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Indietracks Festival / all things C86 and indiepop!



Staly

Staly

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2004
1,076
Manchester
Flex Your Head said:
my favourite has been Silver Bullets by The Chills. I was somewhat dubious at first as it's been 19 years since their last 'proper' album, but it is genuinely wonderful and a real slow burner or grower. Here's a couple of tracks - are they any good, or am I just being woefully nostalgic and giving them an easy ride?
Click to expand...

Well, as you can probably guess it's also one of my favourites of the year. I'm not capable of objectivity where the Chills are concerned though, so I can't answer your question.
 




Staly

Staly

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2004
1,076
Manchester
Anyone else reading David Cavanagh's new John Peel book? Yet another slagging off for C86. As well as being inadequate bedwetters we're also racists too. Did you realise?
 


























Stato

Stato

Well-known member
Dec 21, 2011
7,370
Staly said:
That the 1986 Festive Fifty contained only one non white musician (Sushil Dade!). The man's a knob
Click to expand...

I guess he skips over the following year when Public Enemy's album came out and was represented in the Festive 50 on the basis of votes from the same listeners who had presumably either abandoned their racism or stopped going to see the Wedding Present. There is an assumption that those of us who listened to indie pop bands listened to nothing else. In reality my mates who were into C86 stuff were also some of the first in my part of small town England to know about rap music and subsequently rave stuff.

Taking the votes of those who could be bothered to send a postcard to the radio station as an indication of the taste of all fans is a fairly meaningless thing to do. If he were to study further he would perhaps notice that black artists were similarly under represented in most festive fifty charts before 1986. Cavanagh seems to have the standard music journalist prejudice's noted in this article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/14/c86-myths-nme-indie-cassette-debunked. I think the point made in this article about the scene being very non-London may have had a lot to do with the music press dismissal of its importance. How they can continue to talk up the Manchester scene, grunge and Britpop without acknowledging indie pop's obvious influence on all three is ridiculous.
 


Staly

Staly

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2004
1,076
Manchester
Stato said:
I guess he skips over the following year when Public Enemy's album came out and was represented in the Festive 50 on the basis of votes from the same listeners who had presumably either abandoned their racism or stopped going to see the Wedding Present. There is an assumption that those of us who listened to indie pop bands listened to nothing else. In reality my mates who were into C86 stuff were also some of the first in my part of small town England to know about rap music and subsequently rave stuff.

Taking the votes of those who could be bothered to send a postcard to the radio station as an indication of the taste of all fans is a fairly meaningless thing to do. If he were to study further he would perhaps notice that black artists were similarly under represented in most festive fifty charts before 1986. Cavanagh seems to have the standard music journalist prejudice's noted in this article: http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/14/c86-myths-nme-indie-cassette-debunked. I think the point made in this article about the scene being very non-London may have had a lot to do with the music press dismissal of its importance. How they can continue to talk up the Manchester scene, grunge and Britpop without acknowledging indie pop's obvious influence on all three is ridiculous.
Click to expand...

Yes, there's also the fact that Festive Fifty votes were your 3 favourite tracks of the year. For me certainly my top three were always likely to be white boy guitar pop, punk things. But if it had been top ten for example there would have been some non white artists in there. In 1986 the Bhundu Boys, Run DMC probably at least.

I think a lot of the journalists who are writing about this era are a bit embarrassed by the music they listened to at the time. Perhaps it needs a generation of writers who weren't there to contextualise it properly?
 






Pevenseagull

Pevenseagull

meh
Jul 20, 2003
20,684
Staly said:
Yes, there's also the fact that Festive Fifty votes were your 3 favourite tracks of the year. For me certainly my top three were always likely to be white boy guitar pop, punk things. But if it had been top ten for example there would have been some non white artists in there. In 1986 the Bhundu Boys, Run DMC probably at least.

I think a lot of the journalists who are writing about this era are a bit embarrassed by the music they listened to at the time. Perhaps it needs a generation of writers who weren't there to contextualise it properly?
Click to expand...

Indeed, if you looked at my shopping basket every fortnight you wouldn't assume I existed purely on a diet of milk, Private Eye and anchovy fillets.
 






Flex Your Head

Flex Your Head

Well-known member
Jun 16, 2011
1,686
Seagull firmly in Eagle territory
Staly said:
Some other stuff I've enjoyed recently:

https://expertalterations.bandcamp.com/album/you-cant-always-be-liked

One for [MENTION=12196]tinycowboy[/MENTION]

https://thestammer.bandcamp.com/album/days-in-between

https://detectiveagency.bandcamp.com/album/episode-3
Click to expand...


Really really enjoying the Expert Alterations stuff on Bandcamp. "The Past And You" is particularly splendid. If the P&P from USA wasn't so ridiculous I'd have ordered stuff already. Brutalist architecture in their band pic too - sweeet!

Expert Alterations Baltimore.jpg

I did a bit of Googling and came across one of the most poorly written and inaccurate descriptions I've ever read. They sound nothing like this:

"The Baltimore band streamlines the hard straightforward rhythm of a group like Bauhaus, fuses in some deadpan vocals, and through small and unwavering chord changes à la The Strokes, utilize guitars that do a lot of important melodic leg work. All of this results in an ominously jovial sort of indie-pop that can be comfortably juxtaposed with almost any band falling on the relatively diverse (sonic) spectrum, but a kind that can’t be so easily put into a box."

Truly shocking piece of writing.

I like the Night Flowers track too. I've seen them a couple of times and enjoyed them, but they never really blew me away. They had a different singer then, I think? She looks nothing like the vocalist in the vid anyway. New singer (the one in the vid) is better, both vocally and sartorially :catfight:

night-flowers.jpg

Going to listen to your other tips in a wee bit...
 




Staly

Staly

Well-known member
Mar 30, 2004
1,076
Manchester
Yeah the stripey top and dungarees look does it for me.

I think it is a different singer. She appears to have cheered them up a bit and got them to write some actual tunes.
 




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