor behind the hate; I said that was why their music is bullshit. I also said the reason Post Malone gets a pass is because he's ripping off Black people; I bet you about a million dollars that few people would care in the same way if Tramp Stamps were trying to be nu-TLC.

I kind of wish I never opened this thread and saved it, almost like a time capsule, so that in the near future I could read an entire chronology of and debate about a band I've never heard or even heard of getting hyped, getting backlash, and then breaking up, all in a self contained little vacuum. Schrödinger's Band.

i'm saving the 1975 threads for that exact reason

it's like every gen gets the gay dad they deserve

Get back to me when Tramp Stamps release anything half as good as Black Ghost!

is it even possible to "rip off" Avril Lavigne? ... It's like "ripping off" Panda Express

20 Fingers on Xuxa still one of the most mind-boggling moments ever

damn sarahell had the jay leno writing staff working all day saturday on that revive

there's a common joke among asian-americans about (some of) us being the only demographic that reps hard for panda express

xp - thanks jordan, I wanted to contribute something half-assed and basic bitch bullshit in keeping with the spirit of this thread

honestly if this thread were to pivot into a discussion of ethnic themed fast food restaurants, it would be an improvement

There's a food blogger my wife likes who I find to be pretty hit or miss but generally free from disasters. She (the blogger) has this thing for occasionally putting her "spin" on certain fast food dishes. There's some orange chicken dish inspired by something at Panda Express, and then there was this "Dorito" spiced crunchy taco inspired by something at Taco Bell. I brought this up a couple of times, saying, you know, we don't eat Panda Express, we don't eat Taco Bell. Why would we even want a take on anything we don't eat anyway? But I finally snapped when I saw a recipe for something inspired by a dish from Cheesecake Factory, even though the blogger actually admits *she'd never eaten at a Cheesecake Factory before*!!!! What the fuck? Then why would you even want to do a take on some chain's mile-high garbage pile!? It's so weird, because the blogger is otherwise not bad, just every once in a while comes back to this theme almost as a crutch. Like, it's a taco, you can do whatever you want with it, why base it on Taco Bell when what Taco Bell itself does is based on a pretty traditional taco, expect gross? Skip the middle man and just make your own original gross taco, you lazy blogger. Or your own original orange chicken. I mean, orange chicken is not exactly some proprietary Panda Express dish. Hell, it's probably not even Chinese. So why even give the chain a nod of acknowledgment?

sounds like she's an industry plant

guys i'm an industry plant.

fuck this industry.

see, that's how you know i'm not an industry plant. . .or am i?

oooh wait,

"industry plant" -- "i.p."

"intellectual property" -- "i.p."

COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT

you mom's so old she knew industry park when it was just a plant

your mom's so old she knew industry plant when it was just a seed

your mom's so old she knew industry plant when it was subsistence farming plant

point of order: Taco Bell is delicious

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR7uvTAWfjARucrYdynnw0f75MgJVtt6rALIw&usqp=CAU

fuck that, del taco all day.

I WILL FIGHT ANYONE OVER THIS

sidebar: there's a spot up the road from me where there's a del taco and taco bell directly across the street from each other. whenever i drive past, i like to imagine there's this ongoing war between them and they do stuff like huck oversized burritos at each other when the traffic dies down.

sidebar to the sidebar: had chipotle for lunch today (twas good) and the guys behind the counter were experimenting and they were making what one of them called "a burrito pizza" — it was two big tortillas stacked with all the usual chipotle fixins and then put into the toaster oven thing. ngl, it looked damn good.

DJP have thou forsaken Taco John's?

The anagram generator for industry plant are somewhat interesting: https://ingesanagram.appspot.com/

artsy in pundit
tiny turd plans
dirty nut plans
randy split nut

And most importantly

Dr Putin Stanly

I guess that one settles who is really behind Dr Luke’s influence.

m@tt: Taco John's is but a dim memory for me

Dr Putin Stanly

nice.

Del Taco > Taco Bell

The nearest Del Taco is 224 miles from me, which is far closer than I expected to see. Had no idea there were a handful in Detroit.

