The Australian indie-pop marketplace now has more competition, with a new mail-order outfit and record label in Fortitude Valley opening. Taking the time-honoured indie-pop strategy of having a literary name (see also: Library Records, Chapter Music, and numerous bands), Book Club Records has their own releases and overseas imports (including Tender Trap, Amelia "Talulah Gosh/Heavenly" Fletcher's latest project), with postage being free in Australia. They also have a page of MP3s free for the download, which includes Barcelona's "I Have The Password To Your Shell Account". (via Rocknerd)

It's interesting to look at their links page. Among the usual indie labels and stores, there is an Other section, which features 4ZZZ, LiveJournal, and, um, Manchester United. The last addition seems puzzling, looking at the site from the UK; no-one here would associate football with the indie-pop subculture, and Man.U, one of the biggest and highest in profile of clubs, doubly so. Mind you, it appears the be the usual indiekid-Anglophilia phenomenon, where any and all affectations of British everyday versimilitude are more indie than the local variety. This has been commented on in the past, in observations of American indie fans who are into everything one can slap a union flag on, from Blur to Oasis to Fatboy Slim to Mogwai; not to mention appropriations of British slang, sometimes with unintentionally comical results (I mean, "Shag Frenzy" sounds more like a tabloid headline about suburban swingers' parties than a name for an indie night). With that in mind, I wonder how long until indie kids in America and Australia start imitating the chav phenomenon to get that imported-from-Britain boost to their indie cred.

Posted by: steff | http://ofterdingenandkropotkin.blogspot.com | Wed Apr 13 03:50:03 2005

Talulah Gosh! I still have one of their vinyls. It's lovely. I never figured out why one would fall in love with voices. But one does.

Posted by: nick | http://www.bookclubrecords.com | Wed Apr 13 10:21:42 2005

hi there,

thanks for the mention on the site!

as for the manchester united link, i've followed them staunchly for as long as i can remember. so did my dad (first visit to old trafford in 1954) and his before him...

i insisted on having the link on our page, despite my wife's protests! she was equally happy when i insisted on a visit to old trafford during our honeymoon...

anyway, i loved your hypothesis and thanks again for spreading the book club word.

nick

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org | Wed Apr 13 12:06:00 2005

No worries.

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