The Indie-Nerd Neutral Zone

Some social cliques seems to hold a certain liking for others. From the loose but obviously apparent link between fans of bad 90's pop music and those mysterious people who are keeping Pop Idol in business, to unbreakable symbiotic links between rappers and convicted felons. When Nerd and Indie come together it's a mesh of contrast and constancy being pressed together with the most powerful and abundant force present in both; an overpowering delusion of grandeur. Not completely unlike a Human-Klingon hybrid.

These unique creatures have very obvious characteristics which makes them easy to identify and thus begins a short list on "How to Spot a (N)indie".

1. Social Interaction
A Nindie has inherited the socialite abilities of the average indie person but sadly has kept on the talking points of a nerd. This means that unlike a Nerd, a Nindie may certainly strike up a conversation with you at a gig or party, the problem being that not only will the conversation either involve Star Wars or Open Source but the Nindie will blindly assume (like indie folk) that what they are talking about is the most interesting thing you've ever heard.

2. Habitat
Nindies are found in a wide variety of indie-nerd locations, but the difference is in why they go there. While a Nindie finds the same amount of joy simply being in an Independent Record Store as you average indie person, that joy can be superseded by something like seeing the "Spaced Out" album


3. Clothing\Markings
These take a keen eye to spot. While a Nindie appears identical to any other indie folk they are often not wearing an obscure band T-Shirt but instead an obscure cartoon or sci-fi show. It's also not uncommon to find a Linux penguin where some would expect a witty button badge.

4. Plans
One question that be definitive in the identification of a Nindie:
"Any plans for Friday night?"
While it's far from unusual from someone to spend a Friday night playing games with friends the way in which this question is answered is critical. Here's an example.
Indie Person: "not really, no good gigs on so just going play some games with a few friends"
Nindie Person: "Yup, new add-on came out for Neverwinter Nights and i've got a level 40 monk that.... etc."
The difference is in the detail, also most people don't consider a LAN party to be "plans"

5. Gigs
A Nindie at a gig is an odd thing indeed. He's the kinda guy how has spent literally days of his life queuing outside the apple store every time a slightly lighter iPod is released and so is very confused when people spend the early part of the gig hanging back near the sound booth, instead of rushing to the front. The indie in him may keep him from beating till he reaches the front but he will generally be found looking confused and disoriented in the middle of the venue somewhere between the hard core fans at the front and the cooler Indie folk at the back.

Those Fake "Indie" Bands

As you may know, Indie is being hijacked by non-indie forces. As the popular music lovers start listening to "Indie Music" thinking they are the ones on the musical high ground, life as we know it may fall apart. Here I present to you, the first additions to the "Indie Wanted List". It's like the FBI's wanted list, but naturally far superior.

1. The Ting Tings


http://www.flickr.com/photos/bunmun/

The worst offender in modern music. I went looking for a photo of them and found that lovely one above. Here's what the photographer had to say about them...

"This "two piece" really have nothing in common with Mates of State, the White Stripes or Lightning Bolt. Whereas, those bands can use their minimal elements to great effect live, The Ting Ting could benefit with more members because they are kinda static live and the girl seems like shes having a hard time playing guitar. And if you need the bass and keyboards on a backing track there really isn't much justification for being a two piece.

And to finish, they played "That's Not My Name" for no less than a whole 10 minutes! They must've repeated that chorus at least 8 times! "

What more can be said...

2. The Script

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamreading/

Three Dubliners struck it rich and formed an Irish boy band for the 21st century. It seems the swaying masses are no longer impressed with 4 dancing pretty boys, but now require them to play their own instruments and sing with fake, store bought emotion.

A human shade of beige.

Living the Indie Dream

Listening to indie music and watching indie films are the corner stone of what makes me better than the average rabble. Arguably it could be said that the only thing that could make me even more Indie would be if I had some part in creating either the indie movies or music which keeps safe and sound in my pretentious bubble. But it's crazy to think that someone could have enough Indie juices flowing around them to be able to produce consistent indie gold through two different mediums, unless of course your name is Jason Schwartzman, and you look like this:



This guy has shown up in some of the most loved indie movies in the last 10 years. like Rushmore (1998), I Heart Huckabees (2004) and The Darjeeling Limited (2007). He also showed up in an episode of Freaks and Geeks, A show that was tragically cancelled after it's first season (WHY, why do the best shows die so young).
If this quality indie material wasn't enough to make him an Indie God then his indie rock band Coconut Records is probably enough to push him into Deity territory. The band (which is more or less him with the odd celebrity friend thrown in) released their first album Nighttiming last year and it's really good example of what a good indie rock album should sound like, give it a listen on it's last.fm page.
What a guy...

