A mostly comprehensive database of indie pop bands, divided into 15 categories ("60s influenced pop", "twee pop", "lo-fi", "jangle pop", "C-86", and so on). Some of the categorisations seem a bit off (I'd have classified Broadcast as "60s", or perhaps "international pop", rather than "synthpop", and as for the Field Mice being "slowcore"...); this is the sort of document that could spark hours of debates between record shop clerks and people in button-badged trucker caps, about issues such as whether Saint Etienne are "Polished/International/Euro Pop" or "Club Pop". Anyway, it's full of leads I'm going to have to follow up...

Posted by: Jim | http:// | Tue May 11 14:03:49 2004

I do love listening to a genre so obscure that not even the indie list makers list it :)

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Tue May 11 15:17:39 2004

I'm amused that they mentioned Ratcat, tho' there's nothing wrong with "Tingles".

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Tue May 11 15:59:05 2004

The indiepop kids here love Ratcat. Which I found odd, as when I was at school, it was the punk-ass skaters who were really into them, alongside the Dead Kennedys and such. Mind you, they are in a pop vein, and _Don't Go Now_ does get people dancing.

Posted by: babel5 | http:// | Tue May 11 21:00:33 2004

there's also AMG's classification system/taxonomy...

http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=C4464

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Wed May 12 01:39:36 2004

No mention of The Mandlebrot Set, but Sweet William are there, which is good. A nice list of bands to go out and discover, in any case.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Wed May 12 02:16:30 2004

I mean, remember when Tingles came out - 6 tracks for five dollars, at the same time for the video for "That Ain't Bad". It basically lit the wick amongst the kiddies (of which I was one, then)...

Come to think of it, Ratcat (and Caligula!) did the O-week do at my first year at UNSW.

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Wed May 12 03:50:33 2004

I've talked my below-average-hard-rock-cover-band into covering "That Ain't Bad". And "Getting Away from This World" is a forgotten gem, too.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed May 12 05:42:27 2004

A lot of Australian bands didn't make it. There are no Australian shoegazer bands there (what about Swirl?), not to mention no Minimum Chips, Ninetynine, Origami, &c. It seems that to the compilers, Australia is The Lucksmiths and The Cannanes.

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Wed May 12 14:10:05 2004

Yeah, and where's the Clouds, for that matter... They weren't /that/ much like the Pixies.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed May 12 17:53:28 2004

Weren't the Clouds a Scottish C86 band connected in some way to The Boy Hairdressers?

http://www.twee.net/bands/c/clouds.html

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