Indie Rock or wot?!?

M

mms

sometimes
spackb0y said:
Must recommend:

http://mentalistassociation.co.uk/stuff.htm

Who are a South East DIY label/collective.

There's some good post-hardcore/post rocky stuff like Shink, Yeborobo, Esiotrot, noise/weird like including Lightning-bolt Sussex types Mouslecomb Sword Gang and some great hauntological stuff - Tea and Toast Band.
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no disrespect but this stuff here is way beyond the remit of the nme and right into wire territory, take a look at the nme and what they cover is well narrow, it's well focussed down to antics etc ,remember they were cagey about featuring anthony and the jonsons for being too weird?
even their club page is dedicated to snake bite indie pits!

to add my tuppence i really like a band i've called grizzly bear who's newer stuff is lush beach boys, mixed with an epic kraut sensibilty stuff, a little like the animal collective but with more golden lushness and less playschool quirks, doubt they'd feature in nme tho. :)

even to get to that you have to wade thru endless neo folk releases which seem to be commited to living in the past with no personality, tons of acts that sound like late period beatles with something else cobbled on, loads of bands who's tracks sound the same roughly produced, finger picked intro's ' witty' vocals largely based around a rather unimaginative irony, there is such a glut of this stuff and it gets such massive props.
 
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T

tryptych

waiting for a time
mms said:
no disrespect but this stuff here is way beyond the remit of the nme and right into wire territory, take a look at the nme and what they cover is well narrow, it's well focussed down to antics etc ,remember they were cagey about featuring anthony and the jonsons for being too weird?
even their club page is dedicated to snake bite indie pits!
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Yeah point taken - I was actually considering saying something very like what you just wrote, since gang gang dance and quix*o*tic appeard in this thread, who are also way outside the remit of the NME.

In my defence, some of that mentallist association stuff wouldn't be totally out of place, but yeah the Sword Gang et al are pretty out there.

It wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility that some more experimental post hardcore band could do pretty well the NME audience? Or am I being too optimistic? I couls see the Klaxons and other stuff like that doing well maybe...
 
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B

big satan

HA-DO-KEN!
yeah, but there's no good reason why stuff like quix*o*tic isn't covered by the nme they're aren't some really far out experimental shit, it's song based music played by young people in a band, which is supposed to be what the NME writes about.
 
B

bergholt

New member
shudder said:
"Hilary went to the Catholic Church because she wanted information,
The vicar, or whatever, took her to one side and gave her confirmation"

"if you are feeling sinister.
go off and see a minister,
he'll try in vain,
to take away the pain,
of being a hopeless,
non-believer."
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Well, these are from one song, a long time ago, so it's a little fraught to draw too many conclusions from these. And do ya reckon "hopeless unbeliever" (the correct lyric) is slightly tongue-in-cheek?

They used to have the old-school Nick Drake/Smiths feel; see If You're Feeling Sinister (the album). On the other hand, their new stuff is a lot, lot different. The latest one, The Life Pursuit, is a pretty fucking great album full of 70s rock/pop tributes - think T-Rex or Bowie or Sly & the Family Stone. Completely different to their old guitar folk, it's mostly big-production funky pop. Call-response lyrics, organ and clavinet, fat bass lines.

But I'm an avowed fan, so don't take my word for it. Listen to Sukie In The Graveyard or Song For Sunshine or The Blues Are Still Blue.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
grime rules and indie rock sucks donkey dicks.

that's all I have to say about this subject.
 
Z

zhao

there are no accidents
HMGovt said:
Yes, of course grime rules, but its domain only reaches as far as the Shell filling station on the Upper Clapton Road and a nearby minicab office.
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and the sunny and mild shores of Southern California APPARENTLY since that's where I am. I meet the most random and unlikely of people sometimes who are into grime.

a lot of people do have reservations about it and the music's stand-off nature might keep it from mainstream acceptance for a while, but surely in 1979 hiphop sounded scary and entirely commercially unviable too - just a bunch of kids shouting over a simple beat
 
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D

DavidD

can't be stopped
Forgive my cynicism but so many of you are cleary into indie rock and know all these NME type bands, so why is this the first time I've seen anyone talk about them on dissensus? Is it the sudden popularity of the arctic monkeys? Simon's profession of interest in the group?
 
D

dominic

Beast of Burden
DavidD said:
Forgive my cynicism but so many of you are cleary into indie rock and know all these NME type bands, so why is this the first time I've seen anyone talk about them on dissensus? Is it the sudden popularity of the arctic monkeys? Simon's profession of interest in the group?
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speaking for myself only . . . .

