Community Creates: An indie rock guide to getting together
CMJ: Murmuring and myths at an American college rock festival
More by peterwhite
To create a community is a noble feat, an unselfish sharing of culture and ideas. It’s the basis for this here website and it’s the foundation for a healthy resurgence of hot dang, top popping North American indie rock bands currently falling from our alt-skies.
Be it the Canadian lupine star scene or Omaha’s folk casio crooners, the sound is being brought together by a combination of sensitive souls coming together to create trouble.
After spending the summer months driving across the USA’s vast landscape, from desert hills to snow covered mountains and swamp based party towns, it was clear to me that there was much musical promise in even the most macabre of digs. Record stores in sleepy towns were packed full of kids being excited by unknown EPs and hand-stamped 7" splits from bands that lived within their own state boundaries. And the big city lights are no different, scoring bohemian crowds eager to spot their own next solo superstar or local Decemberists-esque artistry.
But we knew that, right?
The internet’s taught us how to discover far-flung noises that would have never been accessible before. It’s allowed indie rock communities across the US to flourish much more easily than even during the heyday of labels such as SST, Touch & Go and Dischord. Michael Azzerad, crown prince documentarian of such indie goodness, would be proud.
The northwest, in particular, continues to stagger with the quantity and quality, as well as the burgeoning popularity, of its slightly-left-of-centre, umbrella holding alt.noise acts. While bands such as Death Cab For Cutie, from Washington State, go from being lo-fi loving Fierce Panda darlings to major TV-exposed Atlantic recording artists, the scene around them continues to operate with a smile.
Barsuk Records, set up by Josh Rosenfeld and Chris Possanza to release This Busy Monster records, is using the high profile of its latest glories (and current vinyl-only artists) to fund and promote many more exciting bands that will help keep its own community kicking. For instance, Rocky Votolato, Blood Brother sibling and former frontman with Seattle soul punks Waxwing, is releasing his acoustic battering Makers album through the label in January, having recently been ‘borrowed’[ (read: licensed) from Kansas City label types Second Nature Recordings.
Another northwestern act that has discovered the benefit of an aspiring community is Math And Physics Club, purveyors of Morissey-meets-Vaselines lo-fi-esque gold.
Charles Bert, singer of Math And Physics Club, says: “I think community is a really important part of being in an indie band, especially for those of us on small labels and even smaller budgets. Competition between bands is pretty silly. I've never understood that, and luckily, at least where we're from, we don't see much of it. I want people to hear other new bands just as much as I want them to hear mine.”
A chance meeting with Olympia folk-stress and Elliot Smith/Brendan Canty collaborator Lois Maffeo was a defining moment for the band, who released their last record, the Weekends Away EP, through Matinee Recordings.
”I remember having a conversation with Lois Maffeo, and she didn't know me from anyone, but she sat down with me and gave me all this great advice and seemed genuinely happy to share. It was very energising, and that really stuck with me,” adds Bert.
But it's not all rainy state west coast action. Some 2,500 miles away in country country, De Novo Dahl are exciting Nashvillians with their brand of flash rocking Flaming Lips-esque angular goodness. The pop chompers, which expect to make it over to the UK in 2006, treat each show as an event; for instance, hiring a paddling pool for punters or, as at this year’s CMJ, dressing identically in hot pink and orange summer robber costumes.
Joel J Dahl, singer and guitarist, says: “We like to have newer bands, who have not had much exposure, play shows with us. In Nashville, the scene is really coming together right now. There are so many great bands and they don’t seem to be as competitive with each other as they used to be.”
He adds that in addition to Tennessee acts that have already garnered some attention such as Be Your Own Pet and The Features, there are dozens of aspiring names to note, such as Forget Cassettes, The Carter Administration, Velcro Stars and How I Became The Bomb.
”Sometimes in a music town, things can get very clinical, and everyone is a critic, so you have to make people forget about all the bullshit and remember that rock shows are for having fun and letting loose. If that is achieved, then the scene becomes more fun for everyone,” adds Dahl.
Being so scene, it seems, is currently a healthy and viable rock option.
De Novo Dahl
Math And Physics Club
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I've found, in a few British towns at least, the local scene can get very bitchy and cliquey - because that's exactly what a community aspires to/develops from - a clique. Local bands attract sycophants like flies to shit if there's any likelihood of said band being known in a wider context - a certain type of person who just wants to say "I Saw Band X's First Gig". As a result the only bands anyone gets to hear about are those with lots of friends or brown-nosers. That does not ensure the greatest music gets heard.
But at the same time, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sure, you get cliques, but generally they're cliques of musicians, and often, music fans and musicians aren't so bitter and twisted that they refuse to respect talent for reasons either being a) the band in question being antisocial bastards or b) any chance of success and they suddenly take a jealous dislike to said band. Local scenes benefit immeasurably from people with a real passion for music, whether they merely want to put on gigs or even found a record label as an outlet for a local scene (my history's a bit fuzzy, but Stressed of Derby is apparently like that - and very good it is too).