Countdown to Tramp Stamps releasing a song referencing sex and Taco Bell/sex at Taco Bell.

Eat-a My Gordita?

The only Taco John’s in the northeast is at JFK airport(!)

We are lucky to have a few dozen good taco places within a few minutes drive/walk. We even have great tacos served in supermarkets less than a mile away. But even then, even growing up (where the closest Taco Bell was in a different state, iirc), and certainly before I knew better, literally the only reason I ever ate at Taco Bell was because it was open. I remember seeing Stereolab and Cornershop here when the former was touring "Emperor Tomato Ketchup." I left the show a few minutes early with a friend because we were starving, and the only option was Taco Bell down the street, right by Wrigley Field. We got our food ("food") and sat down to eat, and a few minutes later we heard a cry out from the kitchen: "they're coming!!!" And a couple of minutes after that the place was overwhelmed by hungry and desperate Stereolab fans.

Damn, I thought for a second that you saw Stereolab and Cornershop in the Tacobell.

I assume they both just had it on their rider, so they could eat Taco Bell backstage in peace.

The only one of those chains we have on my island is Taco Bell. The drive-thru line is always ridiculously long.

"I saw Stereolab and Cornershop At Taco Bell" = New "Losing My Edge" lyrics.

Stereolab and Corner shop in the conference room

i actually played the taco bell on pacifica beach a 2 years ago.. well i played next to it

^that is a gorgeous Taco Bell

Want to hear something cool? A couple of weeks ago I went to the original Burger King, which, get this, has no relationship to the chain! It's a Burger King in downstate Illinois that had the state trademark. When the Burger King that we know and love today got up and running they got a federal trademark, but this place already had it locked down for the state. The Big Burger King sued and lost, and the little Burger King was allowed to keep and use its name, but only for something like within 100 ft of the restaurant.

Wasn't bad, either. Certainly a hundred times better than Taco Bell.

maybe it's because I'm vegetarian but Taco Bell is entirely inedible? Last time I had a bean burrito from there the beans tasted like some kind of salt paste

xp It’s actually a 20-mile radius

Downstate, one American mile is actually equal to 20 Illinois miles.

My sister is a vegetarian, and Taco Bell is one of the few places she ever looks forward to when she comes back to the States.

I should acknowledge that TB can be a lifesaver on a road trip or in an airport--at least you know you can technically eat *something* on the menu. But I'll drive miles out of my way to get to Chipotle or Baja Fresh or whatever first

"Taco Bell: It's Edible."
"Taco Bell: You Can Literally Eat It"
"Taco Bell: Better Than Nothing"
"Taco Bell: Make a Run for the Borderline."
"Taco Bell: My Anaconda Don't Want None Unless It's Got Buns, Hun."

Nearest Taco Bell to me is 25 miles away in RAF Mildenhall, closer than I thought.

del taco has delicious plant-based "beyond meat." another reason why del taco roolz and taco smell droolz.

Instead of "Beyond Meat" it should be called "Approaching Meat."

my brother-in-law is a bit of a foody but loves taco bell. which i don't understand as it is totally vile. is it a challop to say that mcdonalds is the behemoth it is because it's legit better than all the other fast food places?

I will say, it's the only one I'd consider for breakfast, and I do buy a Shamrock Shake once a year. So I guess advantage McD's, but I prefer Culver's. Speaking of which, this was just released by USA Today, arbiter of all things fast food:

The top 10 winners in the category Best Regional Fast Food are as follows:

1. Habit Burger
2. Pal's Sudden Service
3. Sheetz
4. Skyline Chili
5. Schoop's Hamburgers
6. Whataburger
7. Cook Out
8. In-N-Out Burger
9. Biscuitville
10. Culver's

A panel of experts partnered with 10Best editors to pick the initial nominees, and the top 10 winners were determined by popular vote.

Congratulations to all these winning fast food chains!

