Indie Dead - The Back (Whip) Lash Starts Here
3 Comments Published by Tom on Saturday, September 16, 2006 at 14:10.
There is an article in this months Word Magazine where writer Andrew Collins asks is indie dead?
It's a well written piece and Ian from HDIFTBL also contributes to the debate and there is a thread about it on his message boards. Whilst I agree with much of what Collin's writes - take a look at Tescos indie chart for instance - he does not give any credence to the DIY ethos to what I call bedroom recording artists who, to me anyway, maintain a spirt of what indie was about in the mid 1980's and dare I say it around the time of the C86 tape.
Maybe Collins should take a look at some of the bands on My Space who maintain this indie ethic. Most of these bands hail from Scotland which is, in my book, the home of indie pop - you only have to look at those artists who come from that country in order to back up my theory, many of which have featured previously on these pages.
I like the way these bands have seemed to have taken parts of old bands named and then joined them together. These include Strawberry Whiplash (Switchblade Meat doesn't have the same ring to it!!!) and Bubblegum Lemonade (Splash Baby! Now that sounds good).
Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through [My Space link]
Bubblegum Lemonade - The Tomorrow People [My Space link]
The Search Engines - Lost Summer Days [My Space link
Tesco Chainstore Mascara - Just The Weight You Are [My Space link]
Finally on the death of indie you had better not tell the Swedes.
It's a well written piece and Ian from HDIFTBL also contributes to the debate and there is a thread about it on his message boards. Whilst I agree with much of what Collin's writes - take a look at Tescos indie chart for instance - he does not give any credence to the DIY ethos to what I call bedroom recording artists who, to me anyway, maintain a spirt of what indie was about in the mid 1980's and dare I say it around the time of the C86 tape.
Maybe Collins should take a look at some of the bands on My Space who maintain this indie ethic. Most of these bands hail from Scotland which is, in my book, the home of indie pop - you only have to look at those artists who come from that country in order to back up my theory, many of which have featured previously on these pages.
I like the way these bands have seemed to have taken parts of old bands named and then joined them together. These include Strawberry Whiplash (Switchblade Meat doesn't have the same ring to it!!!) and Bubblegum Lemonade (Splash Baby! Now that sounds good).
Strawberry Whiplash - Falling Through [My Space link]
Bubblegum Lemonade - The Tomorrow People [My Space link]
The Search Engines - Lost Summer Days [My Space link
Tesco Chainstore Mascara - Just The Weight You Are [My Space link]
Finally on the death of indie you had better not tell the Swedes.
Haven't read the article.... but when I posted on the HDIF message board I was also wondering about bands that weren't indiepop and how they fitted in. There are plenty of bands who are DIY and not indiepop. Indie as a term is redudant to me. The DIY ethos isn't.
It was nowt to do with indie pop at all just the term general indie, how it was used 20 years ago and how it's used now. To me indie is now just a marketing term rather than an attitude or genuine belief in music as it was when the term was first coined. The Tescos download indie chart just demonstrates how redundant a term it's become. That's why i set up the site to try and restore the term indie to what it was. I've failed - sob.....
you've not failed.
indie as a term is redundant - the ethos behind as we all know is thriving at the moment thanks to blogs like this, myspace etc.