THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTS ON THE BLOG GAME

One of the reasons why I started No Expiration was, I was reading a blog that was doing a year-end review of 2006 and mentioned The Raconteurs' debut album, Broken Boy Soldiers. The post mentioned how most of the blogs went crazy about the lead single, "Steady As She Goes," but by the time the album came out, no one cared anymore. I found that fascinating. Everyone agreed that the first song was amazing. Why, then, didn't people care about the album when it came out? Because they were tired of talking about it. It wasn't about the music, it was more about talking about it, having new angles on it, and being first to talk about stuff. Anyone who reads No Expiration knows that I've always been cynical of the indie-culture (not in the literal sense - anyone who can make music outside of the major labels gets credit from me, at least in theory) and this was just a reminder that I can't be bothered with it.

Obviously I love to talk (and write) about music, but it's really more about listening to music, and enjoying it, than one-upping everyone else.

So, I was bummed, but not surprised, to read an article in The Washington Post about Wavves, an indie rock band who have been around for almost a year, were everyone's next favorite band, and now everyone hates them. Or something like that. I was glad to leave high school behind, but the scene described in the article is so high school. I've heard Wavves and wasn't really into them, but I feel bad for them. I'm happy to check in on that culture once in a while, but I'm glad to not be a part of it.

ALICE COOPER PUTS WIMPY INDIE ROCK ON BLAST

Alice Cooper's take on Vampire Weekend is pretty funny.
He was psyched when he heard there was a band called "Vampire Weekend." I mean, it's a pretty cool band name. But then when he heard the band he couldn't believe how wimpy and lame they sounded. I pretty much felt the same way. What a waste of a cool name! Check out this interview at Noisecreep.

BLOGFIGHT!

The indie rock blog Buddyhead just put extremely influencial indie rock blog Pitchfork on blast. Normally I wouldn't care about this, but it was kind of funny. Pitchfork recently made their top 500 songs of the '00s list, and Buddyhead really called them out on it. Here's how they broke down Pitchfork's formula.

10: Disco
09: Set iPod shuffle to “Indie”
08: Disco
07: Beyonce
06: Animal Name
05: Kanye West
04: Eminem
03: Set iPod shuffle to “Indie”
02: Animal Name
01: Lil’ Wayne

Mine would be like (1) Bob Dylan (2) garage rock band with a "the" in the name (3) Aimee Mann (4) album by old-school rapper that no one knows came out... Pretty funny.

THE INDIE ROCK FLOW CHART

This made me laugh. I saw it at the indie rock blog Pigeons and Planes.

"YOUR NEW INFLUENCES"

I just happened upon a blog called Fluxblog that has a new feature called "Your New Influences" that I thought was pretty funny and well-thought out. I'm not totally sure that it isn't done sarcastically. It's seems to be by a indie-rock fan who is totally bored with indie rock (which I can understand). So the writer suggests new influences to make indie bands less boring: the first is Janet Jackson's song, "Miss You Much." I look forward to reading his other suggestions.