How indie are you REALLY?

If you really want to know the cold hard truth then here's what you need to do...

step 1)

Create a last.fm account, it'll only take a few seconds.. go here

step 2)

listen to music as you normally would for a week. with the last.fm plug-in on your music player be it iTunes or Windows Media thingy.

step 3)

go here to the "Mainstream-O-Meter" and it'll calculate how "Mainstream" you are.. and give you a handy little percentage, the lower it is the more indie you are (probably)
best of luck folks
post your results as a comment when you get them

here is one i did earlier

Indie Show-Down

It's a clear, cold night.
the further you walk, the more you seem to notice it becoming more lonely, as people are appearing less and less... The night is pouring in around you. Even the street lamps fighting it seem to be surrendering to it's persistence. Just then, as if from the shadow itself, steps an Indie guy.. He walks towards you with purpose and determination. he stops, stares and asks "So what kinda music are you in to".... You've just been called out to prove your Indie Cred.. what do you do?
luckily, i have some helpful hints!

1) First Response:

The first thing you say could determine if you win or lose, so be careful!
What you need to do is name off some pretty obscure bands, but ALSO throw in some red herrings here is the formula, the order is important: (a+x)+(b+y)+(c+Z)

here is how it works. a,b,c are your red herrings: these are indie in name, but in reality they're the at the popular end of indie. x and y are your relatively unknown bands and finally so they know you mean business Z, this is a VERY obscure band, but not your Ace, you need that for later.. here is an example of how it might sound:

"Well, i like Belle and Sebastian, Sparklehorse and umm.. Sufjan Stevens, dEUS i was just listening to Eels and also John Shelly and the Creatures"

what you want is for them to ask about your Z band, that is when you can cut him where he stands with the Kryptonite of Indie retorts "Oh.. you wouldn't know them, they're pretty underground" sadly any self respecting indie follower wouldn't fall for that. they'd remember the name and look it up in their own time.

2)The Rally

This is where your true colours are shown, and your first few Indie-Cred-Clashes, will be a short clean defeat. The Rally is more about experience than actually Indie knowledge. Here is how most Rallies will develop.
a) Testing the water:
during this period of the Rally bands will be thrown around between the two of you until someone breaks with mention of a gig.. something like this:
...
"Yeah.. i liked the first album, did you hear the Arcade Fire album"
"In fact i did, and i saw them live last year..."

b) Live Show.. Show Down
Things just got complicated.. you have gotten over the first hurdle and you have proven that you KNOW your stuff. but have you seen it? it's no longer just about how indie the band is.. it's about how indie they were when you first saw them play.. SO lets welcome back the red herring bands that we used earlier. now these guys are going to win it for you.. this is the round where the lesser known bands don't mean crap.
A popular band that you saw years ago before they where big is exactly what you want here.. not too popular.. you don't wanna be saying stuff like "i saw Take That before they broke up.. "..that sorta crap will get you killed!
this round will last until either one of you has aced the other OR until someone changes back to indie bands again...

c) Last Stand
remember that Ace you where saving.. this is where to throw it out.. the situation is desperate and if you've made it this far then the guy is good.. really good.. it's like a western quick draw.. the one that gets out their Ace first will have victory and the other will fall in disgrace..

lastly.. be careful out there...

"Quoting is for pretentious people with a good memory"

I gotta say i love quoting people, the one above comes from Niall P. Deehan.
Here are some about "Indie" and don't forget if you can't remember who said something just think of a name in your head and say it with conviction! no one likes to argue with someone with conviction.

"All you needed was a couple of instruments and a few chords and you could be on an indie label."
David Byrne

"First off, I don't want anyone to think I'm this huge thing in Japan. Every group from here that's made any records over any length of time - even indie bands - have a Cheap Trick effect in Japan. "
Matthew Sweet

and my personal favourite:

"I will never sign to a major record label again. If, by some mega fluke, a record of mine looked like it might break big, I'd try and do it via an indie or somehow license it. I'm not having my music owned by those corporate bastards again."
Malcolm Wilson.

Now after my brief search for Quotes on indie. i realized that in fact there are VERY few quotable indie representatives. i hope to be the one to end that trend. Here are a few quotes, choice pieces of wisdom from my own memory, which i suggest be studied and repeated.

"The first time i truly realized i was indie, was when i found myself to be the only member of the audience at a terrible gig in Dublin on a Monday night, and being delighted about it"
S. Berkovich

"It's better to have loved and lost, but it's best to have loved their early stuff first."
Sebastian E. B.

