Boy Crisis: Hottest Electronic Group Since MGMT, Or Worst Band In The World?
DIY catch up with Brooklyn “buzz” band Boy Crisis’ singer Victor Vazquez and guitarist Lee Pender to talk hype, hipsters, drugs and basketball games with Richard Hell.
Posted 27th April 2009, 1:51pm in Interviews, by Alexia Kapranos
‘Hottest electronic group to emerge from America since MGMT’ or ‘absolute worst band in the world right now’? DIY catch up with Brooklyn “buzz” band Boy Crisis’ singer Victor Vazquez and guitarist Lee Pender to talk hype, hipsters, drugs and basketball games with Richard Hell. Describe your “sound” for DIY in five words.
Victor: Holy. Shit. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
The press name Depeche Mode and Prince when describing your music, but on your myspace, you list The Ronettes and New Edition as part of a lineage of classic acts you seek to follow. What are some of your other less obvious influences?
Lee: Maybe The Ramones.
V: Ornette Coleman.
Two of your band apparently date fashion designers. How important is aesthetic to Boy Crisis?
V: I would say aesthetic is 100% of Boy Crisis.
L: Aesthetics’ role is to make us look cool.
Your use of ‘hip’ language like “you’re the shit, girl” and “booty” in your song 'Dressed To Digress' is interesting for your genre. Why write in this way?
V: I don't really remember what I was thinking about when I wrote the words, as a lot of it was written 3-4 years ago and it was mostly just saying over and over in various ways that I wanted to have sex. I was listening to a lot of rap. I still listen to a lot of rap. "You're the shit, girl" is probably something I would actually say. I've never considered the words you mention to be "hipster" words so much as black-American-originated slang that has filtered into the rest of American slang. I'm an educated dude, but I still think colloquial language expresses things in ways that more commonly used language is incapable of. The lyrics to say, a Death Cab for Cutie song are no more "sophisticated" than the lyrics to a Ludacris song simply because they "speak proper English" or "sound more poetic." Poetic in what sense? What is proper English? I would rather listen to Ludacris any day. And I don't even like 60% that dude's shit.
Your myspace blurb seems to mock indie fashionistas and rock n roll clichés; for instance, you write, “Boy Crisis are hip and marketable to youthy demographics”. Why poke fun at your demographic?
L: Demographics don’t like being poked fun at!
Are you trying to be ironic about those who enjoy the ‘coolness’ of liking your ‘underground band’?
V: Every social community has its own peacock feathers. Everyone buys into something to some extent. Skinny-jeaned, neon-flashing, H&M-wearing hipsters don't annoy me any more or less than anyone else does. Dumb people can wear regular-sized jeans and smart people can wear skinny ones or vice versa - there is no directly measurable correlation between pants and IQ.
Are the lyrics in your song L’Homme - “I’m on some drugs/You’re on some drugs/Do you wanna talk to me?” – trying to glamorise drugs?
V: The "party scene" and drugs were already glamorous.
How, if at all, have drugs influenced your music?
L: Probably made it sound druggier.
You once quipped that “without acid”; there would be “no MGMT”. What is your view about drug-use in music?
L: Drugs are neither good nor evil. They are just a “thing” in the world…
V: They are chemicals that make us feel different (ostensibly better), like a candy bar. We write most of our songs while on acid, but we just happen to be on acid. It's not some integral part of the music; it's just a fact of life. I was being a bit hyperbolic when I said that MGMT wouldn't exist without drugs. Tal [bassist] did used to make acid at Wesleyan [University, where Boy Crisis originally met]. And he did sell it to members of MGMT. In fact, he sold acid to a lot of bands that came to play Wesleyan too. [He goes on to list a number of well-known names in the world of rap and indie music...].
How do you feel about the press tagging you as the ‘buddies’ of MGMT?
V: I think much of our success is thanks to the press referring to us as that, which is cool because it's paying for our rent and food.
What has their success taught you?
V: ...that if you're stubborn enough and the conditions are right, you can make the music you want to make and make money without having to compromise in a way that's uncomfortable to you.
Some press has been divided on your band – The Guardian has made you ‘artist of the day’, but also reported that Richard Hell has apparently stuck the knife in. How are you affected by what people say about you?
V: The source for the Richard Hell quote is from a message board comment on a Music Week blurb about us (http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?storycode=1034572). Most journalists seem to (lazily) assume that when they read something that they don't need to fact check it. We thought it was funny for a while and decided to make fake beef and publicly challenged Richard Hell to a 5 on 1 basketball game. But let's dead this beef right now with a reconciliatory 5 on 1 game of basketball.
Does this “olive branch” extend to Pitchfork’s Amy Phillips, who called the band, “the absolute worst band in the world right now”?
L: Pitchfork ruled an era and turned me onto some good-ass music. I will never say anything bad about them, except this: “Pitchfork sux”. When Pitchfork called us that, it set off a brief period of reflection. Though I realized that "the absolute worst band in the world" is just another way of saying "pretty special." The fact that they called us "hipster douchebags" was really weird since they pretty much wrote the book on hipster douchebaggery. But I don't think that they've touched on any of ways that we actually suck.
V: A lot of music criticism seems to be mediocre stand-up comedy in the thin guise of subjective "Gonzo-esque" introspective journalism. Lee emailed Amy Phillips at Pitchfork after she panned MGMT a year or two back and I emailed her after she panned us. What I took issue with was the [journalist’s] Boy Crisis/Bush vs. TV on the Radio/Obama dichotomy, which, facetious as it was; I felt reflected a false perception about race and musical appropriation. She never got back to us.
Speaking of social politics, why call yourself “Boy Crisis”? Is it anything to do with those news stories about US schools and failing academic performance?
V: We actually thought of the name a few months before the first report came out. We were thinking we wanted the band name to sound like a boy band because most bands are boy bands to some extent. Someone once asked if our name was a conflation of Boyzone and Earth Crisis, which I thought was funny.
You acknowledge that you are part of a Brooklyn “scene”. Which of these other New York “buzz bands” should DIY be listening to?
L: Picture Picture, Acrylics, Bear Hands. I have a thing called Fat City Love Band, and Victor has one called Das Racist.
V: Aside from Chairlift, Amazing Baby, Yeasayer, Francis and the Lights, Violens and Vivian Girls, who I gather are pretty well known already, some other bands we dig around Brooklyn include Leif, Suckers, Invisible Circle, Awesome Color, Oneida and Stupid Party.
Finally guys, you’re now on the road in the UK. Why should DIY readers come to see your live show?
V: So that we can buy food until we get the last third of our advance.
Boy Crisis are on currently on tour in the UK with Friendly Fires, and will be playing shows, including support slots for Chairlift and The Sunshine Underground, in most major cities until 23 May. See http://www.myspace.com/boycrisis for more details.
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