2007 has been a stinker for indie rock

[boywiththorninside]

Saying music is too white shows you don't know how it happened and where its coming from. It also shows you are stuck on an archaic socio-biological term that has since been scientifically discarded and is only relevant due to a societal perpetuation of a ridiculous myth. Sorry that's not music but read your freaking Anthropology people.

 

I don't mean to be Frere-Jones' defense attorney here, but the "too white" thing was my oversimplification of his thesis. Frere Jones never directly says that, and I was being somewhat facetious in my original post. I didn't mean to be offensive - I hope I wasn't - and I didn't mean to misrepresent what Frere-Jones has to say.

 

I tend to agree with your conclusion that great, original Amercian music is indebted to both black and white influences. Nonetheless, I'd encourage you to read the piece. You'll probably hate it - that seems to be the majority opinion - but don't avoid it simply because of my "too white" summation.

[lost highway]

Sounds fair enough. But my inflammatory reaction brought on a good debate. So I will rage on for those who are not yet bored. Blues was the result of mixing African and 'White' folk music. It was sung in English on guitars invented in Spain by slaves. A similar mixture develops between the two worlds creating Jazz, R&B, multiple forms of American folk music (including country), and eventually rock and roll. It was called 'race' music not because it was solely created and engineered by black people for black people, but instead because black people were intimately involved in its creation and the U.S. used to be a place full of stupid people with horrible ideas.

 

All I am saying is if you draw a color line down music history (tribal music aside) you will inevitably miss its very metropolitan origin, and unavoidably sophisticated multi-cultural implications. This is also true of many genres of music popular in Mexico, Central American and Brazil.

 

In short no black folks=no rock and roll, no white folks=no rock and roll.

[Chendizzle]

I just want to reiterate that 2007 has been amazing for music.

[JerseyMike]

Sounds fair enough. But my inflammatory reaction brought on a good debate. So I will rage on for those who are not yet bored. Blues was the result of mixing African and 'White' folk music. It was sung in English on guitars invented in Spain by slaves. A similar mixture develops between the two worlds creating Jazz, R&B, multiple forms of American folk music (including country), and eventually rock and roll. It was called 'race' music not because it was solely created and engineered by black people for black people, but instead because black people were intimately involved in its creation and the U.S. used to be a place full of stupid people with horrible ideas.

 

There is a lot wrong here that I don't have time to go into. For instance, the guitar (or stringed instruments, like the banjo) actually originated in Africa. The english language is about the only thing white about the origins of American blues. "Call and Response", a key part of blues, is also African in origin.

 

 

I just want to reiterate that 2007 has been amazing for music.

 

I was very dissapointed with music this year. many bands who, for better or worse, represent my generation (Arcade Fire, Spoon, Clap Your Hands..., The Shins etc) and none of them had anything of importance to say about the things going on in the world today (Wilco included). It just seemed incredibly shallow to me. Not that I didn't like those records, but its very telling. I guess you can't sell your songs to gigantic corporations if your going to say something about the realities of the world.

[boywiththorninside]

I'm not trying to be confrontational and I hate to be the guy who has to disagree, but what where the records released this year that you expect, or think deserve, to stand the test of time?

 

There have been records I've liked on first or second listen this year, but none have consistently kept my attention or demanded my repeated listening.

 

I'm not challenging anyone's opinion, I'm just looking for suggestions of records I should, maybe, reevaluate or give a second chance.

 

For me, 2007 was the year I was forced to rediscover "classic" rock. And that's not necessarily a complaint. I'm digging these old records.

[tongue-tied]

Yeah, that's why I asked for more specifics. Don't get that assertion by tounge-tied.

 

I was being tongue-in-cheek, the "Paler Shade of White" article implies that Wilco doesn't have rhythm and that the songs on YHF have embarassing lyrics and formless music, which is ridiculous. i don't think the writer likes music.

 

I was very dissapointed with music this year. many bands who, for better or worse, represent my generation (Arcade Fire, Spoon, Clap Your Hands..., The Shins etc) and none of them had anything of importance to say about the things going on in the world today (Wilco included). It just seemed incredibly shallow to me. Not that I didn't like those records, but its very telling. I guess you can't sell your songs to gigantic corporations if your going to say something about the realities of the world.

