0" was a mystery. Nestled firmly in Vintage Vinyl's 10" records section, a true musical black hole if there ever was one, this record interested me with it's stark black and white cover art...and the fact that when you turn it over you notice that the girl is holding a gun. Black Tambourine, I would come to find out, is/was a seminal band in the underground dream pop genre and an extremely influential group to lots of bands that I already listened to. But it started because I just liked the cover. This record also introduced me to Swedish pop group Girlfrendo, they're mentioned in the liner notes. I was happy to see that this record recently got a proper re-release. This record was also influential in showing me that if I hate a record the first time I hear it I may love it the second. 7" records are really great for this type of shopping. There are endless possibilities in the 7" bin and (until recently for some reason) they are cheaper than LPs and CDs. There's also a feeling to 7" records that they're more unique. You can look at a 7", possibly pressed on some outlandish color vinyl with a silk screened over and think you're the only person who owns it. One of my all time favorite songs is 'Audi 5000' by some band called The Triggers. All I know about them is that they're probably from somewhere near Ypsilati, Michigan and may be former/future members of bands like Lovesick and Saturday Looks Good to Me just because their artwork is so similar. Other than that the song and record are a total mystery, but I like it that way. No picture, I've never been able to find info on them on the world wide web, and it's not same The Triggers that are on Dirtnap Records.
This weekend was not unlike others where I found ultra cheap CDs in the used bins at the Princeton Record Exchange. I'd like to state that I'm not advocating blind luck in finding these records. Record labels are important, as is artwork and (to me at least) song titles. This weekend's big find was a 
band called Clues from Montreal. This one had all the familiar markings: weird artwork and pictures of self-flying kites, a kind of pop-up book meets LSD art scheme, and it was on a label called Constellation...which is unknown to me, but promising. I come to find out now that Clues is made up of members of Arcade Fire and Unicorns, two bands that I know of but don't really pay any attention to. Underground music is a pyramid scheme. This CD has a truly heartbreaking song called 'Elope' that I would recommend anyone reading this to seek out ASAP. Finding this CD helped me to realize two things: 1. I don't mind getting older, to say that at 28 is probably kind of ridiculous, but as you age your tastes change and you can enjoy things you may not have earlier in life. I can't be sure if I would have appreciated Destroyer, Final Fantasy, Spoon, Miike Snow, Women, or even the new Animal Collective when I was in high school, but I love 'em now. 2. Music is AMAZING right now. There have been times, not too long ago, where the state of independent music was slumping and overrun with garbage. I know this because I lived through it, surviving on a diet of early White Stripes records and the occasional indie monster: Death Cab, Blonde Redhead, Of Montreal, lean times indeed.
band called Clues from Montreal. This one had all the familiar markings: weird artwork and pictures of self-flying kites, a kind of pop-up book meets LSD art scheme, and it was on a label called Constellation...which is unknown to me, but promising. I come to find out now that Clues is made up of members of Arcade Fire and Unicorns, two bands that I know of but don't really pay any attention to. Underground music is a pyramid scheme. This CD has a truly heartbreaking song called 'Elope' that I would recommend anyone reading this to seek out ASAP. Finding this CD helped me to realize two things: 1. I don't mind getting older, to say that at 28 is probably kind of ridiculous, but as you age your tastes change and you can enjoy things you may not have earlier in life. I can't be sure if I would have appreciated Destroyer, Final Fantasy, Spoon, Miike Snow, Women, or even the new Animal Collective when I was in high school, but I love 'em now. 2. Music is AMAZING right now. There have been times, not too long ago, where the state of independent music was slumping and overrun with garbage. I know this because I lived through it, surviving on a diet of early White Stripes records and the occasional indie monster: Death Cab, Blonde Redhead, Of Montreal, lean times indeed.But right now? Indie music is alive in a way that I've never seen it. It's hard to resist listing about a thousand bands that make me excited for the state of music over the next few years. I feel like that's reader poison, a form of name dropping or at the very least, boring. I also, however, don't feel like I can discuss what I'd like to discuss without mentioning (at least some of) these bands. So forgive me.
