honestly, does anyone really care about Serena Maneesh?

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I think it's pretty funny to see pfork try and act like they are worthy of the picture headline when essentially every act in the smaller headlines is way more interesting and far more liked...

plus, none of serena maneesh's dates are confirmed! all tba, VERY newsworthy!!!

― my boo, Thursday, 3 November 2005 20:32 (nineteen years ago)

They are the Single Frame Ashtray of 2005.

― Stuck to a Seat in the New Beverly (Bent Over at the Arclight), Thursday, 3 November 2005 20:34 (nineteen years ago)

That band is extremely unimpressive.

― honest alamo, Thursday, 3 November 2005 21:38 (nineteen years ago)

No. Pretty lame.

― Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Thursday, 3 November 2005 21:40 (nineteen years ago)

yeah, isn't it a bit early for shoegaze nostalgia acts anyway?

― jonnyblank (jonnyblank), Thursday, 3 November 2005 21:56 (nineteen years ago)

Does anyone remember Smashing Orange?

― borrowed_tunes, Thursday, 3 November 2005 22:20 (nineteen years ago)

I like this album very much.

― marc h. (marc h.), Thursday, 3 November 2005 22:21 (nineteen years ago)

yeah fuck these guys! pitchfork! fuckers! they like music! fucking shit!

thread secret: my boo is in dungen

― Nick Sylvester, Thursday, 3 November 2005 22:32 (nineteen years ago)

why do you keep her down there?

― gear (gear), Thursday, 3 November 2005 22:34 (nineteen years ago)

Nick, stop being so salty. Bitch.

― guyser, Friday, 4 November 2005 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

haha, nice guyser. the writer comes to defend his band. it's just so ridiculous to me that just b/c they get new music, that the announcement of their non tour is suddenly, WHOA MAJOR HEADLINE

― urouro, Friday, 4 November 2005 14:30 (nineteen years ago)

You guys are a bunch of elitist hipster douches. This is a fine band with a fine album — not eart shattering, but pretty damn good — but you feel the need to shit all over it.

― Brian Edwards, Friday, 4 November 2005 16:52 (nineteen years ago)

Ha - I read the first sentence of Brian's post, and was waiting for inevitable mention of "Bitchfuck."

― David R. (popshots75`), Friday, 4 November 2005 16:54 (nineteen years ago)

I do. I'm myspace friends with Emil. I wrote them in Norwegian (but I did that for Shining too). Det gik godt nok. Ok, det er dansk. Hvad saa?

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Friday, 4 November 2005 16:56 (nineteen years ago)

i like their sound but their songs just do nothing for me.
I'd say they're more like this year's On! Air! Library!

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Friday, 4 November 2005 17:02 (nineteen years ago)

thread secret #2: guyser is in a go! team side project

― Nick Sylvester, Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:33 (nineteen years ago)

I keep waiting for a website to sink into the floor screaming "what a world! what a world!" after one of these "gotcha" flames.

― 'Twan (miccio), Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:36 (nineteen years ago)

My girlfriend likes this record. She is not to be trusted.

― adam (adam), Saturday, 5 November 2005 00:41 (nineteen years ago)

I have heard part of this LP and wasnt impressed. Sorry. As someone who grew up during the height of the "shoegaze" scene, this isnt that. Its not a revival, but more of a nod. Though not a very good one. The problem with alot of bands that came toward the end of the scene (post 93ish) was that they made it into a formula. Fey vocals and noisey rest. Seems llike they are doing that. It just doesnt work. Its not terrible as there have been alot worse. Lets hope there isnt a shoegaze revival though. By the time we all made it through the first time it was watered down so much that it eclipsed the bands that actually were doing something cool and innovative at the time.

