Smells like indie spirit

general questions, comments and ideas about recording, audio, music, etc.
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joelpatterson
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Smells like indie spirit

Post by joelpatterson » Mon Feb 07, 2005 7:08 pm

The singer and the song.

I once upon a time heard this as like a zen lesson, or something, maybe they taught zen in my third grade class. The singer brings the song alive, the song gives the singer something to live for.

For me, indie spirit is all about rebellion, turning a new leaf, bringing something new to the table. The better the gear, obviously--or maybe not obviously, but usually--lets the zing of that message come through loud and clear.

These days my zen is much more complicated. The microphone and the computer. But the heart of it is still all about distilling a feeling of thrillingness and exuberance.
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@?,*???&?
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by @?,*???&? » Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:33 pm

Sure man.

Be independent by being exactly the same.

Everyone has a computer. It has replaced even wanting to play an instrument in most cases.

Sick.

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by jebjerome » Mon Feb 07, 2005 8:53 pm

Sure man.

Be independent by being exactly the same.

Everyone has a computer. It has replaced even wanting to play an instrument in most cases.

Sick.
?

Forgive me if I'm missing something, but you really read a lot more into that than I did, Jeff. "Sick" because he uses a computer to record? If he said the exact same thing with 2" 24-track in place of "computer", would it still be "sick"? I don't understand. Have you heard his music and it sounds like a bunch of other shit? Please explain.

I was under the impression that he was musing on the beauty of being inspired by one's work and pulling off capturing that in a beautiful way.

Is this about the word "indie"? I hope not.

Am I gleaming the cube here?
<i>who shot...
What, who, the bazooka was who
And to my rescue, it was the S1Ws - PE</i>
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by soundguy » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:06 pm

You know what I think is real wierd?

This is just my observation somewhat inspired by jeff's comments, but something Ive never really thought about before:

In the early 90's when I was primarily playing in a band, and all my friends were in bands and all my friends friends were in bands, the catch word was "alternative" which later transformed into the catch phrase "grunge". At no point did myself, my friends or my friends friends ever refer to our projects as "alternative" or "grunge". I saw people get into fist fights over labeling back then.

Today it seems to me, living in NYC, the place where the indie scene went to die, there is this unabating current of bands, friends bands and friends of friends bands that are absolutely vying for the "indie" label and celebrating it like a science fair prize when they get it. I dont know if Im totally exposed to %100 morons or something but I cant even tell you guys how many times Ive heard guys in bars saying "yeah, Im in this indie band". Maybe my memory totally sucks, but I never went around saying "Im in this grunge band".

totally totally totally different tide. Alternative and Grunge were really nasty meaningless labels back then. I see the word indie as just another useless label created by the music press which has ZERO meaning to me (unlike say METAL which kinda brings an image to my mind) but yet, the people involved with it are attracted to that word like a bug to a bug zapper. Oddly enough, all the "indie rock" I hear all sounds the same to me and has about the same emotive level and attention to detail (and NOT in a punk rock way) so maybe it all makes sense. Celebrate the label, wierd.

maybe Im totally off base, Im sure someone will let me know.

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Mr PC
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Mr PC » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:18 pm

I think that labels like "indie" and "grunge" are useful for a very short period of time. As soon as everyone has digested it and the term has a positive connotation, people start throwing it around and it loses it's meaning. Think about it, "grunge" is a nice word to sum up what was coming out of Seattle in the late 80's/early 90's.

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Zoltar » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:30 pm

soundguy wrote: Celebrate the label, wierd.

maybe Im totally off base, Im sure someone will let me know.
I don't know if I'm letting you know, but the label 'alternative' used to confuse me back in the early 90's also. That was just the section the music was located in the record shops. I think anybody setting out to create any type of music, be it Indy, metal, jazz, or electronic is limiting themselves in a manner that a musician would never do. These people are actors, entertainers, one step above or below cover band/ Ashlee Simpson territory.

entertainers, not artists.

These people are an insult to the artists the good folks on the radio and in the record stores were labeling back then, and even now.

I only got into recording to be able to record my music, so I could be a more productive musician. When co-workers ask what type of music I play, I do sometimes answer "Independant". I just think its sexier than "stoner rock"

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by thearnicasync » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:32 pm

soundguy wrote:You know what I think is real wierd?


dave
<i>The O.C.</i> Now, that's weird. And painfully normal, too.

kb[/i]

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by theistheman » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:34 pm

Jeff Robinson wrote:Sure man.

Be independent by being exactly the same.

Everyone has a computer. It has replaced even wanting to play an instrument in most cases.

Sick.
*yawn...

Why do you always have to suck all the fun out of everything?

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by soundguy » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:34 pm

whats wierd is that somebody made a show about orange county, thats wierd.

I saw anthrax last year somewhere in orange county. wierd.

dave
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Zoltar » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:36 pm

one last though, when Warrent started wearing 10-hole docs, and said they were "growing", that was the real beginning of it all. there was no going back from there.

"heaven isn't too far away, closer to it every day
no matter what your friends might say, you'll find a way."

remember that shit?

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Antero » Mon Feb 07, 2005 9:40 pm

"Indie" is the new "Alternative," which was the new "Punk"....

Quoth my bassist, as we watched a show at the Troubadour over the summer:
"I just realized that indie music is going to totally eat itself in about two years."
I hate my species.
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Electro-Voice 664 » Mon Feb 07, 2005 10:03 pm

In the early 90's when I was primarily playing in a band, and all my friends were in bands and all my friends friends were in bands, the catch word was "alternative" which later transformed into the catch phrase "grunge". At no point did myself, my friends or my friends friends ever refer to our projects as "alternative" or "grunge". I saw people get into fist fights over labeling back then
This is how I felt too. I hear Bands today call themselves EMO Noise Punk Spacejam ect. I always thought we were inventing a new unlabled sound. Me and my buddies use to totally rip on bands like Toad the Wet Sprocket, and the world 'alternative' was used to make fun of drama students. (no offence to all the great actors out there)

Jeff, in reality, is a cool guy. He just plays the villian for humor. :shock:
I'm sure he didn't have a new wave hair doo in the 90s.:rofl:
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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by Daft Will » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:21 pm

Mayhaps it's my punk upbringing, but I'm of the opinion that gear doesn't make the message any clearer. It may make it easier to produce the product you want, but recording gear is more an input thing than an output thing.

Hell, the Mountain Goats recorded their best songs on an boombox. My brother recorded his best songs using an old Fisher-Price "Say and Play". I get frustrated on my school's recording console because everything's so clean.

'Indie' rock has as shattered pelvis, what was once a place for guys and girls who were tired of the aggressive tribalism of the punk underground but loved the ethics and art, is now a place for neo-ironic, zombie hipsters. The new grunge.

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by theistheman » Mon Feb 07, 2005 11:32 pm

Who cares?

Either it's good, or it's not good, or it's somewhere in-between.

It's not about haircuts.

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Re: Smells like indie spirit

Post by tylernolan » Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:10 am

"Indie" is in deed just just a troublesome of word now days as "grunge" or "alternative". There will always be labels that are troublesome. Psych-folk, free-folk, noise-rock, free-rock, subteranean metal, doom, avante rock are just a few of the labels that seem to be throne around in my parts these days......I think it's important to realize that for all the bands that label themselves as the previously mentioned titles or old school ones such as "grunge" or "alternative" or "neu-anything" there are also countless bands doing creative things that have these labels thrown at them out of lazy referencing. The labels will always be there, it seems necessary to sift through it all and forget it. It should just be talent and talentless which is purely subjective. Fuck. New post please.

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