It's Worse Than I Thought

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Compiling the weekly chart polls it has often struck me that there seems to be a fair bit of indie in the Top 40 right now. To be more specific, British Indie.

And it's true! Below the cut is a list of UK indie bands who had a hit in 2007 and first charted during the last two years. The 2006 cut-off point has meant excluding characters like The Rakes, Biffy Clyro and The Cribs, who all seem to have previous.

CLASS OF 2006:
The Automatic
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly
Guillemots
Larrikin Love
Little Man Tate
Long Blondes
Maccabees
Pigeon Detectives
The Fratellis
The Holloways
The Klaxons
The View

CLASS OF 2007:
Air Traffic
Ben's Brother
Cherry Ghost
Elliot Minor
Enter Shikari
Foals
Gallows
Ghosts
Good Shoes
Hadouken!
Hoosiers
Koopa
Mesh 29
Mumm-Ra
Reverend And The Makers
Scouting For Girls
The Enemy
The Horrors
The Twang
The Wombats
Tiny Dancers

I have a couple of questions. First and foremost is who on earth are these people? I think we can provide a useful service if we turn this post into your cut-out and keep guide to nindie, 07-style. So, if you ACTUALLY KNOW what a band here sounds like or is trying to do could you use the comments box to summarise it in a sentence. Keep abuse to the minimum. Details of gimmicks particularly helpful! I would also like to know who each band are ripping off most (aside from other bands on the list).

That way we can provide an invaluable guide to chart nindie with details for:

SOUNDS LIKE:
GIMMICK:
MOST WANT TO SOUND LIKE:

Which is all you need know about a given band, surely?

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Obviously some of them are very easy! OTHERS HOWEVER...

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Never heard of Ben's Brother, Elliot Minor, or Mesh-29. Never heard anything by Ghosts. I know what at least 1 song by all of the others sound like. In almost every case the answer is utterly shite, especially for the 2007 bands.

And I really like indie.

All this proves is that all this new charting indie is rubbish. I've heard loads of good indie this year, very little of it charts. Because Zane Lowe doesn't like it, I presume.

[martinv.livejournal.com]

I'm actually really stunned at how depressing it is reading that list.

No wonder most of you lot hate indie! :o

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

A fair few of the 2007 ones are really major label MOR crap being marketed as indie acts for a bit of 'credibility', I'd say - Air Traffic, Tiny Dancers, Scouting For Girls, Ben's Brother, that sort of thing.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

This tallies with what my friends who I'd class as "indie fans" think too. It's noticeable that a band like Los Campesinos (sp?), who I don't like that much but I like a lot more than most of this list, are going well web-critically but not charting at all.

So it begs the question - why is the shite indie doing better than the 'good indie'?

On the other hand, all my indie friends are in their 30s so of course they're going to like a load of jangly stuff. I am eagerly awaiting the comments of people like piratemoggy, who is a Young Person who understands the indie!

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

The View...

SOUNDS LIKE: my worst nightmares
GIMMICK: being from Dundee (can your place of origin be a gimmick?)
MOST WANT TO SOUND LIKE: something that isn't total dog-s**te

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Compare to the class of 2004/5: Arctic Monkeys, Bloc Party, Maximo Park, Kasabian, Kaiser Chefs and this lot really stink. There are only about three bands in that entire list that I can conceive of being able to bear listening to for more than about 3 minutes.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yes but "if the cap fits" has to apply! If Tiny Dancers sound like actual shite indie and are just on a major label then there's no difference as far as I'm concerned.

Who are all these people trying to sound like? What's the aesthetic?

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

It's interesting to me that the Cribs and the Rakes both got their start in 05, but obviously were totally unmemorable until this year, when their material actually kind of stands out :(

Kaiser Chiefs are as bad if not worse than anything here mind you.

[bengraham.livejournal.com]

Oh, apologies, I didn't read the "keep abuse to a minimum" bit. But irrespective, they're still talentless twats.

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

All this proves is that all this new charting indie is rubbish.

No wonder most of you lot hate indie!

IAWTC.


I like Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, but I like most indie that has trumpets in it.

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

The Libertines?

