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Underground > Radio & Music >

Naughties Indie vs Nineties indie

10:14 / 15.10.06

Out here at the edge of the world (Australia), I have been listening to Sufjan Stevens, Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The Shins etc.

And it just struck me how different this was to most of the stuff coming out in the mid-90s. It's like The Magnetic Fields "69 Love Songs" became the jumping off point for music this decade.

Now, exactly how wide of the mark am I?

Regrettable Juvenilia

13:54 / 16.10.06

What I've heard of those four artists/bands thus far has not given me the impression that any of them could ever hope to write the kind of material found on 69 Love Songs.

15:46 / 16.10.06

It might help if you made your thought-process a bit clearer. I like 69 Love Songs, and at least two of the current bands/singers you've listed, but I'm struggling to pin-point the relation between them that you're asking about. What is it about 69 Love Songs in particular that sets it (and these other bands) apart from mid-nineties indy?

23:26 / 16.10.06

Hmm. None of them are lo-fi, and I dunno -- are all of them pastiches of other styles or... mmm... interested in formal limitations of various kinds of songwriting?

The Shins definitely seem pastichey.

The thing I notice now is that most of the indie bands I know of write much more dance-able tunes. Less lo-fi, more hip-hoppishness/techno. (The Blow, Postal Service). I think this has something to do with cheap audio looping software replacing the four track tape recorder as the primary means of expression. Then again, I'm probably more obsessed with 4tracks than most people.

I do remember thinking how strange the Magnetic Fields used to sound compared to all the lo-fi bands I liked. Electronic instruments & mechanical beats.

10:53 / 17.10.06

I'm not sure of the question- i supose that your asking whether 69 Love Songs has inspired a specific type of popular American Indie Music...

I would imagine that it could be listed as one of many influences on a very loose genre- although i would think that the bands you list have been inspired by a number of other 90's bands- such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Modest Mouse, Pavement, Mercury Rev and The Flaming Lips.

We should also take into consideration non 90's bands influence, or non indie bands- In the Arcade Fire I hear Talking Heads, The Pixies, Bjork, The Beach Boys- as well as a sturdy knowledge of folk and country music. Sufjan Stevens takes cues from a more folksy past- Nick Drake, Bob Dylan and Tim Buckley immediatly spring to mind as obvious influences- as well as the grander orchestrated stuff in the vein of Flaming Lips or Mercury Rev. The Shins take cues from Belle and Sebastian, and the Smiths and jumble it up with Americana. In Broken Social Scene i hear My Bloody Valentine, more flaming lips, Pixies etc...

While i understand that 69 love songs may be seen (by some) as a genre defining moment- the genre is so loose and the influences are so wide that to credit a single record as starting it all is madness.

On a positive note- i love many of the bands you've listed and don't really know 69 Love songs- i downloaded a few songs a while back but never really got into it- i'm re-listening and really enjoying....

16:05 / 20.10.06

Maybe it's that the 90s were the last decade when you could hear echoes of punk rock that were ironic or somehow, well, aware that as a movement it was over.

69 Love Songs is definitely not punk, even in "Punk Rock Love." The Shins aren't. Beat Happening, though, was. Ditto Sebadoh & all them.