Vivian Girls Apologize For Dissing Normal People • In response to what one of you dubbed Blooming Onion-Gate, Vivian Girls Girls issued an apology at their blog and this blog. Reminding us the trio's young and shouldn't be chastened too harshly for one interview, ex-VG/current Crystal Stilt Frankie Rose recently spoke with the Boston Phoenix about the reasons for her "ugly" break with the band saying, in part, it "came down to ... who can I be in a car with for a month at a time? Two 21-year-old girls, or three 32-year-old guys?" Score one for the old men.
Posted at 12:26 PM
Tags: Crystal Stilts | Vivian Girls
Fish out of watergate is WAY better. I came up with that one.
Score = -7
the link to their blog doesn't work.
and like i said before katy, where is my fun pack. im not having any fun right now.
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I at some point enjoyed some aspects of their music while others not so much, but after that interview being such a turn off and exposing them as a clueless bunch of idiots they can't go away fast enough, bunch of idiots.
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It's called coke girls... that's a joke... but in all seriousness I'm not looking for a social experience therefore a few choice Go-Go's and dead letter REM about covers this territory. Aim high and don't give a shit more often. Don't be Dr Philed into submission so easily.
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it's nice to imagine a sizzler somewhere filled with their boring customers high-fiving each other over this truly heroic accomplishment. the vivian girls concede defeat, and banality can continue without being confronted by its own self awareness.
stereogum/brooklynvegan/pitchfork readers put their feet up on their cubicle desk, taking a moment to appreciate their victory and confident that their opinions on and consumption of "indie" culture actually means something.
Score = 2
This is retarted girls dont apoligize that was so awesome, ur a bunch of indie facist u stereogum people. Vivian Girls made a great record.
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If this guy is any indication of their fans...
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This guy I know hooked up with the drummer from Vivian Girls a long time ago and he said that when he took her pants off he saw poop stains in her underwear. I think she needs to come on here and defend herself and let everybody know whether that's true or not.
Score = -12
You are dick, man.
Score = 5
I think those that "reported" on this owe Vivian Girls an apology. If you watch all of the Uncensored Interview clips you can see that the entire interview was sarcastic and lighthearted. Yet the blogs chose to just post a clip or two that don’t portray that when taken out of context. And then even after they apologize, some still chose to jab at them by posting unrated quotes from a former member. It’s really in bad taste.
And for the record, I had no idea who the band was before all this. So it’s not a case of a “fan” sticking up for them. I’m sticking up for them because I recognize bs when I see it.
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you should put out another album so we can forget about you.
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The one good thing that has come of this is that I've been introduced to Crystal Stilts. Hey, Frankie Rose, good job on getting out of Vivian Girls and concentrating on an actually good band. I can't imagine being in a car for who only knows how long with those two either. I'd probably go nuts listening to their inane blah blah blah.
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hey vivian girls, i'm sure you're thinking "oh my god our careers are ruined" right about now. but in fact, it's the exact opposite. the many blog comments on bands like vampire weekend and clap your hands say yeah have always overwhelmingly negative. and lo and behold VW is playing terminal 5 tomorrow. the fact that you made complete asses of yourselves were made is utterly irrelevant. the key thing is that it generated publicity. your album could have 12 variations of the scooby doo theme song played on accordion and it'd still sell a few thousand more copies as a result of this.
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Isn't the whole "I'm too young so don't take what I say seriously" thing suppose to end when you're still living at home?
Just admit that you're irrelevant and be done with it.
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being a 21 year old guy, i know quite a few 21 year old girls, and this is how most of 'em talk. it's pretty obvious they were joking, and i think this is a pretty textbook case of a blog-sanctioned band getting a dose of blog-sanctioned backlash. it's all so boring. just listen to the music (or don't, if you don't like it, i like it but it's certainly nothing groundbreaking), who cares that they act like 21 year old girls, which is what they are anyway? and for the record i met 'em when they played philly a few months ago, they were perfectly nice, chill people. they didn't even act grossed out or indignant when i sarcastically went "are you gals the vivian girls?!" in a faux-southern accent.
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I was going to write a reply about how ridiculous your comment was about how they're 21 and that's how they should act because that's how 21 year old girls act, but I decided not to waste my time.
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OH WOW I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE SO CLEVERSSS! but in all seriousness, i do agree with you that expecting someone to act their age is so completely and utterly ridiculous. what a fool i was. i may as well be clown mayor of goof town! next time a blog randomly attacks a band for no reason i'll know what to do and be surprised and appauled that they aren't acting like seasoned U.N. diplomats. seriously i need to stop smoking all those marijuanas i think!
THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY OF THE YEAR YOU GUYZ SRSLY. THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE COMMENTED ABOUT THIS MORE THAN TWICE DON'T DESERVE TO GET LOL'ED IN THE FACE WITH A GUN OR NYTHING.