Grunge ain't dead

After the 90's came and went, we lost a few good musical genres. The one I miss the most is Grunge. Indie with a bit of bite. After people got rid of the outlandish hairstyles and synthesizers, and before tribes of annoyingly generic man-children decided that bands need 4 to 5 dancing singers each, these guys were kicking some serious musical ass.

The punk that had survived the 70's and 80's, became more melancholic and evolved into Grunge. But then the 90's moved on, and Grunge transformed into that Pop-Punk (which is itself an oxymoron) which in turn became Emo over time.



But is grunge dead? Turns out it's not! Former Grunge expert Chris Cornell has a brother it would seem, and Peter (that's Mr. Peter Cornell to us), is still going around with what can only be described as the indiest grunge band in the world. Black Market Radio, possibly the world's sole remaining grunge band (though probably not). Not many pictures of them exist on the interweb, but the do have 1 LP and an EP and are relatively well known, at least in America. Their Myspace page has a few songs up, but no gig listings or much to show if they even still exist. Even their website has no news as to their fate... Let's just hope they're still out there. If Pop Punk is Pop, then Grunge is Indie, and the world needs more of those bands.

I couldn't find a photo of Peter under a CC licence, so here's a nice one of Chris from Nicola T, who her profile states is "Female and Taken".

"I'm Not Listening to a Band Called The Acid House Kings"

A Number of years ago i was told of band i might like called the Acid House Kings, thinking this to be some sort of trick i replied with something along the lines of the title of this post, and i was reassured of my choice when i saw a picture of this band, reminds me a bit of Kraftwerk actually.



At this moment in time I am in fact listening to a band called Acid House Kings, they've been going for a while now and in case like me, the name makes you want to make a derogatory comment about them, have a listen to this video on last.fm and if you'd like a description the music... just image what you think a band with this name would sound like, they're anything thing your not thinking of.

Indie mix tape

UPDATE: The check out the track list we eventually came up with after many a heated discussion.

Last week I came up with the idea of what I coined "an emergency indie mix tape". In a world where MP3's and CD's are the currency of music, tapes have become forever lost and increasingly indie. Even vinyl still has it's place in today's music circles, but the humble audio tape has become lost in the ages.



But what, assuming I can find some blank audio tape, will go on my indie mix tape? Some rummaging through the interweb and I came up with this... Last.fm user Martynas from Lithuania's "indie mix tape". It's pretty awesome, though it does include The Killers and The Arctic Monkeys. There's also an interesting discussion on one of the forums which should inspire some ideas.

This is going to be a long, arduous task to undertake. But I'll manage it somehow. If you've any suggestions or ideas do leave them in comments. I fear this is a task too great for one man, so any help is appreciated.

Today's photo is by Laura Crossett aka NewRambler from Wyoming, who apparently has an awesome mix tape collection.

They have indie awards now

Does winning prizes makes you less indie? But what if the prize itself if an indie one? Well, look at this years Mercury Music Prize. For those not in the know, the Mercury Music Prize was set up by a bunch of people who thought the other music prizes weren't indie enough and only rewarded popularity not musical awesomeness.

This year's winners, Elbow, are indeed awesome. Check out their stuff here and here. It only took them 18 years to get some nice recognition of what their doing. Now that's indie.

And the lovely live photo of them is by Matt Hobbs.

Indie, Always The Chearper Music Choice.

While I've talked about a lot of great features to surrendering yourself to the indie cause, such as an eternal delusion of grandeur and being able to wear flares without people assuming your out of touch. Now comes yet another reason to love Indie music, a massive amount of indie music is FREE! yes that's right, no longer will you be forking out money for music the indie genre is packed full of wannabe socialists who would rather remain in obscurity and poverty than take any money for their music. lets jump ahead and take a look at an example!

Billie the Vision and the Dancers



This wonderful group of indie-pop Swedes have just released their 4th album I Used to Wander These Streets (pictured above) and just as with their 1st, 2nd and 3rd album it's available completely free to download right here on their site... it's also available to buy which i actually attempted but only to those folk lucky enough to live in the social experiment known as Sweden can do that. I've chosen a song from each album to help you get a taste for them

I Used to Wander These Streets:
You’re Not Giving Up On Me
Where the Ocean Meets My Hand:
A Beautiful Night in Oslo
The World According To Pablo:
A Man From Argentina
I Was So Unpopular In School:
Nobel Square

Enjoy!
(and tell me what you think)

Don't get left behind!

Being indie is about being one step ahead of everyone else. Yep, it's a competition and if you don't fight back you'll get left behind and fade away into the popular music loving masses. But how can you stay one step ahead of the commercial wave? Well, here's how...

Use the interweb

The lazy indie person's option. Myspace, Purevolume and Last.fm are all invaluable resources if you're looking for awesome new unheard of bands. Last.fm is by far the easiest to use, least commercial and therefore indiest.

