Quote:
|
Originally Posted by demonrail666
Someone mentioned Agents of Misfortune to me in relation to the whole Ascension thing, but until youtube I had no way of hearing them. The similarities, especially live, are genuinely uncanny.
More generally, I'd say Metal's been the only area of Rock music that has really evolved in any meaningful way in decades. I'm struggling to think of anything really new or interesting to have come out of the indie/alt rock scene since, christ, i dunno, Twin Infinitives? And that was nearly 30 years ago!!
|
Uh. Disagree about metal being the only thing that’s evolved. From my (albeit limited) perspective. It hasn’t so much evolved as it has dabbled in other existing genres, like shoegaze (Deafheaven), post-rock, electronic (that amazing album The Body did with Haxan Cloak, “I Shall Die Here”) etc.
In some ways the genre has shunned evolution more than any other. Like, it’s only now “Ok” (and debatably) for a black metal band to have a female singer.
Lame.
Anyway, I think indie rock has certainly changed and I think Royal Trux is a very strange band on which to pin the supposed last evolution of the genre. I mean, Twin Infinitives came out in, what, ‘90? That was pre-Loveless for christ’s sake! Pre-Nevermind, pre-Lonesome Crowded West, Slanted & Enchanted, Soft Bulltin, Aeroplane, Leaves Turn Inside You, pre-Beck (for what it’s worth), pre-fucking everything that became known as “indie,” basically.
You’re not even going to give *Stereolab* any credit? What about Radiohead (not indie, but basically wrote ½ the indie how-to manual for the ‘00s)... and what about those sweet couple years when Animal Collective, after learning to love Black Dice (Black Dice!) took their campfire folk and threw it in the furnace with ambient, hip-hop and minimalist noise and made “Feels?” That wasn’t novel? Felt novel. Even if Animal Collective is terrible now, which they are.
I do think indie kind of merged with hip hop, which led to one half of it drifting off into poppier, bouncier territory and the other half shunning pop bounce for Springsteenisms, but in many ways the indie aesthetic is still alive in Frank Ocean and Kids See Ghosts and (yes) Kanye.. big time.
So, yes, indie sucks and is stagnant and terrible right now with very few exceptions all of which are greatly indebted to older artists, but if you really thin 1990 was he last gasp for indie, I don’t know what to tell you other than that you’re off by 25 years.
As for Metal... I dunno man. Prove it. I think there are about 10 metal bands that have actively moved the genre forward, and even those groups are rooted in the past in one or more ways.