I couldn't have said that any better!

I don't care about inaccessibility or accessibility, but yes, I do generally care about originality -- and to be honest, what I heard on Conan basically just bored me, whether or not they were groundbreaking. Of course, I've only heard that one song, so I'm hardly in a position to say whether I really dislike them, only that I'm not in any rush to get more of their material. I've heard better, I've heard worse...no big deal.

There will always be a place for pedal-to-the-floor rock 'n' roll, and I do like the "duo" thing. If conventions are going to finally be torn down, then

That said, I wish these guys were a little more interesting. Rock is and always will be yelling into a microphone with the amps on 11; anything other than that is something other than rock 'n' roll (which isn't always a bad thing). But these guys are getting more attention than I would think they warrant. As Seba alluded to, there isn't anything original or even unique about them. Lack of originality I can live with; many bands I like are hardly breaking ground, yet somehow make individual statements, perhaps through musicianship, chord selection, and/or charisma. These guys don't seem to have anything special going for them but good timing.

I think that they have a lot going for them actually and I consider myself rather hard to please musically speaking...ask the people who know me and they will say I am next to impossible to please. I am very critical of songwriting because I have been a songwriter in various genres for many, many years now. I like a lot of the songs on this cd. Many of the riffs hit a really heavy groove. I dislike most, if not all of the pseudo punk from Green Day to Blink to Billy Talent...yet this cd is getting a lot of play by me. The fast riff in 'Turn It Out' is a killer and I love when they drop it down and play it low. 'Little Girl' is another track that I really like too.
So...I think they have these things going for them:

-good songwriting (one of the difficult 'intangibles' for bands)
-good riffs (you don't need them for a song that is well written but they help)
-good on their respective instruments
-they don't sing enough like the pseudo punkers (for me to categorize them as such)
-they have a different thing going with the 'drum and bass-that's all' approach.

I guess I could add 'good timing' to make it an even 6...

Come on, the ruins sounds like a two man jazz group. DFA, is not trying to spin your head, but just rock you. I can hear the nicely timed shifts in their play, but they aren`t going for the jazz feel. They play the same instruments, but that doesn`t make them comparable.

death from above 1979 has taken a big POP step with their last album, and yet somehow they still get tagged as psychedelic, punk-esque, pseudo-new wave, and not infrequently, simply as a "new york band." its a pretty good album i guess; as phrase goes among snobs "their older material is better."

however, i must say that i find the ruins to be pretty dull, and even though there is defintely some vacuity to DFA's lyrics de temps en temps, i would rather listen to them anyday over the ruins. their appeal is completely lost on me.

Thier older material? Did they go by another name, or did they just wait a long time before releasing anything?

They used to be just Death From Above without the 1979. No idea why they added it.

They're all right. I rather like them but they're not a favorite or anything.

They changed their name because DFA records sued them and the minimum legal name change was 4 letters or numbers.... you shoulda seen the message sebastien (drum, vocals) posted... it was mostly just about how everyone at DFA records were jihad dumb-f*cks... Even though I am the hugest DFA 1979 fan I still think sebastien is a real a-hole...

I saw them live last weekend... It was awesome! Wasn't exactly the longest set in the world but it was easily worth the $12(canadian). Controller.Controller opened and though I'd never heard them before I was impressed!

They are one of my current favs...I'm listening to them a lot.