ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2014

cuz they came up earlier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzf7h3AR8Iw&t=1m43s

― lag∞n, Friday, January 30, 2015 12:12 PM (5 hours ago)

indie rock, iirc

this whole discussion should probably be on some indie thread but w/e, some history

my (US) pantheon for this type of stuff (n.b. I am 48) from 92-95 was Pavement, Sebadoh, & Unrest. Almost nobody outside of Ohio had heard about GBV until late 93 or 94, I saw them play a free show downtown in the summer of 93 and there were < 20 people. Sebadoh's "Gimme Indie Rock" had come out in 1991, and in my mind is still the most high profile use of the term.

It's funny now in retrospect to think about the 88-91 era, what I think of as the grunge years as opposed to the post-Nirvana alt-rock that the word came to describe. Mudhoney, Dinosaur, Pussy Galore, SY. The only traces of 90's indie were the first few releases by Drag City (Pavement's Demolition Plot 7", first two Royal Trux singles), the very early Sebadoh records, and Unrest's 2 albums for Caroline which were very different than their work w/Bridget Cross. Go back even earlier and you get college rock or whatever, another antecedent.

and then somehow from the late 90's where Sebadoh and GBV and Pavement were all the rage, we get this kinda thing that ppl touched on earlier

a major faction of non hipster indies in 2015 is like ppl who got into indie circa cute woodsy bearded lumbersexual picnic in a meadow animal-themed band names circa mid 00's but couldn't get down with the ensuing trends. (flopson)

I started to turn on indie rock when postrock became a thing, but I began to antagonize indie rock and indie rock fans when Death Cab and Rilo Kiley and Sufjan and Oberst became the inescapable leaders. (Johnny Fever)

so it seems to me like even the musical signifiers have mutated and changed, and that the word is just some free floating cultural signifier. I dunno.

I'm deliberately leaving out the whole pigfucker/AmRep/Dog Faced Hermans/The Ex/Fugazi/whatever thing because I don't think it was ever really "indie" in fact probably kinda hostile to the term. I mean, I love all of that stuff, but I see it as it's own thing, much more punk rock related as in sweaty basement shows or whatever.

Confused by what flopson was saying in that quote.

I liked the freak folk thing in 2005. I was a big fan of Animal Collective and the one Devendra album I had. it was interesting and refreshing until that style started getting co opted and flattened out by things like Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver before eventually becoming a default style that gets played on car adverts.

yah I think FE coined it? xp

― brain floss mix (sleeve), Friday, January 30, 2015 3:16 PM (3 hours ago)

Actually I read somewhere that Christgau came up w the term 'pigfuck'

that was hobbies

not sure i recognize the indie rock landscape described itt. ime, most major cities have a healthy, showgoing indie rock subculture dedicated to high-energy freakouts in small spaces. its local taste & character probably draws on and crosses over with garage rock, punk, hc, metal, noise and artmusic, but remains distinct and tacitly punk-oppositional. bands from these scenes rarely become super popular, but many thrive for quite a while in the niche. until a couple years ago, when i moved to siberia, i was still hooked in with, listening to and going out to see a lot of what i'd call indie rock: oh sees, ty segall, pissed jeans, deerhoof, oneida, wooden shjips, metz, tyvek, etc. that's still the essence of indie rock to me: loud yet accessible noise delivered in a small room delivered to an audience of nerds.

^ well, wasn't sure i recognized it prior to sleeve's last (excellent) post. lol, i'm sure i've run a similar breakdown at least five time on this site.

that's still the essence of indie rock to me: loud yet accessible noise delivered in a small room delivered to an audience of nerds.

a CIA black site

flopson otm re: types

it's always fun figuring out your taste against the backdrop of an archetype, seeing where you cleave to it and where you don't. and seeing where you're perfectly happy to be that archetype vs watching out for the danger of getting calcified in it (the latter especially with people getting older)

types

subcultures

genres

memories

vibes

albums

songs

friends

ipods

retweets

carles

Yeah flopson doing god's work
--Tim F

flopson otm re: types

it's always fun figuring out your taste against the backdrop of an archetype, seeing where you cleave to it and where you don't. and seeing where you're perfectly happy to be that archetype vs watching out for the danger of getting calcified in it (the latter especially with people getting older)
--lex pretend

aw :) love u guys

sometimes i do actually realise that i am becoming quite boring and that's when I am thankful for the people who say the things i want to say but less tiresomely than the way I would put it

I did notice that 9 out of the 25 albums I voted for were made by middle-aged women and briefly wondered whether that was me getting old and calcified but then I realised no one else, old or young, is much repping for those middle-aged women so it's more down to patriarchy

Of course you've repped for a few middle-aged men as well (Cohen, Waits)

(also Quik duh)

I like to think of myself as being untied to any scene or genre. But that all gets thrown into sharp relief come EOY when I realise I've listened to naff all metal, barely any hip hop and even less r'n'b and pop this year, despite really enjoying these genres when the time comes to hearing them. I started subscribing to Wire two years ago, so among other things it's shaped my listening landscape a lot more than top 40 radio.

Being untied to scenes and genres is exactly what would cause you to lose touch with them

dog latin maybe it's time you started following those scenes then. Every year you say you are disconnected but never try to alter that!

Reading The Wire will widen the schism too.

the non-hipster indies western us version i'm thinking of are over 40, worked in a record store or were in a industrial / neo folk / post punk band in the 90s, love the stooges and nick cave, opposed to hippies and prob. can now just be described as "conservative, eccentric"
― languagelessness (mattresslessness), Friday, January 30, 2015 2:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Oh man neofolk... That's a whole can of worms on its own, I fell into a wiki/Spotify hole one day trying to understand who was racist & who was into gay Nazi kink & who was just singing about sad trees and snowball

Lol snow not snowball

hah i read through the wikis for those guys every so often too just because i don't relate to them in any way

Stop reading magazines and just see what you find in the woods

what if you find a magazine in the woods

sad trees and snowball i expect

what if you find a magazine in the woods

then you won't have to wipe with leaves

And don't just look in one place, I often venture out of the woods, and sometimes I got right up on top of the old abandoned viaduct and see whats there too

pro tip: magazines under old board in vacant lot

contendo check yr webmail

Have you ever found porn in the woods?

areweoutofthewoods yetareweoutofthewoods yetareweoutofthewoods

woodsporn

best thread ever

did & done, cs

argh you can't keep the "fascist themes unspoken". are you singing about forests?? you are a nazi!! this is crystal clear.

― goole, Friday, August 17, 2012 1:57 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Got a copy of Workshop 19 from Hardwax yesterday!

Being untied to scenes and genres is exactly what would cause you to lose touch with them

― lex pretend, Saturday, January 31, 2015 1:35 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

dog latin maybe it's time you started following those scenes then. Every year you say you are disconnected but never try to alter that!

― Eric Burdon & War, On Drugs (Cosmic Slop), Saturday, January 31, 2015 3:34 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Reading The Wire will widen the schism too.

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, January 31, 2015 3:49 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Uh... isn't this what I'm saying?

ah never mind, who cares...?

I guess what I mean is, who's got the time? If I had more than 2, maybe 3 hours worth of music listening time a day then maybe I'd be able to check out all the latest things I'd like to, but I don't. And I don't see the point in specialising in just one style at a time. I have to be in a specific mood to listen to hip hop or metal, so it would be unnatural to spend a week just listening to one style unless I really wanted to. So I'm pretty happy being a dilettante in that respect.