In September 2002, the issue of Rolling Stone depicted a group of skinny, floppy-haired Australians on the cover, lads who generally resembled Silverchair in appearance and country of origin. The group was The Vines, now somewhat of an obscure name, but at this time depicted prominently, with, oddly enough, the band names “The Strokes / The White Stripes / The Hives” offered to the side, as an afterthought compared to these showcased Aussies.
I had The Vines’ CD this year, I remember, and really had nothing bad to say about it, then or now. In fact, I enjoyed all of these bands. I guess I’m like that corny uncle who’s just really proud of how all his kids are doing.
Anyway, perhaps owing to some fault on Rolling Stone’s part, it became general practice in American hipsterdom to make fun of these bands for all being called “The” something, the implication then following that they were basically all the same, which of course isn’t the case at all. Juxtaposed, anyway, with The Kaiser Chiefs and The Von Bondies, ironically, two more bands of roughly this era and style of music, The Vines seemed to be penalized, on a cultural level (like stigmatized, more or less) BECAUSE of their initial inclusion in the “big four.” It was like they were villainized, in a sense, set up like a lamb to slaughter. This is especially strange as their second album, Winning Days (2004), was another CD I owned at this time, got regular play and even which garnered some praise from a roommate or two, I think for the raucous and memorable third track “TV Pro.”
Dour economic times, in subsequent years, hence debilitating the scope of mainstream rock [1], coupled with the emphasis on and popularity boom of indie rock, concordant with the ideology-spawning war in Iraq, joined forces to essentially do in the popularity of our most garage-y Aussies. Were they perhaps the least original of the “big four”? I’ve heard “Nirvana ripoff” accusations hurled at this band, which I never particularly noticed as a faux pas but also wouldn’t entirely rule out, given their sound and song structure, I suppose. I mean, there isn’t really a prominently displayed “Stairway to Heaven”; or rock opera, in their catalogue.
So in 2006, upon the release of their third album Vision Valley, if we American consumers were in a sort of “You can’t handle the truth” type of quandary, hopefully this is understandable, if partly for its pervasive negation of the band’s appeal. True to form, anyway, the first track on this album, “Anysound” comes in simple, fuzzy and rude, and when Craig Nicholls sings the line “Kill me now I’m dead”; it certainly seems a little redundant, like Annie’s long, slow goodbye in the musical of the same name. Anyway, even if Vision Valley tends to hash out similar quick-fix grunge hooks to the prior works in their oeuvre, the band does deserve some credit for their accomplishments, for their tendency to add a certain simplicity and tongue-in-cheek lightness to mainstream rock, when such a thing was desperately needed.
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[1] This is compared, of course, with the economically robust ’90s, when goofy acts like CAKE and The Presidents of the United States of America were able to enjoy record deals and radio play, despite their quirky and non-earnest dispositions.
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