This might be face-palm obvious, but the music media moves in cycles. Genre A might be popular this month, but give it some time and Genre B will be the one suddenly being upped by Diplo and written about by the New York Times. Funny thing is, the same applies to the contemporary music media discussing older artists. Case in point – My Bloody Valentine, who recently reissued their beloved catalog to a flourish of 10.0s and interviews. It isn’t shocking that lots of people are writing about My Bloody Valentine, yet what happens is MBV start seeping into other features and reviews that shouldn’t need to – like, oh, this one. My Bloody Valentine are the cool throwback of the moment.
At one point, Galaxie 500 sat in that position. Pitchfork wrote this oral history about them, and for a second they seemed to be the new “influential” group. Yet, like all of these revivals, that passed. Nagoya’s Pop-Office covered Galaxie 500’s Twinkie-anthem “Strange” recently, and it’s a fitting move for a group intent on doing what they want rather than what the blog-world demands. Their take on “Strange” sounds rougher, a little louder and more coarse, but still graced with the same floating beauty as the original. Galaxie 500 aren’t the cool sound of this instance, but their music remains great, more than an ABA throwback jersey. Pop-Office similarly don’t sound “cool,” but they sound great, so this is a lovely crossing. Listen below.