I like Wendy's as a go-to road trip fast food place. The honey mustard sauce is great for their fries.

we had the habit some time back. it was extremely average. though i got the chicken thing because i don't mess with red meat, so maybe i missed the point.

also i can't just let this brilliance slide:

Eat-a My Gordita?

― Filibuster Poindexter (Neanderthal), Monday, April 26, 2021 10:43 AM

this place is giving my soul life today. thx dudes.

My go-to “if I must” fast food meal is McD’s Filet-O-Fish (no cheese) + fries.

wendy's changed their burger patties a few years ago and no one acknowledges it except me and i feel like i'm being gaslighted

I never get their burgers, tbf, all about the spicy chicken sandwich when I go.

(xxp I don’t consider The Habit, In-N-Out, Five Guys etc. to be “fast food”)

there's a five guys at Kings Cross, a tenner for an always-disappointing burger, and two quid at Burger King across the road, a much cheaper disappointment, though it does feel like someone's going to get stabbed whenever you're in there, which is not the case at five guys, swings and roundabouts and that

My go-to “if I must” fast food meal is McD’s Filet-O-Fish (no cheese) + fries.

https://media1.tenor.com/images/59b27ca5bec26bd13e8d556ffde3aecc/tenor.gif?itemid=11806789

xxpost They're probably more like "fast casual." Even Culver's around here, you order at the counter but then you sit down and wait.

I love Five Guys (xp but can't speak for how the ex-US version may be!)

When I worked in Manhattan there was a Five Guys a few blocks away from my office, so I'd eat there once every couple of weeks. Good but yes, overpriced (and overpraised).

The Wendy's near my apartment went drive-thru only at the beginning of the pandemic, so I haven't eaten there in over a year. They were my favorite fast food place by far. I haven't eaten in McDonald's in over 25 years; the last time I went to one, the food made me ill and I ran outside and threw up in the gutter, clearly visible through the restaurant's giant picture window.

I go to White Castle about once a year, too.

Secret to Five Guys is to order the single patty, where the meat to bun ratio is in better balance than the default double patty.

Secret to White Castle is to be really drunk and hungry, ideally with a group, to get the maximum emotional impact from ordering several dozen burgers at once.

I've never had (or lived near) White Castle - though in my bachelor days I would sometimes buy the frozen microwave version of their burgers (which I liked, though I'm sure they took a few years off my life).

Yeah, the key to not feeling disgustingly full at Five Guys is the single patty and ordering the smallest order of fries, neither of which are default.

The smallest order of Five Guys fries could still fill up a kindergarten class.

Sometimes in the before times I'd be thrifty and bypass their fries for the free peanuts.

Their fries are so good, man

The smallest order of Five Guys fries could still fill up a kindergarten class.

Tbf, it is called Five Guys.

single patty and ordering the smallest order of fries

^this is true, btw - all u need for a single serving

My go-to “if I must” fast food meal is McD’s Filet-O-Fish (no cheese) + fries.

― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Monday, April 26, 2021 4:53 PM (twenty-eight minutes ago)

something about that "no cheese" is making me feel insane

it's only a half slice as well

Oh, it's not a "health" thing, just a preference. Fish + American cheese don't go together in my mind (or on my palate, I guess!)

However, American cheese is a great bait for *catching* fish. And so goes the circle of life.

tbf childhood hatred of fish + adult vegetarianism* means I've never eaten a FOF with or without cheese

* full disclosure: I will eat fish/seafood if my refusal to do so would otherwise ruin everyone else's good time, but this does not apply to McD's

There's something delicious about it to me, with that spongy bun...

Most of McD's fare is pretty low-quality, but that doesn't work against the FoF for me somehow.

when I did eat meat (i.e., when I was 16), I thought the McD cheeseburger bun was one of the greatest inventions in technological history

Their fries are so good, man

― smoking grass, poor caddying. (morrisp), Monday, April 26, 2021 2:18 PM

i must agree. there's a five guys down the street from the office, so in the before times (thx for the term blue whales!) we had french fry fridays. i'd go down there and just order like six portions of fries for everybody and the office would just be a pure vibe on friday afternoons.

couple other sidebars: mcdonald's was my first job. worked there for about eight months during end of junior year into the summer before senior year of high school. i was 17. i think i've had maybe an order of fries or a milkshake since i quit. i'm 40 now. yeah.

anybody wanna weigh in on jack in the box? i have some thoughts, but i'll abstain for now.