 

How is Sky Blue Sky not about the realities of the world?

[Jesusetc84]

Didn't 2007 just have arguably the best album of the past 5 years? (In Rainbows).

 

Oh yeah...it did.

 

hmmm...

 

this guy is a tool...but he has some valid points.

[tongue-tied]

Didn't 2007 just have arguably the best album of the past 5 years? (In Rainbows).

 

[Jesusetc84]

 

Oh sorry...not enough fuzz pedals for you and penatonic scales?

[tongue-tied]

Oh sorry...not enough fuzz pedals for you and penatonic scales?

 

 

I wouldn't be shocked if someone said In Rainbows was the best release of 2007...but five years? since 2002? that's a whole lot of competition.

[Sid Hartha]

I have a hard time taking seriously any music critic that uses the term "indie rock" - the term lost any meaning that it may have had years ago. It's intellectually lazy and annoying, the journalistic equivalent of nose picking.

[Jesusetc84]

 

I wouldn't be shocked if someone said In Rainbows was the best release of 2007...but five years? since 2002? that's a whole lot of competition.

 

I said ARGUABLY. as in...can be argued with some validity.

 

It's my personal favorite post YHF. Runner-up nods go to SMilE (which is maybe a better album, but doesn't do nearly what In Rainbows does for me emotionally), Joanna Newsom Ys, and a few others.

 

Just for the record, I enjoy our fencing.

[tongue-tied]

I said ARGUABLY. as in...can be argued with some validity.

 

It's my personal favorite post YHF. Runner-up nods go to SMilE (which is maybe a better album, but doesn't do nearly what In Rainbows does for me emotionally), Joanna Newsom Ys, and a few others.

 

Just for the record, I enjoy our fencing.

 

fair enough. my favorite of 07 is Deerhoof's Friend Opportunity, which they worked on while touring with...Radiohead, who I imagine were playing a lot of In Rainbows at the time, so that's no small influence. However, Friend Opportunity is maybe my fifth favorite album of the last five years.

[mastershake]

I dunno I don't really agree with either articles posted. I think 2007 has been a far far better year for music than 2006. And I also agree that the UK isn't putting out nearly close to the quality that Canada and the US are.

i agree. 2007 has been awesome. 2006 had barely any memorable albums. off the top of my head i can think of modern times, ys, the life pursuit, arctic monkeys, and the greatest. the rest was pretty mediocre. maybe that destroyer album makes the cut as well.

 

2007, on the other hand, has radiohead, wilco, spoon, kanye, arctic monkey's again, neon bible, boxer, icky thump, back to black, etc. pretty much every week there has been a decent album that has been released.

[lost highway]

There is a lot wrong here that I don't have time to go into. For instance, the guitar (or stringed instruments, like the banjo) actually originated in Africa. The english language is about the only thing white about the origins of American blues. "Call and Response", a key part of blues, is also African in origin.

 

Actually it started in Asia. Later the Moors brought a pre-guitar to Spain during one of the short lived periods of multi-culturalism and relgious tolerance. It was there that it got closest to what we now recognize as an acoustic guitar.

 

The blues uses harmonic theory from European music played on existing American folk instruments in a way that is distinctly African-American. Later you have folks like Les Paul innovating the technology, Elvis mixed rock with country, Chuck Berry showed how the guitar could really be played, Little Richard brought the piano to new heights. My point is not that black culture is not a part of rock and roll, that would be absurd, what I am saying is that most lasting American music tradition is multi-cultural, erasing the reasonabilty of any ethnocentric approach to it.

[Chendizzle]

Looking back on 2006, there are only 4 albums I'd consider reaaalllly great: Boys and Girls in America, Yellow House, Shut Up I Am Dreaming, and Palo Santo.

