Indie Contrarianism

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

It's part of being a "hipster" (sorry, can't think of a better term), to have a few contrarian hip-cause-it's-not-hip opinions. Which ones do you proudly trot out at parties to impress/provoke your friends?

Here are a couple of mine:

1) British rap is lame. I have friends that have made rap tapes as a joke that are better than Mike Skinner. Dizzee Rascall is a mediocrity -- if he didn't have a british accent he'd be a second rate underground artist.

2) Wilco is good musically, but encumbered by Jeff Tweedy's virtual inability to write a memorable song or melody.

3) St. Steven by The Grateful Dead is a really good song. So is Uncle John's Band. In fact, if they didn't meander so much, they might have been a decent band.

If you get offended, you're missing the point of the thread.

― Hurting, Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:12 (twenty-one years ago)

What about those of us who aren't hipsters?

― Rockist_Scientist (rockist_scientist), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:15 (twenty-one years ago)

OMG DEAD REVISIONISM REVOKE HIS BADGE

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

haha and i think you'll find 90% of the continent agrees with your brit-rap assessment

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:16 (twenty-one years ago)

just stop.

― seahorse genius (seahorse genius), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

If those opinions are hip because they're unhip, then surely your identifying them as such de-hips them. Which would make them hip. And if they're hip, then they're unhip. Which makes them hip.

Shit. Have you considered just liking stuff?

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

if anybody proudly trotted out an opinion to impress anybody at a party and i was close by i would probably hit them; in the face.

― Hari Ashurst (Toaster), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"I hate live music, everyone staying in the same place for an hour staring in the same direction. It's like being in f*cking church - it's demagoguery."

Actually, I 99% believe that, but I never say it anymore because I got tired of explaining rudimentary deconstruction.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I like the dead and the streets. i am a hipster and i have no friends.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:22 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah but you spawned

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:23 (twenty-one years ago)

i mean that's pretty good dude

― jess (dubplatestyle), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

To return to the subject of cooperation. It may be a curious speculation to attend to the progressive steps by which this feature of human society may be expected to decline. For example: shall we have concerts of music? The miserable state of mechanism of the majority of the performers is so conspicuous, as to be even at this day a topic of mortification and ridicule. Will it not be practicable hereafter for one man to perform the whole? Shall we have theatrical exhibitions? This seems to include an absurd and vicious cooperation. It may be doubted whether men will hereafter come forward in any mode gravely to repeat words and ideas not their own? It may be doubted whether any musical {847} performer will habitually exercise the compositions of others. We yield supinely to the superior merit of our predecessors, because we are accustomed to indulge the inactivity of our own faculties. All formal repetition of other men's ideas seems to be a scheme for imprisoning for so long a time the operations of our own mind. It borders perhaps in this respect upon a breach of sincerity, which requires that we should give immediate utterance to every useful and valuable idea that occurs to our thoughts.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Hipsters are fine. Leave them alone.

― supercub, Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I like hipsters too.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:32 (twenty-one years ago)

hipsters should be left alone unless they're under a pile of leaves where children are playing.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

my wife has some underpants labelled hipsters.

― gaz (gaz), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

""I hate live music, everyone staying in the same place for an hour staring in the same direction. It's like being in f*cking church - it's demagoguery."
Actually, I 99% believe that, but I never say it anymore because I got tired of explaining rudimentary deconstruction.""

-- which clearly explains why Spencer goes out to more shows per week than I do and he doesn't even have to do it for work. Hmm, that measly 1% is pretty corruptive, I guess.

― Thea (Thea), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha - frankly, I go to be social and rarely actually check the bands out for more than a song or two before heading back to the bar. Actually, I only really see live bands at Spaceland on Mondays and that's because it's #1-Free and #2-filled with friends. I also sometimes check out bands when my friends are in them.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Hipsters are fine, i just wish they were a little hipper. Most hipsters know how to look cool, but they don't know shit about shit. I guess I like really smart hipsters. And no hipster in their right mind would even have an opinion on Wilco cuz Wilco are so unhip it's positively frightening.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Thea, you must reconsider. It's more like Spencer is at a place where a show happens to be, and he cannot help it if they follow him around.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:44 (twenty-one years ago)

BUT THAT'S WHAT MAKES THEM HIP, SEE!

x-post

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:45 (twenty-one years ago)

xpost:

Ned, don't you hate it when that Robert Smith guy keeps showing up when you hang out at stadiums??

