Intelligent Life On Planet Rock
Landfill Indie
Bored broadsheet music journo phones in lazy opinion piece about "landfill indie":
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/does-the-...
A few comments (from a former indie kid):
1. C86 was not the seminal indie tape. Creation's Doing It For The Kids was the one that really mattered.
2. The Stone Roses, who regularly top all-time favourite alternative LPs lists, were the very definition of landfill indie.
3. The writer seems to have missed the point that indie has continued to thrive since the 80s, only it's artists like Aphex Twin and Crystal Castles rather than Blur and The Pigeon Detectives.
4. The Independent is still capable of memorable music writing: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/album-kate...
- More from busker_du.
- Login or register to post comments
-
From the people that understand....
Fast Show - Indie Club
Ha ha ha!
Don't even recall seeing that clip before, but it's priceless! Nothing more to be said, really.
Point 2
Sorry disagree. Not sure how Stone Roses can be called landfill indie. Landfill indie to me means fairly non-descript generic guitar bands that don't stand out from the others. Hardly the Stone Roses.
It should be pointed out...
...that Andy Gill dolled out 5 stars to that Ting-Tings album, which based on what I've heard of it is every bit as grating as Kate Nash.
And yeah, I don't see The Stone Roses as being part of the landfill brigade either.
I actually quite like the
I actually quite like the article, love John Niven's quotes and agree with Andrew Collins and Simon Reynolds. Tend to think of these sorts of acts as 'NME bands' but landfill indie, why not. Isn't to say there's not still a lot of brilliant independent music kicking about on the margins, as you point out busker du.
Back in the late 80s
The Stone Roses were a fresh, unique new thing in that context(yet also somewhat retro of course) and they moved their jingly jangly guitar thing (with great tunes) into something more funky later on. Whereas the dominant indie music of now comes from bands that still follow a tired old handed down style which is more stale than a very stale food item could be, taking its influences from a very limited, conservative gene pool, as it were, leading to what you might call in(die)-breeding, hence landfill - meaning a piling up of unneeded excess.
Surely
The Stone Roses inspired the insipid to locate their 'dance element'. They begat a whole host of bad including My Jealous God, Northside, Northern Uproar etc
Just listened to Scouting For Girls...
I won't be doing so again. Pathetic.
Oh Lord, Scouting For Girls...
...that putrid 'She's So Lovely' song makes Keane sound like Slayer!
The Stone Roses - I must have missed a memo ....
A few reasons I don't think the Stone Roses really stand out from the crowd:
- Like, say, The Strokes, I didn't hear anything new in their records. They were derivative of a host of sixties bands, and spawned the Charlatans and the Bluetones.
- The first LP was badly produced. John Leckie is now credited with the "sound" of that LP, but much like Jimmy Miller's mix on Exile On Main Street, I'm not sure that the sound was entirely intentional.
- The Happy Mondays did the "there's always been a dance element to our music" thing a whole lot better.
- "Elizabeth My Dear".
- Ian Brown can't sing.
I did quite enjoy The Second Coming though.
One man's meat etc
But the 9:53 version of Fool's Gold is possibly the funkiest, danciest piece of music put together by a bunch of Mancs ever.
Happy Mondays? Not a funky bone in their collective bodies. All the dancey stuff is down to Paul Oakenfold, Andy Wetherall and Steve Osbourne.
Also - you can't blame bands for the shortcomings of their copyists. Otherwise you'd be blaming Dusty for Duffy.
Stone Roses
'I Am The Resurrection' extended outro and 'She Bangs The Drums' have a bit of a groove going on too. Yes, as said above, Ian Brown is vocally limited (I remember Glastonbury - oh dear)but sounds right for the music on the record. Love this:
Somethings Burning
Completely agree on the Mondays point. Only funky when they got a producer.