Indie? Punk?

don’t get me wrong – this band is okay, but you’re very confused if you think this is “indie rock”. what exactly do you think “indie rock” is? music that cool hipster cats like? can you describe to me what indie rock sounds like? can’t put it into words, can you? that’s because indie is a status, not a sound. indie rock is the rock part of indie music, it’s short for independent, meaning not owned by a major corporation. – you see, interscope, the major label they signed to is owned by a huge conglomerate called vivendi, who also owns this other company called vivendi environment, which indulges in such fascistic corporatocratic practices as privatizing the earth’s water supply (starving some, making the poor a lot poorer, and the rich a lot richer). and everytime you buy a yeah yeah yeahs record (or cd) you’re making a lot more money for a corporation that does this everyday. with major labels only giving 10-15% of the royalties to the actual artists who make the actual music – how much money do you think they’ve made for this corporation that kills people? families, mothers, children, whatever, they can’t pay for their water… don’t believe me? here’s the sources

http://www.citizen.org/documents/Gats_Backgrounder.pdf http://blogs.infoshop.org/rebelmouse.php?title=enemiy_s_acting_of_elites_against_people&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1 http://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/issues/2006/0102/7370927.shtml

i’m not saying this band is bad, i’m just saying they’re very confused and naive if they think and say they’re indie, cos this is how the major label system works – some are owned by corporations that starve people for profit, some are owned by arms manufacturers, and don’t forget if you’ve bought it at god-forbid wal-mart, then you’ve bought it from one of the biggest sweatshop abusers in the world. hey! speaking of sweatshops, did you know the yeah yeah yeahs did an advertisement for adidas, who also use sweatshops and child labor? isn’t that so PUNK ROCK of them? isn’t that so “indie rock” of them? they sure are stickin it to the man… oh, you need a source for that too? here you go, my sweet wonderful darling babies:

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=1311

that’s just capitalism, sorry honey… any real punk would know this (not to be condescending; but what am i supposed to say to a kid who has the circle A pinned to his LEATHER jacket his mummy bought him and doesn’t even know who Emma Goldman or Noam Chomsky are?) this is why indie-punk is so important. this is why real indie labels everywhere are so important – to me at least. because they fight this rubbishness.

just because you don’t know about any real indie or punk artists cos they’re not on mtv or the radio doesn’t mean they don’t exist. i suggest you stick to words like “garage” or “alternative” that don’t have these political connotations. or you could say they’re punk-influenced or indie-influenced, or you could say they describe their music as “…”, but calling them indie or punk just diverts attention away from genuinely indie-punk bands like Emily’s sassy lime, Crass, Fugazi, Bikini Kill, The Mae Shi, Mika Miko, Vaginal Davis, Partyline, Caroliner, Tiny Masters of Today, and Billy Childish, which is wholly irresponsible, misleading, and totally inaccurate. not in a pov way, more in a fundamental violation of the definitions of indie and punk kinda way. but you know you’re not gonna do that; you’re just gonna try to forget these terrible, terrible things you know they’re doing and try to keep pretending they’re punk rock