The Grownup's Guide to Indie Rock

There you go.

lol ok which one of you jokers wrote this

I felt really bad for the guy while reading it.

as a grown up i can say that this has proved to be invaluable reading. i wonder if the Other Bands That Matter list is exhaustive.

Next time ppl want to argue with me on the Music Writers thread about why you shouldn't write in the first person, I'll just fwd them to the second graf of this.

"The only Bowl shows that could be dubbed “indie” were The Shins and Wilco, who are more like the movement’s godfathers..."

W. T. F.

Indeed, my own intro to indie music felt like a 500-microgram nostalgia trip — and I’m 57.

I feel the same way. And I'm 157.

Also:

"Indie music rose during the great rock famine that stretched between Nirvana’s demise and the sudden explosion of garage bands like The Hives, The Vines, and the White Stripes."

for a short while I actually hung out with Devendra Banhart

Dare to dream.

Experimental film is waning

OMG! I have a t-shirt that says this!

"truly avant-garde bands like Animal Collective, The Unicorns, and Grizzly Bear"

briefly talked about this with my brother and I agree with him that dude means well and his enthusiasm is great and all... but whoah fact-checker

He's obviously so wrong on so many levels, but at least he doesn't seem to be an asshole.

yeah, this wouldn't be horrible if the hook was just "hey, Boomers, this new music is kinda like the old music, wowee" ... but every other sentence is some ridiculous statement.

not wanting to be like "dude should at least wikipedia this first", but, like, yeah

"Spoon: the best straightforward rock since the Stones’ heyday"

my first display name

Plausible if you think "Some Girls" is the heyday.

Well. Not that bad. Except the guy should realize that there is a country on the other side of the Atlantic, and actually most of the best indie pop is from that country.

That country: Sweden

Wouldn't be surprise if the guy who wrote this is the uncle of the singer in Ray Gun...

"Spoon: the best straightforward rock since the Stones’ heyday"

― bendy, Thursday, August 20, 2009 8:17 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wow. that's a fucking statement.

We should invite this guy to ILM. He means well I think, and he's perfect for the latest p4k thread.

the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone
the bible of rock, Rolling Stone

please god this is a spoof, right? right?

i hate this article and everything it stands for

and i wouldn't read it if it were the last article on earth

please god this is a spoof, right? right?

― Milijas Like That (Noodle Vague), Thursday, August 20, 2009

That was my take. I don't think it is, but I'm happy to keep reading it that way.

There’s only one viable avant-garde art form nowadays, and it’s called taking the piss.

For some reason, there’s often a banjo involved

GOLD

The thing that I find most cute about this article is that he has no conception of indie rock as having existed before this decade, apart from mentioning that it's connected to the DIY punk ethos. According to him, it rose up sometime between 1994 and 2002, and the godfathers of the genre are the Shins and Wilco.

yeah it's sad cuz he acts like he's too old when a lot of the architects of indie rock are close to his age anyway

I also like that Shakey's brother is considered the locus of indie rock in America.

Given what he's listing, the Shins kinda are the beginning.

i hate this article and everything it stands for

and i wouldn't read it if it were the last article on earth

― I love rainbow cookies (surm)

Surmorbius

no, no

surOTM

:D

I also like that Shakey's brother is considered the locus of indie rock in America.

tbf I think Jay's invested a fair amount of energy in bridging the generational divides by drawing clear connections between boomer generation stuff and what's come after, and that's bound to appeal to guys like this on some level... otoh I never fail to marvel at the boomers' hatred of their parents and their culture. its just so spoiled and bratty (and, as Jay correctly points out, kinda an anamoly)

like dude STILL can't fathom how someone could like Sinatra AND Nick Drake or whoever (the mind boggles!)

xpost

what waht? who yo brother?

Oh yeah, I don't mean to trivialize what he's done at all, but it's just one part of the entire indie-rock scene.

Wilco ARE the godfathers of indie. Anything that came before AM wasn't indie, it was shhhiiiittttt.

jk

No no, don't apologize.

i wish he knew what avantgarde meant

Well, the funny thing is that few people would've called Wilco an "indie-rock" band until this decade. The alt-country/roots-rock they were making in 1995 seemed pretty far removed from, I dunno, Superchunk -- but 10 years later, a) Wilco had become self-consciously artier and b) the standard-bearers of indie rock (bands like the Decemberists) sounded more like Wilco.

xpost

what waht? who yo brother?

lolz sometimes I feel like I should have a handy family tree .gif... Jay Babcock is my brother, (and fwiw Ryan and Evan Olcott from 12 Rods and Quitty from the Tight Bros/Nudity/Mukilteo Fairies are our cousins. Quitty is all-time favorite cuz o' mine, love that guy)

The hell? I didn't know about the 12 Rods connection.

i wonder if this guy has opinions on no wave.

serious music is serious

(^^^awesome listen btw)

^zooey deshanel

dave brubeck is pretty punk

http://www.theonion.com/content/themes/onion/assets/custom/oscars_2007/harvey_head_big.jpg

Lmao @ you guys falling for this

this is a real guy (his other pieces there date back several years) and a real piece but thx for playing

here he is
http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people/staff/images/dj.jpg
for realz he is prob a nice, cool guy to hang with

wait isn't that Morbius

omg

Yeah the fact that this isn't his first article precludes it being tongue in cheek

xp

why don't you e-mail him and ask him if he's being ironic or not

i wkiw the author of this article

me too. I bet he has great weed.

could rap about the glory days of experimental cinema, when you'd go see Brakhage movies at the drive-in

I think what bothers me most about this is the obvious rockist undertone, typical of babyboomers. It's like "remember our generation's own intelligent, meaningful music? Well, it's back!"... implicitly dismissing/ignoring everything in-between.