One CD I picked up used was by a band called No Age, they got pretty popular last year, as did just 
about any band released through SUB POP. I didn't care much about No Age, I think I gave their first record a listen, who could resist a record called 'Weirdo Rippers'? But I didn't much care for it. No Age's 'Nouns' is interesting in and out of the stereo, it comes with a 60+ page booklet, recalling that epic Black Dice 7" on three.one.g. some years back. The music is not at all what I expected, I'd heard No Age compared to Death From Above 1979 a while back and it's completely unwarranted. This no doubt came from some holier-than-thou 3rd rate magazine reviewer who can't describe music without linking it to one of the last two CDs he listened to. The first song on 'Nouns' actually sounds a lot like Deerhunter (not one of the last two CDs I listened to) but the rest of the disc is very...well, unSUB POP. Yes I know Wolf Eyes is on SUB POP, but it's different. I'm surely not trying to say that No Age or Clues have made some genre defining albums, I'm just saying No Age and Clues are tapped in to what I think is going on right now. There's a collection of bands that are organic in their inspiration and naturally pop. It's kind of like what happened when the Elephant 6 bands were around. It seems like there are tons of bands making the kind of pop music they want to hear and it just so happens that it's also the kind of pop music the record buying (or downloading) public at large want to hear. I don't know if I'm describing this exactly how I want to, there have always been bands doing what I'm trying to convey, but now it just seems like every genre wall there is or was has been vaporized. I love classifying bands in to genres, the more buzzwords I can use to describe a band and where they fit in the world of underground music the better, but that's my own neurosis...actually I love when bands just do whatever the hell they want. That seems like what's happening now. I remember an old !!! record that had a song called "There's No Fucking Rules, Dude" and I thought that was so inspired and I wish every band had that mentality.
about any band released through SUB POP. I didn't care much about No Age, I think I gave their first record a listen, who could resist a record called 'Weirdo Rippers'? But I didn't much care for it. No Age's 'Nouns' is interesting in and out of the stereo, it comes with a 60+ page booklet, recalling that epic Black Dice 7" on three.one.g. some years back. The music is not at all what I expected, I'd heard No Age compared to Death From Above 1979 a while back and it's completely unwarranted. This no doubt came from some holier-than-thou 3rd rate magazine reviewer who can't describe music without linking it to one of the last two CDs he listened to. The first song on 'Nouns' actually sounds a lot like Deerhunter (not one of the last two CDs I listened to) but the rest of the disc is very...well, unSUB POP. Yes I know Wolf Eyes is on SUB POP, but it's different. I'm surely not trying to say that No Age or Clues have made some genre defining albums, I'm just saying No Age and Clues are tapped in to what I think is going on right now. There's a collection of bands that are organic in their inspiration and naturally pop. It's kind of like what happened when the Elephant 6 bands were around. It seems like there are tons of bands making the kind of pop music they want to hear and it just so happens that it's also the kind of pop music the record buying (or downloading) public at large want to hear. I don't know if I'm describing this exactly how I want to, there have always been bands doing what I'm trying to convey, but now it just seems like every genre wall there is or was has been vaporized. I love classifying bands in to genres, the more buzzwords I can use to describe a band and where they fit in the world of underground music the better, but that's my own neurosis...actually I love when bands just do whatever the hell they want. That seems like what's happening now. I remember an old !!! record that had a song called "There's No Fucking Rules, Dude" and I thought that was so inspired and I wish every band had that mentality.Where underground music used to feel like a cult it now feels like a club. It seems like there's a significant camaraderie that was only aspired to years ago. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. I look at all the amazing bands that are really hitting their stride right now and they're all SO different, but there's a feeling that they're all cut from the same cloth. It could be the shared experience of the internet, it's so much easier for anyone to find underground music now, not to mention like-minded people. Of course, it may seem like I'm undermining, even advocating against the obsession I mentioned earlier. I'm not a fan of downloading music for the simple reason that I love actual records and just having a song on a computer or whatever seems like an anti-climax. However, if this digital climate is helping to create this musical renaissance that I'm witnessing, how can I do anything but embrace it?