― Toddb, Saturday, 5 November 2005 16:39 (nineteen years ago)

what i think is great about the serena maneesh album is that they actually don't do the typical 'shoegaze' thing. What they DO do is approxiamate Keven Shields' melodic sensibility
to the point of near cloning, but beyond that it's great noisy rawk music with expert noise placement and almost stonesesque riffing. No fey floaty pseudo slowdive on display and all the better for it.
also : neither smashing orange nor on! air! library! ever had the pop hooks or the sense of fun of serena maneesh.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:32 (nineteen years ago)

I hear no sense of fun in serena maneesh and while i'll agree that they have some interesting melodies, none of them are even remotely as catchy as 90% of MBV's songs.

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:41 (nineteen years ago)

Does anyone remember Smashing Orange?

I got the comp for free that was just released. It's okay.

I still have not heard Serena Maneesh but there's a few mp3s around here somewhere. I fear I must say that I do not need Stonesque riffing ever again unless I get to singlehanded destroy classic rock radio, which I would love to do, with guns.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:44 (nineteen years ago)

it's all about context, Ned. It's silly to write off one ingrediant which can enhanced one dish, yet could easily make you ill in another. Hooray for Food metaphors !

also my fun might be your misery...

also also. MBV is long dead and gone, sorry. Serena doesn't claim to be them anyway.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:52 (nineteen years ago)

Serena don't really claim to be much other than style appropriation, and that's my real problem with them.

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:53 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not counting out the possibility that they could develop over time into a much better band, but then again, i didn't discount that possibility with interpol and they didn't really deliver.

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Saturday, 5 November 2005 19:56 (nineteen years ago)

Where have they claimed to be nothing more than style appropriation ? I call bullshit on that.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Saturday, 5 November 2005 20:26 (nineteen years ago)

In their music.

― Fetchboy (Felcher), Saturday, 5 November 2005 20:30 (nineteen years ago)

That's your limited interpretation of their music.

― Brad Laner (Brad Laner), Saturday, 5 November 2005 20:31 (nineteen years ago)

Hooray for Food metaphors !

Yum! (Having just had a delicious dish for lunch.) Maybe I just want less 1960s in my music (and more 1980s instead oh wait I gave it away).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 5 November 2005 20:48 (nineteen years ago)

well.. i grew up during the shoegazer hype too but this band is incredible. they draw on their influences but manage to create a sound that is instinctively their own and the songs just are SOLID:

pitchfork i always regarded as opinionated wankers, but they got this one right!!!!!!

― ben sand, Monday, 14 November 2005 22:11 (nineteen years ago)

It's a strong contender for album of the year!

― anthony queen, Tuesday, 22 November 2005 19:35 (nineteen years ago)

Serena got soul, bitches.

― Solder, Monday, 5 December 2005 13:08 (nineteen years ago)

I don`t see Serena as a band trying to revive anything, so all you people complaning about it being to early for a shoegaze revival or them not being half of what MBV was, that`s simply your need to understand and rate music through placing them in small boxes. "Ahm, this band sounds like MBV, but i liked MBV better" or "its only 4 years since the last time a heard a band trying the same". Well, good music is good music in my world, no matter how good Beatles was, I still like the strokes. What i DO like about Serena, is how seemingly "whole" this album is made out. I dare to say that most songs are good standing alone, but as an album it just lifts it self to another level, excactly because it is NOT even possible to count the influences and waves of musical inspiration that pours out. If you want to arrest bands for being to much like their inspirators, there cant be any doubt who they are copying. This record is simply not a MBV ripoff or a straight shoegazer revival. It is a monument of noise and silence, clearly buildt on a much larger base of influences than one could get the inmpression of when googling them. So give this album a chance as a whole(preferrably in headset). If you are INTO shoegaze, MBV, Helmet, Sonic Y. or other noise-rock bands, chances are good you will discover some of the qualities of this album.

― DjRedo, Monday, 5 December 2005 19:39 (nineteen years ago)

three weeks pass...

DjRedo...Are you a frustrated musician? Sorry, but your comments are poors and understables

― silvia, Thursday, 29 December 2005 17:17 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

i still don't believe anyone cares about this band despite so much evidence otherwise...

