hyalineskies

Broken Social Scene couldn’t be more diametrically opposed to depression. If ever there was a band where literally every song is about love and understanding, it’s them.

Sufjan Stevens? I can see how you could make a case against him, but I’d have to disagree. Yeah, there are depressing songs - no song about child molesting serial killers is going to be happy - but this isn’t self-pitying whine, it’s an intelligent, mature handling of an inherently emotional subject. I challenge you to find a song by him where he morosely does nothing but complain about his life like those sad suckers in Death Cab would be wont to do.

As for Radiohead, yeah, The Bends has its fair share of depressing songs but that was a decade ago. You can’t fault artists who have grown just miles and miles beyond their early catalog by that very early catalog. If you’re critiquing them on songs from Kid A and OK Computer, you really are doing them an injustice by pulling individual songs from those albums which are themselves cohesive wholes that tell nearly perfectly wrought stories. To pick them apart by their individual components is to critique brushstrokes in the Mona Lisa. In some cases, these two albums for sure, you have to look at the big picture as The Thing completely in and of itself.

Now, by and large, I couldn’t agree more with what you’re saying but you’re mixing your (already hazy) genres of “indie” and “emo”. They aren’t the same thing at all, there’s overlap yes, but the sets aren’t one and the same. I won’t listen to Death Cab and it’s not because I don’t think they’re talented musicians, it’s solely because I don’t have time to waste listening to music telling me that life is going to be sad no matter what I do, there are so many hardships every where you look, oh look my dad left when I was a kid now I’m going to write the same song about it three or four times throughout my career. To hell with that, that completely goes against everything I think about the general human condition.

But to write off indie on account of its pathetic younger brother emo? To lose artists like Björk, The Dismemberment Plan, Blur, Modest Mouse, The Pixies, Spoon, Pavement, Yo La Tengo—that would be to write off decades-long catalogs of some of the most forward thinking and artistically creative music of the last 20 years.

Whoa there, dude.

I think you are pigeonholing a lot of things into what is “indie” - and in general, pigeonholing is bad. Bad, baaad! [smacks your hand.]

I listen to the gamut of stuff.

Instead of it being “indie” or “electronic” or “metal” or “what the fuck is this?” - I tend to try to put stuff in my ears that makes me feel, think, move - and best of all - the stuff that raises the hairs on my arms when I listen to it…

I do understand what you are getting at - but I wouldn’t peg it on indie music as a whole…

There are so many genres and sub-genres now in independent music - and to me, thats what makes indie music something that I couldn’t live without. The ever-evolving face of it, and its ability to create, experiment, and bring out stuff that wouldn’t see the light of day in the commercial world..

And yeah, I don’t listen to Death Cab myself. But I listen the FUCK out of the Postal Service…I think that band is a great example of what I am getting at, as far as genre-mixing goes.

And then there are the innovators, bands like Lightning Bolt and Aphex Twin, and My Bloody Valentine, and… The list goes on.

That’s right, Phil. Sufjan Stevens is certainly not like those sad-bastard bands. In fact, most of his lyrics, especially on his Greetings/Michigan album, are very optimistic, and address every issue but self-obsession.

The other thank-god-they’re-not-only-for-indie-kids bands, such as Spoon and Yo La Tengo are just wonderful. Again, not at all self-deprecating. For someone that listens to electronic music, I would imagine they would accept any rock band that incorporates synth and writes album upon album on drug use.

Now, people shouldn’t listen to Lightning Bolt for completely unrelated reasons.

I listen to the occasional whiny song because it helps me adjust to a break-up. I certainly don’t consider it wallowing if I feel inspired to move on, or even to [gasp!] create, by the end of the night. Additionally, I get nauseated upon listening to dance music any time before 10 pm. That’s like trying to sneak a cigarette in before breakfast.

Eston, perhaps you should ask us for some recommendations of modern rock music that can help you ease back into the genre. It won’t bite. There are lots of reasons why a 20-year-old isn’t interested in Alkaline Trio or what is, the Broken Social Scene? Hawthorne Heights? Whatever the kids listen to these days. Don’t blame it on this sub-genre of supposedly indie pop-rock.

Radiohead - are probably the best band to come out over the last decade. OK Computer is widely considered the best band of the 90’s. They followed that witht he double electronic and idm infused Kid A and Amnesiac. Not whiny at all.

Death Cab doesn’t sing about depression on every song. Perhaps you should listen to entire albums before passing judgement.

Broken Social Scene, Metric, The Arcade Fire, The Doves - these are all great bands that may occasionaly have depressing music but the lyrics are almost all about love and good things.

Anyways, I know everyone has there own tastes so they should just listen to whatever makes them happiest

I’m not even going to comment on this… except for saying that you know my thoughts have changed yet again…