Idles

One Liner:  Semi-punk English dudes making catchy blasts with humor

Wikipedia Genre: Punk rock, post-punk, post-hardcore, hardcore punk
Home: Bristol, England

Poster Position: 11

Both Weekends.

Thoughts: They had one of the top ten albums of 2018 (per Rob Mitchum's consensus-collecting spreadsheet) and I liked it pretty well also:

10.  Idles - Joy as an Act of Resistance.  Never heard of this one either, although strangely enough YouTube keeps wanting me to watch a video of their in-studio performance at some radio station.  So, now I get a chance to check them out...  And, you know what?  pretty good punk rock/post-punk.  Sometimes it gets a little strident for me, but overall I enjoyed it a few times. 

Although, I looked at them for potentially coming to ACL and predicted them as a no, because they had a May show in Austin that wasn't even sold out.  Made it seem less likely that they'd be right back to Austin for the Fest, but I was wrong.

These guys are a critically acclaimed punk band from England.  They started in a night club in Bristol, England, and after a few singles, they found success on two albums.  I know all of their genre information up above points to them being hardcore punk stuff, but they actually have a real pop shine to the punk, a tunefulness and catchy aspect that I don't normally find in regular old punk music.  In fact, the lead singer was quoted in 2018 saying "for the last time, we're not a fucking punk band."  I just think they have the driving, pounding drum section and speedy bass playing that might be the backbone of traditional punk, so people tie them into that world.  But its more like when the Arctic Monkeys are at their wildest and best (prior to their lounge act BS last album).

First, Brutalism, released in 2017, scored a bunch of critical acclaim from many critics on the other side of the pond, including the BBC's 6 Music Recommends Albums of the Year 2017 and and an overall 88 (of 100 on Metacritic), which is pretty high praise in these days of fractured opinions and hot takes.  The top track from that album is "Well Done," with just over 2.2 million streams.

I normally wouldn't care for straight punk, and that is the main reason I think these guys leave that moniker behind - yes the drums pound and drive, but the rest of it has a speed groove to it that jams.

They also have some randomly funny shit in here - like in "Gram Rock," when the lead singer just starts chanting "TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!  TEN POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR!"  Or in that song above, when he is randomly talking about people (who I guess are known people in England) who don't like football or reggae.  Or "I don't care about the next James Bond, He kills for country, queen, and God, we don't need another murderous toff."  I had to look up what a toff is (a rich or upper-class person) but I still like him talking shit about Bond.

Their second album keeps it in the same vein, and I like it even more than I did back when I was trying it out at the end of 2018.  "Colossus" makes me want to kick a hole in the sky when the coda of the song bursts in after like 4 minutes, and earlier in the track they use a guitar tone taken straight out of Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger.  "Never Fight a Man With a Perm" is not only funny, but also another power crotch-grab of a tune.  "I'm Scum" is a great sing-a-long with a tasty jangle of the guitar.  The top streamer, at 3.6 million, is "Danny Nedelko," 

So, the song is a good jam, and from the lyrics, it sure seems like this is intended to bring people together, but with all the weirdo white supremacist assholes using the OK sign now as a symbol for hate, its hard to know what the video is on about.  Sure seems like it is a happy video, and the lyrics appear to be pro-immigrant.  Wikipedia says the story of the song is a friend of the members of the band who is a Ukrainian immigrant, who is the goofy dude running around and spreading joy in that video.  Stereogum seems to think that using the OK sign so much is an attempt to take the symbol back from the assholes.  Maybe true, all I know is that I am very ready to yell the soccer chant portion of that song and bounce off of the people standing near me at the Fest.