Is Garage Trendy?

[Axel Björnsson]

I see lot of bands out there claiming themself playing rock/pop with garage influence, the only problem is they don't sound garage/psych/rocknroll at all.

There are few "garage" bands playing at Iceland Airwaves this year (the biggest music festival in Iceland) Let's check them out..

 

Here we have this band called Weapons

 

Weapons is an indie/rock band from Reykjavík Iceland. Their music could be described as melody driven in your face indie rock influenced by good-feel indie, old-school garage and surf pop music.

 

ok lets take a look at one of their song. 

http://www.gogoyoko.com/song/3169

Yeah I hear Strokes, Maybe some Franz Ferdinand.. Surf Garage old school? 

 

 

Here is some old full grown band from Finland called 22 Pistepirkko. Very cool they're from Finland, hardcore people from Finland.

 

22-Pistepirkko are easily one of Northern Europe's most eccentric and evocative rock acts. The band's sound and diabolical dynamic is a luminous, surreal, guitar-based electro-pop and proto-garage-psychedelia blended with elements of acoustic folk and spaced-out bohemian blues-rock.

 

I get very exited when some band is coming playing music like this.. Wait they got a sound trial here. 

http://www.gogoyoko.com/song/228788

hmmm..????????????? What?

It's like they want to be more unique that they are. I just hear some cheasy advertisement pop going on here..

So what do you think is Garage trend? Is it "on" right know with the hip people? So what about these bands who are playing garage rock? What should we call them?

[John Battles]

    It's true , in Chicago , they're mainly concerned about who THEY think is going to be the "Next Big Thing".     It's politics. That's why The Smashing Pumpkins (Whom I had the grave misfortune of seeing , by accident , a few months after forming.) were opening for The Buzzcocks 6 months after their first gig. That's also why Liz Phair and Veruca Salt got signed after each doing a half - dozen shows . "It's politics , not what you know , but who."- Nervebreakers.       Many Journalists want to be able to say , "See? I told ya ! I gave them their first plug!".   But , last year , I got a VERY favorable writeup in The Chicago Reader (Which used to be our main Music and Arts paper.) , from someone I barely knew , personally , and who had nothing to gain by speaking well of my act. He gave me almost as much space as The Gories , the headliners. It only took me 23 years to get mentioned in The Reader , but , I never begged anybody. One Writer on their staff expressed an interest in writing about me about 12 years ago , but , nothing came of it. Sometimes you can try too hard to make things happen , when they will happen , anyway ,  if they're supposed to.

Joe Willy said:

Band's that work like dogs and are ignored play (with few exceptions) very poor music. Either the recordings are so lo-fi, presumably in an attempt to cover up the lack of a strong melody/progression, that the words are impossible to understand, or the band lacks originality with an alluring quality to their music. All in all, band's that work like dogs should consider focusing their time/efforts on bettering themselves as artists, instead of working a hard days night to endlessly promote recordings that blogs aren't playing... perhaps there's a reason for that other than that they're ignoring you? It's just a possibility is all I'm saying.

DEPRAVOS DE LA MOUR said:

axel- you CAN"T spell rocknroll rong. there is no right way. also if you are getting press ANY press! then you are really fortunate. in chicago the local reviewers write mainly about big time acts or their fellow reviewers acts. all the reviewers are in bands and thus have easy access to press. we have seen feature articles about a reviewer's roomate's drunken train wreck band thrown together for a one off night of baloney and then called the new hope of rock and roll. press space is wasted on 3rd rate FRIENDS. bands that work like dogs to achieve something are ignored.

Axel Björnsson said:

I totally agree with you.. haha I always spell rock n roll wrong.. 

Ok my band was playing at international festival in my town and by older rewiews and describes (including from ourselves) we're described as a 60's revival psychedelic rock. (ofcourse we have influence from bunce of other genres as well) But that description really tracked us down. One journalist was not happy with us.(fuck journalists by the way) I can respect his opinions and all that crap but he killed his credbillity by saying that The Piper at the gates of dawn with Pink Floyd is what psychedelic is supposed to sound and our music were just chaosistic. (has he fucking listened to 13th Floor Elevators? That's what psychedelic is supposed to sound for me thou) The chaosistic is the psychedelic.. Different opinions.

 

 But really my point is descripion can be dangerous.. at least when we're are talking about ignorant journalists..

DEPRAVOS DE LA MOUR said:

that usually doesn't cut it with potentially interested listeners not familiar with your music. sifting through the gazillion choices requires some specific glittering shiny object word or phrase. sad and as unhappy as it may  be the term rock n roll is meaningless.( FUCK!! NOBODY CAN EVEN AGREE ON HOW TO SPELL IT!!!!!) to one person it means you may be death metal or to another you could be jimmy buffet or you could be a 1953 rhythm and blues offshoot. it would take longer to describe what you mean by rock and roll than to describe yourself. clubs, bookers, websites, bloggers and online mags or whatever will not even bother to listen to an unknown quantity without a stinkin' category marker. we really and truly do not know what category we are supposed to be stuck in. and its a sure bet that like yourself many other bands do not now what they are until someone else tells them..
Axel Björnsson said:

I was onetime obsessed with analyzing my music, talked endless about it. I'm still obsessed with it but I keep it to myself because I think it's dull to describe my art to another person. Recently I just tell people that i play Rock 'n Roll.

