Sick of these Indie pop bands?

DerKaiser

I have a rock band on the go, it's done quite well over the last while, it was straightforward hard rock, kind of Led Zeppeliny sounding, but it went a bit stale and friends of the band told us the problem was it was old fashioned and a bit samey, but these people listen to a lot of modern Indie pop, which is just a rip off of early 80s new wave, and it was ****e then too IMHO

Then our drummer left us to join an Indie pop band which was surprising as he was techniquely gifted and we were giving him the opportunity to really show off as we were very progressive and quite able musicians, the band he went to while being good fun, are quite basic.

So what's the answer? My tastes are as eclectic as hell, but as to what I want to play my roots are rock'n'roll, blues and R&B, so if I started playing indie sounding stuff, I would be lying to myself, but I would like to do something different, I love lot's of flakey bands, Pink Floyd, Queen and maybe going down a different road while still being true to myself is the answer.

I am based in dublin, I style myself as a songwriter and have written nearly 160 songs, I have a belting tenor voice, am very experienced in doing harmonies, play quite a high standard lead guitar (with a very distinctive style), I also play bass, piano + keyboards, drums, harmonica & mondolin.

Is there anyone out there who would like to put a band together so good that silences these crappy little indie/emo bands once and for all?

Anyone not afraid to be a big deal?

Rob

Jay1971

If I wasn't in my current circumstances, I would answer your call to arms against the depressing turn musical trends seem to have taken recently.

Best of luck, mate.


Jay.

nyarlothothep

I hear you on these indie bands. I don't understand how playing solos on guitar and writing kick ass riffs which you can go YEAH! and air guitar along to ever got stale. Theres no originality in 80s rehash music. Even the guitar sound is predominantly tinny and shrill ie. crap. Its way too much about the image and its not much fun, its kind of like a form of musical Calvinism, no solos, no self parody, mundane lyrics. And then these bands get described like they're producing high art by the critics. The backlash will be swift and good hopefully.

Lets keep it on topic people

JimiTime

yeh i nearly p1ssed meself when i heard there was a genre called 'shoe gaze'. If thats not a put off from going to a gig, I don't know what is:D Thing is, music is just a matter of taste and opinion. the whole 'indie' scene is reaching critical mass at this stage IMO. Just bland same old same old. There's defo gonna be another new genre or rehashed genre coming. Surely this blandness must end??? Anyway, best of luck DerKeiser.

DerKaiser

Jay1971 wrote: »

If I wasn't in my current circumstances, I would answer your call to arms against the depressing turn musical trends seem to have taken recently.

Best of luck, mate.


Jay.

Thanks for your words of comfort brother Jason! Maybe in slow steps our new blues band will take over the world! But then again, blues was never really mainstream!

Jay1971

Here's hoping, mate.

I must say, I was encouraged at the sound we made a couple of weeks ago. I think we may, at the very least, have the power to make a few old rockers very happy.....and not in the middle-aged groupie way.... Although, in for a cent, in for a Euro, eh?

How're the arrangements for Monday going?

Jay.

ShriekingSheet

Rob,

Re: your OP, I say stick with what you like to play. If people aren't into it en mass at the time you're doing it at, that's just bad luck.

People are inspired by contemporaries and can have a wide audience which is fine. Others will turn on the radio to see what's popular and base their band-style on that.

Mulan

Hi All

I'm 33 and my music taste sends some people into hysterics. I was at the christphor cross concert recently at vicar street (which was great) and had to explain to my friends who he was. The Eagles new album is great.
I feel I'm very far removed from a 23 year olds taste in music. I just don't get it. But thats me.
I promised myself I wouldn't go to a big gig in croke park again as i feel unless your within 20 or 30 yards of the act, you might as well be at home watching the tv. But My wife and I are off to see celine dion next may. A couple of my mates couldn't believe it, but I saw her about 10 years ago in lansdowne road and it was fantastic.

So my taste in music is diverse, it nearly covers the lot, even a trip to an opera once a year is money well spent. Its about the sound, the feeling the lyrics the complete package. It cant be about being accepted. I pride myself on this.

I'd love to get together other musicians an play (I did this for a while) but for now its the growing of my family and an occasional gig with a few friends.

Bye for now
Thanks

Frankiestylee

Careful now, we may stray off topic

ferdi

Der Kaiser I agree with you 100%.

My question is as follows:

Through the last 50 years or so especially, the popular music of the day has reflected the mood and energy of the youth of that era - what will the indie pop and emo music that is popular today say about us in 50 years? surely we will be branded and the moany wanker generation?

it is really sad to see this type of music outstripping rock and blues these days but if you look for it you will always find people playing real heartfelt ballsy tunes so keep the faith.

DerKaiser

Jay1971 wrote: »

Here's hoping, mate.

I must say, I was encouraged at the sound we made a couple of weeks ago. I think we may, at the very least, have the power to make a few old rockers very happy.....and not in the middle-aged groupie way.... Although, in for a cent, in for a Euro, eh?

How're the arrangements for Monday going?

Jay.

