Indie Album of the Week. Yes, it’s Been Almost Two Months. I’m a Terrible Person. Burn Me With American Spirits When We Meet Again.

OK everyone…let me explain myself. The long delay was due to me being a lazy Indie Bastard. It had nothing to do with me not having the time. I have just been a lazy bitch. I am just as God made me.

But anyway, the following album is one that I have been indulging myself in constantly over the past few weeks. It is an album that I stole from a friend’s father back in the day even though I had no idea what it was (I used to be a terrible person and pretty much still am). I guess I digged it at the time (I was eleven…) but the CD format was just despicable to me so I limited myself to only a few dabbles (Might I add that around the age of ten was when I discovered my parent’s vinyl collection? A true Bastard was born). It was not until I got my hands on a vinyl recording, however, when the genius of the album took my brain and fucked it sideways. Some may call this a deeper cut than my previous album of the week Daydream Nation and some may not. Some may also find this selection shocking. Some culturally illiterate morons may have never heard of it. So, to all my fellow established (but still anti-establishment) Bastards, progressing Bastards, and aspiring Bastards indulging in general Bastardity and seeking indie education, here is your Indie Album of the Week:

 

INXS–Kick

 

The 80s glory of this album cover is matched only by every album that Huey Lewis and The News ever released. Luckily for INXS, they don't suck ass like Huey and co. Also, it is important to note that the half-face shot has been an indie staple for facebook profile pictures among the Bastard community for five years running.

 

This album is an especially interesting album in the Indie Album Hall-of-Fame and it is perhaps the only one of its kind. Now you may be thinking ‘Bev, why is this album so special? Please enlighten me because, being a true Bastard, you are better than I am.’ Well, my fellow aspiring and progressing Bastards, the answer to your question is quite haunting. The fact that the album is such a prominent album in the Indie Bastard community simply makes no sense. Why is this? Brace yourself and hold onto your wool snow beanies that you wear in July…

The album was a monumental commercial success on a global scale. The album topped the charts in Australia and New Zealand, peaked at number three in the US, number 9 in Germany, and number 11 in the UK, not to mention that the album spawned four top-ten singles in the US alone AND raped the MTV VMAs. If the selection of this album has now disgusted you, then I ask you to fuck off. After-all, would you ever call Kid A an album not worthy of the Indie Album Hall-of-Fame? Hell no. Hopefully I don’t shatter your faith in the world by telling you this, but Kid A did top the charts (in the US, UK, Canada, France, Ireland, and New Zealand).

 

Anyway, if you are still reading, I will explain to you why this album has been selected for this week (or month, or two months if I remain a lazy bitch). In short, the album is brilliant. In my mind it rivals Thriller, Purple Rain, and Sign O’ The Times as the best pop album of the 1980s. Also, being a lover of great guitar albums, I may surprise everyone by saying that this is an essential guitar album. While there are no real extended solos or anything particularly virtuosic on Kick, the simple but brilliant guitar riffs that highlight “Devil Inside”, “New Sensation”, and “Need You Tonight” are impossible to not consider legendary. Everybody knows the riff to “Need You Tonight”, even if they have no idea who INXS even is. The riff itself is the real hook of the song.

The lyrics to the album are phenomenal as well. You won’t find many songs with better lyrics dealing with greed, lust, and the sad state of the world than you will in “Devil Inside”, one of the highlights of the album and my personal favorite. Here’s a sample lyric, the first stanza being the first verse and the second stanza being the closing verse. Keep in mind that this was a huge pop album on a global scale…no dance-able pop album should have lyrics this good:

“Here comes the woman / With the look in her eye / Raised on leather / With flesh on her mind / Words as weapons sharper than knives / Makes you wonder how the other half die”

“Here come the world / With the look in its eye / Future uncertain but certainly slight / Look at the faces / Look at the bells / It’s hard to believe we need a place called Hell”

Realer than fuck while also being fun as fuck. Also, the members of the band are Australian…tell me that’s not badass.

 

Now you are thinking ‘Bev, you have made this album sound immortal but I still don’t understand why it’s essential for indie education and the progression of my Bastardity. The overwhelming success of it makes it seem the opposite of pretentious and Indie.’ Well, my friends, I sincerely hope the next three facts ease your mind and allow you to embrace the poppy but brilliant greatness that is Kick. First, the way they dressed could be considered in today’s Indie world as pioneering. Secondly, the members of Girls (a band destined for Indie Album of the Week recognition) cite it as one of their top five favorite albums of all-time. Thirdly, in 2010, the album was covered in its entirety by Beck. Fucking Beck. One of the kings of the Indie world.

I’ll get back to you Bastards soon. If you have a problem with the album or have other insights that I missed, comment and let me know. While I will most likely pretentiously disregard your comment even if it is valid, at least you will give me something to bitch about (which all Indie Bastards crave).

Listen to this album because it is good.

