Yup. Rob Harvilla of the Voice may have put it better…"tea that isn't brewed too strong".
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0635,harvilla,74320,22.html This tone works as literature and humor but can be toxic when it fuels already overly mannered and delicate and clever indie rock. Ask our first musical attraction, Long Winters frontman John Roderick. "Indie-rock culture is the real ghetto of people who have convinced themselves that they're too sensitive to be yelled at or to yell, and they cry real tears when they see a flower lose its petals," he told Eggers-offshoot literary mag The Believer last year. "Those people belong in institutions. They should be in a really soft antiallergenic bed, and have people bring them tea that isn't brewed too strong. Life is better with a little conflict."
So there's John onstage, playing to several more thousand people than he is perhaps accustomed, singing gorgeous grad-school folk ballads in a high, keening voice, but also looking a bit menacing at six-foot-plus, lumbering around like he'd wandered in between bar fights. He noted that he'd bumped into Sufjan and his crowd of prim and proper accompanists backstageâ??"They seem happy and full of life, and their clothes fit so well." The crowd was clearly unnerved. Was this a compliment? Is this guy gonna beat someone up?
He played three songs. Should've played 30.
Sufjan and his daisy Mafia played five. Should've played . . . well, actually, five's about right. You gotta admire the intricacy and anthemic power of his best tunesâ??"Chicago" especially. And he doesn't force his backing crew of horns and violins and tambourines to dress like cheerleaders anymore, thank God. But there's still no threat of his beating anyone up. Too bad. His tunes are little dollhouses of orchestral splendor, ingeniously complex but emotionally distant. Model railroad vistas with no actual locomotion. Tea that isn't brewed too strong. His last tune was entitled "That Dress Looks Nice on You." Right.