/lit/ - Literature

I don't like hyper literate music very much. It's... overdone. Like, I feel like that kind of thing is always a bit of an act someone's putting on, you know? It seems to get in the way of making the kind of music that I really enjoy listening to. Um. I guess Minutemen, Arab Strap, Smiths? Leonard Cohen, I suppose. Generally I like my music stupid and unsubtle in its emotional palette, though. And with a good rhythm section.

Bob Dylan.

>>1276339
Oh yeah I feel ya. It is pretentious more often than not. I love dumb simple music too.
>>1276349
Interesting.

Also Syd Barrett, considering he made a song out of a James Joyce poem.

The Decemberists is probably the most "literate" band I listen to. I somewhat agree with >>1276339, in that it's overdone, not that I prefer simple, mindless music. But in the case of Colin Meloy, he studied theatre and literature before he really committed to music. It only stands to reason it would influence his writing.
I do like literary references, but I don't like a band to load down their music with them. It feels pretentious.

>>1276380
Oh, and I forgot Camera Obscura, making those Robert Burns poems into songs.

Titus Andronicus.

I don't know. Therion?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CLC2UUpcQQ

mastodon had that album about moby dick

also titus andronicus make a lot of literary references, and their name itself is the name of a play by shakespeare

POMPOUS
PEDANTIC
ARROGANT
HAUGHTY
GRANDIOSE
ARTSY-FARTSY
OSTENTATIOUS
OVERAMBITIOUS
APISH
HIGH FALUTIN'
SHMALTZY
ASSUMED
CONTRIVED
AFFECTED
PUFFED-UP
PREENING

for the love of god people, you read extensively, please fucking think of new words besides "pretentious." It doesn't even technically fit in the way you're using it, because there isn't a "pretense" being set up, it's just musicians awkwardly changing their music to reflect inspirations outside of the musical.

>>1276385
a BAD play by shakespeare.

>>1276382
Oh, yeah. How could I forget them?

>>1276386

With the pretense of looking intellectual.

>>1276386
It actually fits fine here. Calling them pretentious for making an over-abundant amount of literary references is saying they're attempting to appear well-read, while they actually are not well-read. Pretentious simply means pretending to be something you're not or ostentatious. Just because some people use the word incorrectly doesn't mean we should stop using the word altogether.
Also, none of the synonyms you mentioned would have worked in this context.

>>1276386
I agree with you, for what it's worth, and avoided the word in my original complaint.

Whether or not it fits here, the word is so overused that I feel it should be avoided as a matter of general principle. It's so anti-intellectual, too, or at least it seems that way to me.

>>1276387
Man that's his best one. The band is really good too, and super nice to boot. Shit Ima listen to 'em right ow.

>>1276391
The first part is about perspective. I don't think it's a matter of pretension, it's that these people are well-read, they're just trying to make a point about it where no point needs to be made. That's not pretentious. It is, however, pedantic.
Second point, most of those synonyms would've worked fine, or are even more applicable. The list of them is more for future reference. I am tired of seeing that word thrown around by people who think they're intelligent, yet do not have the ability to usemore than one word to fit a wide and large variety of situations that fall under a general umbrella of attempts at intellectual recognition that fall flat.

>>1276394
>Man that's his best one.

Dude, no. It is not. Do not even. It is not a good play, I'm sorry. I mean, it's cool that it's all gruesome, but the fact is it's just not very good.

But the band is pretty decent.

>>1276396
Perhaps you shouldn't assume I don't know what the word means, and read my sentences with the actual meaning of the words I used. If you did that you'd understand my complaint, and realize that the synonyms you listed would not have expressed that as accurately. If I actually thought half of these "literate" bands were well-read, I would've called them pompous, not pretentious. As it stands, I don't, in fact, believe the show they put on by listing authors or obscure literary references. It's a fad in the indie music scene, and is only rarely genuine. Like, Colin Meloy--the example I gave. And again, just because some people misuse or overuse a word, does not mean I take it out of vocabulary. It just means I make a point to use it correctly.

>>1276397
Well, it's one of my favorite movies, and honestly I didn't read it until after i watched the movie. anyway it's still my favorite. I don't like Shakespeare very much though.

>>1276411

Did I misread this or are you claiming to have given the example of Colin Meloy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YBrBoMqEMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAkU32H-JnQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lCpQU75gsY

you might know the singer better from blind guardian
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6oNE2lT8R4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DJ_WZLSBQU

The Klaxons.

I don't know. I just listen to the music and enjoy it.

The only thing that comes to mind is Mastodon. I know they've written several songs in homage to Moby Dick.

oh god kill yourselves

>>1278012

>oh god kill yourselves
>oh god kill yourself

Fix'd.

The Mountain Goats.

John D. loves him some books.

would also add anything by Lawrence of Felt, Denim, and Go-Kart Mozart.

The Decemberists mention literature?

Their fucking singer needs to enunciate or something.

>>1278133
>The Decemberists mention literature?
all lyricists mention literature duh.

all these bands are fucking shit redneck indie bands destroyer, moutain goats, hold steady, decemberists, etc.

shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Scritti Politti?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHla9kx-5Oc

The mo'fuckin' Dead Kennedys? I think there was a significant amount of punk bands who had something intelligent to say, and the DKs were at the forefront of that.