My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

(USP = Unique Selling Point, if yr not a marketer)

CLASS OF 2006:
The Automatic - they did "Monster" but beyond that I'm not sure what the gimmick it.
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly - "British Bright Eyes"??
Guillemots - they do jazzy stuff and are a bit improvised.
Larrikin Love - post-Doherty Albion sorts I think.
Little Man Tate - NO IDEA
Long Blondes - synth-led lyric indie.
Maccabees - NO IDEA
Pigeon Detectives - some sort of oi revival???
The Fratellis - terrace indie, 'street' kind of appeal
The Holloways - NO IDEA
The Klaxons - NEW RAVE! Everyone knows the Klaxons.
The View - unpretentiousness as a selling point, busker-friendly.

CLASS OF 2007:
Air Traffic - NO IDEA
Ben's Brother - NO IDEA
Cherry Ghost - NO IDEA
Elliot Minor - they're sort of scruffy pop-punk I think
Enter Shikari - the idea here is trance meets metal, right?
Foals - recent enough that I remember. Post-punk, dunno what the specific post punk USP is.
Gallows - fiercer-than-thou punkiness.
Ghosts - NO IDEA. Jeff Worrell likes them!
Good Shoes - is this girl group?
Hadouken! - new rave again! Dunno what flavour.
Hoosiers - power pop
Koopa - their gimmick was being an unsigned band in the charts! Doesn't explain their three hits though.
Mesh 29 - NO IDEA
Mumm-Ra - NO IDEA. Surely pop-punk?
Reverend And The Makers - gritty lyric indie.
Scouting For Girls - NO IDEA, have avoided hearing them.
The Enemy - kind of post-Hard-Fi this-is-real-life-maaan stuff?
The Horrors - gothier-than-thou punkiness
The Twang - baggy revival
The Wombats - nerdy scouse pranksters
Tiny Dancers - NO IDEA

[ms-bracken.livejournal.com]

The Twang

SOUNDS LIKE: James
GIMMICK: unknown please advise
MOST WANT TO SOUND LIKE: Happy Mondays probably

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hadouken = new rave with the added twist of WHITE SHOREDITCH TWATS DOING GRIME :oooooo

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

Hang on Los Campesinos are doing well somewhere?? Have they even released stuff yet? ie I got the promo TODAY and it says it is out next Feb. The press release is a singularly horrifying document and the titles of their songs make me want to burn things (where things = them). It has gone STRAIGHT IN THE BIN but if they're actually going to be big I might fish it out again (with TONGS) (are promo CDs still worth any money to hardcore fans??)

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Their singles or EPs or whatever have done well. I dunno, maybe just on Myspace - this is skillextric territory not mine really!

[sbp.livejournal.com]

Are White Stripes indie any more? XL is an indie label.

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Ghosts

SOUNDS LIKE: Keane

GIMMICK: "we're not part of any scene, we don't have any gimmicks, we're not gonna go around slagging off other bands to get attention (it always seems like a symptom of insecurity to me), we just write great songs with lyrics that hopefully people can relate to"
(that's a genuine quote, i.e. their gimmick is MOR conformity, I s'pose)

MOST WANT TO SOUND LIKE: Coldplay

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

They are, but they're American, so I didn't list them.

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[sbp.livejournal.com]

I saw the Guillemots at Glasto and absolutely hated them, and I like jazzy improvised stuff.

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

The Maccabees are old chums of generalkhaki who are now rich and super famous and have their songs on phone adverts. Good for them.

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[martinv.livejournal.com]

Little Man Tate - From Sheffield, sub-Arctic Monkeys BAD
Maccabees - Supported katstevens's band when she was in one lots iirc. Inoffensive, tuneful post-Libertines. MEDIOCRE.
Holloways - "I can buy a record player, and a generator, generate the music that makes you feel better" - heard that? That them. Catchy. Otherwise awful. Bad hats.
Air Traffic/ Cherry Ghost - post-Clodplay awful moan music.
Scouting For Girls - TERRIBLE. In no way indie, tbh. Whatever indie means, it doesn't mean these people.
Mumm-Ra - not pop-punk, not really distinctive enough for genres.

I like the Long Blondes out of all this list. I don't mind Guillemots (in small doses), Klaxons (occasionally) and Good Shoes (again occasionally - and they're not a girl group.)

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Having never heard Scouting For Girls I filed them under indie unknowingly. Are they some kind of Tribe Of Toffs style wackymonger band?

Re: My Understanding of these bands' USPs

[avv.livejournal.com]

aren't Hadouken from Leeds?

new rave = a provincial phenomenon!