Why Indie Sucks In 2004

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

For the last couple of weeks I've been working with a bloke who loves his Indie. He's particularly into The Libertines, The White Stripes, the whole NME party line apparently. And it's set me thinking long and hard about why it's the least interesting genre of music to me nowadays.

The tentative theory I've arrived at is this. Indie, in the limited sense of the word I used above, has become a dead end. The Shoegazers of the early 90s were the last Indie bands to produce innovative music. Everything since then has been not just referring to a previous style, but referring to a previous style that referred to a previous style.

I'm not saying that any music has ever been completely original and without antecedents, but it seems to me that early 80s Post Punk or even C86-type bands were doing something new-ish in a way that no longer seems possible for Indie music. It doesn't seem possible for anybody my age (35) to get that excited about a group like the Libertines, because they're so reminiscent of the stuff that was exciting when I was 15. And 25.

Maybe I'm just too old, maaaan. But Hip Hop or Dancehall or the thousand branches of Dance music seem to me to still be growing, innovating, surprising. The gap between, say, David Banner and Schooly D seems enormous compared to the gap between, say, The Thrills and The Stars of Heaven.

Is Indie the Trad Jazz of today? Am I a moaning old git? Does it matter? What does anything mean, basically?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Your definition is self defeating though!

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

How d'ya mean?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sub-question, if I can intrude: if this were reduced to a looped audio sample a la Shadow's track, what would it be?

― Dare, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Probably "What a waster, what a fucking waster..."

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:32 (twenty-one years ago)

for somewhat indie-ignorant fuxors like me, who do the libertines remind you of? the only ones? the members? adverts? or more typically, the clash?! they kind of remind me of all the above, as well as pulp (a bit). i'd say the fact they remind me of so many people (this might just be because they rip other bands off so freely), it makes them seem a bit fresh, at the least because of what theyre running through their own personalities.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

He means that by defining indie as only the stuff covered by NME you are automatically consigning the "genre" to mediocrity and irrelevance, noodle.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

as far as yr definition of "indie" is as above, i can understand your objection, although as a 22-yr old, i guess this is my first trip living through this stuff, and i like the libertines and a lot of white stripes songs. but i mean ALL 3 "indie" bands you mentioned are on major labels. not to say thats why they sound like retreads to you, but what was independent-label rock 5 years ago is now major-label niche product. again, this isnt to say its all bad in my mind, but its less vanguard or innovative. re: dance or rap, there just may not be as strong an infrastructure within labels for identifying "hot trends" in those musics. i would argue then, that "indie" and rock are not creatively bankrupt in comparison to r&b, rap, dance, etc, but commercial r&b/rap/dance might be closer to the innovative core of those genres than commercial "indie" or rock is to its core of innovators.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:34 (twenty-one years ago)

commercial R&B/hip hop isnt *really* that close to the innovative core. ive always thought the same thing about commercial indie/rock actually.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

maybe i seemed to contradict myself. what i mean is that it seems like rock marketing being more of a systematized process distances record labels from innovation.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

"commercial R&B/hip hop isnt *really* that close to the innovative core."

This is pretty much bullshit.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i just think its a lot MORE in touch than commercial rock

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

its bullshit only because the underground is generally completely shit these days. R&B and hip hop ARE the mainstream.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Indie's 'innovation' was often as much subject matter/stance/outlook as sonix anyway. Do the Libertines innovate in this area? Dunno, not to me they don't (all very McLarenised) but they're touching SOME kind of nerve for some people.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I was watching So 90s, by accident, on MuchMusic this morning on George Whateveropolous, made this big statement about how people who hated Pearl Jam "back then" must feel pretty stupid because of how bad the music is now, and then they flashed a clip of Mya, and I was like, "What an ignorant tool!"

― Huck, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

several x-posts

All of those groups dick, plus maybe early Blur and something like Gene, even The Shop Assistants. It's not that I especially hate The Libertines, but I cannot imagine why anybody for whom they aren't the first band you've ever fallen in love with would care about them.

