Indie Rock
I Look the part
A. Bathing Habits
1.Do not completely disregard washing
2.Alter times you wash your hair to get a greasy sheen.
B.Shirt wear
1.Vibrant colors
2.Stay away from black and white
3.Let it look like you got it from a thrift store without it having to be from a thrift store
C.Transportation
1. Your car cannot look to nice and the original sticker price should be below $20k
II The History
A. The 60's
1.The Velvet Underground
had beginnings of punk and new wave in their music
B. The 70's
1.Post Velvet Underground gave way to punk.
2.Punk became successful and then ceased to be indie rock
3.Post-Punk comes in with bands like The Talking heads, and The Pretenders. The Clash ended the post-punk scene taking it away from indie rock.
C. The 80's
1.Changes from punk music to college music.
a. Called so because college radio stations played the music mostly
2. Became popular because they werent scary. Top bands R.E.M, U2, and Camper Van Beethoven
3. Since bands became popular college deejay’s played darker music such as nirvana.
4. College music bacame known as “alternative”
5. The album “Nevermind” was released pushing nirvana into mainstream stopping them from being indie rock
III Familiarize with Current Indie Redcord Labels
A. Matador Records
1. A few of their most popular artists (e.g., Liz Phair, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion or JSBX) have distribution deals with Capitol Records.
2. Matador has become moderately successful, in many respects it's yesterday's news. Meaning you can say that JSBX older music is better.
B. More Indie Rock Labels
1.Merge, Kill Rock Stars, Lookout, Evil Teen, Amphetamine Reptile, Alternative Tentacles, Shimmy Disc, K Records, Touch and Go, 4AD, spinART, Thrill Jockey, The belated Trance Syndicate
C. The Labels themselves
1. Indie Rock Labels stay stylistically consistent. Meaning that one type sounds like the other bands on the label. Expecially on young record labels
IV Talk the Talk
A. Starting Safe
1. Sonic Youth
a. Every indie rocker likes them, so talk about Thurston Moore, the frontman/guitarist.
B. On to other bands
1. Since you cant talk about one band exclusivly talk about a band that isn’t on a label, some of the bands that are the best haven’t been put on a label yet.
2. Never make up a band
3. Read indie magazines
a. The more you know about bands and the history the more you’ll impress people.
V. Completing the Ruse
A. Familiarize yourself
1. Elephant 6 Collective of the Olivia Tremor Control, Apples in Stereo, and Neutral Milk Hotel.
a. The group of bands take up where the Rolling Stones “Their Satanic Majesties Request” and the Beatles’ “Revolver” left off.
B. Minneapolis in the 80’s
1. Drop band names like the Replacements, Hüsker dü, and Soul Asylum, they used to be cool.
2. Mention Peter Jesperson and say you “heard he’s got something new going on”
C. When an Indie Band Jumps to a Major Label
1. Sometimes it doesn’t mean much, other times it is the end of the band.
a. Sonic Youth were still cool, but the Goo Goo Dolls became different when they went to a major label.
b. There is no real way to tell if a band will remain popular with indie rockers once on a major label, you’ll just have to get knowledge on the band or you’ll cover will be blown.
Outline done from the following website: http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/indierock/indierock.html
