Sight Seeing :: Wessex Scene Online

Sight Seeing

30th October 2003
Rich Heap

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May 07 - Interview with Razorlight
Apr 06 - Interview with We are Scientists
Nov 02 - JJ72- HILLARY WOODS
Oct 03 - Candid Cameras

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Music can’t talk. It can say things and it can speak to people but neither of them are the same thing, and so talking to musicians who’d rather let the music do the talking is always awkward. Then add the tiredness of coming to the end of a nationwide tour, the stress of running over an hour late, and that feeling you only get after three days of partying.

Then you can begin to imagine what life is like at this precise moment inside Eddie Baranek (vox/guitars) and Dave Shettler (drums) – two thirds of Detroit’s The Sights – who take to this interview like a tarred duck to treacle. Not that they’re unpleasant, quite the opposite, but the situation isn’t ideal.

Ne’er mind… lets crack on. Their music has been described as a “blend of psychedelic britbeat harmonies and 60s primal rock” but do they reckon that’s a fair assessment?
(long pause) “Yeah, okay, cool,” begins Eddie.

“It’s a bit more simple than that. It’s rock ‘n’ roll,” adds Dave.

See what I mean? Personally, I wouldn’t really say that it’s rock ‘n’ roll. I mean, it obviously is rock ‘n’ roll in the wider sense but that phrase carries such a narrow meaning and The Sights just don’t fit into it. Clichéd rock ‘n’ roll is four men – one vocalist, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer – in leather jackets, sunglasses and trendy messed up haircuts smoking like they’re just too cool and rehashing The Velvet Ramones from a trendy Noo Yoik area code. That’s the cliché, that’s the box, that’s the expectation if you say you’re rock ‘n’ roll. Look at The Star Spangles; that’s the clearest clichéd mental image of rock ‘n’ roll you’ll ever see, four Lou Reed wannabes in glorious monochrome.

But then at the other end, the psychedelia references are also off target. Not way off, mind; if this was archery then they’d manage to hit the board. It’s just that they wouldn’t get many points. What do The Sights reckon about their arguable psychedelic influence?

“Yeah, there is a psychedelic influence,” says Eddie, “but psychedelic isn’t necessarily psychedelic music. I mean there’s definitely a, sort of, acid vibe.”

Personally I reckon anyone accusing The Sights of being psychedelic are just plain lazy, applying the false equation ‘music + organ = psychedelia’. True, there is a drug influence on them, but there is on most bands; even bands that define themselves against drug culture have let drug culture influence them. And besides, The Sights’ music is good, whereas psychedelic music is, by and large, self-indulgent crap. Err, in my opinion. It’s music for easy-going longhairs to listen to while they’re sitting outside and revelling in love and the beauty of creation. Not that these are dishonourable pursuits; love should be spread and the world should be appreciated. Unfortunately, the musical manifestation of this is often backboneless and makes me want to vomit myself inside out.

So they’re not a rock ‘n’ roll cliché and they’re not hippies, but that’s not much help, is it? I mean, what do they actually sound like? Well, here’s the sound bite so pay attention: acid-addled ballsy blues-rock. Yep, that should cover it.

“Holy Jesus. Not more retro shite,” I can hear your mind whirring. Well, yeah, it draws from the past but so does everything. Obviously there will be people who accuse them of being derivative, not unfairly, but that still misses the crucially important point that it doesn’t matter is a music sounds retro as long as it’s something real, rooted in personal experience. Does it boys?

(long pause) “Err yeah… what you said,” says Eddie. “We’ll take that.”

Cheers. Unfortunately for The Sights there’s just too many retro-minded bands in the mainstream consciousness at the moment and so it’s hard to see why anyone’ll take them over all the other pretenders. This happens with every popular movement of course, and when the cynicism begins to set in then anyone who’s not extra-special will have a tough job, especially when we’re being instructed to fall in love with uninspiring clichés every week. I mean, take Jet… no, please do, ‘cos I just don’t see the big deal. Anyway, it’s just hard to see why anyone will want to take The Sights to their hearts in today’s increasingly retro-cynical musical climate.

And tomorrow doesn’t look too bright for them either because they’re not even remotely 80s. They’re not D.I.Y. funk like The Rapture. They don’t have dodgy ‘we’re trying far too hard’ haircuts of the kind permeating Southampton’s growing image-obsessed hipster community. They’re not sphincter-tightening manifestations of obnoxious ‘cool’ like Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. And, unfortunately for The Sights, that’s where music’s heading.

But let’s not lose the fact that The Sights are a decent band, and they're well worth enjoying for the moment. Just take my advice and don’t expect that moment to last that long.