(Note to Pete Doherty and Jim Morrison fans. Getting high doesn't make you a poet. Writing poetry does.)

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

No, it's pretty much always been bullshit, dick. Commercial r&b/hip hop has always tended to react to and incorporate and chart underground innovations pretty quickly.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

This is pretty much bullshit.

I wouldn't go that far myself, Alex. Though it's less a question of how one quantifies 'innovation' than it is one of whether or not 'innovation' as an argument matters in the first place for one's enjoyment. And it isn't like hip-hop is unknown or anything. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

its not like dizzee is a multi-platinum selling artist is it? BIDC didnt spawn half a dozen top ten hits.

timbaland WAS innovative sure, but not anymore. he and missy were lucky, they were both succesful while still being innovative. but for every one of those, theres a million other smaller innovative artists who arent selling but ARE stil close to the innovative core. i dont see el-p selling millions for example.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

(xpost a bit) I mean, to COMPLETELY go reductio ad absurdum, I've heard the exact same argument applied to metal as a mutating beast, ie, it scrounges up everything and anything and charges forward. Chuck presumably might say the same about country, Matt about any number of Spanish-language bands, etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Regarding definition of Indie, I completely agree with the points made, but

a) Indie is a genre of its own, I think, not an equivalent term for Independent
b) A lot of Indie fans continue to moan on about the originality and innovation of their music, despite all the evidence to the contrary
c) It rhymes nicely with Schmindie

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"No, it's pretty much always been bullshit, dick. Commercial r&b/hip hop has always tended to react to and incorporate and chart underground innovations pretty quickly."

what? i can reel off a dozen early-mid 90s hip hop albums that were very innovative but were hardly pop hits.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Noodle, why did you just randomly dis the shop assistants? They were wonderful! You should just start listening to more new avant-garde indie metal anyway. Forget all about the libertines.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont know, i suppose it depends if you think yeah by usher or crazy in love are innovative. i just think theyre hip hop tracks being sung over.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Is the Questioner British by any chance?

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

but I mean this definition of indie seems awfully limited, are we including everything that is not major-label and reviewed by Pitchfork, or just the type of stuff played on Indie 103.1 in L.A.? (i.e. the White Stripes, Radiohead, etc)

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I never really hear fans of NME music (better that than the 'i' word) talk about 'originality' even let alone innovation - I think that particular point has been ceded at some stage, maybe '94; authentic self-expression and the sense of providing an alternative are the stronger focal points.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

well you don't have to give a damn about innovation to acknowledge it exists. for me innovation/novelty two sides of same coin, i guess novelty becomes innovation when enough people copy it. new sounds for bored listeners plus: element of surprise. usually this means more to me in a pop context though truth be told - they cut to the chase usually and focus on whatever particular aspect it is specifically that has that voodoo.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost 9000

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

indie what?

some of my fave releases this year have been indie releases, but they're hybrids that fall messily somewhere between indie pop, indie rock, hip hop, dnb, techno, micro, idm, etc

stuff like The Egg, Chikinki, Kompakt 100, Dizzee, etc have stretched the definition of indie as far as I'm concerned, and that's a good thing. There will alway s be revival bands playing the same 3 chord songs, and just because you first heard then in 1986 by the Bodines rather than in 1966 by the Byrds doesn't make them any more forward thinking than if you're hearing them in 2004 by the Hives.

Music is moving forward at an unbelivably fast rate and hybridization, cross-pollination, and just general fuicking around have resulted in some pretty great things.

and that's why Indie doesn't suck in 2004

― rentboy (rentboy), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i can reel off a dozen early-mid 90s hip hop albums that were very innovative but were hardly pop hits

That doesn't prove that the commercial stuff wasn't cutting edge though, does it?

