Loading ...
The Guardian is cranky today! Under the blunt headline “2007 Has Been A Stinker For Indie Rock,” writer Ben Myers goes on a tear about a genre that’s apparently “artistically long dead and more discernibly derivative than ever.” To be fair, I’d probably agree with him wholeheartedly if I had to live in England.
The obvious comparisons for this year’s breakthrough nerks are laughably easy: The View (The Libertines), The Enemy (Northern Uproar), The Fratellis (Supergrass), Pigeon Detectives (every bloke-rock band in every English town, ever), Reverend and the Makers (ditto). Whichever way you look at them, they’re all terrible. Christ, have you heard The Twang (Flowered Up)? Jamie T, Kate Nash and Jack Peñate meanwhile have released sub-standard debut albums, creative victims of the industry’s need for everything now, now, now. Let’s see if they’re still around in three years’ time.
Indie rock’s A-list is even more laughable: Kasabian (Primal Scream), Razorlight (Dire Straits), The Killers (Shed Seven), Hard Fi (cease … now). That the Kaiser Chiefs (Terrorvision) have had the fourth biggest selling single of the year with Ruby – and Mika (Leo Sayer) the biggest – makes me pray, in the words of Bill Hicks, for nuclear holocaust in five seconds.
Oh, it’s not that bad, but have we really reached the point where Shed Seven are a reference point? Ye gods. (Also, leave Leo Sayer and Mark Knopfler out of this.) Anyway, Myers’ hot tips for the future of indie rock?
It’s not been all bad. For me, Gallows, Akira the Don, Gogol Bordello, Gossip, Dillinger Escape Plan, Les Savy Fav, MIA, Patrick Wolf, Jakobinarina and Future of the Left have kept things interesting and there are also plenty of exciting unsigned bands bubbling under – I’m tipping Dead Kids, The Bobby McGee’s and The Ting Tings.
The Bobby McGee’s? The Ting Tings? Zuh? In case you’re wondering, the Ting Tings “sound like Beth Ditto slipping into an elasticated polka-dot number and bumping one of The Pipettes off stage mid-handclap,” according to Popjustice. Let that description rattle around in your brain. Now ask yourself if Sam’s Town was really all that bad.
2007 Has Been A Stinker For Indie Rock [Guardian]
It’s kind of hard to take someone seriously whose ear leads him to make judgments like “white guys” + “guitars” + “less than serious lyrics” = Supergrass and the Fratellis are the same band.
with gogol bordello and patrick wolf as the indications of quality for 2007 i can reach one of two conclusions:
1. the writer has terrible taste
2. 2007 really has been a stinker
He should have kept up the hatred for the duration of the entire article. When I got to the line, ‘It’s not been all bad…’ I was so disappointed! What self-respecting curmudgeon parleys a mere 6 paragraphs after demanding nuclear holocaust? What we need is a cull – FEWER bands, not more.
God, MIA is awful. I’ll be glad when she’s no longer the hip-hop act du jour that it’s safe for nervous hipsters to flaunt.
Wow, I was always under the impression Brit rock fans had better taste than their American counterparts. But with the hallmark bands he mentioned above, that’s definitely in question. People actually listen to the Fratellis, Kasabian, Hard-Fi, and Razorlight in the U.K.? Voluntarily, or through some kind of government torture program? That Gordon Brown must be a meanie.
Am I the only person in the states who remembers when the British press hyped the band Menswear?
Those were the good old days!
Am I the only person in the states who remembers when the British press hyped the band Gay Dad?
Those were the good old days!
Am I the only person who remembers when the NME thought Starsailor was the best thing since sliced Jesus?
Anyone remember Orlando?
What with this and todays snarky comments about Noel (when it was Liam) Gallagher, it seems that war is imminent between US and UK Indie fans. Y’know war in an ironic, floppy haired, not actually fighting or anything kind of way.
As a ‘Brit’ (cor blimey guv’nor I hate that name)I gotta quote Sturgeons law “90% of everything is crap” and that definitely includes british Indie bands. On the other hand this article was just an excuse to drop more obscure names than the other guys so whatevah.
PS. Is it just me or, for the first time, are US Indie bands even more fey than British Ones?
I’ll see your Menswe@r and Gay Dad and raise you a Sleeper and Echobelly. Plus ça change…
“Wow, I was always under the impression Brit rock fans had better taste than their American counterparts.”
Have you ever looked at the UK charts? They tend to be pretty bad. Though, according to the BBC, Elvis is #15 on the indie charts…
Menswear and Gay Dad were fantastic. Starsailor, not so much.
i’ll see yr gay dad, menswe@r, sleeper AND echobelly and raise you TERRIS!!!
ben myers used to write for kerrang you know, and now he seems to like some srs tweecore, bobby mcgees make belle and sebastian sound like sepultura (they are GREAT though)
I’m actually listening to the Bluetones right now…completely without irony, too.
Echobelly had one or two worth listening too lol.
the point i feel the article in question (plus others in the guardian such as [www.guardian.co.uk]) misses is its not the image or the fact that ‘indie’ bands now sign for big labels that makes the music poor. Its the fact that the music itself just isnt very good! As a guitarist, i cant stand the sloppy, uninspiring nature of the pigeon detectives, wombats etc.
never mind 2007, someone please name me a song you think will be considered a classic in twenty years time that has been released since 2000………..seriously.