| In music, as in fashion, certain trends keep coming back. Given enough time, every part of your record collection (and wardrobe) will be back in style – musicians just recycle faster.
Nirvana’s power-sludge and Pavement’s white-boy slack defined ’90s music. In the mainstream, grunge was king, spawning Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and everything up to and including Nickelback (yikes!). While that was going on, Pavement’s tour mates were bubbling up from the underground to record on the major label, dime. It wouldn’t last. The power of hip hop was too much to resist and the guitar slingers that remained brought punk rock back in outfits like Blink 182, Green Day, Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy.
But ’90s indie rock is making a comeback, at least in some circles. More than a handful of recent releases hearken back to the glory days of campus radio crossover.
Pavement fans should check out White Flight’s self-titled album (Range Life Records). Their label’s name is a direct reference to a Pavement song, and White Flight brain trust, Justin Roelofs, sounds like a cross between Steve Malkmus and Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse. Backed by a group of garage-sale musicians, ghetto breaks and record static, the album pushes quirked-out indie rock till it verges on trip hop.
Sister Vanilla is the name Jesus and Mary Chain members Jim and William Reid gave their little sister when she sang on their swansong album. It’s now the name of their new project. On Little Pop Rock (Chemikal Underground Records), the whole family gets together and cranks up the treble for a fuzzed-out Phil Spector-style rave-up. They even name check their own seminal album Psycho Candy. It’s like listening to a JAMC greatest hits album with all new songs and a female voice in the mix.
Also resurfacing, Sarah Shannon of Velocity Girl fame delivers her solo album City Morning Song (Minty Fresh). Sadly, she hasn’t aged as well as the Reid brothers (ironic since their intense commitment to alcohol should have finished them off by now). With half-baked horns and tepid string arrangements, Shannon doesn’t have any of the guts that made Velocity Girl so much fun, and she doesn’t have the voice to make it as a crooner.
Lou Barlow is a hot property again. He not only re-formed Sebadoh in 2006, but now he and J. Mascis have put aside years of feuding to take Dinosaur Jr. back on the road. Just in time for that, Seattle’s Aqueduct have released Or Give Me Death (Barsuk). Hiding behind the Aqueduct name, David Terry double dips into the past sounding like a cross between Sebadoh and Supertramp. It’s an odd combo, but the self-deprecating lyrics are a good balance to the over-the-top ’70s synths.
All Smiles are the latest signing to the burgeoning Dangerbird Records, home to buzz band Silversun Pickups. Armed with acoustic guitars, Chicago singer-songwriter Jim Fairchild doesn’t necessarily have a strong vocal similarity to anyone, put when he turns up and psychs out on Ten Readings of a Warning, there are hints of Neutral Milk Hotel.
Since we mentioned Silversun Pickups, it should be noted that recent indie rock heroes have some influence, too. Ironically, it’s not a Dangerbird label mate picking up the Silversun sound, but rather a Canadian band. On their self-titled indie release, Toronto’s Clothes Make the Man are dead ringers for the Pickups (who themselves bear more than a passing resemblance to Smashing Pumpkins, but let’s not open that can of worms).
Finally, German Tobias Kuhn from Monta is being compared to everyone from Connor Oberst (Bright Eyes) to Sufjan Stevens and Ben Gibbard (Death Cab For Cutie). I’d lean to the latter. On Monta’s second album, The Brilliant Masses (Klein), Kuhn offers some glitchy Postal Service-style sadness mixed with swelling mope-rock tunes.
So, what does all this mean? Can we expect another indie-rock revival? Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible (Merge) entered the U.S. charts at No. 2. That would seem to say yes, until you consider that they got beat out by a rapper who had been dead for 10 years. I guess you can’t stop the hip hop. |
Copyright ©2007 FFWD. All rights reserved.