algorithmic indie

william_kent

Well-known member
was gonna engage in a discussion with gus about whether this is the hipster adele but he's really made a colossal tit of himself here ain't he?

New paradigms, which harken back to 1870 and are often the same kind of philistine objections, capitulations to reformism and always start off deviating in the same old way, objecting to dogma! well, bon appetit!

Bit like Derrick May calling himself the innovator even though he still plays Donna Summer I feel Love in practically every set, well fucking innovative. No disrespect to moroder/summer obvs. plenty of low key detroit techno producers who have been labelled as minorities and not so influential have innovated more than the mythical belleville three (and Mayday who hasn't made a record since 1990) but anyway...

So is this hipster indie Adele?


gossip would imply May has innovated in the arena of sexual assault?
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
noticeable how wet US indie got after the 90s, how progressively less cool it became. there's a kind of boring resignation to the sound. i get the impression that at some point, maybe more or less around the time that the internet became a thing in the US, the audience changed a lot
 

woops

is not like other people
noticeable how wet US indie got after the 90s, how progressively less cool it became. there's a kind of boring resignation to the sound. i get the impression that at some point, maybe more or less around the time that the internet became a thing in the US, the audience changed a lot
i date the demise of us indie to February 11 1997 date of release of brighten the corners by pavement

concert rrviews to follow @shakahislop
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
do you guys include the strokes, white stripes, yeah yeah yeahs, circa early 00s, etc as indie?
i do personally. it feels like part of the same lineage to me. but as usual the language isn't at all precise enough (its blissblogger's fault coz he didn't come up with new names fast enough).
 

wektor

Well-known member
just saw rthe thread name again and I completely forgot it was about algorithmic recommendations, thuoght it's some new thoughts laid out on the mathy and heady indietronica
 

woops

is not like other people
@shakahislop

Pavement
Camden Roundhouse 27/10/22
Paris Rex 29/10/22


In the nineties I was an indie kid. I read the NME and listened to Mark Radcliffe every weeknight. I spent all my money on vinyl records, the more limited the edition, the better, so as to be sure I wasn't listening to any of that commercial rubbish everyone else liked. Amid all the poorly recorded guitar noise back then, one band stood out. It seemed improbable that anyone would write such songs only to cover them in mistakes, weird noises, wilful eccentricity and silliness. They had tunes and their lyrics could be daft or incomprehensible or melancholic but always original. They made it look easy. I saw them as heroes.

It was with trepidation, then, that I decided to see them reform twice in the space of one week. They had probably lost it. Either that or I would indulge in a nostalgia trip, long past my prime. That was what happened at the London show as they played favourite after favourite, just as good as ever, to the point where I sang along and was very moved by the old classics. Malkmus did some brilliant moves with his guitar. True to form, they played an album track as encore, leaving out their biggest hit.

It was a different story in Paris. They were playing a completely different set, songs I didn't know or care about. I left mid-set very disappointed, even angry that I hadn't got what I'd paid for. It didn't occur to me until later that they had condensed their whole career into those two concerts - they'd gone from being the best band in the world to a band I used to like but didn't anymore. They only had three albums in them. They released their fourth and I stopped paying any attention after that. There would never be a good guitar band again.
WJ Atavi
 

wektor

Well-known member
@shakahislop

Pavement
Camden Roundhouse 27/10/22
Paris Rex 29/10/22


In the nineties I was an indie kid. I read the NME and listened to Mark Radcliffe every weeknight. I spent all my money on vinyl records, the more limited the edition, the better, so as to be sure I wasn't listening to any of that commercial rubbish everyone else liked. Amid all the poorly recorded guitar noise back then, one band stood out. It seemed improbable that anyone would write such songs only to cover them in mistakes, weird noises, wilful eccentricity and silliness. They had tunes and their lyrics could be daft or incomprehensible or melancholic but always original. They made it look easy. I saw them as heroes.

It was with trepidation, then, that I decided to see them reform twice in the space of one week. They had probably lost it. Either that or I would indulge in a nostalgia trip, long past my prime. That was what happened at the London show as they played favourite after favourite, just as good as ever, to the point where I sang along and was very moved by the old classics. Malkmus did some brilliant moves with his guitar. True to form, they played an album track as encore, leaving out their biggest hit.

It was a different story in Paris. They were playing a completely different set, songs I didn't know or care about. I left mid-set very disappointed, even angry that I hadn't got what I'd paid for. It didn't occur to me until later that they had condensed their whole career into those two concerts - they'd gone from being the best band in the world to a band I used to like but didn't anymore. They only had three albums in them. They released their fourth and I stopped paying any attention after that. There would never be a good guitar band again.
WJ Atavi
great review, you should do more music writing woops
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
listening to a mix i made (for a mate, which obviously he never listened to) in 2018. i was listening to a lot of things which would broadly be categorised as indie at that time. this mix is great, there's a load of stuff on there which i find really expressive, lyrically and sonically. it's a genre where almost everything that's produced is bad though, and the writing / journalism around it is even worse. i think its often the writing that puts me off indie more than anything. i don't know what's wrong with it, why exactly so much of what's highlighted is very boring, why the writing itself is so boring. also, i mean this is the most obvious point, the people who listen to it are boring as well. except me.
 
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