#70: The main thing is that the pubic does not take drugs
Thanks! I Hate It; Vanna Oh!; Oh Bummer!; Alo!Stari; Great Vacation!
Thanks! I Hate It
We’re decades into internet culture at this point, yet it still surprises me when I encounter bands named after memes. To wit, this “Mid-Westcoast Emo band that plays sad songs in happy keys” takes its name from a meme dating back to at least 2017 that involves Reddit (naturally) and a role-playing game (ditto).
T!IHI describe their music as “songs drenched in sincerity from a band full of people that don’t take themselves seriously,” which this T-shirt backs up:
Or take a quick look at the track list for their new debut, Lovers Lane: “Participation Trophy Wife,” “Wet Hot American Bummer,” “Dungeons,” “And Drag Queens” (two separate songs), “Nobody Actually Likes the Tambourine,” “God Keeps Parking in My Spot,” “O Possum! My Possum!” I also appreciate the hat tip to their emo forebears, “Modern Blernsball.”
OK, settle down.
Vanna Oh!
I’m not sure how long I’ve had Washington’s Vanna Oh! on my list of potential names, but it’s been a while. Correction: too long. A little over a year ago, Vanna Oh!—a.k.a. Lindsay Johnston—stopped performing and posting on social media, at least as Vanna Oh! She signed off with a thoughtful Instagram post, which read in part:
But now I have a new dream and want to pursue a deeper freedom. Leaving social media is part of that. Social media is polarizing us, keeping us from thinking critically, and making us more anxious and depressed. I hate it so much. I hate how much time I spend thinking about ways to make myself look good for you. I hate how much I’m staring at a screen when I could be exploring this world. I hate that I can no longer tell if I’m doing what I do because I like it, or because I get likes for posting about it.
I don’t know how one can make it as an indie musician without social media. Maybe at some point I’ll figure out a way or maybe I’ll just become complacent with Mark Zuckerberg capitalizing on all my data. But for now, I’m embarking on a big adventure and I don’t want you to know about it. I want to see what I do when there are no likes, no shares, no comments.
Well shit, can’t argue with that. Way to take the wind out of the my sails there, Vanna Oh! But I hope that new dream is working out well for you, wherever you are.
Oh Bummer!
I can’t tell if I’ve actually written about Oh Bummer! before, or if sole member Tanner Houghton just has that familiar “hipster doofus” look.
I’m not one to throw around “hipster,” because it’s so tired and meaningless, but I’m struggling to find a more apt descriptor. I mean, just watch him play a goddamn ukulele in front of this pickup truck with a dangly gold earring (of a cow?) in his right ear:
Or this album cover!
This is snark entrapment, right? Well I won’t fall for it. I’ll just reiterate the uninteresting story behind the name and be on my way, narc.
Oh Bummer! doesn’t have a deep or significant meaning. My writing style has always had this semi dark weight to it, dealing with heavier themes, so Oh Bummer! just felt like a whimsical light hearted way to say that.
Alo!Stari
I recognize those letters and the punctuation, but that’s it. Turns out “Alo stari” is Slovenian for “Hello guys,” according to a clumsy Google translation of their bio. (“The main thing is that the pubic does not take drugs!” goes one line.) Here’s what I can understand: Alo!Stari are dudes of a certain age who are nostalgic for ’90s Fat Wreck-style skatepunk. I mean, that bio begins with the line “Ah, the nineties… Gold bars” (according to Google), and their bio on all social media begins with “90s.” The song “Nea Vem Kam” (“I Don’t Know Where”) certainly could’ve been on Survival of the Fattest.
And that exclamation point? Well it’s an enthusiastic “Hello!” obviously.
Great Vacation!
“Do you mean Vacation, the ‘Rockin’ Reggae band’ of white dudes in Hawaiian shirts?” No. “Oh you must mean Good Vacation, the non-binary artist from Portland.” Again, no, I mean— “Sorry, you meant Strange Vacation. How about a random YouTube live video from 2012?” No, dammit, I mean the latest project from Angeleno Riley Geare, Great Vacation!
Geare is a multi-instrumentalist and producer who’s worked with the likes of Caroline Rose and Unknown Mortal Orchestra, among others. As Great Vacation!, he’s set out to make music and have terrible SEO. See above and this tweet:
“Full version on YouTube,” eh? Even searching “great vacation we’ll find a way” turns up nothing. There’s the song “Great Vacation” by Dirt Poor Robbins, a song called “Can’t Find a Way” by an artist called Steady Holiday, and, here we go, “Top 20 Cheap Places to Visit in the USA 2023 | Best Vacation Spots.” There’s also a late-night clip of Owen Wilson on Kimmel for some reason and the video for “Vacation” by the Go-Go’s. (I’ll take that last one.)
Weirdly, if I search again, I get the video for a different Great Vacation! song, “You Make It Look Easy.” Don’t make me work this hard, Riley.
POST-SCRIPTS
Will having “pubic” in the subject send this edition into people’s spam folders? Guess we’ll find out!
Vanna Oh! did that last post Feb. 7, 2022. Then four and a half months ago, something called Level Up Magazine slid into those DMs. You’re missing the point, dudes.
Alo!Stari look and sound exactly like the European punk bands I encountered while on tour with my friends in Horace Pinker in Europe 20 years ago. Sadly our show in Slovenia got canceled, or else I’d probably have vague memories of being drunk with these guys. Here’s everyone recovering from an absinthe-fueled night in Prague.
Angeleno Riley Geare looks like a mashup of every member of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem.