albums to rip off if you want to be a succesful indepedent rock artist in 2009.

1. mimi & richard farina "reflections on a crystal wind"
2. t rex "electric warrior"
3. early pavement (oh hello 70% of the newer siltbreeze roster!) (think the "demolition pilot j-7" EP)
4. ian matthews "later that same year" (it might be hard to pull this sound off in 2009 but with a competent, gimmick-less female voice i think it would go over very well with the ladies 30-45)
5. chrome "red exposure"

what else and why?

btw this thread is for ADVICE and not JUDGMENT.
staying positive about the state of music in the 21st century is our only hope.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young mixed with Fairport Convention.

mbv - ecstasy and wine
shop assistants - will anything happen

the c86 sound is hella back in the twee circles

yeah that's very true.
go-betweens revival starts NOW. (or, "so ten minutes ago" if you will.)

"The Soft Bulletin" by Flaming Lips is the one and only answer here.

After the C86 revival has ran its course there's bound to be a revival in windblown late 80s soft rock (Heart/Belinda Carlisle etc). Hole were just a bit too early with their Beautiful Skin album.

Somebody needs to rip off the first Fugazi ep.

I thought the answer was Sleater Kinney.

Seems like the retro ripples are getting so fast that it's just a blur. Instead of decades returning, we'll soon be yearning for shit from 3 months ago...

2 Live Crew - Nasty As They Wanna Be
Black Sabbath - Paranoid

relayer

Depeche Mode - Speak & Spell

- early urinals singles
- first three wipers records

the super mario brothers

groundhogs

peter gabriel - security

dunno, are you guys sure it isn't just the shins and death cab?

the gilmore girls

or is "successful" in this thread, like, ARTISTICALLY successful?

timbaland, dancehall, electro shit

I think "successful" as in "hip" and "underground cred"

the only successful that matters

haha, ok.

daryl hall - sacred songs

ok my real vote for this--this is where im putting it into posterity--next on the indie reclamation list is STING--you heard it here first

maybe not for '09 but i promise by '10 youll be hearing a lot of sting references

max what exactly are you "putting into posterity"

on second thought, don't answer that

i was actually thinking Don Henley. You know, "Boys of Summer"-era?

Fleetwood Mac -- Rumours and Tusk. See Rilo Kiley et al

ha, if only

I keep listening to that one joe walsh song that's way too fucking long

I go to parties
somtimes till four
its hard to leave
when you can't find the door

ashra, klaus schulze, cluster, fripp & eno, vangelis, john carpenter are a little mid-2000s i guess but i feel like there's still some trickle-down potential here.

no one ever ripped off morricone because no one was good enough imo, so aspiring music-school-educated artists or art-school-educated musicians: take note.

on the heavier side, if i had a lot of amps and could um play the guitar i'd basically start a harvey milk tribute band.

Seems like the retro ripples are getting so fast that it's just a blur.

I dunno -- I was thinking the other day that the almost-20-years rule seems to be holding up decently in indie circles. Circa 2001 there was a lot of electro (80s retro), for the next few years lots of glossy/dancy new wave and "post-punk" bands that sounded like the Bunnymen and then a few aging big indie-rock bands that started in the 90s (versus early/mid 80s), and now toward the end of the decade a lot of fuzzy/low-fi or punky or C86y indie (versus late 80s into early 90s)

^^ I acknowledge, by the way, that this is kind of cherry-picked and half-assed, since you could point to any number of things that don't fit on either side -- this decade's acidy folk stuff, or 80s punk/hardcore, pretty few things get the right reflection -- but the whole "almost 20 years" thing does seem like a reasonable rule of thumb

no one ever ripped off morricone because no one was good enough imo,

uh

Sorry, getting away from the point of this:

lots of parts of the Pixies' Bossanova -- I think someone could do pretty well with a less clean-sounding version of stuff like "Hang Wire" or "Rock Music," cause there feels like a big empty space going in terms of like accessible/poppy but hard indie rock ... or am I forgetting something?

Jordan--idk, i can't think of an indie rock artist that sounds kinda like morricone and is on that level of composing...

ok my real vote for this--this is where im putting it into posterity--next on the indie reclamation list is STING--you heard it here first

You mean Sting as in, The Police? Maybe. Sting as zzzz-inducing solo artist? No way.

The Pavement discs make sense. If nostalgic retro trends work in 20-year cycles (e.g., 80s looked back nostalgically to sounds of the 60s; 90s looked back to sounds of the 70s; 00s looked back to sounds of the 80s), then the early 90s indie sounds are on-deck.

maybe not on that level, but there are a ton of indie bands who have used morricone as a touchstone ... xpost

this thread seems to have entered the world of fantasy already so:

skinny puppy "mind: the perpetual intercourse"

yeah but... they somehow end up sounding nothing like him! i'm thinking Broadcast, Stereolab.. (who else?) who mix the general vibe of cinematic, european-sounding exotica w/ their other influences, and then alt-country bands who mix the sound of those spaghetti western soundtracks w/ more trad-indie songwriting. but i think you could start with morricone and end up with something that isn't necessarily either of those.

oh yeah, totally -- i mean, the spaghetti western stuff that most of those bands draw from is just a fraction of ennio's stuff ... but it's probably the stuff that lends itself best to the "indie" sound.

Postal Service

like tortoise?

xp

OK, who's ripping off Sacred Songs?

Sting has some indie cred. You've got Voices Inside My Head by Common Sense as a disco not disco touchstone (and KC Flightt fodder) I somebody just did some edit or something of one of his jazzy solo bits. Jeez, have you heard some of the stuff that gets cred for being balaeric? New Agey, jazzy light rock couldn't be hipper.

New Agey, jazzy light rock couldn't be hipper.

Yeah, but something about Sting's silly, Tantric, lounge-y persona is especially un-hip. I'd be shocked -- and saddened -- if he would up the next indie go-to retro sound.

i love that there's now like 3 different people addressing max's suggestion with utter seriousness

godfather of freak folk, yo
http://www.news.com.au/common/imagedata/0,,6376029,00.jpg

I take everything Max says seriously.

there's no such thing as a "successful independent rock artist" in 2009

5 cuz also i should say this) despite the recent popularity of the balearic 'sound' id argue that there arent many, if any, 'balearic' artists who are specifically mining the 'sting' vein--certainly there are a lot of faux-spanish guitars but not enough honey-voiced male vocalists. my theory is that people arent willing to stare at the balearic abyss & see gordon sumner staring back -- that it represents as they say a bridge too far -- but i stand @ that abyss & i fuck w/ sting willingly -- & i promise u the artists of tomorrow will join me

Loose talk in the classroom
To hurt they try and try
Strong words in the staffroom
The accusations fly
It's no use, he sees her
He starts to shake and cough
Just like the old man in
That book by Nabokov

^^^ my man

i don't think the police are personan nongrata in indie rock, or at least a certain side of it, like thinking minus the bear or chopsier stuff like that

plus i know tons of drummers in bands that are way "cooler" than the police who will rep for stewart copeland as a drummer all day

we'll walk in fields of balearic gold, bros.

"all this time" is a jam IMO

important thread

BONO v. STING

6 sorry i should also say) the police i think have maintained some amount of 'cred' certainly amongst drummers both because they are classic but also becuase they can be positioned against the perennially ridiculed mr. sumner -- expect to see over the next few years a certain kind of 'police backlash' in the form of opinions like 'oh the police are OK but zenyatta isnt as good as 10 summoners tales"

in re: to drummers and stewart copeland, swear to god, you talk to any established drummer they will rep for the cope. i interviewed the dude from calexico a couple years back and he was like "stewart copeland's the guy." and then a month later i interviewed spoon's drummer and he said essentially the same thing.

I think a combination of Sting and Peter Murphy could get across, but there could only be one of that guy and he'd need to be pretty good.

btw drummers will rep for basically anybody

haha

imagine if we could combine the power of sting and peter murphy. dude could like fuck for 30 hours while hanging upside down like a bat.

lol nabisco the other day i was telling someone that we (me & this someone) should start a dead can dance meets sting group -- bauhaus + sting might be even better

Sting makes total sense, "alternative" radio in ATL (at least) was playing shit off Ten Summoner's Tales like crazy in 1993, 1994.

