Pitchfork ran a pretty fascinating interview with Dan Deacon last night. He critiques the press coverage of his music, obliquely criticizes some of the musicians he gets lumped with, and threatens to go artsy on our ears. Here's an extended riff from the man himself:
And getting pigeonholed sucks shit. Words like "wacky" or "quirky" are different than a band being called emo or indie or new wave or hardcore. While those words also describe the attitude and nature of band, to me, those words aren't as destructive or at times condescending. "Wacky" quickly turns into "goof ball," into "man-child," into "stupid," which turns into a public that doesn't take the music seriously.
About eight years ago, when I first started writing music in this style, it was important for me to write music that was both simple and complex at the same time. Esotericism and pretension were (and still are) my archenemies. The goal was to create work that could be fun to listen to and dance to at a party but that wasn't stuffy or sleazy or sexual or like "dance" music. It was written to play at noise shows where people who were just listening to harsh noise would get up and dance. It's hard to present that attitude without being lumped into a bunch of people who don't take what they do seriously or are just based on novelty.
You can read the rest here.
