Tag: The Pretty Reckless

If There Was Any Justice, The Pretty Reckless Would Benefit Most From The Current ‘Vibe Shift’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about the band The Pretty Reckless is they seem to be stuck musical amber — they’re an exact replica of the type of hard pop rock I was listening to in the general 1985 – 1989 timeframe. They manage to do this without sounding generic. They’ve got spunk and are actually really interesting.

The Pretty Reckless

Now that we’re suppose to be in a downlow “new era” of a vibe shift in pop culture after the end of the Rona Era, it would make a lot of sense if the type of traditional pop rock that The Pretty Reckless performs would, again, become mainstream.

In fact, I would go so far as to say we know we are really in a “vibe shift” if a song from The Pretty Reckless mysteriously and abruptly blows up. Then you would have a whole slew of similar bands get record contracts and we would be awash in good music again.

I’m afraid that’s a huge amount of wishful thinking, however. I think, at best, we’re probably going to get a lot of New Wave inspired pop rock, rather than more traditional hard pop rock that we get from The Pretty Reckless.

Me as a DJ in Seoul.

I like The Pretty Reckless because they’re firing on all of their creative cylinders. When it comes to a lot of other acts trying to, say, bring back New Wave, they seem to not quite know what their vision is. They’re thrashing about, looking for The New Sound, when all they’re doing is trying to recreate New Wave. The Pretty Reckless, meanwhile, have a musical vision — be traditional hard pop rock.

Anyway. I has a sad that there aren’t more bands like The Pretty Reckless for me to discover via Spotify.

The Vision Thing For ‘The Pretty Reckless’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The Pretty Reckless is one producer and one culture inflection point away from huge success. In fact, I would even go so far as to say if rock ever comes back in a sudden, big way that The Pretty Reckless are prime candidates to have an unexpected breakout hit.

The Pretty Reckless — Potential Rock ‘n Roll Saviors

The only reason why I even suggest this is possible is as of the moment, there is something of a musical genre vacuum going on. Since about 2012 we’ve been living under the hegemony of adult contemporary. It makes sense that at some point, eventually, people are going to grow tired of this dreck and look for something different — possibly old fashion rock and roll, which is what The Pretty Reckless is.

Now, some context.

The thing about this band is they’re something of a diamond in the rough. I really like them — a lot — but they’re produced in a somewhat generic manner. They’re just a rock group. To take things to the next level, they need a producer with a definite vision — my go-to rock producer for such things is Butch Vig. He did Nirvana’s “In Utero” and is the brains behind one of my favorite groups — also female vocalist led — Garbage.

It’s easy to imagine a situation where out of the blue The Pretty Reckless have a huge hit, they get a new producer and ta-da, rock is back. Of course, some of this is just me daydreaming about good music coming back, but lulz.

As a side note, I would suggest The Pretty Reckless pander to rock fans and do a cover of an unexpected Beatles song. If they came out with a rocking version of The Beatles odd-ball song “You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)” I think a lot of rock fans would eat it up.

Anyway, like I said, I think we may be doomed to living in adult contemporary hell for the rest of my life. If not even a pandemic can shake up our culture expectations, then I don’t know what can.