Akshully, I've just thought that perhaps the nature of Hip Hop, Dance music etc equates innovation with commercial success in a way that Indie doesn't. I.E., the former are always looking for new sounds, novelty is encouraged whereas the latter looks for comfortable referentiality.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorta x-post

what? i can reel off a dozen early-mid 90s hip hop albums that were very innovative but were hardly pop hits.

You're missing the point of Alex's argument -- which is not that innovative hip-hop albums don't become hits, but that more mainstream hip-hop in a commercial/sales sense can and often does react to said innovations from whereever, not just in its own perceived genre (and as I noted, it's not just hip-hop that does this, etc. etc., entire history of music to thread).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

in world in which lil jon isn't an innovator but el-p is is a world dominated by fules

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i think "yeah" is fairly brilliant. "crazy in love", too, but "yeah" seems to me more forward-thinking.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.hottinger-systems.de/a_Verbindung_Kopie.jpg

or roughly what Ned said at least a couple posts ago.

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Why Blanket Statements Suck In Any Year

― Huck, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

scott, I love the Shop Assistants. I was just saying I think The Libertines' sound owes something to theirs. Shop Assistants = 80s Indie = Good.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Blanket Statements allow us to contemplate smaller truths, Huck.

Plus, y'know, Irony.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

And they keep us warm.

― Huck, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:52 (twenty-one years ago)

whoa - this has all been IRONIC? man, im losing my indie edge.

― peter smith (plsmith), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i love indie, me. i'm playing wilco at the moment.

― doomie x, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd be curious to see you list some more indie bands you think suck, noodle

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

radiohead
the vines
Jet
GOOD CHARLOTTE

haha "indie"

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

jon the uk-us indie definition divide blew my mind when i found out about it too

― cinniblount (James Blount), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post

No, I meant the choice of title was ironic rather than a full statement of my considered opinion.

I think suck is too strong a word Gear! It's just that the current faves fill me with meh. If it helps to get me laughed at, the kind of Indie at the moment I don't think sucks would be The Unicorns or Xiu Xiu. But mostly I'm just not interested in the genre any more. I should have tied this in with a question about disliking groups more because their fans irritate you than their music.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:57 (twenty-one years ago)

the unicorns and xiu xiu really blow.

― doomie x, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Jon, yer the guy who told me young guys playing guitars = indie on that one thread!

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

The Unicorns *really* blow though.

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

SARCASM

― ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (ex machina, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 18:59 (twenty-one years ago)

As I keep saying, it's, like, just my opinions, man.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Skipping 27 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

I got indie music in the mail today.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

Did you screen it for innovation?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still listening. I got Masta Ace & Flogging Molly.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

When that kid behind the counter at Amoeba told me the other night that "backpacker hip hop, that's where the love of music is, not with mainstream shit or MF Doom or nothing" it sort of entrenched me deeper in the anti-BP camp

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

If you got Flogging Molly, my recommendation is to dig a deep hole, put the CD in it, piss on it and fill up the hole. Should the CD burst out and start flailing out, hit it over the head with a shovel.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

x-post - and vice versa ad infinitum anthony. grass is always greener.... blah blah.

masta ace has been shit i thought since about 1997.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Really? I've never heard them. The dude from Flogging Molly used to be in Fastway! I didn't know that.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

case in point, timbaland and diddy liking coldplay!

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I had the misfortune of catching Flogging Molly live opening for Rocket From the Crypt some years back. Time has not changed my opinion of their tripe, but if somehow this album is a breakthrough sound for them, then that means they have burned all their instruments.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

the masta ace is pleasant. very summery. it's even called A Long Hot Summer.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how in that record store dude's world MF Doom occupies his own lonesome valley somewhere between mainstream shit and the "real" "underground" shit.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

Lucinda Williams is on it, so i guess that's where they are going. Um, on the Flogging Molly, not the Masta Ace.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I only like HiFi-Indie.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