Many of the bands that are on my mind 
are the ones that are redifining pop music. The one that is dominating my thoughts is Dirty Projectors, they've been around for a while, but last year's 'Bitte Orca' is a simply stunning record. It seems fitting that I purchased this album on the last day of 2009, it has a wipe-the-slate-clean feel to it. While sounding entirely fresh and inspired it also sounds like something fit for public consumption...some of it at least. 'Stillness is the Move' is maybe the best pop song since 'Hey Ya', and that's saying something. This band gets lazily compared to the Talking Heads and David Byrne, which isn't entirely off...but I don't like the Talking Heads, so I'm going another way. Dirty Projectors have the feel of a classic Motown group being backed by...Queen? Big guitars and backing vocals surround intimate structures and ridiculous tempo shifts. When you listen to this record you can feel originality pouring out. Detractors tend to lean on the notion that nothing is new, in the world of music everything has been done and it's a culture of imitators. One of the best things about the current state of music is that new music actually IS new and exciting.
are the ones that are redifining pop music. The one that is dominating my thoughts is Dirty Projectors, they've been around for a while, but last year's 'Bitte Orca' is a simply stunning record. It seems fitting that I purchased this album on the last day of 2009, it has a wipe-the-slate-clean feel to it. While sounding entirely fresh and inspired it also sounds like something fit for public consumption...some of it at least. 'Stillness is the Move' is maybe the best pop song since 'Hey Ya', and that's saying something. This band gets lazily compared to the Talking Heads and David Byrne, which isn't entirely off...but I don't like the Talking Heads, so I'm going another way. Dirty Projectors have the feel of a classic Motown group being backed by...Queen? Big guitars and backing vocals surround intimate structures and ridiculous tempo shifts. When you listen to this record you can feel originality pouring out. Detractors tend to lean on the notion that nothing is new, in the world of music everything has been done and it's a culture of imitators. One of the best things about the current state of music is that new music actually IS new and exciting.Another example of this is the band Beach House. Their first record was decent, but lacked something and this year's 'Teen Dream' delivered. It's a kind of sprawling, meditative record blending dreamy subdued hooks with a different kind of female lead vocal.
A record like Pants Yell!'s 'Received Pronunciation' seemed to me to be a kind of one-off, twee blip on the radar, and although I'd never heard of them, 3 bucks + Slumberland Records = buy. It turns out this is a really promising, infectious and honest record. Songs like 'Rue de la Paix' and 'Not Wrong' are kind of brilliant little pop gems, and completely blur the indie line.
The last thing I'll say about what I feel is happening right now is that it all seems almost relentlessly positive. Even hearing Nathan Willams from Wavves sing "got no car, not no money...got no god, got no girlfriend" it doesn't sound like despair. There's an underlying optimism permeating indie music and I'm all for it. I would love to know where it came from, my first guess is that it was born out of the political climate. Either bands adopted a 'fuck-it-all' attitude in the Bush years, or conversely gained a new outlook on life once Obama took over. This may play some small part, but this optimism doesn't feel like it's in response to anything in particular, plus half the bands I've mentioned are Canadian. Another thought is that it's just my own projection on the situation, or maybe these musicians came to the realization I did several years ago that it's a waste of time to be depressed and/or negative...or maybe they never were to begin with. Maybe it's the drugs, it's probably the drugs. I've always enjoyed bands and movies and TV shows that you're supposed to be high to enjoy, and I've never been high in my life. Most kids spend 8th grade alone in their room listening to The Doors drinking Yoohoo right? But I'm straying from my point.
Music, unlike many things, seems to be in good hands right now. Experimentation is the norm and diversity is celebrated. Regardless of what has caused this influx it's important to mention that it's happening. If you haven't bought a record since 1997 my advice to you is to smile and buy something you've never heard of.
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