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:46 (twenty-one years ago)

THE BASTARD KEEPS FOLLOWING ME. And if it's not him it's David Gahan!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Marge: I just don't understand what 'being cool' means. Kids, am I cool?
Bart and Lisa (look at each other, then simultaneously): No.
Marge: Well, I don't care. I don't care whether I'm cool or not.......And that makes me cool, right?
Bart and Lisa (bored, simultaneously): No.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Thursday, 23 September 2004 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah, the endless pursuit of cool.

― Bimble (bimble), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Well you don't win friends with salad!

― piers (piers), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Marge is the most sympathetic character on teh simpsons.

But while we're on the topic, FUCK ELEPHANT SIX POST-1998 WITH A GIANT STICK. I guess most people feel that way though.

I like Yes, is that enough?

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:27 (twenty-one years ago)

But while we're on the topic, FUCK ELEPHANT SIX POST-1998 WITH A GIANT STICK. I guess most people feel that way though.

You can backdate that a bit if you like.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:28 (twenty-one years ago)

1998 was aeroplane, no? i wouldn't want to exclude that.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not an NMH cultist, admittedly (though I suppose they were pleasant the one time I saw them).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:37 (twenty-one years ago)

i wouldn't go as far as the say I'm a cultist, but that album was super important to me my freshman year of high school. and they're way better than, say, apples in stereo. or beulah. or teh essex green. or most elf power. really, better than almost everything that's not OTC.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:50 (twenty-one years ago)

i don't know how i managed to avoid the whole elephant 6 thing so completely. good judgement, perhaps? i would listen to that neutral milk hotel album though cuz everyone has always raved about it. But then would i be as hip if i did?

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 24 September 2004 01:53 (twenty-one years ago)

it's a good album.

the only other e6 i listen to semi-regularly is the 2nd Olivia Tremor Control album, which you may like scott.. it might not be weird enough for you though! And it does not "rock."

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i like indie pop stuff though. i think. i like twee stuff. i like the tyde and beechwood sparks.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:12 (twenty-one years ago)

i did hear the last two of montreal albums though and boy oh boy that stuff made my teeth hurt. every song is in the same forced jaunty march tempo. it's like a big goofy circus clown is hitting you on the head with a styrofoam mallet for 80 minutes.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:14 (twenty-one years ago)

i put on the Music Tapes record the other night for the first time in years and it wasn't so bad. i think that's the only one i'll ever listen to again.

― JaXoN (JasonD), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:18 (twenty-one years ago)

of montreal = total crap.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Elf Power is actually the only one I can actively stand now, and even that's mostly a here and there thing. And Apples in Stereo were fucking boring nonentities live.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Which Elf Power albums do you fancy ned? I really enjoy the song "The Sun Is Forever," but the LP from which it comes left me cold. That's my problem with Elf Power, usually--I may enjoy a spare track here or there, but their albums always seem to run together into one sickening sugary lump.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:38 (twenty-one years ago)

That's about my thought too (and I've got about six or seven!). Red King is my fave I think because it was the first I heard, also has a great cover and the version of "Needle in the Camel's Eye" was grand. Actually I think they do best with the remakes.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I had Red King but sold it after I realized I listened to it maybe twice in the three years I owned it. That cover was pretty good, though; best track on the album IIRC.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:53 (twenty-one years ago)

elf power is far sillier than of montreal.