(1) i don't like what i've heard of the arctic monkeys -- a bit too sober and ponderous and straight for me

(2) the bands i mentioned up above nobody else here seems to like anyway -- probably too glam and style-over-substance-like -- so i was probably wise not to mention before (save for the 3 or 4 that i've been pushing)

(3) i'm not too keen on most grime/dubstep, either -- but i've checked out a lot of grime/dubstep events in new york b/c i'm always interested in the "next big thing" on the rave continuum

(4) the only music that i actually collect in significant number and have something approaching "real" knowledge of is 90/92 rave music -- but compared with all the brits in these parts, my knowledge ain't that great -- so i tend not to start threads on this stuff, though i will join em if started by another

(5) however, you're right that if simon gives something the go ahead, people do seem to take more of an interest -- i.e., he is a tastemaker for most people here to one degree or another

(6) there's also been a trend as of late for people to start threads based upon something written over at blissblog/woebot/k-punk -- i.e., we seem to be tapped out of ideas as to what to talk about -- and so people have been raiding those blogs for subject matter

(7) as for new music, my own is position is best described as "soft eclecticism" -- the very position that k-punk criticizes as a sign of decadence vis-a-vis early 80s when fans of ABC were antagonistic to fans of birthday party, etc -- but i honestly feel no great attachment to any new form of music, and so i try to glean the best of every kind
 
B

big satan

HA-DO-KEN!
DavidD said:
Forgive my cynicism but so many of you are cleary into indie rock and know all these NME type bands, so why is this the first time I've seen anyone talk about them on dissensus? Is it the sudden popularity of the arctic monkeys? Simon's profession of interest in the group?
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well a lot of the stuff mentioned isn't actual NME stuff, it's proper underground that isn't serious enough/too young for the wire, but is written about in NME sort-of-off-shoot magazines like plan B.
and i suppose it doesn't get talked about much here because there are better places than dissensus to talk about this type of stuff.
 
N

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
big satan said:
it doesn't get talked about much here because there are better places than dissensus to talk about this type of stuff.
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Give us a clue.

With all the retro stuff going on at the moment I wouldn't be surprised if pub rock ca 1974 returned.
 
T

tryptych

waiting for a time
DavidD said:
Forgive my cynicism but so many of you are cleary into indie rock and know all these NME type bands, so why is this the first time I've seen anyone talk about them on dissensus? Is it the sudden popularity of the arctic monkeys? Simon's profession of interest in the group?
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I gave up posting about indie because of the amount of negative bile that seemed to often result.
 
B

big satan

HA-DO-KEN!
Ness Rowlah said:
Give us a clue.

With all the retro stuff going on at the moment I wouldn't be surprised if pub rock ca 1974 returned.
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ihatemusic.bagatellen.com is a bit better for not nme stuff but the murkier depths of the rock/metal/noise/improv/folk undergrounds. i find that board a bit serious & humourless though, and this is reflected in by the majority of topics being about EAI. the sonicyouth.com message board is vaguely alright and lots rock type stuff besides SY gets talked about, it used to be very good but it's been overtaken by trolls, a few complete psychos, and some annoying kids.
don't get me wrong, i'm not knocking dissensus, it's great, it's just not best for everything.
iheartnoise.com board is ok too (for noise and further out rock stuff), http://www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk is good for psych/free/weird folk stuff.
for just news of what's coming out the volcanictongue.com mailing list is very informative reading for underground rock/folk/noise/drone/psych/weirdness, likewise the aquarius records mailing list because it gives links to soundsamples and a wider range of music. i heard the eclipse records mailing list is really good but i've never signed up for it.
 
G

gumdrops

Well-known member
is this new sense of 'well theyre not quite that bad are they' reluctant satisfaction with the monkeys because blissblogger said so? cos im surprised hes found such joy in them to begin with. maybe its easier liking something, no matter what it is, rather than continuing to be dissatisfied (no matter how just) with the current pop status quo and therefore feeling like youre missing out/not in tune with the 'mood of a nation' or whatever....
 
hint

hint

party record with a siren
gumdrops said:
maybe its easier liking something, no matter what it is, rather than continuing to be dissatisfied (no matter how just) with the current pop status quo and therefore feeling like youre missing out/not in tune with the 'mood of a nation' or whatever....
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I disagree.

It's the easiest thing in the world to just blank out all this stuff and dismiss it as shit. Especially if you engage with it in a superficial way - i.e. "it sounds like blah, therefore it has nothing to offer me, as someone who has heard lots of blah".
 
G

gumdrops

Well-known member
well i dont think being a snob is the way to go but it does seem like a bit of a compromise for people who were previously rallying against the retro horrors of indie to suddenly get behind a band who are basically like a case study for said retroism (even if they, like the libertines, do it well). i mean, it suggests a certain humility, which is great, and its interesting in a way, yeah, to try and get to the heart of just why people have taken to it so much, but it seems slightly defeatist. like theres no point in fighting the upteenth rewrite of musical past as its all thats out there - you might as well live with it, find out whats so appealing about it, and get with the program.

or maybe its just about not wanting to be a reject from bbc2's 'grumpy old men' (a crotchety old curmudgeon terminally pissed off with the way things are these days) lol.
 
J

jasonh

Newbie
gumdrops said:
is this new sense of 'well theyre not quite that bad are they' reluctant satisfaction with the monkeys because blissblogger said so? cos im surprised hes found such joy in them to begin with. maybe its easier liking something, no matter what it is, rather than continuing to be dissatisfied (no matter how just) with the current pop status quo and therefore feeling like youre missing out/not in tune with the 'mood of a nation' or whatever....
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I try not to rationalise why I like a band or piece of music too much - subjecting it to too much intellectualising about why we may like something robs it of immediacy (esp. with rock music). Maybe Simon just likes jumping up and down in his living room to the sound of "Fake Tales Of San Francisco"...I know I do. THAT is what music is about IMHO
 
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