Popdose: Dw. Dunphy On… The New Indie Stereotypes
Zack
· 10 months ago
As much as I love the music of Explosions in the Sky (and I certainly do), I wish they hadn't fallen into the trap which you've described. With album titles like "Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever" and song titles like "The Only Moment We Were Alone," it's hard to defend them.
kshane
· 10 months ago
I blame dis guy:
Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
and especially her:
Fiona Apple - WHEN THE PAWN hits the conflicts he thinks like a king / What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight / And he'll win the whole thing before he enters the ring / There's no body to batter when your mind is your might / So when you go solo, you hold your own hand / And remember that depth is the greatest of heights / And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land / And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right
Yes, that's the full title of her album.
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
Oh, I blame Conor Oberst for much, much more than that Bright Eyes title...
kshane
· 10 months ago
He really is the embodiment of the whole thing, isn't he?
Chris
· 10 months ago
The most irritating band name has to be "Does It Offend You, Yeah?". To which the answer must be "Yeah, it does"
steve
· 10 months ago
That is annoying. Perhaps "Someone still loves you Boris Yeltson" can compete for that title...
Old_Davy
· 10 months ago
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin is a really stupid name for a band, but man, they make some good music.
I find that a lot of indie bands tend to have one of three words in their names: 1) Black 2) Bear 3) Wolf
So the ultimate indie band name would be Black Wolf Bear. Or Black Bear Wolf. Or Wolf Bear Black. Wolves Wear Black. Black Bears Wear Wolves. Black Bears Smack Wolves.
And you must cite The Beach Boys as an influence.
This reminds me of a time in college, 1981 or 1982, when a musician friend and I were trying to think of a name for his newly formed band. Even though they played metal, he wanted it to have a positive, forceful band name.
Scott: What's the most positive, forceful thing you can think of? Dave: God Scott: We can't call the group "God" Dave: Why? Not powerful enough? How about "God With A Gun"? Scott: (laughs) Let's keep God out of it. "Dog With A Gun" Dave: (howls) "Dog With A Pun"
and that was it. (Needless to say, there were a lot of potato chips consumed during our brainstorming session.)
For two days they were known as "Dog With A Pun" until the bass player threatened to quit and then they changed it to "664: Satan's Neighbor".
steve
· 10 months ago
You forgot a few....
- Be a vegetarian (or at least say you are)
- Pretend you've never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls or John Mayer (for fear of what your other insecure friends may think of you)
- Claim that you only like "insert band name here's" old stuff, you know, before they got big or before 50 people knew about them.
- Robotically and like a lemming adjust all opinions about matters political to the far far left.
- Wear the ironic ringer t-shirt (they just won't go away)
- Use the word 'metronome' in a song.
- Claim you like Kraftwerk
kshane
· 10 months ago
Not vegetarian, vegan.
terje
· 10 months ago
So you finally discovered the path to success, Dw. Good for you! I just read an article written by a Norwegian sociologist slash parody glam rocker about indie rockers. It was pretty awesome, but it's written in Norwegian, so there's no point linking to the article. I translated a couple of paragraphs just for fun. It's a tongue-in-cheek translation, so please indulge me:
"On paper, Indie culture is a breeding ground for creativity and fantasy. In reality, it's a playground with easily recognizable cardboard characters: Four white boys between 18 and 35, occasionally a female bassist, performing semi-melodic verse/refrain-tunes with thin, flaky vocals, sharp, intrusive guitar chords and a bumpy, slightly hectic ryhthm section. It sounds speculatively primitive. Raw, and always a bit off-center. Even at its cutest indie has a self-aware attitude that smells like student flats, art school, cult movies, thick books and dry wine. And a large record collection. Their wardrobe is equally calculated in all its simplicity: Tight t-shirts, tight jeans, second-hand suits and neckties, shoulder-strapped bags and - the no. 1 indie symbol - anorak or parkas. Even their bodies are genre-specific. The indie boy is pale, thin, small, wears his hair short with a tightly cropped forelock, alternatively in a semi-long, unwashed bob. And more recently: beards, beards, beards.
Indie stands for freedom and individualism, but within a strict framework. You mustn't play or sing too well. You shall worship your guitar, but you must never play a guitar solo. You shall despise technology, but not old technology (analogue synths). Indie music is consciously underproduced, and their stage shows are stripped of special effects, theatrical extravaganza and they're never actually playing for an audience..."
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
Somewhere, Stephen Malkmus is crying out, "Finally someone gets me."
edmur
· 10 months ago
The Norwegians nailed it!
Ted
· 10 months ago
"Even at its cutest indie has a self-aware attitude that smells like student flats, art school, cult movies, thick books and dry wine."
Shouldn't clove cigarettes be in that list as well?
DavidMedsker
· 10 months ago
This is awesome. I wrote a section in my year-end music piece about bad band names, and how it's not just for bad bands anymore (Airborne Toxic Event, Sunny Day Sets Fire). One fan of Unicycle Loves You took me to task for making fun of their name, but really; Unicycle Loves You? That's the name you came up with, the one that you think will look great on the venue marquee? The Number 12 Looks Like You, are you fucking kidding me?
These people need to get laid more. But I'm guessing they avoid sex because it's what normal people do.
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
What gets me is that there might be great, I mean really great, new bands out there who will fall into this trap... Name your band like you'd name your child, and oh, won't somebody please think of the children?!
DavidMedsker
· 10 months ago
Funny you should mention children. I hate how crazy baby names have gotten, too. One of the women who watches my son (Garrett) in day care just named her son Jaxson. Wow.
Man, do I sound like an old crank. "There are too many letters in the alphabet. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot."
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
"Here are three words I never want to hear on TV again. 1) Bra. 2) Horny! 3) Family Jewels."
