"Rock's Big Bounce"

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

In the 10 years since Kurt Cobain died, a once thrilling genre has struggled. Now a new community of bands is emerging and finally making it safe to go back into the mosh pit.

etc.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:18 (twenty-one years ago)

The opening photo tells me all I need to know.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Another refreshing change is that today's rock bands are less sanctimonious, and much savvier, about money matters. "They're taking their cues from hip-hop," says Universal Records president Monte Lipman. A decade ago licensing a song for a commercial would've been sacrilege for an indie rocker. Today only a few purists blink when a Shins song pops up in a McDonald's ad or when Delta lifts a track by the British songstress Jem. "The Clash has licensed stuff. The Who's done it," notes Vagrant's Egan, who was reared on uncompromising hard-core acts like Fugazi. "So you think, 'What, exactly, am I fighting against?' " Today behavior that used to constitute "selling out" has become a way to fend off the siren call of a corporate deal. If your band makes enough money off an ad, then there's no need to bolt your indie label for a major. Signing a major-label deal is "more like a sentence than an agreement," says singer Todd Baechle of the Faint, a dark, tech-y punk band on the influential label Saddle Creek Records. If you want your CD all over chain stores like Best Buy, majors provide the muscle. But for most indie rockers, nothing beats being free.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

How the fuck do you mosh to the Shins?

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

(and anyone who complained about how awful the Strokes/White Stripes/Hives were vis a vis the "rock is back" movement can duly shut their pieholes, having been confronted with something far, far lamer)

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

The whole 'rock is back' sentiment is lame regardless of whatever bands were being trumpeted at the time.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

the whole 'rock is back' sentiment would at least be justified if these bands were selling lots of records, not just 'good for indie' numbers.

― Al (sitcom), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm kinda surprised there was no mention of "Hey Ya" or Andre's obvious disinterest in hip-hop today, being one of the biggest hip-hop artists today, in the article, as it actually would have been the only usable ounce of evidence of their half-baked claim.. which is basically a resurrected Gina Arnold "It means we won" battle call.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:07 (twenty-one years ago)

And the angle of the writing style was just absolutely excruciating.

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:09 (twenty-one years ago)

(That said, if it is indeed true that more independent labels are doing better than before, then that's great. No complaints here. I just wish there was no made-up notion of a "wave" about this whole thing.)

― donut bitch (donut), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:10 (twenty-one years ago)

What is this 'rock' of which they speak and how are The Shins it & Trail Of Dead too?

― Sick Nouthall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:12 (twenty-one years ago)

"Jay-Z says hip hop is corny therefore we won!"

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

How the fuck do you mosh to the Shins?

Trust me dude, enough whiskey in you, and IT. JUST. WORKS.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

CORNY INDIE FUXX TURNED PUNCHING BAGS

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

lately, mainstream hip-hop has been bogged down in egocentric emptiness.

I am so tired of reading this.

― christhamrin (christhamrin), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 18:20 (twenty-one years ago)

The opening photo tells me all I need to know.

When I first looked at that picture I thought it was Tom Jones.

(Wondering if Tom Jones in a giant hamster ball would make it safe to go back into the mosh pit...)

― wetmink (wetmink), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 19:42 (twenty-one years ago)

It's like the Flaming Lips are actively trying somehow to make me feel bad for liking them.

― Nate in ST.P (natedetritus), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I do think the mainstream success of certain indie labels/bands is an interesting story -- especially since I was listening to Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie four years ago before they were on The O.C. and big-upped by the Olsen Twins -- but that's a different story from "rock is back."

There's probably a couple different angles here: 1) the mainstreaming of emo over the last few years, which means that heretofore small-potatoes indie-rock bands that have the slightest emo sensibility (like MM and DCFC) are suddenly marketable, and 2) the increasing voice of college-age kids in the media, through blogs and webzines (which explains how the Shins get to #5 on Pazz & Jop).

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Bret Begun, Jac Chebatoris and Jennifer Ordoñez all auditioned to be the drummer in Gay Dad.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:41 (twenty-one years ago)

"I was listening to Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie four years ago before they were on The O.C. and big-upped by the Olsen Twins."

I realise you didn't mean it this way, jay, but this reads like the most hilarious boast ever.

― N. (nickdastoor), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"I listened to Modest Mouse eight years ago and thought they sucked then, too."

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

That article looks written by a MBA grad turned business journalist that has a subscription to Magnet magazine.

― DJ Martian (djmartian), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

http://thabighouse.homestead.com/files/Ronald.jpg

― hh, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:58 (twenty-one years ago)

this is one of the stupidest things i've read recently. coachella was huge this year, but i'm fairly certain that veterans (kraftwerk, the cure, radiohead, and the pixies) pushed it into sell-out status. and as to something amazing happening now, something that you can feel, some notion of this being a special time... anyone read the press on nyc bands circa 2001-2?

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

the increasing voice of college-age kids in the media, through blogs and webzines (which explains how the Shins get to #5 on Pazz &
Jop).

really? i thought the shins owed their success to old people looking for something new that they could get behind. some new old stock, as it were.

― fact checking cuz (fcc), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

it's our time to be hated, heh.

― hstencil (hstencil), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Heh, Nick, I see what you mean. ;-)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:11 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost
you are so on point on this thread, h. i might kiss you when i see you this evening.

― lauren (laurenp), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:12 (twenty-one years ago)

(And yeah, hstencil, Modest Mouse does kinda suck. I liked The Moon and Antarctica pretty well, but everything else I've heard (including the new one) doesn't do much for me.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Fact checking cuz -- you know you may be right re: the Shins. I just seem to remember someone on some thread somewhere (can't find it) positing how younger critics (including bloggers) have resulted in P&J skewing more "indie" in recent years. Maybe the Shins aren't THE best example of that, since I can see how they'd also appeal to the Tracks set, but there you go.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I was at a Target store the other day and there were like ten copies of the Shins' CD, the Rooney CD, and the Franz Ferdinand CD in the "breaking artists" (I think that's what they call it) display.

― Tim Ellison, Tuesday, 11 May 2004 21:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Phrase that makes the least sense:

"Punk pinups Dashboard Confessional"

Wrong in that dashboard confessional is not only as un-punk as you get, but also that it's like one guy.

― Serya (Z_Ayres), Tuesday, 11 May 2004 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. (Yes, that's a real band. And yes, they're good.)

no, they SUCK. this whole article annoys me to no end and this sentence distills the irritation

― Morley Timmons (Donna Brown), Wednesday, 12 May 2004 04:15 (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.