Here's the thing (and we've mentioned this already, and apparently others agree): Vivian Girls, yr doin' it wrong. There's surely a market for what it is that you do. But it's a dilapidated, discount chain-store kind of market, and I don't think that's what you're going for.
Vivian Girls have energy, they have good humor, and they have an obvious enthusiasm for performance and for making music. They don't appear to know what to do with those ingredients, though. All of their songs sound woefully similar, with the same misguided, monotonic harmony sung reliably off-key. They're not vigorous enough to really be that punky, nor are they doing something enough akin to screaming that such consistent flatness can be forgiven or explained. It's just, well, poor. It borders on unpleasant to listen to live. Their recorded music is similarly misguided, with droning, ultra-repetitive, lazily-formed vocals. Though they do feature commendable angsty, driving guitar and bass and drum parts, they don't drive anywhere. I know that not everywhere has as many rotaries as metro-Boston, but their shows are remarkably like hopping on a traffic-y rotary and driving around and around and around, eventually getting off only because you're liable to run out of gas.
So maybe I just don't get it. They don't SEEM like they ought to be lazy. But they sound satisfied with a product that honestly oughtn't be consumed in the quantity it is being consumed.
They have a daunting tour schedule coming up, so maybe with practice and experience they'll get better, and I'll happily change my tune. But at both shows I saw at SXSW, Vivian Girls disappointed.
