Can I make an offer? Anyone that kills Dave Mathews in a most horrific manner, as well as anyone involved in producing this yodeling pablum, will be offered 5 kills by me at no cost.
I like Modest Mouse, but the White Stripes can go to hell for all I care.
Whatever. Labels for this or that “genre” of music are invented arbitrarily for the convenience of marketers. Congratulations on your breakthrough revelation, Deagan, that the label “indie” is basically meaningless–ditto emo, screamo, whatever. Consider this a Helen Keller moment, and learn from it that individual bands or artists should be judged on their own merits, and to take a genre label as a recommendation is to spread your cheeks for the music marketers of the dark side.
And yes, it happens to be a fact that Modest Mouse rocks, though I’d trade all my Modest Mouse for one track of the Shins.
This is the smartest thing I have ever read.
That being said, there are some sweet indie bands out there:
The aforementioned Shins, Guided by Voices, Ted Leo and the Pharmacisits, Juno, Fugazi…
I have been pushing this a lot lately, but check out http://epitonic.com. It is a great site where you can download free full song mp3’s of mainly indie bands. They break it up by style so you can explore.
I’m not to familiar with this “Indie scene”…
However I listen to Emo and punk rock and hard rock.
I just try not to care what others do and just live my life… Who cares if theyre acting like dipshits being posuers; dont interact with them.
I say we should just ignore the genre labels that everyone seems so eager to attach to music. If someone likes a band and can tell me why, I’m willing to give it a try. I may like it or hate it, but you never know unless you listen. By listen, I don’t mean put it on once while you’re doing something else. I mean really listen to it.
Somehow, I thought this link would be appropriate.
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/indierock/indierock.html
Just my humble opinion, but most of these bands haven’t sold out for the simple fact that they haven’t found a buyer.
Soup, you’re my hero for today.
That’s brilliant.
Hate the indie scene? Go work for Clearchannel!
As an aside, does anyone know what the fuck happened to the Modest Mouse album that was supposed to be out in September?
>:(
Ahaha, I want to be offended by that, but it is so damn accurate, so instead I am amused. But, HEY. I think we have a right to be snotty when we listen to the only good music being made today!
(just kidding, don’t beat me!)
I think the scenesters bother me more than music (and I realize that not all fans are this annoying).
Case in point: my sister. Pretty good example of the college radio indie rock scenester who hates everything popular and thinks the quality of something is in direct proportion to how obscure it is. Gets frustrated when I say I only really care about two bands that are still recording, and that I really don’t care to “broaden my horizons” by listening to whatever weird stuff she’s into at the moment. To top it off, when I actually did get into a couple of the bands she liked, she accused me of “just copying her”.
Ok, so a lot of indie music is crap, and alot of the rabid indie followers are crazy, deaf, and smelly.
This doesn’t negate the fact that, even for GOOD bands, getting a foothold into popular music is ridiculously difficult. I think the indie band support movement is a great support structure for the up-and-coming who don’t have the resources to immediately break into the big leagues. I feel like the indie music structure is similar to the indie film structure, which definitely pays off in certain circumstances. Most bands, and most filmmakers for that matter, never make anything of themselves- sometimes b/c their stuff is crap, sometimes not. But when something manages to break into the mainstream, that never would have succeeded without the support of this small, yes pretentious, crowd, it all seems worth it.
I can’t see how the support for indie ANYTHING is a bad thing. At least give the little guy a chance (or else decide to put up with aguilara and brittany for the rest of your lives, b/c that’s all you’ll get)
Count me as another species then because Modest Mouse bites.
I guess it boils down to the hype i’m hearing over this stuff. By the time I get to hear it, i’m expecting something great. Usually I get a mediocre effort at best. I whole heartedly agree that you have to suppourt small artists; I also detest the mainstream and rarely listen to the radio.
So far I’ve hear very few of these bands that live up to the label of genius or original; and I’m down on the attitude of rabid defense the fans express. If you want to be good at anything, you have to be ready to accept criticism, and stop believing your own hype. Now I’ve heard a lot of bands that had good thoughtful lyrics, and many had a decent musical sound, but very few put them both together. Even fewer did this with any sort of technical mastery(Either on cd or live).
I’ll raise you an “indie music sucks” and see you an “any band (with rare exception) not on a major label blows”.
Here comes the science:
- Record labels want to make money.
- Good bands are appreciated by audiences.
- Audiences spend money on good bands.
- Good bands make money for record labels.
Exceptions: 1st albums (which bring attention to band from major labels) and bands with a “cause” (almost as annoying as sucky indie bands).
you forgot 5.
- The 5% of the music remotely worth listening to on major labels is immediately played over all media resulting in unavoidable instant triteness.
- Said music is then copied incessantly only leading to further sameness.
and that’s just the GOOD major label music 
Buh…er…wha…oh man, I’m just flabbergasted at this. Are you sure you’re not a shill for ClearChannel?
There’s a lot of great independent music out there. I end up going out to clubs to see good independent bands an average of once a week.
I know you’re just some kid going through a fascist phase, but this was still a good post.
As for indie, I could care less. Caring about music is more trouble than it’s worth. That goes for caring about anything, though.
I’ll put in another plug for Ted Leo. Most of my friends listen to stuff like Death Cab for Cutie and Yo La Tengo, and thats ok, but a lot of Indie Music sounds like pretencious whiners instead of people who know how to rock the fuck off. Ted Leo and the pharmacists most certainly rock the fuck off.
Folks listen to a lot of music out their, and if someone is into say. . . Jazz, Heavy Metal, R+B, Classical, Hip-Hop, or country, I can perfectly understand Indie Music not being their thing. But I have a hard time dealing with people who like ROCK and simultaneously say they dislike Indie music. As to me, Indie music IS rock music, nowadays, with a few exceptions from bands who have been around for ages like R.E.M, U2, or RadioHead. Maybe that makes me sound like a pretencious cock, but thats ok, I can handle it. 
Lotsa White Stripes bashing in here… I assume from people who’ve never seen them live. They rock very, very hard, and Jack is actually a very skilled guitarist, it’s just not his style to be flashy about it most of the time. When I saw them he just about burned the place down with some of his slide solos.
Is it just me, or does most of the current indie/art-punk/garage rock just not transfer well to recordings? Every one of these bands that I’ve seen live were SO much better than on their records, which are usually a little too glossy for me. When you take the teeth out of that kind of music, it’s a hell of a lot less interesting. White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs especially, come to think of it.
Anyone listen to the first two albums from The Distillers? I’d heard a little buzz about them for a while, but I only got around to really listening a couple days ago, and I love this stuff.
LC
I was hoping someone would stand up for the White Stripes. As much I detest their image and attitude (I always scorn bands that have alias’s and artsy uniforms; just act like normal people and play your music, dammit!), I must admit that Jack White on the guitar rocks… SO hard.
I think the backlash against the Stripes might have something to do with that infamous indie “attitude”. They’re too popular. Rolling Stone actually likes them. They must suck, then.
Whatever, think what you will. I thought I hated them, too, until I heard Ball and Biscuit played on the radio, and then downloaded a live show recording (Glastonbury).