The 20 Worst Hipster Bands: 10-1

By Ben Westhoff Wed., Aug. 22 2012 at 4:30 AM

White Rabbits

The 20 Worst Hipster Bands: 20-11
Top 20 Worst Bands of All Time
Top 20 Musicians of All Time, in Any Genre
Top 20 Whitest Musicians of All Time

10. White Rabbits
Why do bands need a second drummer? In recent years everyone from Local Natives to Bon Iver to fucking Radiohead has thrown a second kit out there, or at least a floor tom or two. If you think all that extra bashing make bands' music more interesting, then you must love Brooklyn's White Rabbits, because they've sometimes employed three drummers! Unfortunately, they end up proving that when you write forgettable, buttoned-down indie rock, no amount of percussion can save you from sounding like a second-rate Spoon. -Andy Hermann

Beach House

9. Beach House
Beach House lead singer Victoria Legrand has been compared to Nico, which makes sense in that Nico has an extremely vapid voice. A wash of down-tuned Baltimore neo-soul, it's trip-hop for people who never knew Massive Attack and post-rock for those who missed Stereolab; in other words, derivative electro mush. The band's moniker is also misleading. As Linda Richman might say, they're neither about beaches nor house music. Discuss. -Linda Leseman

The Airborne Toxic Event

8. The Airborne Toxic Event
They named themselves after a Don DeLillo plot device. They frequently play with a string quartet. They released a live album recorded at Disney Concert Hall. Their best-known song contains the lyric, "She's holding her tonic like a cross." They favor the sort of spiky, Modest Mouse-y guitars that signify "edgy." And the bio on their website touts their "captivating blend of literate, visceral indie rock and propulsive, anthemic choruses." If any L.A. band has hipster pretension down to a science, it's TATE. -Andy Hermann

See also: The Airborne Toxic Event Likes Motorcycles, Mexican Food and Blowing Stuff Up

Ariel Pink

7. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti
[Editor's note: The Weekly staff is divided on Pink; for an argument in favor of his genius see our recent feature story. For the opposite opinion keep reading.] Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti is the Inception of hipster bands: From the '70s sitcom synth lines to Pink's nonsensical psychedelic babbling, their music is layers of irony within irony manipulating you into thinking you're listening to something original or innovate. Live, Pink has the stage presence of a bored teenager and sounds like he's doing drunk karaoke covers of Hall & Oates on Sesame Street. -Andrea Domanick

Tags:

Arcade Fire, Black Keys, indie, The Worst Hipster Bands of All Time

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anonomouslyspeaking

I am very interested to see what YOUR favorite bands are...

nahnigga

One of the shittiest articles I've read in a long time. Almost as bad as some pitchfork reviews.

antonio

Paul T. Bradley you are a douchebag. You deserve to be fired just because of what you wrote about Bon Iver. I'm not the biggest fan of the band either, but your arguments are ridiculous. "Those who came before us rocked, bumped and grinded" - Bon Iver was never supposed to be a rock band and you are judging them because you think they should be. And you talk about "the good old days" as if there weren't any other rock & roll bands these days. Just like there were bands like Bon Iver. I just want to repeat it to make it very clear: Paul T. Bradley you are a douchebag.

quelleb

Did you mean excorsised? (Bon Iver part)

dannyvesper

2 Like

Dear LA Weekly,

I like some of these bands but others aren't really my cup of tea, does this mean I am only half a hipster?

Also, it's curious why you'd make a list so intentionally shitty. And then it occurs to me that you probably aren't getting the web traffic that you'd like. But don't you think it's a bit myopic to make a list like this? Doesn't it occur to you that this could marginalize some potential readers? Of all the lists you could make this seems to me to be one of the meanest imaginable not just to the artists but to the millions of people who like them.

Nice job being dicks. Hope you got the clicks you wanted.

HIpsterKING

dear god, the irony of this article makes my head hurt. everyone knows a hipster's favorite pasttime, other than calling other people hipsters, is pointing out how shitty the music they listen to is... bravo LAweekly. watch your back pitchfork.