I think we'll be a bigger bang than a few ageing hippies man, Mon is go, Temple bar music centre from 5.30, you're right, I was really excited about the sound we made and so was Darren, and I don't care how much they pay me, I'm not doing favours for old rockers!!

DerKaiser

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Rob,

Re: your OP, I say stick with what you like to play. If people aren't into it en mass at the time you're doing it at, that's just bad luck.

People are inspired by contemporaries and can have a wide audience which is fine. Others will turn on the radio to see what's popular and base their band-style on that.

Ok, appreciate that, but is that because it's what they want, or because it's all that's available?

A lot of bands in this latest "scene" are so bland to be almost sleep enducing, what do they say about our times? What pillars of conciousness are being left by this generation? How many albums recorded since 2000 will ever go up there with the likes of Sgt. Peppers? How many singles will joust with Bohemien Rhapsody? Not one, because pop has no ambition anymore, where are the Phil Lynotts and Rory Gallaghers on the Irish scene? Not being noticed because this indie weed growth is killing music.

Royale with Cheese

I've seen a couple of pretty good bands recently playing classic rock. Yes they were good musicians, wrote good songs and performed very well... but it was all a bit samey and dated. I love Led Zeppelin & co. and think the majority of music being released these days is utter sh*te but I think it's more fun to be in these 'modern' classic rock bands rather than actually listen to them.

I dunno, I can't quite put my finger in it cos I love the old stuff and hate indie pop. Modern rock music really is in a sad state though.

Good luck with the band!!

DrumSteve

anyone hear of glyder?

seen em play there a while ago they were real good...though they were VERY much like thin lizzy(no bad thing lol).

check em out if you are sick of this indie ****e.

kona

DrumSteve wrote: »

anyone hear of glyder?

seen em play there a while ago they were real good...though they were VERY much like thin lizzy(no bad thing lol).

check em out if you are sick of this indie ****e.

they opened for wasp last year(strange i know) but ye they were all right!

fish-head

I'm trying to put together an old school rock n roll/blues/r&b band.. interested? I could definitely use somebody with a belting tenor voice.

ShriekingSheet

DerKaiser wrote: »

Ok, appreciate that, but is that because it's what they want, or because it's all that's available?

A lot of bands in this latest "scene" are so bland to be almost sleep enducing, what do they say about our times? What pillars of conciousness are being left by this generation? How many albums recorded since 2000 will ever go up there with the likes of Sgt. Peppers? How many singles will joust with Bohemien Rhapsody? Not one, because pop has no ambition anymore, where are the Phil Lynotts and Rory Gallaghers on the Irish scene? Not being noticed because this indie weed growth is killing music.

Eh, well hang on a sec... Your stating your own opinion as fact here. Every generation, including the good ones have it's share of sleep enducing bands. And many would call the old school stuff you love "sleep enducing". But that's just opinion - not fact.

I see your point about the difference between 60's and 70's monstorous classic albums and what we have now but there's a few factors that affect this - it's not just a case of music being better. Nostalgia, more scope for myth and exagurration with less media coverage etc contribute to this. It's not just with music. Take football - Gordon Banks, Eusabio, George Best - they're the true greats. You hear stories about them from your dad, you hear old commentators reminiscing about them - you can't just type em into youtube and get half their life streaming in front of you. There's a mystique there. How can a modern footballer or band compete with that? But in 30 years time, who's to say one or two of todays stars won't be mentioned in the same breath?

Alive 2007 came out this month. It's an Album of Daft Punk's tour. I was there in Marley Park when the rain came down, just as One More Time came in and the crowd just went out of control. To me, it was/is music that's relevent for me now.

Every decade from the 60's to the 80's has had a revival. The 90's will have a big one I think. When I'm old and the 00's has one I'll be telling my kids about Daft Punk @ Marlet park.

EmpireMagnet

Sick of these Indie pop bands?

No.

DrumSteve

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Alive 2007 came out this month. It's an Album of Daft Punk's tour. I was there in Marley Park when the rain came down, just as One More Time came in and the crowd just went out of control. To me, it was/is music that's relevent for me now.

Every decade from the 60's to the 80's has had a revival. The 90's will have a big one I think. When I'm old and the 00's has one I'll be telling my kids about Daft Punk @ Marlet park.

Actually ill be tellin my kids about daft punk at oxygen this year when i was caked with mud and cut my legs on my wellies dancing in the rain with 50,000 other people!

DerKaiser

You're all right, this is just my opinion and I welcome your challenges, the problem for me is most of these bands are musically inept and seem to be 80% image, 15% attitude and 5% ability, if you look back at music from Beethoven to the '00s you'll see a steady dumbing down, and it started gathering pace about 1975, I'm not saying there was no good music after that, but you just saw more and more hacks getting away with serious ineptitude, my dad's a jazz drummer, back in his day if you couldn't play, you got pennies flicked onto the stage at you meaning GET OFF! Nobody is critical at gigs anymore, everyone applauds because they assume they have to.

Also songs nowadays seem to be habitually anthemic, not much thought goes into the song itself, but that doesn't matter as long as it has a chorus you can sing, the craft of songwriting has become accessible to everyone and not everybody is good at it,

IMHO of course

ShriekingSheet

hmmm, I think the difference between your POV and mine is actually pretty minimal. I think you'd be a bit more optimistic if you had a little more context though.