Score = -5
this is the last thing i have to say about all this nonsense though, seriously: i never said they "should" act that way because they're 21 year old girls. i said that given most of the 21 year old girls i know who like to sit around and bullshit all day, it's not surprising that they ARE sitting around and bullshitting. what do you expect them to be doing, taking meetings with the President? they're a punk band from Brooklyn, not U2.
i doubt most of you would be going all Bruce Springsteen and anonymously sticking your neck out for the little guy if a band you liked said those things (or if--dare I pull THIS card?--a band of guys said those things)
and the guy who called out stereogum for the hypocrisy of dissing Vivian Girls for a sarcastic rant while basically making Frankie Rose look like a courageous hero for using broad generalizations in a straight-faced manner is totally right. you can't have it both ways, people.
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ah, they were just talking shit anyway.
what's the big deal?
are we supposed to feel bad about calling out suburban dufuses for what they are?
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Does no one else see the hypocrisy in the way Stereogum has treated Vivian Girls and Frankie Rose differently?
On one hand, Vivian Girls made some sarcastic and vaguely insulting generalizations about a group of people, and Frankie has just done the same thing by insulting "21 year old girls".
Women and people under 25 everywhere can be insulted by her comment, yet this blog is all approving. Vivian Girls were torn to shreds over something that they were probably kidding about, whereas Frankie Rose is applauded for a personal, judgemental attack on young women.
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Frankie simply made an offhand comment. Those dumbasses went on and on and on and on in a very immature and vicious manner. In fact, as far as I can tell, they simply proved Frankie VERY right.
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I have a hard time believing the interview was meant to be entirely sarcastic...
While, near the end, this may be the case, the dialogue about having "places to crash" and "community" are absolutely serious.
"They go to the bar after work with their coworkers" is said with such disdain that sarcasm is hardly the goal, here.
Whatever. I don't think it was necessarily malicious, but it certainly wasn't sarcastic.
Score = 3
CS 1, VG O and below
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Who cares? Seriously. I love their album, mostly because I'm a sucker for that kind of music, but I can totally get why you wouldn't based on the music.
Musicians' personalities have absolutely fucking zero to do with how you should enjoy/not enjoy their music. That's why this is stupid, and that's why it's stupid whenever someone says "Oh Kanye's music sucks because he's a douchebag."
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this is a silly controversy. any fool who didn't come at this predisposed to see a reason to hate the Vivian Girls, would watch that video and immediately know they were just talking a bunch of silly, lighthearted shit. utterly harmless stuff.
get over yourselves and your phony "outrage." move on to the group of young, creative, successful women to hate. it's obvious what you really dislike about the Vivian Girls is their talent and luck and success, and your lack thereof.
Kind of the same reason that Frankie Rose is embarrassing herself over and over again dissing them. They kicked her out, not the other way around!
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Sorry, wrong. I'd never even heard the band before watching the interview. Then I went and watched/listened to some of their music. Awful in both respects. Talent? Right. And once again, I'm a huge fan of the C86 music scene.
Frankie Rose embarassing herself? She's in an actually good and decent and talented band. Over and over? I see one comment from her. Not a fucking verbal upchuck like you hear from the Vivians in those interviews.
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I actually was very positively disposed to the VGs before this. They're adorable. But when you hear them say this stuff it kinda ruins it. Also in the early posts there are several people that were fans prior to this stuff so your preconceived notion theory doesn't hold up, Pablo.
And for Liam, I hate to break it to ya but you're also a 21 year old idiot. The fact that you call them a punk band gives you away. This is immature jackassary that VG at least have the sense to realize. So you've got a crush on them. I don't blame you they are cute. But they really showed their ass with the "we're so cool shtick." I was an idiot at 21 also. I grew up. So you might too. Don't worry.
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why do they get pubbed to all shit for ripping off a ton of c86 shit anyhow? it's not like theyre better than black tambourine...who fucking cares.
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I have no idea what the big fuss is about the Vivian Girls' music? It is just a scuzzed out version of three chord pop punk like the Donnas and just about every Ramones sounding Warped Tour band from the 90's... nothing remotely interesting about it.
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Normal people were getting SO full of themselves. Thank god someone finally took them down a few notches.
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who?
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The Vivian Girls were only joking when they realized that they had pissed people off.
Score = 7
That was some meta-meta-ass humor if they were joking! What was the gag? Unless they prefaced the whole thing by saying "quick impression: 3 completely of up-their-own-asses indie rock snobs sitting in a bathtub discussing their disdain for bourgeois scum", I don't buy it.
I dig the response though! They thought people were hatin' because they busted on shitty chain restaurants? I think most people were actually sort of agree with the sentiments about TGI Friday's but were put off by the annoying, catty tone of the responses.
...ALTHOUGH, it IS easy to imagine many commentors already hated them before viewing the interview because they've gotten so much attention after being a working band for a hot second and their music is pretty mediocre.
They needed to spend a few more years playing shit-ass basement shows in total obscurity before getting this type of hype. EVERYone needs to get hit with the dues-by-four, kids.
Score = 1
yep, that's it! It took a week but finally, someone hit the nail on the head!
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Empathy is very punk rock.
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