What is the most generic "indie" album of all time?

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I want to find the dullest indie rock record ever made, because of some douchebag who won't stop buying the same CDs as I own. I'm in no way a "music prick," but every CD he owns (over 200) is one that I own, except for three. He hears about bands by going to my Audioscrobbler and then buying the CDs, and openly admits it. I want to tell him that [this record you recommend me] is the best thing in the world and have him come back and tell me he loves it.

― Christian, Friday, 29 April 2005 00:00 (twenty years ago)

Maybe he's got a crush on you!

Recommend Bright Eyes' "I'm Wide Awake It's Boring," er, "Morning."

― Alfred Soto (Alfred Soto), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:05 (twenty years ago)

THE KILLERS?

xpost

DIGITAL ASH IN A DIGITAL URN

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:08 (twenty years ago)

dullest indie rock record ever made

Too many to choose from.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

jon probably otm, i can't think of anything duller

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:11 (twenty years ago)

here are some crappy bands for you:

http://www.trustkill.com/bands/bios/

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

actually i can: the star spangles

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:12 (twenty years ago)

The problem with that idea is that a lot of people seem to like some of the dullest, most generic crap in the world. Hence the genre "indie rock."

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:13 (twenty years ago)

THERE ARE 3,604 INDIE BANDS DULLER THAN THE KILLAZ

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:28 (twenty years ago)

US indie: the For Squirrels album
UK indie: Primal Scream - Sonic Flower Groove

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

The Killers are great - this thread is dumb.

Delete and re-start thread with Be Here Now please.

― Cza, Friday, 29 April 2005 00:31 (twenty years ago)

btw, what's your audioscrobbler handle?

― rogermexico (rogermexico), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:33 (twenty years ago)

Two words: Victory Records.

― Stupornaut (natepatrin), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:38 (twenty years ago)

Delete and re-start thread with Be Here Now please.

GOOD choice!!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:47 (twenty years ago)

not really. it's got too much personality. ("too much")

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:49 (twenty years ago)

Maybe something like Archers of Loaf's Icky Mettle, or Superchunk's "On the Mouth"?

I like both btw but theyre pretty genericindie.

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:50 (twenty years ago)

Into the Sun - Sean Lennon

― Steve Gertz (sgertz), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:52 (twenty years ago)

You guys are so old. There's new dull indie, you know!

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 00:54 (twenty years ago)

Hot to Trot - Dot to Dot

― RJG (RJG), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:05 (twenty years ago)

It was all too dull Jon, so I stopped buying it =)

― Trayce (trayce), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:05 (twenty years ago)

Polyvinyl 2005 Sampler

― Ian Riese-Moraine has a grenade, that pineapple's not just a toy! (Eastern Mantr, Friday, 29 April 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

but the 2004 one was great!

― shine headlights on me (electricsound), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:11 (twenty years ago)

Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

Mine is www.audioscrobbler/user/nowigotworry , for the guy who asked.

― Christian, Friday, 29 April 2005 01:31 (twenty years ago)

The Postal Service!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Built To Spill!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Silkworm!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

Yo La Tengo!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:40 (twenty years ago)

Scott, I'm sure you can think of much worse indies

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:41 (twenty years ago)

American Music Club!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:41 (twenty years ago)

"Generic" is a term better used for 'mainstream' music. But I guess that'd be too easy...

― cdwill, Friday, 29 April 2005 01:43 (twenty years ago)

I HEART EQUAL VISION HARDCORE YOU CAN'T SAY I DON'T!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:43 (twenty years ago)

Death Cab For Cutie!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:44 (twenty years ago)

http://g.myspace.com/00043/60/84/43024806_l.jpg xpost

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/killerwaves/earthcisisguy1.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/killerwaves/earthcisisguy2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/killerwaves/earthcisisguy5.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/killerwaves/earthcisisguy4.jpg

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v38/killerwaves/colleeneaten.jpg

― Don't drink! Don't smoke! Don't pluck! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:48 (twenty years ago)

No, it really is Silkworm. They sound like everybody, nobody LOVES them, they have a million albums and they aren't completely horrible, and they got da indie cred. A.K.A. BOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!!!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:48 (twenty years ago)

THERE IZ NOTHING GENERIC ABOUT THAT FREEK'S FACE. IF I WAS IN THAT BAND I WOULD RUN FOR THE HILLS!!!!!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:49 (twenty years ago)

KILL CREEK

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

Scott Seward, do you like REVERSAL OF MAN?

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

http://www.noidearecords.com/images/shirts/combat_mopgirl.gif I AM WEARING THIS SHIRT

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:51 (twenty years ago)

I'd say it was Silkworm except they have like two or three or five songs that sound like really great Counting Crows songs. Surely the most generic indie band shouldn't have that in their resume.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

i never heard them. my friends from high school were in wide awake and they wanted me to come and sing choruses for their first seven inch but i was too hungover to make it. i loved those guys. CONNECTICUT STRAIGHTEDGE STILL RULLLLLLLZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!!!!

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

what about Gumball?

