pitchfork

3. then there ceased to be anything inherently notable or interesting about the idea of an indie band covering a pop tune, unless it was genuinely an awesome cover
4. and at that point why would your indie band try covering a pop tune? it's not going to seem inherently interesting, and chances are slim that you've got a version of a beyonce song or whatever that does something worthwhile with the original

― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Monday, January 31, 2011 11:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

to be all serious guy...

we go to live shows to see what artists can do with the songs they play, but also simply to see and hear the artists as human beings, to forge (or feign) a "personal connection" of some kind. i.e., the audience for live performance is often just as interested in the artists and what they reveal about themselves performatively as they are in the larger social environment or the music-as-music. in this sense, covers are personally revealing and thus an inherently interesting part of the live show, even if the performer isn't doing anything all that notable with them.

another way to look at it is to say that when an artist plays his/her own songs to an audience, the basic contract of the "live show" is upheld. an implicit promise comes with each purchased ticket: "you, my fan-friend, will spend an evening listening to songs you know and love." when material from an alien context is introduced to the performance, this implicit agreement is threatened. after all, an indie audience is collectively more likely to enjoy the indie music of the indie artist they've paid to see than they are the pop (or metal or hip hop or whatever) song the performer has suddenly introduced into the moment. fans are forced out of their "bonding moment" comfort bubbles and must ask themselves what this new thing might mean and whether or not they're okay with it.

every artist/fan relationship possesses a specific semiotic texture reflecting a web of aesthetic and social agreements. both discomfort and its partner, humor, are therefore present in any sudden transformation of that texture. there's nothing wrong with any of this.

>>>srsly though, am i the only one who considers travis' total earnestness about his taste to be a really freeing positive?

No. Reading the D-Plan website ca. 2002 probably played a part in preparing me to fully embrace pop music and stop feeling guilty about guilty pleasures. (The transition was complete after I discovered ILM in 2003.)

― Tyler/Perry's "Dude (Looks Like a Lady)" (jaymc), Tuesday, 1 February 2011 13:17 (2 hours ago)

xp I don't know if this contradicts any of what you're saying, but uh... I think it's a pretty well-established part of the "contract" in this case that the Plan will end the show with Travis shouting lyrics to one or two random songs over "OK Joke's Over" jamming -- not really sure that this bit of harmless and very-much-in-character fun takes anyone out of their comfort zone, altho it does give internet ppl something to roll their eyes at afterwards

of course there's a frisson of daring generated when a sensitive indie dude busts out his cover of an R&B hit, due to the fact that indie cats aren't necessarily into that kind of music, but the same thing goes on in dance music right? like the club audience is there for a certain beat & sound, and the DJ can generate tension by pushing against that box a bit, drawing in neighboring sounds or even crazy outliers. plus it's fun to spot quotations in the mix, to discern the implied narrative in a selection of records by other people.

Travis did this at open mics in college, going from say, Too Much Joy's "Crush Story" to "Baby's Got Back" or something. It was always earnest - he absorbed and loved lots of stuff, just like most people, including his audience.

I guess what I'm trying to say is just that the Dismemberment Plan is too unique a case to support a bunch of broader speculation about 'what indie dudes (are) like' -- I don't even really think of their jams as 'covers', and the 'meaning' or 'message' or whatever goes about as deep as the "Now Listening:" sidebar they used to have on their webpage.

like IIRC he did the lyrics of the Cheers theme song at one point -- is this a plea for a populist reappraisal of music usually denigrated as disposable/incidental, or maybe just a bit of fun?

hahaha there is no line in the sand of indie "approval" for Willow Smith that is or will ever be as deep as ILX's line for Ben Gibbard

seriously, though: I completely agree that there are obvious trends in what pop crosses over (under?) to this audience's attention, but I think putting it all down to what's "approved" or "okay to like" is sort of a self-fulfilling vision of things; some part of it is going to be a matter of actual taste and actual liking. that's how all crossover works, right? there's a slightly arbitrary and incomplete amount of pop that appeals here, and same for metal, and an arbitary and incomplete amount of indie that gets metalheads' attention, and so on. there are clearly types of indie/rock bands that are "okay to like" and "not okay to like" on ILX, but I'd never imagine that as some weird conspiracy of approval, just ... people's actual taste

lex i def lol'd the day you were twittering about neil young covering willow smith on jimmy fallon and didn't realize it was jimmy fallon imitating neil young...but it was an affectionate lol fyi

putting it all down to what's "approved" or "okay to like" is sort of a self-fulfilling vision of things; some part of it is going to be a matter of actual taste and actual liking. that's how all crossover works, right? there's a slightly arbitrary and incomplete amount of pop that appeals here, and same for metal, and an arbitary and incomplete amount of indie that gets metalheads' attention, and so on. there are clearly types of indie/rock bands that are "okay to like" and "not okay to like" on ILX, but I'd never imagine that as some weird conspiracy of approval, just ... people's actual taste

― oɔsıqɐu (nabisco), Tuesday, February 1, 2011 8:26 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

OTM.

otoh, there are mechanisms by which tastes get transmitted and authoritatively-granted "approval" does play into that. but that's okay, too. there are a lot of questionable assumptions behind criticism of the fact that the pitchfork audience is into the-dream but not R&B in general. i mean, pitchfork and their audience are indie-centric and there's no way around that. they're curious about the larger musical world and deserve credit for that, but their engagement with non-indie music is necessarily more superficial than their engagement with the likes of, say, wilco and animal collective. we all have the niches we more-or-less inhabit and from which we make dilettantish journeys into "new lands." maybe pfork and "generalist" critics in general are a bit pretentious in claiming to cover not just their beloved niche but music in general, but not uniquely pretentious, and i think we all know what the real focus is.