Like, if we're keeping it to guitar/drums/bass music, would you not say the Stone Roses created their music with as much intelligence as bands in the 70's? Vocals aside, there is absolutely no argument that they were great musicians.

And then, with the introduction of new music software/hardware, as a musician yourself, regardless of whether you like dance music or not, would you not agree that the innovation shown by the Chemical Brothers is pretty impressive. Especially given their ability to collaborate with different kinds of musicians. I like them. I especially like their appreciation of what a real drummer/drum kit can do (see tracks like the first single off the new album- Saturate - also known as Electronic Battle Weapon 8).

As for songs being all about the chorus these days - no argument there - but that's just cos that's what is being signed and distributed in the mainstream to sell records. There is alternative stuff out there that doesn't conform to this.

BostonB

Music doesn't fit in the box your trying to shoehorn it into.

You either like it or you don't. If you don't like it move on find some thing you do like. Theres loads of choice out there you just have to look for it.

DerKaiser

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

hmmm, I think the difference between your POV and mine is actually pretty minimal. I think you'd be a bit more optimistic if you had a little more context though.

Like, if we're keeping it to guitar/drums/bass music, would you not say the Stone Roses created their music with as much intelligence as bands in the 70's? Vocals aside, there is absolutely no argument that they were great musicians.

And then, with the introduction of new music software/hardware, as a musician yourself, regardless of whether you like dance music or not, would you not agree that the innovation shown by the Chemical Brothers is pretty impressive. Especially given their ability to collaborate with different kinds of musicians. I like them. I especially like their appreciation of what a real drummer/drum kit can do (see tracks like the first single off the new album- Saturate - also known as Electronic Battle Weapon 8).

As for songs being all about the chorus these days - no argument there - but that's just cos that's what is being signed and distributed in the mainstream to sell records. There is alternative stuff out there that doesn't conform to this.

I agree, the Stone Roses are a really good band, John Squier especially, and the Chemical Brothers, whereas (u guessed it) I don't like much dance they do have something special going on and do get some respect, but I don't like the way they promote the record deck over the guitar as christmas presents for young budding musicians (yes, they did say that), record decks are not a musical instrument, they're just trying to do as much propaganda for their genre as possible.

Thr introduction of tecnology and electronics into music IMHO was a 75% bad thing, it allows you to cheat, throw a sample down and loop it over and over again and you have a song, fix it at random if there are any errors in it, I'm an analogue analogue analogue person, I think non digital recording equipment gives you a better sound anyway, but this is going dangerously off topic here.

As for the singles chart, as we all know it's a house of cards, you had to sell 1 million (I think) copies in the 60s to enter the charts, the last no 1 sold less than 500,000 copies and it gets steadily worse, if you look at the album sales, you'll see a different picture, it's a world where folks like Clapton, McCartney and Sinatra ,for instance, still exist.

ShriekingSheet

DerKaiser wrote: »

I agree, the Stone Roses are a really good band, John Squier especially, and the Chemical Brothers, whereas (u guessed it) I don't like much dance they do have something special going on and do get some respect, but I don't like the way they promote the record deck over the guitar as christmas presents for young budding musicians (yes, they did say that), record decks are not a musical instrument, they're just trying to do as much propaganda for their genre as possible.

Thr introduction of tecnology and electronics into music IMHO was a 75% bad thing, it allows you to cheat, throw a sample down and loop it over and over again and you have a song, fix it at random if there are any errors in it, I'm an analogue analogue analogue person, I think non digital recording equipment gives you a better sound anyway, but this is going dangerously off topic here.

As for the singles chart, as we all know it's a house of cards, you had to sell 1 million (I think) copies in the 60s to enter the charts, the last no 1 sold less than 500,000 copies and it gets steadily worse, if you look at the album sales, you'll see a different picture, it's a world where folks like Clapton, McCartney and Sinatra ,for instance, still exist.

Haha, where is it written that a musical christmas present has to be an "instrument"!? Decks are fine but I think any DJ would agree with you, that good DJs (more often than not) can play instruments and have a good understanding of music. Decks for a kid who's never picked up an instrument don't make a whole lotta sense.

Technology being 75% a bad thing? Ah. I'd rather things changed and music reinvented itself avery so often.

DerKaiser

ShriekingSheet wrote: »

Haha, where is it written that a musical christmas present has to be an "instrument"!? Decks are fine but I think any DJ would agree with you, that good DJs (more often than not) can play instruments and have a good understanding of music. Decks for a kid who's never picked up an instrument don't make a whole lotta sense.

Technology being 75% a bad thing? Ah. I'd rather things changed and music reinvented itself avery so often.

It's not "written" I mean if you were going to buy your kid an instrument, then get them an instrument and not a record player, I agree music should be constantly evolving, but electronica has done nothing for me, so another form of revolution is required to float my boat, where's it coming from, well, that's the point of this thread..........

Pulp_Surfin'

Yeah dude, myself and my bro would love to start a band that plays real rock 'n roll! Is it too late to audition??? "Set the controls for the heart of the Sun." P.Floyd