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

Ian and I were supposed to do backups on some H4ppy C0uples N3ver L4st label thing but it fell through.

Ian has a really good voice for hardcore. I do not.

― Open your eyes; you can fly! (ex machina), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:54 (twenty years ago)

JON DO YOO KNOW THA DUDEZ IN TRANSISTOR TRANSISTOR??? THEIR ALBUM KIKKKKSSS ASSZZZZZ.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)

What about something like Bedhead? I've never heard Bedhead!

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:56 (twenty years ago)

I hear Macha loves Bedhead, so that's a possibility.

Also maybe Ida.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:57 (twenty years ago)

my 3 favorite albumz of da year so far:

TS: The New Kylesa -vs- The New Transistor Transistor -vs- The New Raging Speedhorn

generic ilm fuxxors don't wanna know about that shit.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:57 (twenty years ago)

you should chase us down some mp3s if you care that much.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 29 April 2005 01:58 (twenty years ago)

Skipping 74 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

The Monolith - Here Comes the Monolith

there can be no othah

― tremendoid (tremendoid), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 23:00 (twenty years ago)

Jeez, new question: What is the most generic anti-indie ILM thread of all time? I haven't been posting here long enough to know. The recent CYHSY thread could be up there but it's mostly just anti-Pitchfork.

― marc h. (marc h.), Wednesday, 31 August 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

Yep, ILM is full of people hating Indie just to be contrary. Certainly nobody criticises generic guitar bands just because their songs are shite.

― I Ain't No Addict, Whoever Heard of a Junkie as Old as Me? (noodle vague), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:04 (twenty years ago)

I like SILKWORM!

for real, I only know two other people that love them like I do...even my friends that like boring guitar bands like I do think SKWM is boring, but they grab me for some reason...I think they're tops.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:06 (twenty years ago)

new Dressy Bessy out!

― Aaron A, Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

no word on new Jale material

― Aaron A, Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:46 (twenty years ago)

Jale broke up years ago, no?

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:51 (twenty years ago)

i'm pretty sure the answer is Jets to Brazil, Four Cornered Night

― gear (gear), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:56 (twenty years ago)

it is hard to pick which post-Jawbreaker band is duller, isn't it?

― Aaron A, Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Ooh, I got a good one: THE NEW FOLK IMPLOSION.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 1 September 2005 00:59 (twenty years ago)

Gear wins with the Jets To Brazil.

Lock thread.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Thursday, 1 September 2005 02:12 (twenty years ago)

OK, fine, to be sporting, New Folk Implosion wins.

Jets to Brazil at least had "Sweet Avenue."

― marc h. (marc h.), Thursday, 1 September 2005 04:03 (twenty years ago)

I'm going to vote for Iron & Wine. It's DEEP, you can tell by the beard.

the first Jets to Brazil album is half-good (if you liked Jawbreaker's poppier stuff)

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Thursday, 1 September 2005 04:09 (twenty years ago)

black keys

-- AaronK (fuzz_...), April 29th, 2005 12:51 AM.

OTM. Or something by Radiohead.

― Sasha (sgh), Thursday, 1 September 2005 04:21 (twenty years ago)

not to be too pedantic but i'd imagine that things like iron & wine and radiohead are a bit too immediately recognisable to pass for 'generic' even if they are boring/have 'influenced' a thousand lame soundalikes

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Thursday, 1 September 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

(not saying that about i&w or radiohead, but i'm not not saying it either)

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Thursday, 1 September 2005 04:31 (twenty years ago)

The debut Echobelly album (was there ever a follow up?). Or maybe that's just the most generic britpop album ever.

― Robin Goad (rgoad), Thursday, 1 September 2005 05:49 (twenty years ago)

the most generic britpop album ever

it would be up against some mighty strong competition for that title

― jimmy glass (electricsound), Thursday, 1 September 2005 05:51 (twenty years ago)

Or something by Radiohead.

hardly generic

but i will nominate all that overrated pavement and guided by voices crap

― rizzx (Rizz), Thursday, 1 September 2005 09:11 (twenty years ago)

These nominees are totally freaking wrong:

Guided By Voices - way to distinctive and instantly recognizable at GBV to be anywhere near generic. Dumb.

Pavement - They basically invented the shit, pick one of the 8 million bands that copied them instead.

Black Keys - are a frickin' blues band, sound nothing like indie rock...

Radiohead - Again, way too instantly recognizable...and honestly, how is Kid A or OK Computer generic sounding.

People seem to be thinking this thread is "Man here's a "indie band" I don't like or think it overrated"

Best answers:

I think something in the Death Cab/Jets To Brazil area...those bands are getting closer to the truth of the ultimate in generic indie...Of course, obv. the real answer is probably a local band that's playing in your town tonight.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:33 (twenty years ago)

The Smiths "Hatful of Hollow", the first and the best.

― nocure, Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:39 (twenty years ago)

grrrrr

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

Teh Arcade Fire

― fandango (fandango), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:40 (twenty years ago)

seriously, none (except for those of you that said death cab and jets to brazil) of you know what generic indie gangsta is.

y'all should come to some shows with me.

i'm knee deep in generic indie. mpls has rice paddies filled with it. i'm in the shit.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:43 (twenty years ago)

Pavement - They basically invented the shit, pick one of the 8 million bands that copied them instead.

on that note, i nominate SAMMY.

