Randomly Crap Out Your Opinions Thread

[Lowlander2]

So I got everyone's suggestions in this thread and took one big crash course on indie rock, and here are my impressions.

Atlas Genius - Trojans: For every right thing done in this song, it's brought down by the simple structure. I genuinely enjoyed the pulse effects and multiple guitars, but it sounds like the singer is singing the same three notes for the first thirty seconds, and there's no hook found within either. So, pretty boring, not crap, but not really going to listen to again.

Walk The Moon – Anna Sun: Shaky start (the guy suffers from Chad Kroeger's “you can hear when I'm taking a breath” syndrome), but overall a pretty great track. There are enough small patterns here and there, and I absolutely love that synth riff. When it kicks in, it really kicks in. It's a little poppy and kitsch, but overall, I really liked Anna Sun.

Airborne Toxic Event – Changing: I liked the way the guitar moved, but not much else. The clapping was too much a step in the pop direction, the synth they had here just sounded too weird, it reached the climax too quickly and ended on a low note. By this point, I listened to a few ATE songs, and I don't think I've liked any of them. In fact, they are the thesis of one major problem I have with a lot of indie rock: you could call it straight-up pop and nobody would know the difference.

Foster The People – Houdini: Great beat going on, the piano line is solid and the track has everything in it working well with each other. I only wish there was just a tiny little bit more going on, like a guitar solo or something. It drags a little bit towards the end, but I still really like it. Whoever thought this was a good track for SSX is a dummy, though.

The Big Pink – Dominos: Okay, this song must have been a parody. The chorus is the most repetitive thing I'm likely to ever hear, it's laden with unnecessary effects and the singer in the verses is so off-tune and ugly that it wraps back around to hilarious. Um, no.

Grouplove – Itchin' On A Photograph: Gonna pull a Cipher here. The instruments, especially a lot of the piano in the background, are really something else, and it almost makes the song great. But...that vocalist. When he's in his lower register, he sounds so bored he's going to fall asleep. In his higher register, it makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, that's how “nails on a chalkboard” his voice is. And then he tries to get a bit gritty with yelling, which is...probably even more embarrassing than the singing in Dominos. It's unsalvageable.

Hockey – Song Away: Love. Loooooove. It seemingly harks back to early new wave with how minimalistic it is, but that really works here. It's just a damn good song to listen to. Definitely a keeper.

Kevin Drew – Backed Out On The Cause: The foundations are there, but the performance in itself is a little too wonky. There's an interesting lead guitar progression, but half of the time it's buried underneath layers of sound. Towards the end, the singer shows signs of fatigue, making simple mistakes that should never ever be in a studio recording. Still, it's alright.

Built to Spill – Goin' Against Your Mind: Nine minutes...it's a pleasant nine minutes, but it's still no The Camera Eye. It's just too mundane, too average to justify the length, and while it never got grating, it was not once engaging either, and this is why Ghost Of Perdition is the greatest song of all time. Still, I can admire how resilient the drummer is with his bass pedal, and were this song in RB, that would be the hardest part.

Dirty Projectors – Temecula Sunrise: Ooh, is that beginning shaky. The voice is good, but the guy using it doesn't know how to. Once the band kicks in, however, it's golden. Great hook, lots of variation and a *****in' solo to boot. Some parts feel a little fallible, but overall, it's a great little number.
Built To Spill – Conventional Wisdom: Not sure how to feel on this one. While there is technically more going on here than in Goin' Against Your Mind, it still feels less interesting altogether. The instrumental break is alright, but there really isn't enough going on to make it work. It's just a little too bland and forgettable.

Sebadoh – License To Confuse: Good hook, and it all works, even in its simplicity, but damn is it short. Not much else to say, really.

Yo La Tengo – Today Is The Day: Not a fan of this one. The vocalist sounds completely bored with her job, the guitar has a little fancywork but not much, and the drums are so dreary. It's not just that it's the same beat: the snare sounds like the prototype for what would appear on St. Anger. It's just a boring song.

Diagnosis? I'm warming to it, but the basic problems are still there. There are instances where indie artists can innovate or just create great song structures, but it seems to be the genre most susceptible to human error. Considering how simple some of these songs get, that makes no sense. When the songs are moving or doing something, I usually find it pleasureable. But that's another big problem: a lot of indie rock, particularly the more artsy styles, have no true substance. I'm open to more insights into this genre, but you can opt me out of the slower, duller affairs that play at something more.

[Gowienczyk]

Could of sworn the Built to Spill song I suggested was Conventional Wisdom.

particularly the more artsy styles, have no true substance.

Yeah, no. Calling bands like Don Caballero "no substance" is just plain wrong. I have this dying impression a lot of the stuff you were shown was from the modern scene which can be pretty robotic and just plain faceless (which is evident when my friends dont know the difference between MGMT, Phoenix or Gotye). You are certainly better than to make baseless statements like this.

the snare sounds like the prototype for what would appear on St. Anger.

