Anyway, the music: By Ferry Or Steamer played some nice instrumentals, as did Chinless Kings (in a rather minimalistic sort of way). Ruby's Arms were a bit too country-&-western for my liking (what is it with country music and inner city indie types; is it something ironic, like wearing vintage summer-camp T-shirts?) At Sea consisted of two blokes with an acoustic guitar and an acoustic bass guitar, the latter of whom ranted into a microphone whilst playing. Towards their last piece (a lengthy number), they began to sound like an acoustic Mogwai (not a bad thing, IMHO). Finally, Midstate Orange came on. Their sound is a combination of power-pop, wall-of-noise shoegazer endings, false endings, and 1960s retro-kitsch (in places they sounded like The Monkees or The Banana Splits or someone).
And indiekids aren't as bitchy and hierarchical as goths are; they don't have quite that BDSM/vampyre-novel-influenced sense of hierarchy and status. (Status among indiekids is a bit more like status among penguinheads, except that instead of writing GPLed code, you write a zine or play in bands.)
Reggae evolved from country? I thought it evolved from southern-USAan soul/blues/R&B (in the original sense) as heard over patchy radio reception in Jamaica.
Oh yes... and instead of Star Wars merchandise, you have original vinyl pressings of Tigermilk.
heh. indiekids are nearly as bad as goths, except you can at least listen to some of the music without feeling stupid.
Oddly enough, old-skool country and western has managed to start sounding decent since nashville/tamworth went all anonymous rock. and remember, c&w -> reggae -> dub -> dance music.