Boundary Sounds

This visit he'll be making the dancefloor heave at Electrik Kiss's 2nd Birthday. You know it's sure to be a huge one with PhDJ sharing the bill with DJ Katch from the Resin Dogs and Queensland's finest, the Surecut Kids. It's all taking place at the Alhambra Lounge in Fortitude Valley and if you get there before midnight it will only set you back 10 bucks!

PhDJ Kinda Tries To Explain 'Indie'. Kinda
Hey Punks,
Each fortnight I write a column for Three D Magazine. This is one I wrote a couple of weeks back...

Today I thought I'd briefly try to summarise how and why the term ‘indie' is ambiguous and confusing, and how it's meaning has evolved over the last few decades.

The term ‘indie' has developed a lot since its first widespread use a few decades ago. Originally it referred to an ‘independent ethic' of doing the record-release-tour process yourself, independently of any major label or larger company support. Doing It Yourself. In some cases bands actually released their own records, in others they signed with independent labels like Factory Records, 4AD, Creation and Sub Pop (these are a few of the really famous ones), and in a few cases bands even started their own labels and signed other acts.

The common consensus is that the term began to morph towards referring to a ‘sound' rather than an ‘ethic' some time in the eighties when independent bands started to become as popular, if not more popular than bands on major labels. The popularity of bands like Joy Division, (later New Order), The Smiths, Pavement, Sonic Youth, Happy Mondays, Minor Threat, Throwing Muses et al meant that other bands were forming and mimicking their sound and developing it further. After a while the popularity of these bands meant that the term ‘indie' started to refer to a sound - although I'm sure you can already see where this quite common argument is flawed: that is Joy Division don't sound like Pavement, don't sound like Happy Mondays etc etc.

Starting to get my drift about this word ‘indie' meaning many things to many people??

The ‘indie sound' versus ‘indie ethic' argument got to a point where bands like Radiohead, who were signed to EMI from their first album (and weren't independent at all until their most recent album), were referred to as an indie band mainly due to their sound and aesthetic. Then once the 90's and 00's came around this thing started to happen where the term ‘indie' very definitely started to refer to an ‘aesthetic' and bands that were signed to major labels, were very popular, and had very little in the way of an independent ethic began to be called ‘indie'. Cue bands like MGMT.

This is one of those discussions that can go on for ages and new references and examples can be cited to prove many different points. I certainly don't pretend to know everything about it, but from what I gather this ‘indie' thing is just a tad bit ambiguous... Next week we talk about the term ‘indie dance'.

Laters.
PhDJ

If you haven't gotten your tickets yet don't leave it too much longer because Melbourne's show just sold out! You can purchase tickets from www.moshtix.com.au for $35+BF.

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If you would like to win a double pass to check out Ratatat play live in Sydney you need to send an email to lovers@boundarysounds.com. Put Ratatat in the subject line and tell us the rumour of how Ratatat got their name is? Hint: if you can't find the original rumour just make one up!!