Joanna Fuckin' Newsom

and Amanda Palmer, I suppose. If she isn't hyper-literate now, being engaged and married to Neil Gaiman will change that I expect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4C2TDUPejc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJfcLwepxNk

>>1278483
I dunno if she's all that referential, but she writes some clever lyrics. Harvey Danger and Regina Spektor are in the same boat I reckon.

At the Drive-In write some fun shit too, but in more of a whatthefuckamireading.jpg kind of way.

>>1276337
>So in music the term "hyper-literate" gets thrown around a lot.

Really? I've never heard it refer to anything other than The Decemberists. What exactly do you mean by it? They reference books and poetry? Because this is not special.

mot going to be popular here but my chemical romance

>>1278539
I'll bite, I was a fan back in the day. What makes them literate?

probably kate bush- wuthering heights and cloudbusting, and hammer horror

>>1278505

what do ATDI reference? I'll agree that it's very wtfmaireading.jpg, but I haven't made out any literary references

>>1278549
I was posting bands that I thought had decent lyricists, but weren't referential enough to be called "literate".

>>1278138
Bitch are you kidding me? How is Destroyer "redneck"? >>1278510
I realize it's not special, and originally I heard it in reference to The Decemberists. In the past couple of years though I've been hearing (hearing, not reading) it in reference to a lot of music, from local to national acts.

>>1278624
I honestly think you'd have a hard time finding a lyricist who didn't reference a book or a poem at some point. Even Panic at the Disco have a weird hard-on for Palahnuik.

>>1276337
mfw destroyer gets featured on 4chan and that someone agrees with me about him being one of the better lyricists of the musical world

>>1278689
>Panic! at the disco
> Chucky P

yeah that makes sense. Both appeal to high school students with delusions of their intellectual complexity.

>>1278696
Well I hope it doesn't disappoint, but I'm the OP, so that "someone" is one of the shittier tripfags on one of the least popular boards on a site that is the biggest cesspool on the internet, so maybe you wanna change that "mfw".

Anyway yeah Destroyer is my fav. I love how Bejar just constantly references his own works, like he's operating under the presumption that he's created something of great merit (which I think he has, but to do this is a pretty ballsy move).

>>1278712
i have no idea what you mean by that first sentence

>>1278703
Yep. I read one of his more recent short stories and he was throwing shout-outs to them right back. It was a little sickening really.

>>1278712
>one of the shittier tripfags
Who's a less shitty tripfag?

>>1278721
Really? Huh...

>>1278729
yeh. maybe it was all the commas. maybe it was the thing about how i have no clue about you or your tripfaggin ways

>>1278723
Terrifying. Synergy. Oh well. Since they have some relationship now it'll make them both even easier to ridicule.
>>1278726
Depends on the system of standards you wanna use, but are you sure you didn't mean to write "more shitty" so as to imply that I am the shittiest, instead of the least shitty?

>>1278736
It wasn't a dig at you, I'm mostly ambivalent to tripfags. But if you want to play the self-deprecation card, I want to see you think is better than you.

>>1278773
Clever girl...
Okay, based on the trolling factor, no one beats TyBrax. She has a real knack for inducing rage.

I would consider D&E and Brunestud to be a better tripfags than myself as well, but not for the same reasons. I think they're just more knowledgeable in general.

Pic related, best lyricist in rock today.

Also his lyrics reference Kerouac, William Blake, John Berryman, Nelson Algren, and William Butler Yeats, and more than anything else, the Bible.

u /lit/ enough to listen to the Hold Steady?

Frog Eyes. Last I heard, the vocalist/songwriter, Carey Mercrer, was a high school english teacher.

Conor Oberst of Bright eyes

some other music can be pretty emo but I enjoy most of his work tbh

>>1278806
oh god but they're so fucking bad.

>>1278810
Oh shit i didn't even see this. You trollin'. This is panic at the disco tier.

In Gowan Ring:

The sands collect the signs of the ocean
The winds hold sway to swell the motion
The breeze that breathes upon the skin
The leaves that leave yet only a skein
Along, within, and through the years
As stray as they never knew the way
Allay the doubt, subdue the fear
Afraid they never knew your name

These seven years are not so long
But long enough for what has come
Or may have gathered at your seat
Or might have blossomed at our feet
Along, within, and through the years
As stray as they never knew the way
Allay the doubt, subdue the fear
Afraid they never knew your name

I gather at the heels in one more stand
Briars at the feet, flower in hand
The delicate world that wrapped around
The disparate soul that it surrounds
Along, within, and through the years
As stray as they never knew the way
Allay the doubt, subdue the fear
Afraid they never knew your name

>>1276387
Titus Andronicus is better than you think it is, really. Its reputation has been unfairly tarnished by eliot.

Anthrax has kick dink Stephen King songs

Hyper-literate music? You mean hyper-literate lyrics? It's important to distinguish between lyrics(as in their meaning) and music(which can include vocals, but not the literary value of the lyrics).

The lyrics can suck and the music will still be good. Or the lyrics can be amazing and the music will still suck.

The term "hipster shit" comes to mind...

Mountain Goats always feels pretty literate to me. There's a great song from The Sunset Tree that ties together the Bible, Dostoevsky, and Kurt Cobain's suicide.

>>1279108
How deep

>>1279108
>There's a great song from The Sunset Tree that ties together the Bible, Dostoevsky, and Kurt Cobain's suicide.
That actually sounds extremely lame and try-hard.