― keith m (keithmcl), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Ian, I like that Elf Power album that you mention (The Winter Is Coming) more than I like In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

But that's the only one I've heard so I have had no chance to burn out on them.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I still haven't sold back the OTC stuff I have even though they downright irked me live. I think I have this strange hope it might suddenly be wonderful.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 02:55 (twenty-one years ago)

do you have Black Foliage, Ned? That's the one to keep if you're gonna keep any of em, I say. The singles comp is meh, and the first album, while decent, doesn't cohere as well as Black Foliage.

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

do you have Black Foliage, Ned?

Yeah, tucked around here somewhere. Huzzah et al.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"I hate live music, everyone staying in the same place for an hour staring in the same direction. It's like being in f*cking church - it's demagoguery."

But everyone is always in the same place, looking in the same direction anyway.

― David Allen (David Allen), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:46 (twenty-one years ago)

The only two E6 albums I own: OTC's Black Foliage and NMH's On Avery Island, both of which were kind of disappointing to me. (I feel like the whole E6 aesthetic greatly misled me -- everyone was all like "it's pop but it's weird!!" and then I listened to it and it all just sounded like strummy shit or the Who or something.) (Actually not totally fair: I listened to Black Foliage when I was high recently, and it sounded pretty good.) (Also, that NMH album is funny because I bought it, decided I didn't like it, and then didn't listen to it for five years, at which point I discovered that all of a sudden Aeroplane was being hailed as some great masterpiece -- I guess I wasn't paying attention at the time -- whichI still haven't bothered listening to because the first album was so boring.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

(Except for "Song About Sex," because it's all about the trombones, and you can pretend it's a Violent Femmes song.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

("Song AGAINST Sex," rather.)

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 24 September 2004 03:53 (twenty-one years ago)

But everyone is always in the same place, looking in the same direction anyway.

Not when they're dancing up in the club to a faceless (and mouthless) DJ.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 24 September 2004 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think there will ever be anything at all hip about liking contemporary Christian music.

― My name is Kenny (My name is Kenny), Friday, 24 September 2004 06:21 (twenty-one years ago)

best OTC pop song:

"love athena"

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 24 September 2004 06:23 (twenty-one years ago)

no, gygax, "mystery"

― Ian c=====8 (orion), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:03 (twenty-one years ago)

why you gotta be all contrarian?

― JaXoN (JasonD), Friday, 24 September 2004 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

indie contrarianism: "im not a hipster," generally heard coming from the mouths of twentysomethings holding cans of pabst in some divey bar.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:42 (twenty-one years ago)

wearing a trucker hat and an eye patch and standing next to a dog with no front legs.

― gygax! (gygax!), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:43 (twenty-one years ago)

So hipsterism is some secret society where everyone denies membership, and if you claim to be in the elite, than you definitely aren't?

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 24 September 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Why am I so sure there will never be a reclamation of hipster a la fag and nigger: "You my hipsta!" A lack of irony among the people the term is usually applied to, I guess. And obviously those terms have a much longer, more negative history than hipster, and reclaiming them is a move to exert control by marginalized segments of society whereas hipster typically is applied to people who are or are in line to inherit the reigns of society. Yet they want to escape being labelled. How wonderfully i_____.

― Comme personne d'autre que William (common_person), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:34 (twenty-one years ago)

"reigns of society" = ugh should have read that one over

― Comme personne d'autre que William (common_person), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

personally, i am more of a scenester than a hipster.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 24 September 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

someone was trying to tell me that Scenesters were those that dressed up to all the events and cared more about what they looked like and who they knew that what they knew

Hipsters on the other hand, although maybe cool looking, were more about what they knew, how big their record collection was, which french/chinese movies they'd seen, etc

― JaXoN (JasonD), Friday, 24 September 2004 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

maria (hey!) so OTM in first thread comment.

actually foax that Apples In Stereo best/singles/whatever collection (Sound Effects?) is pretty tolerable, especially the earlier stuff.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Friday, 24 September 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

scenesters, in my experience and especially in terms of philly, are the people who are always doing stuff and supporting each other. its the hipsters that tend to consume and not care as much.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 24 September 2004 20:04 (twenty-one years ago)

hi dave!

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Friday, 24 September 2004 20:04 (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.