Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Indie Rock

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This travesty is an insult to anyone who likes music. I don't see how a text could purport to be a reference volume on Indie Rock and have no Flaming Lips, Stone Roses, Slint, or Joy Division, but has James Blunt. Yes, you read that right, James Blunt! The author asserts in her description of the band Snow Patrol that they are "Rivaling English rockers Radiohead for the top slot among the best indie acts of all time." Honestly, that should be enough for any red-blooded fan of indie to have fits. The things included in this (marginal side project Out Hud, The Bravery, and some band called Del Rey that doesn't even have 2000 MySpace fans) suggests that the author has no idea about Indie Rock and her research consisted of looking at her iPod and googling whatever she found on it with no concern for accuracy. Almost every item has errors. Ian MacKaye did not form Dischord in 1970, Ben Lurie did not play the Jesus and Mary Chain reunion at Coachella and J Mascis did not leave Dinosaur Jr. in 1988. Not only that, the writing is appalling, a series clichés strung together in a nonsensical fashion. One band's music is described as "mixed soulful, artsy rock with bouncy punk into catchy and jangly pop/rock tunes, which seemingly took influences from the likes of Welsh alt rockers Super Furry Animals, 1960s melodic rock act the Zombies, British punks the Buzzcocks, and influential London rock and rollers the Kinks." You figure it out. Really, does anyone really care that a band were once invited to host an episode of MTV2's Subterranean or that another one once did an uneventful appearance on a late night talk show? Should the timeline of significant events in Indie Rock history include that Jack White once got in a fight with a member of the Von Bondies or that Blender complemented Art Brut by calling them the best unsigned band in the world? Could you at least use spell check? There is no such word as neaveau. Seriously, we deserve better. The foreword is written by one of the guys in Ambulance Ltd and is one paragraph long. Doesn't that really say it all?

I've only a few entries so far (on bands I'm quite familiar with), and can't believe the amount of lazy writing and factual errors I found. There's not really a chronology in the writing style. When he wrote that Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine joined Dinosaur Jr. and Primal Scream, you're not sure of when that happened. Also, a lot of specious facts in the Pavement and Green River entries. Do not buy this. Instead, look for the Trouser Press Guides by Ira Robbins (available for $1-$2 used). Better facts and better opinions from someone who actually lived through it and can string paragraphs together.