Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream

gay
Celebrated writer/shampoo magnate/old gay dude Gore Vidal once said the difference between reviewers and critics is that reviewers introduce new shit; critics put that shit into historical and cultural context.

Well, if a certain tourettic detective is to be believed, context is everything. (Check out Motherless Brooklyn)

So here goes: The eighties are back in a bad way; so is disco. The white Michael Jackson is dead; the black one has been MIA for years. The world is a smaller place because of the internet; therefore, in comparison, my penis is looking bigger these days. Finally, it’s no surprise that a growing demographic of kids believe they really like music because they read blogs and because the shit they listen to has a broad “indie” stamp, when in fact, they consume and dispose of music in the same way their Top 40 peers do.

So, hey dorks, give fifteen minutes of your dwindling attention span to this summer’s Cut Copy: Empire Of The Sun! This album might’ve been released last fall, but sometimes bullshit snowballs really slowly, especially if it’s coming from Australia.

First thing’s first: These guys dance on Brokeback Mountain. You can ask Gore Vidal; it’s true. Secondly, this duo is trying to imitate MGMT’s sound and Fischerspooner’s look, but their success is partial, if only because they dimed the Shitty dial, broke it, and managed to hit twelve.

This is new territory for us.

Why these Australians decided to name themselves after that Christian Bale movie (or that J.G. Ballard book) is probably the only thing that interests me about them. But then again, I forgot what I just typed so I’m probably not being honest with myself, or with you, the reader.

I’m sorry.

Don’t expect any apologies from Empire Of The Sun, though. It’s a no-brainer bad idea when you have a band that spends more time jerking off in the mirror than paying attention to their music or lyrics. Let’s randomly pick a “song.” How about “Swordfish Hotkiss Night”?

Sample lyrics:

“Hotdog belt donut melt
Magpie knelt by itself
Monster goons magnet moves
Diamonds in a harlot douche”

Holy shit. These guys can’t even put together half a sentence. This is clinical proof that they’ve been doing a line of coke for every line of poetry they complete. If you’re going to randomly throw words together, here’s a better example you might recognize:

“A mulatto
An Albino
A mosquito
My libido”

And even better:

“Shoot speed
Kill Light”

This album is the sad sound of hipsters dancing ironically* on Blow* Mountain. They can have Empire Of The Sun. We’ll be on Party Mountain with Nick Cave, who is probably pissed off enough to record that second Grinderman man LP stat. WHOOOOOOOOO!

(*Might be redundant.)

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20 Responses to “ Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream ”


  • As an Australian, let me say sorry. These guys blow.

    Word to Grinderman Pt 2.

  • yeah this music is bunk but lyrics arent always important to me like take the beatles with come together the lyrics “he got toejam football he got monkey finger” are gibberish but the songs still good.

  • i’d also like to appologise for this kind of shit coming out of my country. We can’t seem to get a decent band world wide attention. Damn you Michael Hutchence for choking your dick to death and in the process cutting us off from the rest of the world.

  • The people in this band (and cut copy, jet, wolfmother…blah blah blah) should be killed. Simple. If there is any attention towards an Australian band it should be The Drones.

  • If another Grinderman record comes out, I will cream my pants.

  • Bad Boy Bubby,
    You forgot Silverchair. Then again, they should be forgotten.
    This album is the soundtrack to anal rape. Another Grinderman record? That would make my year. By the way, did anyone see The Proposition? It was written by Nick Cave. Brutal movie!

  • julian, i get where you’re coming from, but that’s no reason to compare empire of the sun with the beatles. that said, i think that “obla di” song might be the soundtrack in the upper levels of hell–very annoying.

    jared, overall, i liked the proposition. nick cave’s music for the film was pretty legit, too; when i’m feeling sentimental, i sob along to “the rider song”.

  • the musical prolificness of these two fruitcakes is nothing short of tub-girl level diarrhoea..

    the head is about the only website to call this bullshit out. fkn props. pitchfork, stereogum, gorillaballs, blahblah, all those retard sites, have all bent over backwards to take loads from bullshit australian bands like this..

  • What a stupid review.

  • yeah i would never defend crap music like this i in no way meant to compare the two groups. there is no excuse for empire of the sun.

  • ted, we want some reviews of “good” music. i appreciate your protective motherly gestures of trying to steer us away from bad shit, but i think i protect myself enough by not listening to the radio or reading music blogs. i want to know some badass music that will rock my brains and melt my face off

  • john, refer to my review for future of the left if you want a rocked brain and a melted face.

  • what’s the point of reviewing a 3 month old (in the us) album just to say how much they suck? this album came out in austalia in OCTOBER and everyone else was writing about them last fall.

    why would anyone care about this NOW?

    this place just got an la weekly cover story. i guess i expected more than snarky reviews about 3-6 month old albums.

    you don’t like bat for lashes either. okay. congrats. that came out in APRIL.

    pitchfork reviews might be pretentious and slanted, but at least they’re timely…so far, this is making pitchfork look pretty good.

  • i guess some people have better things to do than to validate your lame opinions about the hippest new releases in a timely fashion eric, cause you’ll download and faux-listen to them all anyway..

  • man, i know this isn’t the last time i’m going to have to write this: ERIC, WHEN I READ A COMMENT LIKE THAT, I KNOW YOU WEREN’T BORN YESTERDAY, BECAUSE NO ONE COULD GET THAT FUCKING STUPID IN 24 HOURS.

    there’s no time-table for an opinion, little buddy.

  • wow good one.

    that’s true little buddy. there is indeed no timetable for opinions. i still don’t like rush hour 3. but you don’t see me going to a semi legit website to write all about it. the review wasn’t even funny, if that was indeed its purpose.

    i guess my point is more, why not write about what you consider to be relevant/good music instead of old/irrelevant music that no one cares about. not even “hipsters” care about this band. nobody does except you for some reason.

    are empire of the sun hurting you by existing? why waste the space on this site to write about them?

    save untimely reviews of old shitty albums for your own shitty blog and use this website, with what i imagine to be a fairly sizable readership to write about good stuff. or get funnier. i don’t think anyone needs to be reminded about shitty albums that came out a long time ago in an ill conceived attempt to appear “edgy.”

    leave the funny stuff to meathead. he’s great.

  • eric, even if you were the boss of the internet, you couldn’t tell me what to do or convince me of what’s funny and/or relevant. you’re just whining for the sake of whining on the comment board of a site you consider “semi-legit,” typing commands from your desk.

    go make a real human connection, and if that means touching yourself, that’s (literally) your thing; whatever floats your dingy, jefe.

    things are done a little differently at buddyhead. we just reviewed the obits album. that came out early 2009. we also just reviewed the n.a.s.a. album. that came out months ago.

    and the thing is, people DO care. even you.

    get over it, life coach.

  • the cover tells all, it looks like one of those furry neon color-in yourself posters from a head shop sold next to the bong display.

  • [...] Along the way, he gets some assistance from Donald Sutherland as a member of the IRA. 61. Empire of the Sun – Christian Bale is just a little kid in this Steven Spielberg film about life inside a Japanese [...]

  • Oh fuck that’s the same dude from The Sleepy Jackson? For shame.

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