Around the middle of the 2000s, there were a few years when
it seemed like a ton of indie rock kids rediscovered the pleasures of vintage
Guided by Voices and Exile in Guyville
all at once. As a result of this (or because all of these kids were broke),
lo-fi briefly became a viable trend again. After all of the initial lo-fi
excitement subsided, most of these bands were promptly forgotten, but a few
left us with records that still stand up to their initial hype. Wavves’ second
album Wavvves remains a delightfully
cracked collection of surf rock tunes. The Thermals’ first few records, and
especially its first album More Parts Per
Million, are packed with songs that are still as catchy as they were a
decade ago. Times New Viking and No Age ripped apart pop and punk with the kind
of noise that only the cheapest recording technology can provide. And a few
psychedelic garage punks, including Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees, moved past
their lo-fi beginnings to create some of the most exciting catalogs in 21st
century rock.
While they were never quite the best of their class of lo-fi
rockers, the Vivian Girls possessed an easygoing charm that, paired with their
impressive songcraft, pushed them through one of the most consistently
satisfying careers of any of their contemporaries. They broke up last week, putting
a fitting cap on a final phase of their run that saw the band’s members being
pulled in different directions by new ambitions.