For that matter, Ritual de lo Habitual would be a good album to rip off nowadays.

only time i've ever seen sting live was him opening for the grateful dead in las vegas when i was 14. Maybe that is the synthesis that this thread is asking for: STING + GRATEFUL DEAD / Las Vegas = TEH FUTURE.

i agree! the world is ripe for a new janes addiction -- surprised one of the smell bands in LA hasnt started doing some kind of lo-fi noize perry farrell thing

Actually maybe not, we are at an odd point where ridiculousness and artificiality are the province of mainstream rock bands and indie artists are somewhat scared of justifying them, so it'd be hard for an indie artist to pull off anything Peter Murphyish unless he'd been doing it for 20 years or so already. I really wanted to say some band with a great visual sense and great singer could pull off something sort of goth, but possibly best-case they'd just get kids growing out of emo, and the indie world would be full of people on the internet hating on them just because they have visible pretensions available to hate on.

sting & the gd in las vegas is basically the event horizon for balearica/beardo imo

imagine if we could combine the power of sting and peter murphy. dude could like fuck for 30 hours while hanging upside down like a bat.
lolz

i like to catch sting on say an old snl episode, the chances that he will play some nice basslines accompanied by vinnie colaiuta are very very high.

hey max

off topic:

could you recommend 1 album that i could hear to totally "get" what balaeric is?

ha, no, i dont think so, because its not really a 'sound'? its, like, and i know this is corny but thats sort of the point, a 'feeling'?

Important message:

the way it usually gets described is as 5am ibiza beachfront party comedown music? so, like, smooth as fuck

matt, what max means to say is "Ten Summoners Tales"

lol ok u got me

max can u rapidshare me a feeling?

haha, "Can U Rapidshare Me a Feeling?" would be a good name for a balearic comp

lol dude im headed home 2night but if u webmail me 2morrow i can try & hook u up--im not an expert on this shit by any means tho im just more of a partisan bcuz i love the mellow grooves

i do think youd dig it tho since i know youre a dadrock kind of guy deep down. have u peeped the ilx balearic threads?

yeah i have but there's so much minutia and different weird remixes and artists and etc etc etc being mentioned it's sort of intimidating to know where to start.

yes i am absolutely a dadrock guy.

i will send a webmail, appreesh.

get back 2 u tomorrow matt--if u can do youtube check this out - this is a thread for the BALEARIC REVIVAL

If you want to be a successful mainstream artist in 2009, then the album to rip off is Madonna's 1983 debut album or "Evolution" by Scotch.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_p8_yhjiiV78/SVz2I7mePVI/AAAAAAAAAE4/Hkyb3QAbmUo/s400/thats+all+folks.gif

this is the best thread on balearic
How does the listeners of Balearic/Space Disco look like?

You mean Sting as in, The Police? Maybe. Sting as zzzz-inducing solo artist? No way.

I will rep for the soul cages and used to cover "mad about you" in a spastic sort of way at the open mic night so on behalf of indie reclaimers everywhere I wanna say we totally already did that one

relayer

― kamerad, Thursday, 2 April 2009 14:15 (Yesterday) Bookmark

this post, officially approved of

answer is MGMT, sadly

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young mixed with Fairport Convention.

i agree! the world is ripe for a new janes addiction -- surprised one of the smell bands in LA hasnt started doing some kind of lo-fi noize perry farrell thing

As soon as I saw this thread, I thought: Fairport Convention x Janes Addiction

the proto-answer to MGMT is Yellow Magic Orchestra, though

in line with YMO, more people should try to rip off Raymond Scott these days too. No one has any real balls about finding good sounds these days, especially electronic

the "eight miles high" cover by husker du

the balearic thread max linked to is good, but more of the revival-variety and thereby not quite AS good. although there is that top 25 list on there, which is a good resource

i went on a downloading bender the other day based mostly off of recommendations from this thread- The balearic beardo beach hippie album canon - and it resulted in hours of great music. hours of mediocre and awful music too, but totally worth it imo

I'd like to see a band that fuses the deep bassline throb and studio experimentation of king tubby, the waxy groove of arthur russell and magazine's grit and polish.

We already had AR Kane.

In fact, AR Kane had the Sting thing going on too, they totally own all this shit.

the proto-answer to MGMT is Yellow Magic Orchestra, though

― matinee, Friday, April 3, 2009 12:40 AM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

really?

if you haven't heard any ymo beyond "behind the mask", then maybe

but still no

I thought the answer was Sleater Kinney.

if bands were ripping off The Woods I'd be listening to indie rock in 2009 a little more