I was buying that new Viktor Vaughn and he insisted I check out "the Jurassic crew!" I thanked him for his advice and complained to the manager.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Has anyone heard Bonk? I think they are from Norway. Kinda like junior senior-vs-the darkness. kinda. they may or may not sound like a horrible description of a band. i got a little scared typing it. they have some funny songs. the album is called western soul. they rip off the guitar from 'you keep me hangin' on" on one song and it sounds really cool.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Masta Ace just said that he hates indie labels.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I was buying that new Viktor Vaughn and he insisted I check out "the Jurassic crew!" I thanked him for his advice and complained to the manager.

oh dear. thats frightening.

still i can't reject all undie out of hand. still like atmosphere even if i don't listen to him anymore (listening to Blueprint as I type - a clean version no less!). brother ali is a treat. maybe some of that is borne out of place-pride.

ps i also like el-p (and not just his inst records)

pps shout out to nateinstpinexile

― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Man, Mata Ace goes off on Tommy Boy. he hates major labels too. He hates everyone. He's bitter.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

there is no such thing as innovation, just a steadily dwindling pool of obscure reference points.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

indie-pop and ambient/texture indie = good.

indie Rock = not so good.

i think this sums up my position on guitar indie.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I love the Anticon stuff I heard this year! Passage, Clouddead, Dosh. That stuff is cool with me. I hope they put out a clouddead-vs-dalek album.

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:11 (twenty-one years ago)

the best indie rap ever were those catchy jurassic 5 singles! "jayou" and "concrete schoolyard", right?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:13 (twenty-one years ago)

I want to hear a Lil Jon/Doseone colab ha ha.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

indie-pop and ambient/texture indie = good.
indie Rock = not so good.

i think this sums up my position on guitar indie.

Band examples? I'm trying to figure out why I like indie that most indie people seem to hate on.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

vintage alien cosmoscopic anecdotal isotopes
broken windshield vantage points overlooking gay manga porn
YEAH!!!!!!
gargantuan broken bottle rockets fire off into the ocean
splitting victims skulls over the rocks shaken not stirred
GOD DAMN!!!!!!!

― Doseone & Lil Jon "Gay Manga P0rn" (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

*raw square-wave synth stab*

― Doseone & Lil Jon "Gay Manga P0rn" (nickalicious), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah cloudead is another one that i like a lot that gets ripped to shreds on ILM so I just don't talk about them. i listened to a passge 12"" and a few songs of the album and it was alright.

jurrassic 5 can go to hell and die.

nickalicious you are a funney one

― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

"I like how in that record store dude's world MF Doom occupies his own lonesome valley somewhere between mainstream shit and the "real" "underground" shit."

but MF Doom *does* occupy his own lonesome valley. thats what makes him so good.

― dickvandyke (dickvandyke), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

indie rock needs more hate songs.

― jess, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:35 (twenty-one years ago)

i am ashamed to have participated in this thread, really and will be quitting ilx soon.

― artdamages (artdamages), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanks to everybody who pointed out where the crap bits of my theory were. I think I should have more clearly defined a certain kind of UK Indie mentality, because the word obviously connotes differently either side of the Atlantic.

Also, my wife bought the NME yesterday with a Domino Records sampler on it and after listening to the first half it was the most turgid, plodding crap, track after track of wannabe garage bands.

I'm certainly not discounting everything brilliant that exists in the independent sector.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

What if I don't feel like dancing? What if it's 3 in the morning, and I'm just in the mood to listen to something contemplative. I've never bought any of the rock-critic canon all-dance-is-dumb-and-therefore-bad crap, but I also don't buy the knee-jerk reaction of all-indie-is-corney-and-therefore-bad.

Besides, you don't see a large difference between Animal Collective, Le Tigre, Flaming Lips, Magnetic Fields, Sea and Cake, Silver Jews and Spiritualized? I don't even like some of those artists, but saying there isn't a sonic difference is b.s.

