Two in one: Year of Silence

I'm very proud of myself for being able to say "fuck you" to the hipster fan bases of two perfectly good bands with this post. This is a Crystal Castles song that samples Sigur Ros. About 10 years ago, I could not open an issue of any music magazine or look at any sites online that discuss music without some reviewer talking about what geniuses Sigur Ros were because they make extremely soporific music with lyrics in a made-up version of Icelandic that they called "Hopelandic." I enjoyed falling asleep at night many times to their albums, but worked really hard on not going and telling anyone that bit of information up until this point. Now, on to CC. I think their first album is highly overhyped and overrated and really try-hardy; it sounds too much like they are making an effort to be abrasive and transgressive and ANNOYING. However, when they calmed down and started working on writing enjoyable electronic songs on their second album, I feel they really hit their stride. "II" is an excellent album and is great to work out to. I did get sick of hearing it in every indie boutique in Lawrence for a period of about 9 months, and I still hear it sometimes in boutiques and restaurants around LA, as well as tracks from their third album, which is also pretty good. HOWEVER, it seems like their fan base (anyone I've seen in a CC t-shirt or overheard talking about how good their new album is) is overwhelmingly composed of douchey art students living in Silver Lake or Los Feliz who work at vinyl-only record stores, ride bikes everywhere, loudly bash vegans and talk about how good pork and steak are (which is now even cooler than veganism here, since the vegans can get pretty annoying), and, if they talk to me, universally start every conversation with asking me about my tattoos so they can then show me theirs and talk about them. These are the kids who come dance at the gay bars with their hetero partners because they like the "vibe," who take photographs while loudly explaining that they are NOT using Instagram and really prefer film anyway, and bring their goddamn dogs everywhere, sometimes putting them in a "working animal" vest right before going into a restaurant so they can have them in there (uh yeah, I have seen this, and come on, it is pretty suspicious that your animal is not wearing the vest until right before you need to go into a place where your pet, uh, animal is not allowed; I also once met a guy in New York who bragged about how he gets away with this and everyone TOTALLY believes his dog is a service dog when she is NOT, so I'm sure it goes on elsewhere). Yes. So, don't tell anyone, especially not these other fans, but I love Crystal Castles, and this song sampling Sigur Ros is fucking DOPE.