Not to be redundant, but white boys pretending to be gangsta rappers are so late nineties. Gold Chains and Sue Cie's When the World Was Our Friend is for third-tier tone-deaf hipsters. To throw a cherry on this banana split, they arrived late on the electro-clash boat, and it's not even funny.
These two, with real names Topher Laphata and Sue Costabile, have either been lost in a miasma of marijuana smoking or are just oblivious enough to think they can pass off their faux-rapper electro-clash music as "of the moment." What's even worse is that their unlistenable songs are political, and they identify as San Francisco "art punks."
Now, bands that give me the hives are not abundant. Right now, instead of listening to Gold Chains, I am listening to a very beautiful song, "My Life," by Iris Dement. This is not why I'm in a bad mood about the band I happen to be reviewing. In fact, listening to Dement, one of the most wonderful living folk singers, is one of the few things that makes even thinking about this other band in any way tolerable. So:
Dear Topher and Sue Cie,
I wish you the best of luck in all your future endeavors.
Word. Respect. You are nothing like Cindy Sherman.
Warren Zevon, R.I.P.
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