"Someone once asked me 'if you couldn't be indie, what other social group would you be?'. i of course answered 'None'. she replied 'don't be stupid, only girls can be nuns'"
S. E. Berkovich

Winter is Coming

After what i can only describe as a terrible summer, i've decided to boycott Autumn.
I want to be clear that this is not because i have something against Autumn. In fact, generally after summer i'm more than ready to embrace the opportunity to put back on the Indie coats and hats that have been too heavy to wear during the summer. But due to the sorry state of this summer, all of my most Indie T-Shirts have been hidden away under layers of retro hoodies or cord jackets.
So i'm going to keep being in summer until my Shirts have gotten enough wear.
this as it turns out, isn't as easy as it sounds and so i've done some research into summer music which will help me get into the summer spirit. i'm also on track towards covering my window with a poster of a beach and leaving a lamp behind it..
So here's the music that would make ANYONE happy:

I'm From Barcelona: 24 Swedes all singing about things like stamps and holidays.. very happy stuff.

Billie The Vision & The Dancers: Apart from having a great name AND great music, it appears you can download any of their songs for free here on last.fm

The Format: I'm not sure if what they're singing about is happy or not.. but i'm too distracted by the summery sounds of the instruments to care all that much. they also have a great site. you can also have a listen here.

Dogs Die In Hot Cars: I really love these guys, their name is funny, they're music is happy (but it makes you think), most importantly they're only going to get MORE indie by the day. this is of course because they only released one album 5 years ago and broke up. I still listen to their music a lot! here's a torrent (it's not stealing because you can't really get the album any more)

Mic Christopher: Irish singer song writer, tragically died before releasing his first album, which as it turns out is FANTASTIC!

hope somebody finds something they like within this.
enjoy the rest of the summer.. lets hope it lasts till around January

Changes..

Some of you may have noticed i played around a bit with the scheme of my blog...
still not sure about it.. so if anyone has any suggestions, or if you find it difficult to read due to colour choice, or anything, just let me know.

A Gig In Birr..

I've returned home from a pleasant trip to Birr, I was going to see John Shelly and the Creatures play. I of course had a crew of less Indie but equally interesting friends coming along with me.
this made me think, perhaps all my aspiring Indie readers don't yet understand the VAST importance of having non-Indie friends. So i shall now explain in great detail the necessity of other personalities, that if added to your clique will improve your image.

The Stylish but Hopeless: This refers to the person that to an observer appears stylish, generally well washed and the proud owner of a 9 to 5 office job. This person is not simply "non-Indie" but will in fact do their utmost to avoid being labelled as such. In fact the only reason that anyone with this personality would ever join your merry band of music lovers is to reassure themselves of how distant they are from anything resembling indie... So, why would anyone want this person around? firstly this person would be no threat to you in the fight for indie cred. but more importantly, to other indie folk you would appear to be a fair and balanced judge of people. This of course will lull any other indie folk into a false sense of security. Because as we all know judging people in a fair and balanced way makes you a bit of an anomaly in the Indie world. So when they approach expecting a short lived exchange of indie cred, that's when you hit them with the really obscure stuff, it wont be long before they crawling inside themselves to say "I haven't heard them.. but i've heard of them". with that, the fight is over!

The Sponge: A person that isn't at all indie and doesn't want to be, but for some reason, after a year or so of preaching at them, absorbs all information about obscure record labels, and important release dates that you can't always remember yourself. you can consider these people your walking Indie-Encyclopaedia, and referring to THEM for the information during an Indie Cred battle makes you seem like you must have just told them 5 minutes ago.

The Closet Case: This is someone who is Indie in everything but name. They generally have a good understanding of Indie music and films but have no idea how to broadcast their indie-ness or converse with other indie folk. these people are very useful for buying albums that you can't afford and go with you to gig's no one else will. everybody wins!

The Poetry Of Indie

Donning some flares and an old velvet jacket
Getting discounts thanks to a lower tax bracket
Wandering the streets with a gig-guide in hand
often heard asking "Have you heard of this band?"

But when I'm alone, on my bed as i sit.
Some times i wonder if perhaps i should quit
But because of the insults and all of the hate
I remember and smile "being Indie is great"

By Sebastian E. Berkovich

Hope you folks enjoy this little thing it was inspired by The Poetry Of Murder.

How Indie Are You?

Well people if you where wondering how much help your going to need before you reach a perfectly Indie state of bliss.. this is a good place to start


In other news i have a nice little entry written up on "Indie Survival Kits" just need to tweak it a bit before i post it.