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.)
"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
Heh. Apparently I'm "open-minded". Works for me...
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.
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.
You're just so hip, baby! Ahh. Yeah.
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.
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.
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).
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?
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.
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".
I'm an indie snob it seems. Maybe, perhaps... Fun though ;)
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.
Well, the PM had that song ever so subtly taking the piss out of goth kids.
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.
I guess it's like Hunters And Collectors after _Human Frailty_ (things like "Head Above Water" and "Panic In The Shade" notwithstanding)
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Thu Sep 19 23:47:01 2002
Yep, I'm a scenester too. Ouch.