A Thank You to Sleigh Bells

Every once in a while, a musical group comes along that's deserving of our gratitude. One of those groups is Sleigh Bells, the Brooklyn noise-pop duo who made their network television debut last night on Saturday Night Live. I would like to use the following paragraphs to express to them my appreciation.

Thank you for bringing back the Jackson Soloist guitars I remember so fondly from my childhood, watching videos by bands like Def Leppard, Ratt & Living Colour. Culturally, I thought those instruments died after Seattle and could only be seen at Slayer shows and, subsequently, shows put on by bands of kids who went to Slayer shows. Like typewriters, you've shown me everything old can become new again.

Thank you, Derek E. Miller, formerly of Poison The Well, for (probably) going to all those Slayer shows, and for wearing a Nirvana t-shirt in the "Comeback Kid" video with In Utero's winged invisible woman on it (even though I've had that shirt since high school and you're copping my style. Admit it.).

Thank you for giving us Alexis Krauss. Her voice is so tranquilizing, her hair is so shiny & her legs just don't fuckin' quit. After the break-up of Be Your Own Pet, I never thought I'd see a frontwoman who could hold a candle to Jemina Pearl Abegg. I've never been so happy to be wrong.

Thank you both for being from Florida. Anybody who's lived here long enough knows it produces few significant artists. It doesn't really get any more uninspiring than Jupiter & Thonotosassa.

Thank you for a break-out that (with any luck) can take some much-undeserved attention away from less-interesting fellow-New Yorker Lana Del Ray. You have the noise & the power. She has the lips & the sadness.

Thank you for marrying drum machines to Marshall stacks. Somebody had to do it eventually.

But most of all, thank you for being cool and not making music that sucks. Before you, there seemed to be a Deficit of Cool and a Surplus of Suck from the music that's found on television.

Godspeed.