Music in the Key of Gee That Sucked

Another SNL, another bad musical performance. Sleigh Bells were vigorous, but it came off as a wall of noise that was on the unappealing side of bad. Since the horrible sounding performance put on by Lana Del Rey, "people" (You know, "them", "the guy". You know.) have been blaming the SNL soundstage, proclaiming it a musical black hole that sucks in talent and only lets out crap. Is it possible instead that Lana Del Rey and Sleigh Bells are just shitty musicians? Or, if they are indeed as talented as their fans claim, they can't find a soundman to make them come across as the professionals they purport to be. Or maybe they just choked.

It's not impossible to sound really good on SNL. Listen to Bon Iver from a few weeks back.


Solid musicianship, and they sing on key. Of course, one could say that suddenly stepping on to the big stage can fill one with fright and ruin a big break. Yup, that is a road you can travel. Alternately, you can grab the performance by the balls and shake it the fuck loose like the Scissor Sisters did back in 2004. This was a "Holy fuck, who is this fun band?" performance for the bulk of us, who had not heard of them before this point. They move, they sing, they play, they entertained.

It's not the accoustics. It's not the stage. It's you. Be better.