I have this vague memory of Jack in the Box getting busted for selling kangaroo meat in the '80s.

Oof, it was a little worse than that:

In 1981, horse meat labeled as beef was discovered at a Foodmaker plant that supplied hamburger and taco meat to Jack in the Box. The meat was originally from Profreeze of Australia, and during their checks on location, the food inspectors discovered other shipments destined for the United States which included kangaroo meat.

Junk in the Box just seems nasty to me, I wouldn't touch it.

Carl's Jr. is actually tolerable, but I wouldn't go out of my way for it.

Love a good hot Carl

That horse meat story reminds me of one of my all-time favorite Simpsons gags: when the meat at Krusty Burger is revealed to be "Mostly Zoo Animals, Some Filler".

or the ribwich, which is made out of something that is probably an insect; an insect which has now been made extinct by the ribwich. circle of life indeed.

so on a lunch run during my junior year of high school, some friends and i decided to hit jack's for tasty fried vittles. we ordered in the drive-thru, got our stuff, parked, and were chowing down.

suddenly, a strange whimper came from the back seat.

in my buddy's curly fries? well yep, that's a deep fried roach, friend.

How did it taste?

We once took a tour of the Vienna Beef plant here, and after years of jokes and rumors were shocked at how clean and simple the whole hot dog process was.

Clean and simple from our perspective, I should add. If I were a cow I would probably offer a different opinion.

I'll sometimes choose a (Hebrew National) dog over a burger of uncertain provenance, b/c I trust the dog more.

what even is this thread now haha

I confess that I do appreciate that Tramp Stamps' raison d'être as a musical act (outside of providing them an income) is to troll incels.

"Incels In Taco Bells": Next Tramp Stamps single

I cant believe there is a food place called sheetz. Did i read it right? Because aw nah. Nope.

“Why have other food when you can have sheetz”?

Incels
Taco Bells
Crippling mankind

The rare fast food experience that *starts* with sheetz.

I cant believe there is a food place called sheetz. Did i read it right? Because aw nah. Nope.

― Hunt3r, Monday, April 26, 2021 4:20 PM (sixteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

there's a small local soup and sandwich chain here called "liquids and solids" which, it can't just be me, makes me think of piss and shit

Sheetz is vile Wawa rules.

Xpost def not just you. Would never eat there

Perversely it now feels like a challenge to do it just to survive. Where is this joint?

I want a T-shirt that says “I ate sheetz”

Perversely it now feels like a challenge to do it just to survive. Where is this joint?

what even is this thread now haha

― octobeard, Monday, April 26, 2021 4:06 PM

uhh the best thing currently going on the internet

Jack n the box >>>>>>> 5 guys

love their E Coli Double

"I'd rather die
than have another double patty at Five Guys"

Jack in the Box chicken sandwiches are pretty dope tbh ... not as good as Popeye's, but my local JitB is like open 24 hours almost?

I just listened to this finally and it sounds like basically anything in this thread 00's girl-fronted radio-pop songs that sounds like pop-punk/power-pop/blondie

if yahoo groups didn't get killed I'm sure you could find a bunch of teenagers outraged at the existence of, idk, lillix or something

Where I grew up (in SE PA) I don't remember Sheetz, though of course Wawa was everything. I'm not even sure we had a 7-11 around, which means I may have missed out on Slurpees (is that possible?), but I sure as hell didn't miss out on Krimpets and Kandy Kakes.

Btw, the first two TikTok-only EPs from Krimpets and Kandy Kakes were pretty solid, though a little too slick for supposedly "indie" acts. I smell a rat. And I'm not talking about the last time I ate at Taco Bell.

I think the Susquehanna River is the Sheetz/Wawa demilitarized zone.

And the Delaware the dividing line for scrapple?