Comments on: PENS – “hey friend ! what you doing?”

By: Rose

Rose — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 21:43:46 +0000

Travis, next time you’re driving around L.A, try listening to some chill out. Thank you.

By: Grinderman

Grinderman — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:47:01 +0000

Haha!

This review makes me laugh!
It’s the very definition of “I don’t get it”.

Heard any early ‘Smog’ records?

Besides, people can record in any fidelity these days, and it’s actually easier and more common to record pretty cleanly, even on cheap digital devices. If you’ve ever recorded music in the last couple of years you’d know this.

This is the sound of three girls having fun, and making the sound that they like with what they have. If the older bands they admire sounded lo-fi in their day, they are just taking it that step further / fuzzier, and they clearly have that healthy positive DIY Punk attitude straight from the 70’s of “just do it”.

If you’ve got to a stage in life when a straight forward contemporary pop song (regardless of it’s fidelity) just sounds like “noise”…and you use examples including phrases “in my day when bands sounded good” etc. or something similar, then you really have gotten old, at least your attitude to life has.

As for worthless… nothing is worthless, you either like it or you don’t.

Besides, there are so many other types of music out there that are a lot more trashy. Groups who just make pure noise, and layer fuzz… glitch music etc… just scratch the surface of anything remotely non-pop/indie and you’ll find a whole world of unusual and interesting artists.

Also, the younger you are, the more certain types of music means to you. I know how I felt when was 17 and I first heard 80’s Hardcore music, or Pixies, Pavement, My Bloody Valentine, or when Nirvana changed things back in 1991 or so. Maybe hearing the equivalent now wouldn’t affect me in the same way, or as powerfully due to life experience, but I know that bands like PENS who are fresh off the block, doing the opposite of MOR indie will certainly excite a lot of young people and inspire them to do things they may not have been confident to do before. After all, that is what Punk was all about in the 70’s.

It’s pretty clear the reasons I, (and other similar souls) will like this band for the very reasons this reviewer hates them. “…oh well, whatever, nevermind…” ;P

Anyway, I love this stuff, and the live shows are always fun.
So thank you PENS for making me a fan, and giving my life some cheer! :)

By: Danny Glover

Danny Glover — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:36:55 +0000

Woaah! those girls are fuckin rad… seriously? …lo-fi???? ….who’d a thought…. who’da fuckin thought. I gotta go tell my bros… fuckin shit is insaine. Just when I think my boner is gonna spit fire… another lo-fi assmilk band comes out and says, “here we are, we fuckin did it”. thanks PENS! suck a fuckin terd outta my ass.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:37:42 +0000

i’ve never heard ‘fuck trophy’ or ‘dreamkiller’, i like that

By: Darryl

Darryl — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 13:53:48 +0000

after 3 seconds I thought ‘hey this isn’t THAT bad…’ after about 6 seconds I realized it really was THAT bad. Wow.

By: ev

ev — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:44:02 +0000

Yeah ok this band is annoying. I listened to 2 minutes of it and I think that’ll suit me just fine for the rest of my life.

Agree 100%. The recording method does not make the song. The first Thermals album sounds like it was recorded on a boom box, and sure that adds a little charm, but the songs are what get stuck in my head, not the hissing static.

By: ryan

ryan — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 20:10:50 +0000

Funny, I was bitching to a friend the other day about how people equate “lo-fi” with everything that doesn’t sound like Steely Dan produced it. Furthermore, people don’t seem to realize that it doesn’t always denote a shitty sound or lack of attention to the sonic details; I’d say most of the cats doing that kinda thing are really picky about making things sound a certain way. It’s an aesthetic.

At any rate, that PENS shit sucks my pen-15. Moving on.

By: roly

roly — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 18:07:22 +0000

. Break this shit up and tell your parents you changed your mind and you are now ready to attend college.

ahhaha awesome

By: marlon

marlon — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:58:41 +0000

p.s.

it sounds like terry shiavo engineered this record

By: marlon

marlon — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:46:50 +0000

the reasons you listed for not liking this band/record are the exact same things people who claim to like this kinda shit list as positives.

now queue all the “you just don’t get it, man” comments.