I think this article is a bit too over-the-top in praise for music communities. Yes, they help to encourage talent and get bands heard by a wider audience, but they can encourage a certain insularity. That said, this article's all about the States, right? I ain't from the states.
rocky votolato
hes lovely.
cliques and collectives
...seem to happen in the strangest ways, there is a collective called The Ship that comprises of bands like Silver Sun Pick-Ups, 400 Blows and Radar Bros who have drifted together naturally and work really well with each other, I guess all the wierdos and beatniks gravitate towards each other! it would so benefit London's alleged scene if people pulled their thumbs out of their arses, stopped preening their stupid fucking hairstyles and actually worked towards building fanbases collectively. the hardcore kids manage it but it would appear everyone else is too busy fucking preening.
Having said that, know that Ether and the Black Mariahs basically have their own self-sufficient scene from doing free shows at their rehearsal space attended by friends and fellow musicians, it's a really great way of doing things :)
American nonsense...
I'm from West London for fuck's sake, I do not give a flying shit what a bunch of black haired yanks are doing in some godforsaken hick town on the west coast. The pro-american bias from you interent types really pisses me off.
Continuation of rant...
Sorry to sound like the Pub Landlord there for a second but I really couldn't give damn about 'the olympia scene' as it doesn't apply to any of us reading this website. DiS is a British site, for up and coming new and exciting British bands. What it is not though, is Pitchfork. Because Pitchfork is an American site for dullards with lip rings that spend to much time on MySpace. Let's get back to making DiS an original and vibrant place which can talk about and support the burgeoning British music scene we now have. And it is burgeoning, because you shouldn't listen to some of the pseudo-emo arses that inhabit these boards to talk about dreary yankee bands with long names.
yeah!
this reads like the most xenophobic, ridiculous essay i've ever read.
you rate arcade fire as 'ten out of ten', but if people like peter hadn't talked about the montreal scene or if pitchfork hadn't given them so much good press, i swear to god you would not have heard of them.
DiS is about promoting MUSIC. it's not a 'west london' site. it's not a 'british' site.
it's a MUSIC site you fucking idiot.
A good article
even if it completely avoids the negatives associated with 'scenes'. Maybe if your from a small town in America it's easier to form a close-nit and supportive scene, partly as a reaction to conservative christian suburbia. I think really good bands tend to come from strong scenes and communities of musicians and thats something Canada and the U.S have over the UK.
My experience of being in a band and going to gigs in London is that people arn't particularly friendly and the scenes that do exist are quite insular and very often fashion and trend conscious as the other posters have said. London being such a huge and dispersed city probably doesn't help either. Also, finding musicians to start bands is a nightmare if your not in any kind of scene... we've spent over a year looking for a drummer- ridiculous.
seen/nonseen
London audiences are the same as MYC audiences. All desperate to be ahead of the game, and all damn keen to be slagging off the right bands, as much as paying lip swervice to currently hip bands they have barely,if at all, heard.
The fact that it is so easy to have a conversation about what is hot and what is not, without knowing dick about saidbands in the Barfly usually implies that the other person had not clue either.
Too damn much preening in London, and acceptance of an NME-led huge bunch of bands enmasse.
Or else how come the Editors or popular?
The same is true of yr pitchfork/brooklynveganites in New York.
The difference is yr Brooklyn fashionista is proably way into some folkie, some crunk, some local singer songer with no profile and generally broader range of stuff.
More open minded.
Same goes for provincial scenes. They are less bound by a vacuum packed instant good taste record collection.
Innit?
syntax
I'd like to say there is a small prize for anyone who lets all the typos in that last post go unmentioned
Shouts from Oly!
Hey, I run the Olympia, WA music website OlyMusic.com and found this page through a google alert on "Olympia Music Scene". Musical sense of community is a terrific thing. There's a show swap hookup page in the olymusic forums. Check out bands you might want to hook up with for tours in our respective countries. Rock on UK!
-ae
http://www.olymusic.com
alongside stressed, we operate on a pretty similar level
the pineapster communions return 100% of the door money to the bands, we just use the name and site to promote everything
do your homework: nashville calling
If you're gonna write about a local scene, do your homework.
JEFF The Brotherhood is still the most loved/hated/talked about/important band in Nashville TN. In fact, Jake and Jamin Orrall started the earlier mentioned Be Your Own Pet as a side project of this two man wall of sound that still dominates the clubs, basements and the blogs. Don't re-write the hype.
In Photos: Decemberists @ The Forum, London
In Photos: Dean & Britta @ St. Giles in the Fields, London
In Photos: Wolf Gang @ Hoxton Bar and Kitchen, London
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