"otoh, there are mechanisms by which tastes get transmitted and authoritatively-granted "approval" does play into that. "

christ ur talking like this matters

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lemejcCaHL1qzngqr.gif

Remember when D-Plan covered DMB and it sounded exactly the same?

Are there any "major" "indie" artists who are like "I enjoy obscure punk singles from the 80s" or "2010 had lots of good bands on mini-labels such as random bizarre rock bands A B & C"

Or is this pretty much what we're stuck with? Lame indie losers trying to sound cool by covering current songs everyone has heard a million times?

ariel pink covered a semi-obscure 60s track on his record does that count?

Yeah that counts. And I would def label that track obscure.

If it weren't for my favorite 4 or 5 Dismemberment Plan songs I would probably really hate them.

Are there any "major" "indie" artists who are like "I enjoy obscure punk singles from the 80s" or "2010 had lots of good bands on mini-labels such as random bizarre rock bands A B & C"

sure. pink eyes is all into old punk and his band is on matador. tbh, i hear a lot of fondness for skatepunk and crossover thrash from indie types. not many covers though, that's true. indie covers of old punk tunes was kind of a thing for a while though, and maybe it's played out atm. otoh, indies are always big upping their kin, putting out fancy-colored split singles where they cover each other's tunes and shit.

I'm pretty sure "old punk single," "80s college-rock classic," and "1970s singer-songwriter tune" are still the big standard things for indie bands to cover, far more than contemporary pop

yung folks deciding it's ok to like u2 again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEXjvNFCtQw

"Remember when D-Plan covered DMB and it sounded exactly the same?

― billstevejim, Tuesday, February 1, 2011 12:30 PM (16 minutes ago) Bookmark"

i laughed

yung folks deciding it's ok to like u2 again

it's always been ok to like U2

re: pink eyes, i thought that 2xcd singles comp from a year ago was a billion times better than the fucked up album i was told was accessible cuz it had flutes and 7-minute prog-foo fighters hybrids about reincarnation

avril's rubbish too

rubbish twee indie singer with rubbish taste in pop music shockah

― the new mordant & zingy ilxor persona (ilxor), Tuesday, February 1, 2011 7:00 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

glad that's settled

glad i could assist

avril's had more than one awesome single btw

Fuck, remember when D-Plan covered Owl City and it sounded suspiciously similar? Are these guys ever in the same room at the same time?

Nirvana introduced me to The Wipers and Fang.. And believe it or not, NIN introduced me and many others to Joy Division. I'd like to think some actual young music fans who read Pitchfork might appreciate the cover choices by No Age and Japandroids in the same respect.. or even like Crystal Castles covering Platinum Blonde, who I had never heard of before 2 months ago.. Some bands have gotten it right in the past year or so.

Also MGMT are kinda cool for covering The Clean.

Are there any "major" "indie" artists who are like "I enjoy obscure punk singles from the 80s" or "2010 had lots of good bands on mini-labels such as random bizarre rock bands A B & C"

Los Campesinos, Foals, Dave Grohl all seem to be at pains to do one or both of these when able

covering old punk songs from the 80s is awesome, basically just like the traditions of folk music

video game coverage y'all

http://pitchfork.com/news/42385-pitchfork-announces-partnership-with-ikill-screeni/

super wilco 3 - 6.4 - bnm

wilco will love you baby

o cool i never knew how bad i wanted to read a nick sylvester essay about angry birds

hahahaha that's the only one of them i'm actually going to read :D

this is weird

i read it--it was actually pretty good

eh not that weird--some of the principals @ kill screen are ex-p4k dudes

Where is the ilxor poll compiling all of the Odd Future stories just like with the National and Wavves?

I'm not sure which headline I hate more.. "Fugazi Might Still Reunite One Day" or "Pixies Might Make Another Album One Day"

And of course both are currently in "most read"

top ten most read:

Take Cover: Radiohead: The King of Limbs
Radiohead to Play The King of Limbs on TV
Listen: The Black Keys Cover Buddy Holly
Go Behind the Scenes With Tyler, the Creator
Big Boi Talks Modest Mouse Collaboration
New Washed Out: "Eyes Be Closed"
Fugazi Might Still Reunite One Day
Watch: Thom Yorke DJs, Sings at L.A. Club
Decemberists' Conlee Diagnosed With Breast Cancer
Yup, Washed Out's Album Cover Was in Cosmo

3 radiohead, 2 washed out, 1 each black keys, odd future, big boi/modest mouse, fugazi, decemberists

thx 4 breaking that down

hahahaha u are truly mad

looks like p4k is the only entity in existence that still gives a shit about the new radiohead record

Scott to replace Bill Keller oh wait.

I've got a lot of love for Mark, I'm sure he'll do a great job.

yeah Mark is the man