[DEPRAVOS DE LA MOUR]

joe dear,

 axel's music is brilliant and that is no joke. his cover of  "you're no good" is gorgeous. his originals are just that. original. dont know about lofi. his recordings are quite accomplished. he knows exactly what he is doing.
 
Joe Willy said:

The first band you linked to are an excellent example of garagerock rock. The Velvet Underground, the Strokes, Guided by Voices all come to mind... 3 bands that epitomize "garagerock". I think the high production value of the recordings might be throwing you off, as lo-fi recordings are only a small aspect of what makes something fit the "garagerock" genre. Your band has some very poor recordings that happen to be lo-fi, unfortunately the vocals are unintellible & the mix is, well... not sure if it ever was mixed. Lo-fi recording is just a style of production, if done correctly its the song & vocals that grab the casual listener, whether you record it live in your garage or live in the studio is much less relevant in my humble opinion.

[Axel Björnsson]

well wow.. these are just MY lo fi demos. not my band.. but thanks for checking it out lol.

 

This is my band. We're going to a studio in Berlin in next month and record our first real album :)

These are our best recordings so far but it will be so much better..

The Dandelion Seeds - Beautiful Stranger [Mono] by Alex Nehru

 

The Dandelion Seeds - Love and Sweet Dreams by Alex Nehru

[DEPRAVOS DE LA MOUR]

great stuff! it is what we love about the entire gph. another different flavor. the bands here don't all sound alike.

[Axel Björnsson]

yeah god bless the hideout

[Mole]

Hey come on, you couldn't have lived without the British Invasion!!! The mood of your country at the time dictated it...how come no US band blew everyone away in late '63/early '64 to the same extent that the Beatles et al did? I'm not on some kind of nationalist trip, I'm not "proud" to be English [merely an accident of birth - i had no say in the matter!!], just saying that for a number of reasons and factors, the time was right for the Beat groups to find their place in the US. Wow, you WOULD NOT have the garage explosion of 65/66 without it!! A broad generalisation, but EVERY ONE of those cats was influenced by the English groups - OK, a fair point that they were bringing America's rich musical heritage back home in a sense [there's no doubt that 'rock n roll' is an American movement], but bring it they sure did.

Frank N. Stroud said:

I guess a lot of the meat of this discussion depends on what you consider garage and what you don't.

In my humble opinion, there is more to garage than just influences and all garage did not descend from the 60s British Invasion (which I think (Rock History Blasphemy Warning) we could have lived without in America) as many would have us believe. Buddy Holly was recording his songs (played in a garage) in the fifties using Lo-fi equipment and his drummer thumping a cardboard box on Not Fade Away.

For my part, if it's too clean,polished and processed, it ain't garage.

I call my music "Garage" cause that's where I write it, play it and often record it. I realize too, that the conventional definition of the "G" word probably means something different to most people.   

 

[Kyle Shantz]

I loved the Strokes, but then they were my intro to "garage" in 2001.  I wouldn't have gone to see The Sonics two years ago in Toronto if it werent for them.  "Is This It" was a really good album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOypSnKFHrE), I wont defend the other three. 

Ty Segal is amazing too in terms of new garage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK64JbKdNPM) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj7oo_iLp9Q). 

Someone mentioned VICE, which I assume is hate for The Black Lips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrNSjItTfes). 

Also good on the scene are Thee Oh Sees (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEtI5EZ4em4&feature=related). 

I hope I don't get banned for this post, there seems to be a lot of hate for new stuff...

[Joe Willy]

"Is This It" is a really good album, and I'll defend the other three for you. Their debut was their best, the other three are merely some of the best records to have been released in the last 20 years.

Kyle Shantz said:

I loved the Strokes, but then they were my intro to "garage" in 2001.  I wouldn't have gone to see The Sonics two years ago in Toronto if it werent for them.  "Is This It" was a really good album (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOypSnKFHrE), I wont defend the other three. 

Ty Segal is amazing too in terms of new garage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK64JbKdNPM) and (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj7oo_iLp9Q). 

Someone mentioned VICE, which I assume is hate for The Black Lips (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrNSjItTfes). 

Also good on the scene are Thee Oh Sees (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEtI5EZ4em4&feature=related). 

I hope I don't get banned for this post, there seems to be a lot of hate for new stuff...

[Joe Willy]

Very impressive, the first track totally feels like the child of the 13th floor elevators & the move... beautiful mellotron sample by the way!

Axel Björnsson said:

well wow.. these are just MY lo fi demos. not my band.. but thanks for checking it out lol.

 

This is my band. We're going to a studio in Berlin in next month and record our first real album :)

These are our best recordings so far but it will be so much better..

The Dandelion Seeds - Beautiful Stranger [Mono] by Alex Nehru

 

The Dandelion Seeds - Love and Sweet Dreams by Alex Nehru

[Axel Björnsson]

thanks lad!

[Steven Madson]

Yeah, kind a is trendy with the hipster crowd, but speaking from experience, in Minneapolis when bands like Black Lips or King Khan and BBQ come through town 500 people show up, but when bands like Bare Wires or Personal and the Pizzas come through there's only like 50 people that show up, the same 50 peoples that were around when the Fevers were playing, so....Fuck the hipsters, garage will never really be "cool" and that is fine with me. None of those assholes jocking black lips have no idea who the Spaceshits or Billy Childish were! Stupids.

[Rufus F.]

I've lost all touch with when garage rock goes in and out of style. We have plenty of folks up here who play in bands and claim to love "garage rock", but I still can't find a friggin guitarist who wants to play it and 99% of their bands sure 'aint playing garage.