 

Here are some super duper albums from 2007:

The National - Boxer

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Okkervil River - The Stage Names

Kanye West - Graduation

Aniomal Collective - Strawberry Jam

Elliott Smith - New Moon

Kevin Drew - Spirit If

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

Dinosaur Jr - Beyond

Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha

Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

Sunset Rubdown - Random Spirit Lover

Akron/Family - Love is Simple

The Snake The Cross The Crown - Cotton Teeth

Menomena - Friend and Foe

Handsome Furs - Plague Park

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times

Ted Leo - Living with the Living

Feist - The Reminder

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank

Do Make Say Think - You, You're a History in Rust

 

Here are some other great albums that I don't know yet if they will stand the test of time, but so far I have really liked:

Deer Tick - War Elephant

Go! Team - Proof of Youth

Thurston Moore - Trees Outside the Academy

Ryan Adams - Easy Tiger

Hallelujah the Hills - Collective Psychosis Begone

Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Justice - Cross

[boywiththorninside]

Looking at that list, I can see your point. There are definitely some albums on there that I forgot about and that I did enjoy (Justice, Panda Bear, Elliott Smith). Maybe that's also part of the problem for me - I get lost in the sheer volume of music that is available. Before I give one album the full attention that it deserves, I'm on to the next thing.

 

You win. 2007 was not as dire as I first made it out to be. Not my favorite year, but I do see there was quality stuff out there.

 

Now, back to the Kinks.

[echo]

I think 2007 has seen tons of great music. hell, the past month has been one great release after another...

[GtrPlyr]

I was very dissapointed with music this year. many bands who, for better or worse, represent my generation (Arcade Fire, Spoon, Clap Your Hands..., The Shins etc) and none of them had anything of importance to say about the things going on in the world today (Wilco included). It just seemed incredibly shallow to me. Not that I didn't like those records, but its very telling. I guess you can't sell your songs to gigantic corporations if your going to say something about the realities of the world.

 

You'd be hard pressed to find (m)any Beatles songs that have any serious socio-political leanings, that doesn't make their art any less substantial. The art that usually has lasting appeal tends to be less topical and more universal anyway--when was the last time anyone listened to, or talked about Neil Young's Living with War, or Steve Earle's The Revolution Starts...Now? There's nothing wrong with topical art, but it usually isn't all that subtle or multi-layered, it's more akin to a newspaper. An artists role should be to follow their muse wherever that may lead. For some that might be more internal and less global, like Sky Blue Sky. This doesn't make the piece of art any less powerful, as the world of human emotions and relationships is as an important world to explore as any other. I guess I just find it dismissive to say that a record isn't saying much because it isn't overtly talking about current world issues.

[sureshot]

That was one of the worst articles I've read in a while.

[Welsh Rich]

The UK music scene is certainly dead at the moment - too many skinny young men with guitars playing them all the same way.

 

I've argued this for the last couple of years - my favourite album of last year (M. Ward) came from the States and the vast majority of this years list will come from either the US or Canada. Something needs to happen in the UK to blast these losers out of their comfort zone, both the journalists and the artists, and do something, anything, different.

[Scalzunfield]

Didn't 2007 just have arguably the best album of the past 5 years? (In Rainbows).

 

Oh yeah...it did.

I can think of perhaps 100 better albums since 2002 than In Rainbows.

 

Oh yeah...I said it.

 

That being said, I'm about to try again with it. But expectations are low.

[Beltmann]

You'd be hard pressed to find (m)any Beatles songs that have any serious socio-political leanings, that doesn't make their art any less substantial. The art that usually has lasting appeal tends to be less topical and more universal anyway--when was the last time anyone listened to, or talked about Neil Young's Living with War, or Steve Earle's The Revolution Starts...Now? There's nothing wrong with topical art, but it usually isn't all that subtle or multi-layered, it's more akin to a newspaper. An artists role should be to follow their muse wherever that may lead. For some that might be more internal and less global, like Sky Blue Sky. This doesn't make the piece of art any less powerful, as the world of human emotions and relationships is as an important world to explore as any other. I guess I just find it dismissive to say that a record isn't saying much because it isn't overtly talking about current world issues.

I agree with everything above, and will add that an artist's turn inward may indeed be a response to what's happening externally, which therefore can be interpreted as a political act.

[LouieB]

Indie rock is dead, long live indie rock....

 

LouieB

[Littlebear]

The thing is that indie rock may suck, most of the time - at least to my ears

 

When it's good it's really good, but when it's not, it's the most boring music ever - imho