Now that I've been working on my friends college radio station for a bit and we have to play the indie stuff we get sent, I've grown surprised at how bad most of it is. There are just so many bands that noodle on guitars or toy instruments aimlessly and then overlap some beeps and call it experimental. Or croon and are "literate" with a "slight beach boys pop sensibility" as the review on the jewel cases so often reads. Bands by the hundreds wearing vintage shirts, suit coats, tassled hair; list in hand of approved influences. All that aside, indie is such a vague definition (we have yet to be able to make one ourselves) that it's bound to encompass a huge range of different styles.

― David Allen (David Allen), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Band examples?"

hmmm...i don't *buy* much indie-rock anymore, but i still listen to old favourites plenty and maybe the odd new thing. not to say that indie-rock has disimproved, just a little burnt out perhaps (although maybe the current press-favourites are focussed mainly on indie-ROCKin as opposed to the other qualities i previously stated as positive).

anyway, here are indie-rock things old and new which have received much stereo-time chez kilian the last year or so:

gay dad "leisurenoise", low box set, bedhead, red house painters, various REM albums, black box recorder, broadcast, mercury rev "deserters songs", new albums by liars and campag velocet, blur's britpop albums, pulp "this is hardcore", the singles by keane and franz ferdinand and the thrills, mbv, the first sparklehorse album, lemonheads, jeff buckley "grace", the last sleepy jackson album, nada surf's "popular", all american rejects "swing".

of course, many of these bands can rock out when necessary,

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

just a little burnt-out = I'M just a little burnt out

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

also love magnetic fields 69LS, yo la tengo and sonic youth "daydream nation"

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

was that amateurist up yonder a few posts?
-- Gear! (drink_to_remembe...), August 17th, 2004.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

no, i just found this thread.

― amateur!!!st, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:49 (twenty-one years ago)

welcome! defend thee indie

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

so, there are many many good indies at all times, and perhaps folks confuse burn-out and waning interest with a decline - a feeling added to by NME push behind musically unintersting garage-rockers? (this is my feeling, perhaps)

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

"i don't even know what indie is"

― amateur!!!st, Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the waning interest comes from people who keep up the same level of interest they had before and no more, who only see the bands that have replaced their old favorites at a certain level and don't dig deeper.

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"important" "innovative" "indie"

Yet more proof that English-speaking people cannot deal with words that begin with 'i' especially self-singular pronouns. "intelligent" "initiative" "intense" "insane"

DO YOU LIKE GOOD MUSIC? SWEET SOUL MUSIC? I know.. you love the song... but hate the kid in the t-shirt.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.union-fonts.com/graphics/indie.jpg

― Gear! (Gear!), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

indie rock needs more hate songs.

-- jess (hat...), August 17th, 2004 7:35 AM. (later)

you need to buy my next album. it has several.

― purple patch (electricsound), Tuesday, 17 August 2004 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

[Haven't read the whole thread - sorry if this is a reiteration]

I went off most indie pop/rock for a few years, listening to only a select few bands and shying away from more new acts. This was mostly for the reasons Noodle Vague outlined - disgust and at the NME rehashers, the feeling that indie is a non-scene. But it's only until very recently I've been discovering a whole bunch of new and boundary-pushing stuff that is a million miles away from the tawdry Strokes and Libertines crap. If bands like the Animal Collective and the Earlies aren't doing new and exciting things, then I'd like to know what is.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 08:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Earlies are nice and all, but they're just Yo La Tengo remixed by Plaid! Also Animal Collective are horrid.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 08:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Nothing wrong with Yo La Tengo remixed by Plaid!

(although The Dears are even better than The Earlies, early warning alert...)

Drum 'n' bass is the trad jazz of 2004, not indie.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh there's nowt wrogn with it, I really like the album, it's just not particularly 'new'.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, Yo La Tengo mixed by Plaid = recipe for teh ace.

Also Animal Collective are horrid.

Pot + QSurround + Headphones says otherwise.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't smoke, you see.

― Jimmybommy JimmyK'KANG (Nick Southall), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Well then you won't like em ;-)

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 18 August 2004 09:29 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.