Go to a few gigs

You favorite indie bands will be usually supported by other awesome indie bands. If you favorite indie band is playing half way around the world (which they usually do), there is another option.

Pick a venue close to you (one of those bars where all the cool indie or unsigned bands play) and just go. Regardless of who's playing. The less knowledge you have of who's playing the better. Go with an open mind and you're bound to be surprised and low and behold you've found a new awesome band.

Trawl the music shops

The smaller the music shop the better, though the big chains do occasionally have some cool indie bands Cd's in, you usually have to look quite hard. The best option is to go to you local independent record store and ask the guy with long hair (he always has long hair) working behind the counter.

One of these ideas should work... In case of an emergengy when all of the above fails and you feel yourself being compelled to listen to Rihanna's new CD, email Seb or myself and we'll send you an emergency indie mix tape. We never leave a man behind.

So.. they have Indie "Music" now

I was listening to some shiny new music today, made me wonder why i haven't been telling people about all of the wonderful stuff out there. so i'm going to introduce my readers to a few bands i've been listening to lately and perhaps should be better represented.

Oh No! Oh My!



This lovely little band from Texas has created a really great album. to me it's what would happen if Of Montreal crashed a car into Clap Your Hand Say Yeah!, killing the singer and then writing a song about the delightful trip home after the accident. anyway, check them out. Here and Here, have a listen to this track from the album.

Alternative Electro Bus Funk (140% more Indie)

"Indie"... since the beginning when i would tell people that i like indie music, they would have a follow up question, they used to be pretty bad "do you mean like, native americans.. or like, REAL indians?".
but i now refer to those as the good ol' days. The worst follow up questions have only seemed to appear in the last year or so, and it's been upsetting me greatly. e.g. "ME TO!.. The Killers rock!" .

These poor souls who probably have no idea that they in fact listen to a complicated genre i've come to call "shit, but not as shit as rap" cannot be blamed for their ignorance. but until they come accross a new trend to jump on, us true indie folk must avoid this embarrassing retort by using fancy new sub-genre's... one which i have found to be particularly appealing to my sense of Indie is "Alternative Electro Bus Funk", a minor draw back it that theoretically the genre doesn't exist. being a decided fan of the genre, i'm not going to let that stop me.

So i began the first steps in creating this great new genre.
1) Find some very "indie" bands on www.last.fm, a band that perhaps has about 7,000 to 25,000 listeners or so.
2) learn some obscure facts about them, (how they recorded an ep in a swimming pool or something)
2a) alternativly, just make up some facts about the band. the "How they got their name.." fact is generally a good place to start.
3) tag them as (in this case) Alternative Electro Bus Funk.
4) repeat untill you have about 5 bands.

so next time you're asked about the music you like here's how it'll go:

me: "i listen to Alternative Electro Bus Funk stuff"
prat: "whats that like"
me: "band's like.... these..... and those guys got their name, after surviving a bear attack while white water rafting in a salmon shaped canoe.... oddly enough"
prat: "..."

and order and balance is restored to the world... until Alternative Electro Bus Funk is stolen from us.
DFTBI
-Seb

Anti-social Networks

Popularity has always been a game in life for some. On the internet it's a religion. So let's look at the main offenders.

Facebook:

The Wall Mart of communication. The main goal of this network seems to be to add as many applications to your profile so as to render it useless and of no actual value to the world. It's the equivalent of carrying around with you all the personality and aptitude tests you've taken in your entire life and before introducing yourself to someone asking them to review these tests and take one themselves for a comparison. The interface is the easiest to use, though they don't allow for much creativity in the page layout (which can be a good thing).

Bebo:

If you went to your local pound store (or 99c store) and bought a social network, this'd be it. To win at this social network you have to show off better than everyone else. As soon as you do anything, comment on a photo, update your profile or look at a page the wrong way Bebo will inform everyone you know (and maybe some of those you don't) what you have done as if it were some sort of amazing revelation you had that the world needs to know about.

It's for a generation of people who seem to have equal interest whether celebrities kill someone or go to the toilet.

Myspace:

Give the world a webpage, and allow them to edit the code. The result, one in four pages are unreadable. But at least they're allowing some creativity.

To win at MySpace, fill out all the information it requests (height, weight, schools attended, job), then fill out and place on your profile all the surveys, tests and chain letters you receive. Flourish with large oversized pictures until opening the page causes browsers to crash.

Even with overlord Rupert Murdoch owning this and about 10 billion profiles on it, it still is the most useful for finding bands (though nothing else). I couldn't help feeling that the whole thing is just one big experiment to see how many ads people can be exposed to at once.

http://thosearentmuskets.com/sketches/internetparty2.html