"Scouting for Girls are like the sound of Satan's scrotum emptying. They're abysmal."

[piratemoggy.livejournal.com]

Surprised no one posted this yet-

Does the world need another indie band?

The short version of that article is that no one really knows who buys Scouting For Girls records. It is quite marvellously vehement though if you, like me, spend a mystifyingly large amount of your time trying to think of a new way of saying 'this is a shit indie single.' Not sure it goes far enough for me on some aspects (the bit with some bloke talking about the wonder of some kids dancing to 80s/90s indie as though this makes them genii is particular obnoxious) but does contain the quote from this subject line.

Edit: I might add, this isn't a 'HAR LOOK ALL INDIE ARE CRAP' post. I think the article's interesting because we've been talking about how these instantly charting indie bands are the new throwaway boy/girlband for awhile, particularly this week and although this is a smug indie person talking about it from a smug indie perspective, it's surprisingly on-the-money in a lot of places. It might be worth asking, if it's not a totally overwrung question that ultimate ends up with 'THE MAN' as the answer, why you think these particular little trends of throwaway bands/groups start and what you personally think brought on this particular glut of awful?

Also, I really cannot emphasise enough that I have had to review The Enemy three times in the last year.

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

The article has some fun insults for landfill indie, true, but I really cannot get fully behind any argument with a cornerstone of praise for Kings Of Leon, The Verve and The Smiths :o

And he's criticising it for lots of wrong-headed reasons too ("the Pigeon Detectives...won't make you want to topple the Government!" as if that would make them any better), and the indie ideology which focuses on means of production and a DIY aesthetic is total, total bullshit, always has been and always will be.

I think it's inevitable that once anything reaches a certain critical mass outside the mainstream, it will become co-opted into the mainstream (from within, the attitudes of its practitioners, which is why it's so effective) - I don't see this as necessarily a bad thing. I don't think landfill indie is any worse than all the examples of 'proper' indie he talks about (I mean, C86? Ew, dude, gross!) apart from being more omnipresent.

edited

[celentari.livejournal.com]

You're bang on the money here. His basic point that this music isn't exciting is correct, but his exploration of why is terribly flawed.

And there was The Verve, who, almost 20 years after their formation, remind us what indie really meant to people in the days when there was no danger of troubling the pop charts, nor of paying the mortgage with music; when the words were about something, anything – politics, perhaps, or at least an original thought about love

I saw the Verve's delusions of relevance at Glastonbury this year. It was horrible, mind-boggling cringe-worthy bollocks.

I think YOOF and/or experience may be the key here. I remember listening to the Offspring and Rage Against The Machine as a teen and thinking it was all terribly revolutionary and subversive and rabble-rousing. I listen to it now and cringe that I could ever have believed this, but I think fans of landfill indie probably experience something similar (insert misguided adjectives of choice, naturally - the Kooks are "deep", the Fratellis "visceral" or whatever), because when your musical palette is underdeveloped (whether through YOOFULNEZ or inexperience) you aren't equipped to make the distinctions you later make. This would also explain why, generally, the less "into music" people are, the less fussy they are (probably a symbiotic relationship, that).

And there is more than a whiff of "things were better in the olden days - which is coincidentally when I was younger and perter and less jaded" about Collins et al's reactions.

Re: edited

[the-roofdog.livejournal.com]

If he'd cited RatM his defence would've been better - at least them and Offspring were fun bands (fsvo "fun"). When your yardstick for exciting challenging music is 'Lucky Man' you have failed at life.