Steve Kilbey has hit back at criticism levelled at his recent critique of this year’s triple j Hottest 100 top 10. As Tone Deaf reported earlier this week, writing for The Guardian, Kilbey gave a less than stellar appraisal of the songs included in the top 10.
“Nope, my readers, the Rubens do not rock,” said of this year’s Hottest 100 winners. “It’s another wry bouncy (little) song, pleasant and innocuous and harmless and twee. No electric guitars were harmed during the making of this record, and no revolution is preached.”
“Catchy to the max, but no oomph or grunt or even twist. This old curmudgeon shrugs his shoulders. Why this song is No 1 eludes me. Triple J listeners have gone a bit soft, I guess.” Kilbey went on to call the top 10 “easy-listening romantic pop almost all the way”.
Kilbey’s praise was reserve solely for ‘Magnets’, Disclosure’s collaboration with NZ songstress Lorde, and Tame Impala, whose project leader, Kevin Parker, Kilbey described as “an amazing wunderkind… a bona fide genius without a doubt”.
Having previously responded to the backlash over their Hottest 100 win, The Rubens responded directly to Kilbey’s criticism in an interview with The Music, during which they reiterated that the Hottest 100 is a fan-voted poll.
“I don’t really understand it. I don’t know what it means to be soft,” said keyboardist Elliot Margin. “It’s a listeners’ poll, people vote for what they like or think should do well, what they’re proud of, and people get angry at results because that’s human, we’re all invested in it and it’s a big thing.
“I don’t really understand how people go soft, or how people vote soft,” Margin added. “I don’t get angry at people for eating peanut butter sandwiches when I don’t like peanut butter. Each to his own.”
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Now The Church frontman Kilbey has responded to the backlash against his Guardian article, calling the whole mess a “storm in a teacup” and labelling it a “feeble little backlash against our music reviewing skills”.
“i am bemused to think that some people out there think i am too old to ‘get’ the Rubens et al,” Kilbey writes. “Yes i am very very old but even when i was young and very beautiful, let me assure you, i would not have liked the Rubens et al.”
“Its not because i am old that i dont like them, its because i came to review rocknroll and i found limp bland pop. Maybe i was overqualified for this gig. People have been making this bland tripe ever since i can remember.”
“yes the fifties and the sixties and the seventies were full of it. it will always exist and there will always be people like me railing against it. Because rocknroll is capable of making statements that no other artform can make.”
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“I aint no philistine either. I am well versed in many literary, artistic and religious works and still i say rocknroll can do things that no other artform can do so effectively. its sexiness. its rage. its revolution. its anger. its otherworldiness. its dissociation. its preposterousness. its glory. its tragedy.”
“I find none of these qualities in the people in the top ten except for tame impala upon whom i certainly bestow my blessing (big deal!). I find many of the artists in the top ten indistinguishable from what are generally known as ‘boy bands’.”
“hopefully my next assignment i will be back on familiar ground writing about the stuff i am best writing about,” Kilbey adds, “which is rocknroll eg bowie beatles dylan and stuff like that. something that fucking means something. not the vapid miasma of the JJJ top 10.”
