One reason no one has filled the void Godspeed left is that no one else could gain a foothold while simultaneously coming over as so pretentious. I have no reason to think the band members aren't all good people, but in terms of presentation, these guys get away with murder, and it's wonderful. For one, there are the melodramatic communications, which tend to situate the band as sick and victimized and hanging by a thread as the late-capitalist apocalypse draws near. The monologue that opened f#a#∞, with its Lee Marvin-like character describing scenes where mothers clutch babies and we are all trapped inside a horrible machine that is bleeding to death, was the ideal introduction. The kind of mayhem that monologue describes really does happen, every day, but Godspeed's thing has always been to insert their music into the middle of it, so it seemed like they were soundtracking the disaster from the inside, like the string section sawing away on the deck of the Titanic. So their "image," whatever that might mean for a band that really has done everything for itself, seems as well-honed and clear as anything a marketing team might come up with. But they also gave pretension a good name, as they built their own world with clear aesthetic and political values and then invited you to come join them inside. Plenty of bands are down to earth and chill and going with the flow, but Godspeed are on another trip, and they're loved for it.
http://pitchfork.com/features/resonant-frequency/7796-resonant-frequency-69/
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