The First Ever Indie Album of the Week…Starting it General for the Casual But Progressing Bastard

I am honored to be posting the first official Indie Bastard music post on this glorious blog. As everyone hopefully already knows, music is primarily what defines an Indie Bastard as a true “Indie Bastard” as distinguished from a normal conformist bastard. Music, in my mind, is the most important component of the Indie world. For example, a person can be a third-party-supporting, puffin-loving, whole-foods shopping, Pantaloon, Toms, and flannel-wearing, black coffee-drinking prick and still not be anywhere close to an Indie Bastard. You may be thinking, ‘Bev, I am not catching your drift…’ Well, my fellow pretentious bastards, I have two things to say. First, I am not ‘throwing’ you a ‘drift’…what the fuck does that even mean? I have no driftwood and neither I nor anything close to me is drifting through any body of water right now. Is there even such thing as a ‘drift’? Secondly, while this person I just described fits many of the necessary criteria to achieve supreme Bastard (capital ‘B’) status, what if I were to tell you that this man listened to Bieber? Or Green Day? Or Nickelback (hopefully this person would be shot on site)? Or U2? Or Kings of Leon (their new shit that sucks ass)? Or The Rolling Stones? The Eagles? Bruce Springsteen (Heaven forbid…)? He’s not so indie anymore, is he? Maybe he’s nothing more than just an idiotic proponent of pusillanimous cockfaggery…

But anyway, this post (as well as my future posts) is extremely vital for your progression as an Indie Bastard and not, simply, for your progression as a bastard with no swag. We are all here to help you, not to turn you into a corporate goon. I urge you to listen to this album because, without it, you may have no hope to ever become a true Indie Bastard. It is general knowledge in the Indie world that without this album, you are a worthless human being (and a Republican…what?). My album choices in the future will be deeper cuts but, because this blog is an educational tool, we have to start with the basic fundamentals and work our way up.

SO FOR THE FIRST EVER INDIE BASTARD ALBUM OF THE WEEK, I PRESENT TO YOU:

SONIC YOUTH–Daydream Nation

 

Does this album cover remind you of Schindler's List? Fuck that corporate mainstream film. This was five years before that. Look at the angle, the perspective, the tone, the expression...Indie artistic brilliance.

When I think of the word ‘pretentious,’ I do not think of a certain academic or author or politician. I think of Sonic Youth, perhaps the mecca of Indie bands. Formed in 1981 in New York City, Sonic Youth were prominent figures in the “No Wave” art and music scene that was Indie as fuck in the early 1980s. The people associated with this scene were like Devendra Banhart on meth. I mean, for the love of God, the name “No Wave” was a satire of the corporate sponsored, mainstream, obviously horrendous “New Wave” movement. Sonic Youth was probably the most prominent band in the first wave of “noise rock” bands. When you read “noise rock,” you probably think of heavily distorted guitars, appalling lack of vocal prowess, irregular, never-before-used chord progressions that have never been used before for obvious reasons, and inane lyricism. If you are thinking this, then you are right…congratulations.

But the interesting part about Sonic Youth, especially this album which is hailed by Bastards everywhere as a masterpiece, is that, while their music is noise-driven and distorted with sub-par if not horrible vocals, relatively meaningless lyrics, and unbelievably obscure progressions and guitar tunings (when Sonic Youth thinks something is off, they tweak the tunings on their guitars, with most of their songs being almost impossible to replicate by the outside listening guitarist. Most of the tunings had never been used before and the tunings differ on pretty much every track. For this reason, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore tour with dozens of guitars while on tour), there is a twisted beauty to every track on this album. This album is absolutely brilliant and, though an acquired taste for most fans, the album is a high point in the history of rock music. I give most of the credit to Moore and Ranaldo, who weave improvised yet constantly intricately meshing guitar lines with an approach that has not been equaled. To say that they are two of the best avant-garde, progressive, unique guitarists of all time is an understatement. In a critique of Sonic Youth’s 1986 album Evolv, the New York Times praised the band, stating that “Sonic Youth is making the most startlingly original guitar-based music since Jimi Hendrix” (Azerrad; 2001 (from his book Our Band Could Be Your Life)). Great praise indeed. The crazy part is that it’s actually true. From the opening riff of “Teen Age Riot” to the geek-out spaciness of “The Sprawl” to the astonishing 14-minute “Trilogy” which concludes the album, Daydrem Nation is one of the great guitar albums of all-time, right up there with Electric Ladyland,  Layla, Overnite Sensation, Houses of the Holy, Who’s Next, Are You Experienced, Texas Flood, Master of Puppets, Dark Side of the Moon, and future Indie album of the week Marquee Moon. Also, the fact that Moore and Ranaldo play with modified Fender Jazzmasters (now the norm for experimental indie musicians) with screwdrivers jammed in the bridge for sound modification makes the indie glory of this album even more profound.

The biggest reason why Daydream Nation is the first-ever Indie Album of the Week, however, is not even its musical brilliance. This album is THE underground Indie album and it’s arguably the primary catalyst for the formation of the modern Indie youth culture. The album is artsy, pretentious, snarky, punky, innovative anti-pop with pop genius under the surface. Isn’t that what every Indie Bastard craves and wishes for his/herself? It doesn’t hurt that the flannel and glasses-clad singing/songwriting power-trio of Moore, Ranaldo, and bassist Kim Gordon pretty much made flannel and glasses the tits in early underground-indie culture. It is also important to note that Sonic Youth was one of the first ground-breaking bands to have a female bassist, an indie staple since the band’s formation in 1981. Without Sonic Youth, especially this ingenious 1988 masterpiece, there probably wouldn’t be too many legit Indie Bastards in this world, not to mention that there would be hardly any great underground indie guitar bands. Get this album……now.