Steve Kilbey Blasts The Rubens Again; Calls Group 'Limp Bland Pop'

The Church frontman Steve Kilbey has not backed down from comments he made earlier this week regarding The Rubens #1 song on triple j's Hottest 100, Hoops, yesterday labelling the band as "limp bland pop".

The singer of the veteran Sydney rock band took to Facebook yesterday to defend his opinion piece in The Guardian in which he said of Hoops, "Why this song is No 1 eludes me. Triple J listeners have gone a bit soft, I guess."

"I am bemused to think that some people out there think i am too old to 'get' the Rubens et al," Kilbey wrote in yesterday's online post.

"Yes i am very very old but even when i was young and very beautiful , let me assure you, i would not have liked the Rubens et al. Its not because i am old that i dont like them, its because i came to review rocknroll and i found limp bland pop. Maybe i was overqualified for this gig. People have been making this bland tripe ever since i can remember. yes the fifties and the sixties and the seventies were full of it. it will always exist and there will always be people like me railing against it."

Kilbey went on to write that his criticism of The Rubens was not a personal attack and that he was not fond of any of the artists who ranked in the top ten, excluding Tame Impala. 

"I am well versed in many literary, artistic and religious works and still i say rocknroll can do things that no other artform can do so effectively. its sexiness. its rage. its revolution. its anger. its otherworldiness. its dissociation. its preposterousness. its glory. its tragedy. etc etc etc. I find none of these qualities in the people in the top ten except for tame impala upon whom i certainly bestow my blessing (big deal!)," Kilbey wrote.

"I find many of the artists in the top ten indistinguishable from what are generally known as 'boy bands'. In that they sing dopey little songs in their 'little boy' voices to some little girl who (shame upon shame) broke their little heart. good for them."

The 61-year-old musician was also criticised by many on social media for saying Kendrick Lamar's King Kunta "sounds like a million other things I've seen and heard before."

"Superficially i look at the vid and sho'nuff theres the chicks shaking their bums, a guy saying mutherfucker and homies doing the homey dance," Kilbey said of Lamar's hit song.

"Having spent a lotta time in the USA i would say superficially that this vid/song is pretty much par for the course with all the standard accoutrements of stuff that ive been seeing for well over 25 years. What is an old reviewer to do..? i admitted that i couldnt dig it but someone else probably does. boo hoo. fuck you!"

Meanwhile speaking exclusively to theMusic yesterday, The Rubens keyboardist Elliot Margin said that Kilbey had the right to his opinion, though he was confused by his critique. 

"I don't really understand how people go soft, or how people vote soft," Margin said.

"I don't get angry at people for eating peanut butter sandwiches when I don't like peanut butter. Each to his own."