I have no idea why, but I felt compelled to listen to some old Velocity Girl tonight. Vintage 1994. In my mind, there is absolutely no way this album is 12 years old. I remember playing this one really loud in the old ‘92 Ford Probe. Great memories. Combine this with Superchunk, Versus, Small Factory, the Pixies, Sebadoh, Unrest, Pavement, and Archers of Loaf and that pretty much sums up my musical tastes from 1993-1996.
Needless to say, if you know those bands, you know that music hasn’t gotten any better since then. Is it even possible? So many new bands are absolute shit. Even a lot of the good indie bands now just sound too overproduced, like they are searching for whatever is the sound-of-the-moment, instead of just playing what they feel. It all just sounds the same. Not all newer stuff is bad though.
The Dismemberment Plan was amazing. But they broke up. However, their last show in Atlanta in June 2003 was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to.
+/- (plusminus) is amazing, but that’s a given since they’re former Versus. I’m anxiously waiting for their new album. These guys get better and better with every release.
The American Analog Set is still pushing out good tunes, but their days are numbered. Probably not a bad thing though, just to leave a good thing while it’s still good. They’ve put out 6? 7? 8? albums already. I’ve lost count.
Seriously, I can’t think of a single band off the top of my head that has meant as much to me as the bands that were around in 1995. The last 10 years have just been a downhill slump as far as good indie music goes, with a few exceptions. I downloaded the top 20 or so indie/etc albums of 2005 and only about 4 or 5 of them really impressed me. My reaction to the rest was “Hmm, who did these guys rip off?” or “Hmm, this song is good, but why are the rest of them shit?” or “What the fuck? This really sucks.”
It’s kinda lame when — and I’m not disrespecting these artists at all, I’m just saying — some of the most remarkable albums of the year came from Bruce Springsteen and the Rolling Stones. What’s old is new again? Sometimes you never know.
