poll: rock n' roll never forgets (but what about indie...)
you must pillar through your mem banks for this emuser exercise. scoring is simple (like golf, low score wins) - rank in order the tracks you will never forget:
(in no special order)
yoshimi battles the pink robots - flaming lips
institutionalized - suicidal tendencies
misery - soul asylum
slack motherfucker - superchunk
(in no special order)
yoshimi battles the pink robots - flaming lips
institutionalized - suicidal tendencies
misery - soul asylum
slack motherfucker - superchunk
Comments
I'll play:
"Disarm" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Unsatisfied" - The Replacements
"This Year" - The Mountain Goats
"Shhh" - Atmosphere
"Blister in the Sun" - The Violent Femmes
Craig
"Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating in Space" - Spiritualized
"Frittering" - Mercury Rev
"Rhinoceros" - Smashing Pumpkins
"Three Days" - Jane's Addiction
"Rain Dogs" - Tom Waits
"She's a Jar" - Wilco
This Century Top Five:
"Quattro (World Drifts In)" - Calexico
"Silvermine Pictures" - Califone
"Pyramid Song" - Radiohead
"Hi-Lo and In Between" - Neil Halstead
"Colorbars" - Elliot Smith
Special Category:
Band Whose Melodies Got All Stuck In My Head But I Couldn't Actually Name One Song Of Theirs To Put In The Above Category: The Shins
"Shady Lane" by Pavement
"Money City Maniacs" by Sloan
"Such Great Heights" by The Postal Service
"Steady As She Goes" by The Raconteurs
Have no idea where this list came from - just kind of blurted it out.
That's how I define indie. I'm still waiting to find out where Jeff Mangum gets his Cosby-esque sweaters.
When someone commented on the sweater his response was "my dad gave it to me." I laughed, hard.
Craig
it's only a matter of time before someone harshes "what? no joy division/bauhaus/etc. - swindleeeee!"
Conversely, local bands on SST were really hard to find--and like I said, they were local. The Minutemen might get a really late night playing on Sunday on KROQ. Some videos might get attention from a low budget, barely receivable UHF station. Where a major label was not distributing a record, it was almost invisible.
I think that the Indie/Major distinction was well explored by Michael Azzerrad. REM, to whom he did not dedicate a chapter because they were on a major label, were college radio staples, but they enjoyed advantages that acts on Indie labels simply could not. (Indeed, it was the music activism of REM that helped those bands make the leap to major labels. It has been REM's most enduring legacy that they changed the perception of the quality of music being done at the lowest levels of society, farthest from American media centers.)
Anyway, my point is that it's ironic that the whole "indie-rock" movement owes its genesis and initial momentum to bands who were not "indie" in any way shape or form. Of course, I would also argue that the first wave of "indie" died with D. Boon, not to be resurrected until Nirvana cleared the space for the likes of Superchunk to realize that they didn't need to play by the system's rules. But that's for you younger folk to discuss...
Spring 1981, X was on Rodney's show promoting Wild Gift. They played several old country records on the air that night, which made me realize that they really didn't belong with the other Decline of Western Civ. bands, any more than, say, the Blasters did. Which was a good thing, as I never much liked what became known as hardcore. But again, different subject.
@pzeke - That timing somewhat makes sense. Back in those days the term was "college rock" or something like that. It's why I often don't label things pre-90s as indie because I never really heard the term used much until college rock became alternative rock which actually turned out to be mainstream rock. Maybe I'm wrong, I was just a white suburban kid with no connection to music, but I would hear stuff that wasn't on major labels called "underground" or "college" or "crap".
PZeke: Meltzer? (sound of crickets in my head)
hmmm - other radio promo's i've cashed in on (of note): won tix for me + 12 of my closest cronies to see john waters (indie film producer) speak at a dinner club. it was hilarious...we had this supremely ornate table at the center of the entire room with john a sneeze away from us. everyone else was in after-five attire and miffed their hundred buck a plate experience was getting sucked into our universe.
also, grabbed tix for halloween show: ramones + iggy pop. now, the sheepish truth is: i swung by my date's place to take her to the show. dizzam x all things wondrous! she was dressed up as catwoman! i immediately called a cronie and said "the tix are yours + don't wait up for me..." srsly. i gave up those tix and never regretted it. god bless catwoman.
I actually bought the Hib-Tone single myself, and for a while you could get $100 for them on eBay... I don't know if that's still the case, but I just checked and none of them are being auctioned at the moment. Who knows, maybe now with the vinyl comeback, I could really clean up! I'll just have to check to make sure I still have it.
All in all, it makes me proud to have bought those Superchunk CDs back in the 90s.
@brittleblood: don't know what year that Ramones/Iggy bill was, but I saw Iggy in Nov 80 (only because I wanted to see Gang of Four, who were the improbable opener), and you didn't miss a thing.
I guess what I'm saying is, the majors rarely took chances on anybody who didn't already have at least one or two finished albums and some decent UK and/or European sales numbers. They preferred to wait until they could grab a sure thing, so that they wouldn't have to risk anything on production costs, and the bands were fine with that because it was the only way to get into all the big retail outlets. You see less of that today because of digital distribution - bands don't care so much about getting their product into more brick-and-mortar shops when so few people are buying CDs. And of course pop music in general isn't the dominant genre it once was anyway, sales-wise... you just have to lower your expectations, because the Big Bucks just aren't there anymore. What little remains is probably gobbled up by executive salaries and iTunes.