JonCummings
· 10 months ago
Amen to that, brother. And now I have to go into my son Godfish Swinesong's room and turn his iPod off.
jesselun
· 10 months ago
Remember...you've never heard of Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin. Only the 80s bands who brought us skinny jeans
robotkiller
· 10 months ago
This is great. I've had a
robotkiller
· 10 months ago
I feel you on this 100 percent. Indie rock has become everything it wasn't supposed to be, but, really, isn't the whole "genre escaping from the clutches of rock traditions to just make music becoming yet another rock tradition" thing pretty much inevitable? We've seen it replayed from punk through grunge/alt-rock and into indie-rock. Maybe I'm cynical, but isn't this destination the end of the line for every hotshit new genre? As Joe Strummer said "He who fucks nuns will later join the church..."
~Matt
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
I like to believe that those who were destined to be artists find new ways of doing their thing, messing with the conventions, outright avoiding some of them. Meanwhile, those who were only in it for the "weird chicks and free beer" will become what they need to become in order to make it happen. There's a reason why people know who Joe Strummer even is, long after copycat minions and followers have given up and gotten "proper jobs".
Arend_Anton
· 10 months ago
Goddamn, Dunphy. You're my hero. I have rambled on about this to friends so many times. Indie rock has started to follow a really lame formula and I CANNOT TAKE IT ANYMORE.
Dolph
· 10 months ago
Great column as always. Next week, I'm hoping for flat-out abject bowing at the feet of Terry Taylor. Mainly so I won't be so lonely down there.
Dolph
· 10 months ago
Oops, you already did that extremely well in September. Expansion to the rest of the Lost Dogs, can I dare to hope?
DwDunphy
· 10 months ago
For the sake of managing expectations, next week does not feature Terry Taylor, but come by anyway. I think you'll appreciate our guest commentator.
About 7 years ago my friends and I came up with a party game in which we had to come up with the most ridiculous band/album names we could. Mind you, it was for another game (long story), but to this day it's a lot of fun to do. I'm surprised no one's used San Quentin Tarantino, Come On Jesus I'll Buy You a Smoothie, or A Perfectly Cromulent Word. Special points went to a friend who decided "And Four Other Bands" was perfect band name for a marquee.
All Comments
Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
and especially her:
Fiona Apple - WHEN THE PAWN hits the conflicts he thinks like a king / What he knows throws the blows when he goes to the fight / And he'll win the whole thing before he enters the ring / There's no body to batter when your mind is your might / So when you go solo, you hold your own hand / And remember that depth is the greatest of heights / And if you know where you stand, then you know where to land / And if you fall it won't matter, cuz you'll know that you're right
Yes, that's the full title of her album.
I find that a lot of indie bands tend to have one of three words in their names:
1) Black
2) Bear
3) Wolf
So the ultimate indie band name would be Black Wolf Bear. Or Black Bear Wolf. Or Wolf Bear Black. Wolves Wear Black. Black Bears Wear Wolves. Black Bears Smack Wolves.
And you must cite The Beach Boys as an influence.
This reminds me of a time in college, 1981 or 1982, when a musician friend and I were trying to think of a name for his newly formed band. Even though they played metal, he wanted it to have a positive, forceful band name.
Scott: What's the most positive, forceful thing you can think of?
Dave: God
Scott: We can't call the group "God"
Dave: Why? Not powerful enough? How about "God With A Gun"?
Scott: (laughs) Let's keep God out of it. "Dog With A Gun"
Dave: (howls) "Dog With A Pun"
and that was it. (Needless to say, there were a lot of potato chips consumed during our brainstorming session.)
For two days they were known as "Dog With A Pun" until the bass player threatened to quit and then they changed it to "664: Satan's Neighbor".
- Be a vegetarian (or at least say you are)
- Pretend you've never heard of the Goo Goo Dolls or John Mayer (for fear of what your other insecure friends may think of you)
- Claim that you only like "insert band name here's" old stuff, you know, before they got big or before 50 people knew about them.
- Robotically and like a lemming adjust all opinions about matters political to the far far left.
- Wear the ironic ringer t-shirt (they just won't go away)
- Use the word 'metronome' in a song.
- Claim you like Kraftwerk
"On paper, Indie culture is a breeding ground for creativity and fantasy. In reality, it's a playground with easily recognizable cardboard characters: Four white boys between 18 and 35, occasionally a female bassist, performing semi-melodic verse/refrain-tunes with thin, flaky vocals, sharp, intrusive guitar chords and a bumpy, slightly hectic ryhthm section. It sounds speculatively primitive. Raw, and always a bit off-center. Even at its cutest indie has a self-aware attitude that smells like student flats, art school, cult movies, thick books and dry wine. And a large record collection. Their wardrobe is equally calculated in all its simplicity: Tight t-shirts, tight jeans, second-hand suits and neckties, shoulder-strapped bags and - the no. 1 indie symbol - anorak or parkas. Even their bodies are genre-specific. The indie boy is pale, thin, small, wears his hair short with a tightly cropped forelock, alternatively in a semi-long, unwashed bob. And more recently: beards, beards, beards.
Indie stands for freedom and individualism, but within a strict framework. You mustn't play or sing too well. You shall worship your guitar, but you must never play a guitar solo. You shall despise technology, but not old technology (analogue synths). Indie music is consciously underproduced, and their stage shows are stripped of special effects, theatrical extravaganza and they're never actually playing for an audience..."
Shouldn't clove cigarettes be in that list as well?
These people need to get laid more. But I'm guessing they avoid sex because it's what normal people do.
Man, do I sound like an old crank. "There are too many letters in the alphabet. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot."
~Matt
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rabbit-Is-a-Spher...
or buy it at www.twistandshout.com. and thank you, we appreciate your perspective nonetheless...