Yeah, no.

Also, I completely don't understand why you are expecting complexity in a genre that adores minimalism.

[Lowlander2]

Could of sworn the Built to Spill song I suggested was Conventional Wisdom.

You did, but someone else recommended Goin' Against My Mind

Yeah, no. Calling bands like Don Caballero "no substance" is just plain wrong. I have this dying impression a lot of the stuff you were shown was from the modern scene which can be pretty robotic and just plain faceless (which is evident when my friends dont know the difference between MGMT, Phoenix or Gotye). You are certainly better than to make baseless statements like this.

Yeah, no.

Also, I completely don't understand why you are expecting complexity in a genre that adores minimalism.

Maybe substance and complexity are bad words. But sometimes...I was bored. No other real way of putting it. I'd sit there waiting for something, anything, to happen. And, y'know, for the most part, all I need in a song is a little energy, or a good hook, or a nice voice; I might only need one noteworthy element each time.

I don't demand complexity. I think my favourites of the bunch were Anna's Sun and Song Away, which are very simple indeed.

[Gowienczyk]

Depends what you feel energy should be. As far as I've know it to be, indie/alt rock can be pretty damn laid back and I'm not talking just about vocal delivery. I still can't figure what you are trying to find in the music. I sometimes wonder if you have a problem similar to megatallica, who essentially was looking for "riffs" and thick tonality from what I recall and with a metal background I suppose it makes sense. I'm sure Stasis and others could give a better counterpoint, I'll just move on to saying it's fantastic and I don't look for things in it I'm not. Also, if I just wanted "energy" out of my music, I'd have a pretty limited vocabulary of sound.

Indie/Alt rock is fantastic.

[TheDescent]

I'm glad you liked my choice. I'm not into indie that much, but man, I love that band, and that album. The girl singin' is great. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDD5E1KHIIA

There it is, Stillness is the move. Those high falsetto notes makes me shiver everytime. I love that groove too.

[FlyGuyLXI]

I've never considered Hockey and Airborne Toxic event indie rock bands. Foster the People are a grey zone. They have that cliche indie sound but they seem to enjoy electropop and Balearic overtones.

[Rocket2Russia]

I think the primary problem with your introduction to indie rock is that you were given abysmal recommendations for your background. Coming from a punk background myself, I was raised through the hardcore movement into the alternative rock (with more emphasis on the rock) guys like The 'Mats, Sonic Youth (basically This Band Could Be Your Life:P) and finally into p4kcore before finally settling into "getting" a lot of indie rock. If your background is in metal, then what everyone should be doing for you is providing you with more impactful early Alternative Rock that gradiently transfers into the pop schlock of what are ultimately mediocre acts like Foster the People and such. The only thing you'll have to do is leave your expectation of a "guitar solo" (lolwut) at the door.

Some recs to maybe get you off on the right foot in the alt-rock realm:
Sonic Youth: Kool Thing
The Flaming Lips: She Don't Use Jelly
Modest Mouse: Dark Center of the Universe
Radiohead: Electioneering
Super Furry Animals: She's Got Spies
(all songs)

Then for indie rock, by this time, I was into softer and airier deliveries in general, so I was really into like Broken Social Scene, The National, Joanna Newsom (who really doesn't deserve her pigeonholing in indie rock), and The New Pornos, as well as more of the Elephant 6 stuff (which includes the dreaded Neutral Milk Hotel). Maybe Gowi could provide some better recommendations to suit this progression.

[Runesmith]

I'm going to agree with Gowi and say that you've been given an unfortunate idea of what indie really is. At the risk of sounding like elitist scum (aren't we all?), most of the bands you've people have told you to listen to aren't even alternative rock, let alone part of the indie movement. Just to throw my indie hat into the ring, I'd definitely rec looking into the following bands/songs to illustrate indie's diversity:

Autolux - "Turnstile Blues"
Dinosaur Jr. - "In A Jar"
Royal Trux - "Junkie Nurse"
Class Actress - "Keep You"
Hospitality - "Betty Wang"
Trans Am - "Futureworld"
Tokyo Police Club - "Bambi" (TPC is grey area indie, but they're fun regardless)
Grinderman - "Evil"
The Sugarcubes - "Deus"
Yeasayer - "Madder Red"
Stereolab - "Cybele's Reverie"

[Rocket2Russia]

Royal Trux - "Junkie Nurse"

THIS IS THE BEST!!! Concur with all of what Runesmith had to offer, but this in particular is essential.

[a21schizoidman]

elitist scum

you say that like it's a bad thing

but yeah, i agree with R2R, Gowie, and Runesmith in their posts, fully