...I think this one took the cake though:

"I saw Arcade Fire at L.A.’s Troubadour for $15 four years ago, practically standing in the band’s lap, with Beck staring open-mouthed next to me."

Arghhh STFU!!!!

wow i find it hard to really get angry at this dude for writing basically a musing while i smoke my pipe in my slippers regional weekly column, but some of yall obv dont feel the same way

I don't think anyone here is really angry...? more bemused than anything else

I mean sorry, yeah, nice guy and all but it's just to painful...

DUDE THIS IS TOTALLY THE WORST THING TO HAPPEN TO ROCK JOURNALISM IN THE LAST....3 HOURS OR SO

dude srsly, read the address bar of yr browser for like one second

xp

i mean boardid=41 uh hello does that ring any bells

i mean i dont think hes trying to bust open the seams of the volcanic underground of indie rock, he is just a dude blogging the only way 57 year olds can outside of writing letters to the editor

xpost ok yah gbx point taken

is there any other regional weeklies that have middleaged guys writing clueless articles about how hip certain music is so we can be lol about them too?

this dude (wrote) basically a musing while i smoke my pipe in my slippers regional weekly column

I misread "smoke" as "stroke," and nearly spit out my coffee.

imho it's sweet and staggeringly clueless in a sort of "see this is why music writers don't get took serrious" kinda way but I hope I'm half as open and basically cool when I'm 57 and I totally endorse going to shows at the Troub with your kids if they'll let you

Rockism makes me angry, I can help it. I wouldn't mind if people paid attention to idiot babyboomers, but they still do.

i mean i dont think hes trying to bust open the seams of the volcanic underground of indie rock, he is just a dude blogging the only way 57 year olds can outside of writing letters to the editor

He's just blogging his way
the only way he knows how
but that's just a little bit more
than ILM will allow

is there any other regional weeklies that have middleaged guys writing clueless articles about how hip certain music is so we can be lol about them too?

― ❊❁❄❆❇❃✴❈plaxico❈✴❃❇❆❄❁❊ (I know, right?), Thursday, August 20, 2009 5:28 PM (22 seconds ago) Bookmark

yes, but it's called national public radio

really, there's at least 25% less rage in this thread than any other thread on the front page of ILM currently

yeah no shit the Techno/House Bobbins 2009 thread is like Detroit after the Pistons won the NBA Championship

daavid if it makes you feel any better in 35 years or so kids your age are probably gonna get angry at your outdated anti-rockism stance.

He's just blogging his way
the only way he knows how
but that's just a little bit more
than ILM will allow

well done

lol, yeah probably

yeah tons of young kids like classic rock cuz of guitar hero and rock band, take a seat and enjoy the ac/dc old man! ; )

Is Rock Band this generation's Dylan?

^^^article idea I'm pitching to my local alt-weekly

sure why not? more than devandra at least

hahaha re:rock band as dylan, considering that 99% of the kids that buy guitars in my store are "graduating" from rock band i would say it is this generations VU if you buy into that stupid quote about them

hahaha re:rock band as dylan, considering that 99% of the kids that buy guitars in my store are "graduating" from rock band i would say it is this generations VU if you buy into that stupid quote about them

― please link to them and breathe into a paper bag (jjjusten), Thursday, August 20, 2009 10:42 PM (15 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

wow! i always sort of wondered if that would happen, but you definitely hear this a lot??

that might be an interesting article idea for me actually.

still can't believe this needed a thread

throw in brokeNCYDE and i'll front you some cash

only 1,000,000 kids bought Rock Band, but all of them went on to start SEO optimization firms.

dylan did get a lot of people into classic folk

lol at me forgetting what SEO stands for

yah m@tt, no exaggeration, in fact i would almost say it is 100% (for sure in the under 14 yr old crowd) but im sure there was like one kid that just wanted to get laid or something

I'm not angry at this guy in particular and the article will probably have zero influence outside Santa Barbara or probably even there, but this is the sort of reading that reminds me how pissed I am indie rock's sense of self-superiority... living in Montreal doesn't help :(

superior to what...? crabcore?

"I saw Arcade Fire at L.A.’s Troubadour for $15 four years ago, practically standing in the band’s lap, with Beck staring open-mouthed next to me."

Interestingly, I saw Beck at L.A.’s Troubadour for $15 15 years ago, practically standing in the band’s lap, with one of the guys from "Salute Your Shorts" staring open-mouthed next to me. It was crazy.

was it donkeylips?

haha, i wish. no it was the punkier kinda guy on that show?