Originally posted by Matthew Spencer-Artimus in Minneapolis City Sounds
I’ve spent a lot of time promoting music in Minneapolis. It’s an important job because Minneapolis is an important place. It’s a place music COMES from.
Nostalgia trends dominate everything. We have a Toy Story 5, another Star Trek series debuting on channel 9-3 and Oasis just got done touring. Everything is 1995. Everyone loves it. Wake up – this is terrible.
I was at the 331 Club a few weeks ago. It was a rainy night – perfect night to get a free show at a free club with some music on the make — for free. I was there to see an up and coming group Pageant Dress. I showed up at show start, a proper 10pm (later please?). There it was, standing in front of me – American Britpop band USPOP – 1995 personified. It was gross.
The normal thing to do here, dear reader, would be to ignore the band and hope they go away. Alas, I cannot. There were too many people at the show and this band has played too many decent gigs – enough already.
Nostalgia personified, USPOP doesn’t have the common decency to be bad. I can see their appeal to the “common man” whomever that is. Like flies to a light. Cheap tricks like sunglasses inside, track suits. They were clearly switching between schticks – Blur, then Oasis, then back to Pulp, then the Verve, then Oasis again. They did a decent cover of Blur’s track “Hey Professor”, but their original song “Parklife” was garbage. I listened to the first 30 seconds of every track on their awfully titled album “Yer Welcome” and resolved to listen no further. Who ever wanted Oasis or Blur to come back anyway.
Minneapolis is known for authenticity in its artists. Think Dylan, Prince. USPOP is the most inauthentic mansplain I’ve ever seen on stage. They say they’re not British, but I have it on good authority that’s a lie like everything else. “Our accents are fake but the music is real” might be the worst tagline I’ve ever heard from stage.
Their inauthenticity is only matched by their callousness. I’ve never seen a band care about the audience less. In this age of Trump they should really consider problematic history behind the Imperial British symbols in their show. USPOP truly belongs in the British Museum.
We don’t need any more bands like USPOP. Good riddance.
But let me turn now to the joyful news that the Minneapolis I love is alive and well with Pageant Dress. Pageant Dress speaks – it’s the kind of authentic voice we’ve all been waiting for….
[the remainder is redacted for brevity. To be honest, his praise for Pageant Dress is about right, but we posted this article because of the many ways the author unintentionally heaps praise upon USPOP – it’s really quite astonishing. Next USPOP show, buy him a drink…or 10.]