I don't really like them, I have to say. I can see why they're popular though.

Top of the youtube listings: this. Melodic guitar intro; Verse with small interval melody; 'chorus' (although it's more like a middle 8), major melody; major key interlude on synth marimba [?], descending into a free section (with plonky sax on the recapitulation). The rhythm ticks along behind it all, not really interfering with the melody, but the (melodic) vocal is the furthest forward.

This - vocal melody, to the fifth, back to the tonic (medieval?); melodic bassline. The melody doesn't change, and there's a solo going 1, 5, 7, 1. (My ears aren't the hottest at listening for intervals, so this may not be entirely accurate - it's all classic melodic behaviour though).

i disproved yr whistling comment, and was the first to reply to it

Glice it's always fascinating when you break things down like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CgKO2haaAo Could you do the same for this song?

I would take it with a pinch of salt - I'm by no means authoritative, and I can't be bothered to sit down with a pen and paper and figure out precisely what's going on. I imagine I'll get round to getting my theory up to speed at some point in the next decade or so.

And as if to prove my point, I've no idea what they're doing with the vocal melody on the one you linked; the guitar part is simple 5ths, 4ths and 7ths though. The vocal melody seems to weave around it, but I can't place the intervals off the top of my head; it's not that complex though.

It doesn't have anything to do with XIU XIU, which I don't care for either way, but I'd be interested to know what you think of how minimalistic no wave, punk or whatever seems to have reached a cul de sac in terms of melodic creativity. Personally I tend to think that the temple of DIY struggles more than ever these days.

I love singing along to it, simple like that. Many hearts.
My mom would like save me, ffs.

It's difficult to say. I don't listen to enough of it to have a serious opinion. When I do, I find very little of interest - there's rarely much in the way of melody, and rarely much in the way of anything. In terms of melodic creativity, I tend to think that pop has definitely done it better for a long time. That's not to say that JLS aren't utterly shite (they are), but something like the chorus to this is better than anything I've heard from the guitar-ish underground in the last 5 years. Having said that, I do think that bands like Xinlisupreme (remember them?) or this guy (a mate of mine) can do very simple and good melodies while ostensibly making a cuntload of racket.

But, as you know, I listen to a lot of Happy Hardcore, and I can hardly defend that on any level except I like it and it's fast. So I wouldn't take any notice of my opinions, because I'd never expect to be consistent. I've been listening to a lot of Helmut Lachenmann lately, and he's incredibly good at dropping a melody in that's achingly simple and massively unexpected. Ligeti to.

I don't know. Whatever the answer is, it's not Pavement (unless the question is 'who are shit?')

Xinlisupreme's ''All You Need Is Not True'' is a great song. They lost it after the album it comes from, though. There are good melodies floating around in rock music (personally times new viking, ganglians, or even electric bunnies I think have it, to name a few), it's just that I struggle a little to distinguish particular melodic traits in both pop and rock bands more than I used to. Not that other things don't make up for it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY91h...eature=related

how do you do that thing, that it shows up as this rather than the whole thing?

I checked to see if the NME reviewed the new Xiu Xiu album. It hasn't yet, but here's what it thought of their last album.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/xiu-xiu/9439

That review sounds like you wrote it.