― spasticheritage, Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:52 (twenty years ago)

GENERIC INDIE 4 LIFE - BITCH

― Baaderonixx and the choco-pop babies (baaderonixx), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:56 (twenty years ago)

Semisonic

― Baaderonixx and the choco-pop babies (baaderonixx), Thursday, 1 September 2005 13:59 (twenty years ago)

Silkworm can't qualify -- if only because their cover The Comsat Angels - "Our Secret" (which I love love LOVE the original) actually *gulp!* gave the original a run for its money. And it sure as hell smothered the second version the CSA did in 1986 on the flip side of the single for "The Cutting Edge".

― Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of society's derangement. (Eastern Mantra), Thursday, 1 September 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

i actually pulled out silkworm and versus albums this morning so i could get my generic indie fix at work today.

― spasticheritage, Thursday, 1 September 2005 14:21 (twenty years ago)

Arlo. Any of Arlo's albums.

― js (honestengine), Friday, 2 September 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

pedro the lion or deathcab

― Sym Sym (sym), Friday, 2 September 2005 05:56 (twenty years ago)

juliana theory?

― Jena (JenaP), Friday, 2 September 2005 06:10 (twenty years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc700/c724/c724331x83q.jpg

― Michael B, Friday, 2 September 2005 06:47 (twenty years ago)

Kill the Last Romantic by Easyworld.

I win.

― ian p is playing at my house (ian p is playing at my house), Friday, 2 September 2005 19:20 (twenty years ago)

Bah. Tsunami are not the answer here! Especially not Deep End, that's my favourite album of theirs!

My vote goes to a probably unknown band to most called Coast from the Britpop years. My friend used to wear a T-shirt of theirs because she liked it (the T-shirt, not the band), and another friend had the album to review for Brighton University student newspaper, it was so bland I can't remember a thing about it.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Friday, 2 September 2005 19:51 (twenty years ago)

Teh Arcade Fire

I don't like them but come on, you know that's not true. Boys got their idisyncracies.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 2 September 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

Idiosyncracies. INDIEsyncracies. Oh, I should just give up on the written word.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 2 September 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

Tsunami OTM.

But how have we gotten so far into this thread without mentioning THE NEW RADIANT STORM KING?

― Jacobo Rock (jacobo rock), Friday, 2 September 2005 20:19 (twenty years ago)

NRSK are very near the center of the indie rock.
mot mediocre probably = august revital?

― autovac (autovac), Friday, 2 September 2005 20:48 (twenty years ago)

Death cab is perfect for this!!

― Fushigina Blobby: Blobania no Kiki (ex machina), Friday, 2 September 2005 21:26 (twenty years ago)

Yeah? What about Elliott - False Cathedrals? HAve any of you guys heard this shit?
http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/dre200/e223/e2230212u80.jpg

― Jena (JenaP), Friday, 2 September 2005 22:10 (twenty years ago)

Tuscadero? Velocity Girl? Most any band that was on Simple Machines would also probably fit the bill.

― Joel (aquabahn), Friday, 2 September 2005 22:17 (twenty years ago)

http://www.epitonic.com/art/artists/764hero/nobodyknowsthisiseverywhere_cover250.jpg

― gear (gear), Friday, 2 September 2005 22:18 (twenty years ago)

These covers nail the gamut of generic indie art, too: a Murmur-wannabe black & white photo of a structure VS slanted-&-enchanted-wannabe naive scribbles on top of a collage.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 2 September 2005 22:41 (twenty years ago)

SUPERCHUNK!

― funky fufo (sjjd111), Friday, 2 September 2005 23:27 (twenty years ago)

i actually owned that Jets to Brazil LP I mentioned upthread, purely based on an impulse purchase.

It's actually the album that forever put me off buying music that I hadn't a clue about. Oftentimes I'll have a CD in hand that has something appealing about it aesthetically, and a five-years-younger version of me, attired in horrible clothes and with slightly more/longer hair, appears on my shoulder and whispers, "ooo, four cornered night, ooo...."

Subsequently, I'll yelp and run out of the store.

― gear (gear), Friday, 2 September 2005 23:33 (twenty years ago)

Yes, 764-HERO is the answer!

― Mike O. (Mike Ouderkirk), Saturday, 3 September 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

I really liked one of Coast's songs! ("Polly's Domain", it was called). Rest of what I heard of them, total shit though.

New candidate for most unmemorable band ever = 3 Colours Red.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 3 September 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

Teh Arcade Fire
I don't like them but come on, you know that's not true. Boys got their idisyncracies.

-- joseph cotten

Yeah, that was mostly snark. Superchunk, now that is a good answer.

― fandango (fandango), Saturday, 3 September 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

Seriously, Death Cab, people.

― Roz (Roz), Saturday, 3 September 2005 12:37 (twenty years ago)

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