The Null Device

I am a scenester, apparently

For some reason, the How indie are you? test thinks that I am a scenester. (via Reenhead)
You are so indie it hurts. You hang out with the coolest people in your city. It doesn't even bother you that none of them know your name. You know lots of bands personally, you know a couple of guys from We Hate The Mainstream Records, and you blag your way into getting almost everything for free. That fanzine you write gives you extra kudos. You probably don't even care that non-scenesters think you're a pretentious fuck.

Which is rather amusing, if totally, er, mostly incorrect. (Shut up, Graham.)

Anyway, writing a blog is apparently nowhere near as cool or indie as writing a photocopied zine, because blogs don't have the cachet of the scarcity/obscurity factor. (cf: mp3.com sites vs. 7" split singles. Any suburban bogan can put something on the web, but only the hippest of hipsters actually have stylishly crappy-looking bits of photocopied paper with twee-looking drawings on the front in all the right shops.)

There are 21 comments on "I am a scenester, apparently":

Posted by: Ben http://rocknerd.org Thu Sep 19 22:47:01 2002

Yep, I'm a scenester too. Ouch.

Posted by: MJ http:// Thu Sep 19 23:21:56 2002

"Ouch" - what do you mean? Oh I wish I were a scenester, I'm a mere music snob. I guess the difference is my friends have poor musical tastes vs. the scenesters. Hmm, that was a snobby comment *sigh*

MJ

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/vm/ Thu Sep 19 23:43:34 2002

Heh. Apparently I'm "open-minded". Works for me...

Posted by: GJW http://the-fix.org Fri Sep 20 02:57:34 2002

I'm a scenester too, but I was aiming for open minded. Those quizzes bite, I'd like to take a look at the code that runs them and laugh at it.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Sep 20 03:10:51 2002

It must be the North Fitzroy thing. I'm sure I'd have been a Mix Taper back when I lived in the boondocks and kept trying to turn people I knew over the Internet onto The Paradise Motel and such. But in the inner city, it's hard to walk down the streets without running into people you know from gigs.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com/vm/ Fri Sep 20 03:48:28 2002

You're just so hip, baby! Ahh. Yeah.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Sep 20 04:17:09 2002

Ouch. Ooh, you *bitch*!

Posted by: jonathan http:// Fri Sep 20 04:38:07 2002

So let me get this the way you see it. Drop names like Paradise Motel but don't think you're a pretentious fuck? Yeah that's rich, cheers...have another.

Posted by: GJW http://the-fix.org Fri Sep 20 05:02:53 2002

C'arn, the Paradise Motel were practically pop stars; you've hardley scratched the surface of indie scenester obscurity. Go find yourself some Mandlebrot Set.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Sep 20 05:46:23 2002

The Motel were mainstream in the sense of being signed to a major (Mushroom) and played on JJJ, and obscure in the sense of not fitting in with the 3-chord yoof-rock formula required to shift lots of units, and to save them from being dropped by their label.

And their early EPs and first album were *much* better than Flightpaths (which was disappointingly MOR).

Posted by: mark http://cyberfuddle.com/infinitebabble/ Fri Sep 20 06:35:31 2002

I'm apparently a real indie snob - a pretentious fuck who only likes indie music. Which is rather odd, because I don't listen to indie music, don't read about indie music (unless you and Graham could be considered indie music writers in your regular blogs), and don't *like* indie music.

Must be the general air of elitism, eh?

Posted by: cos http://polydistortion.net/monkey/ Fri Sep 20 11:19:47 2002

yeah. 'i don't do "what XYZ are you ?" quizzes but I did this one'(tm) and i scored "scenster" too.

and hey, i had my paradise motel day once. i was in heartland and overheard some goth girls saying "hey, whatever happened to the paradise motel ?" and so i got to say (thanks to acb telling me one day) in an offhand manner that "oh, they went off to london" (they hadn't broken up at the time...).

so yeah. i reckon that makes acb a scenester (and makes me a fanboy).

under "normal" circumstances I just keep my dubmfuck thoughts to myself. but you know - once in a while, you gotta let people know.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Sep 20 11:32:23 2002

I'm not sure the Motel would be classified as "goth". They were a bit too organic and natural, and not sufficiently pompously melodramatic or self-consciously fucked-up. Or something.

Though for some reason some people consider them "goth". One American acquaintance I sent a mix tape to once said that they should play in San Francisco, because "SF kids love goth".

Posted by: Peter http://www.fourplay.com.au/blog Mon Sep 23 13:48:59 2002

I'm an indie snob it seems. Maybe, perhaps... Fun though ;)

Posted by: Ben the REAL Ben http://www.cloakanddagger.ca Wed Sep 25 06:17:44 2002

Have you ever seen that brilliant comic 'slacker', by Doug Slack? The hero, Randy, is a genius slacker always ranting about posers and so forth.

Very funny stuff.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Wed Sep 25 13:10:40 2002

Well, the PM had that song ever so subtly taking the piss out of goth kids.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Sep 25 13:26:35 2002

Which one was that?

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Wed Sep 25 14:09:58 2002

"Dead Beats"

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Sep 25 14:50:15 2002

Ah... one of the ones after they went boring.

I'll have to listen to it again. When I can actually be arsed to do so.

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Wed Sep 25 15:03:34 2002

I guess it's like Hunters And Collectors after _Human Frailty_ (things like "Head Above Water" and "Panic In The Shade" notwithstanding)

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Wed Sep 25 15:08:57 2002

I'll take your word for that...