THE NEW OLD STYLEThe Stills Make Everybody Else Look Shabby
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From left to right: Dave, Tim, Oliver, Greg. Photo by Peter Sutherland.
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The current fashion for white guitar rock bands with names that begin with ‘The’ is to ham up that jaded old garage rock thing with the bad leather jackets, wristbands, ironic t-shirts and shit hair. I hate them so much I’ve learned to spot them from a mile away and, when I do, I run the other direction. WAIT! The Stills aren’t like that dude. Without even trying, the NYC-via Montreal four piece have perfected that classic ‘well-dresssed-rock-group-you-can-trust’ look that every single record company stylist EVER tries to achieve when they’re trying to make their idiot band look good.
So, fashion. Which bands dressed the best?
Dave: The Clash. At all points they always dress impeccably and The Specials always looked cool. I love Terry Hall. The Smiths and The Stone Roses looked good.
The best rock bands usually start some kind of huge fashion trend—so what are you going to do?
I have no idea. I really don’t know what they’re going to latch onto. We sound like classic modern rock in an interesting post-modern kind of way. To be predictable is bad.
Do you dress like regular Canadians?
Not really. There’s like Dave Matthews Canadian guys and that’s the most popular style. Their favourite label is called Mountain Equipment Co-Op. A lot of these people walk around with water bottles and chains and hooks, they’re always ready for a hike or an adventure. They’re ready to tackle the subway with grappling hooks, I guess it’s some kind of backward style thing.
They never go hiking. They are LIARS.
Well I’m sure they like hiking on the weekends or something. With your dress sense, what you’re doing is expressing a value judgement the whole time and their value judgement is something like ‘an active life is a healthy mind’. I’m not implying that my value judgement is better, just that it’s my own.
JEFF SOMETHING
The Stills’ debut album is called Logic Will Break Your Heart and will be out later this year on VICE Recordings. Their debut Rememberese EP is out now and the A-side is that killer “Still In Love Song” you will have heard all over the place unless you’re deaf. It sounds nothing like the MC5 or The Nuggets compilation or whatever else all these other cunts are ripping off right now.
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