― still, Tuesday, 14 February 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)

Hearing this album, I got the same feeling I got when I heard The Muse and Secret Machines.

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Wednesday, 15 February 2006 00:02 (nineteen years ago)

I can only find three mp3s on my good old blog aggregator, but they sound pretty fucking cool to me.

― Nigel (Nigel), Thursday, 23 February 2006 19:19 (nineteen years ago)

Saw them tonight in Boston and was totally floored.

― Nigel (Nigel), Thursday, 9 March 2006 06:56 (nineteen years ago)

Anyone else seen them?

― Nigel (Nigel), Friday, 10 March 2006 19:45 (nineteen years ago)

They're playing in Columbus tonight. Should I go?

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Friday, 10 March 2006 19:59 (nineteen years ago)

Definitely. Like I said, I was blown away in Boston.

― Nigel (Nigel), Friday, 10 March 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

The Norwegian press these days are more interested in the debut album of Serena Maneesh leader Emil Nicolaysen's sister, Elvira Nicolaysen, released this week.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 10 March 2006 21:09 (nineteen years ago)

Thread secret #3... never mind.

― T/S: Pinks/Oki Dog/Scoobys/Tail o' the Pup (Bent Over at the Arclight), Friday, 10 March 2006 21:33 (nineteen years ago)

Terribly dull and completely lacking in dynamics, even if their elf-roadie put my friends and I on the guest list at a sold-out show...

Very disappointing.

― Zach Mercer (suizen), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 08:24 (nineteen years ago)

i really despise this thread title. would anyone object to me changing it?

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 08:29 (nineteen years ago)

its an ILM trademark: starting the backlash against a band before anyone's heard of them...the album often runs in place, but they are fantastic live

― Space Is the Place (Space Is the Place), Tuesday, 14 March 2006 12:30 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

I just finished reviewing the album. I thought it was wonderful. Too many My Bloody Valentine disciples lack energy and are far too narrow in what they ape. They're content to swirl, missing the whole point of what made MBV genius, at least to me. Serena-Maneesh get it.

― Brian O'Neill (NYCNative), Saturday, 13 May 2006 21:29 (nineteen years ago)

Yeah, this hardly sounds like a limp "shoegaze revival" act to me

― xavier mcshane (xave), Sunday, 14 May 2006 17:21 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

all this talk of MBV overlooks the fact that "drain cosmetics" lifts very very heavily from Spacemen 3's "take me to the other side"

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 02:06 (nineteen years ago)

i can't believe i didn't notice that before -- pretty obvious lift, yeah. (and does anyone else think this band is more ecstasy & wine than loveless, as far as mbv comparisions go?)

― spastic heritage (spastic heritage), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 02:15 (nineteen years ago)

absolutely, i don't hear loveless in them at all. perhaps the first two creation EPs as well

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 02:35 (nineteen years ago)

Eh? Saw them the other night and they left me... underwhelmed.

I've been told I should listen to the album, because apparently the sound was awful and didn't do them justice. (Though I don't think that's an excuse, as Engineers managed to blow me away in the same club with the same rubbish sound.)

It's weird, cause loads of people whose tastes I really respect have told me to listen to them. But it's a bit like... "eh, if I wanted to listen to MBV, I'd put on Isn't Anything."

― pwdre ser (Welsh for rot of the stars) (kate), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 11:20 (nineteen years ago)

i don't care whether you listen to them or not, but the mbv thing is a red herring

― electric sound of jim (and why not) (electricsound), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 11:54 (nineteen years ago)

But that's what people keep telling me is their USP!

― pwdre ser (Welsh for rot of the stars) (kate), Wednesday, 31 May 2006 12:11 (nineteen years ago)

one month passes...

They sing a lot better than most of the original shoegaze people.

― Ned Beauman (NedBeauman), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

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