The Top 50 Greatest Landfill Indie Songs of All-Time (Vice)

[Gaz]

Shed Seven and The Bluetones are ace.

[Savage Henry]

31 minutes ago, capt_oats said:

That was my interpretation as well. The weird thing is that "landfill" isn't necessarily being used pejoratively here - even though it sounds like it should be.

If you look at the 'Britpop' era you've obviously got Oasis, Blur, Pulp and Suede but equally there was a bandwagon filled with the likes of Shed Seven, Echobelly, The Bluetones, Sleeper, Dodgy or Menswe@r all bands who had one or two big songs but largely existed in that slipstream of averageness of Shine compilations.

You can make exactly the same sort of comparisons with Grunge.

I suppose the thing with the bands in that Vice list is that their defining characteristic is their blandness.

Even the "big" bands like Arctic Monkeys were/are pretty dull. I've never really understood how folk could have strong opinions on bands like The Rifles or The Enemy or whoever but some do it seems. It's an era of music that completely passed me by and I don't feel I've missed out tbh.

Fwiw, 2012 was my last trip to SxSW. The Twilight Sad and Three Blind Wolves were doing the Scottish Showcase IIRC.

God I miss SxSW.  The Scottish show up at Hotel Vegas was usually a bit of a box of frogs, but I’ve seen a few decent bands there. WOMPS, Catholic Action and one or two others.

[TheScarf]

2 hours ago, Gaz said:

Shed Seven and The Bluetones are ace.

This is very correct.  Both excellent live too.  Mark Morris of The Bluetones has one of those voices that sounds the same in the studio and live.

Also, someone earlier mentioned The Cribs.  I thought they were shite but their front man was quite amusing in interviews.

[bluearmyfaction]

Menswe@r got a deal when they only had 6 songs.  As usual the industry was looking for the Last Big Thing and determined to run it into the ground while it was hot.  So any band with the requisite look would get a shake.

Problem for decent guitar bands now is licensing.  So many pubs and clubs cannot host louder acts because of nimbies moving into inner cities and blarting about the noise.  Hence the growth of beigecore like Sheeran because they're not ever going to create a disturbance.

[Marshmallo]

Seen 7 of the bands on that list live. Arctic Monkeys shouldn't really be on there tbh. 

[Boostin' Kev]

5 hours ago, Gaz said:

Shed Seven and The Bluetones are ace.

[vikingTON]

3 hours ago, Marshmallo said:

Seen 7 of the bands on that list live. Arctic Monkeys shouldn't really be on there tbh. 

Try thirteen. 

A few points on the piece:

1) This article was a triggering experience on just about every other paragraph, which given the above figure was exactly what they were aiming for. Top notch outrage journalism tbh.

2) Anyone who thought that The Guillemots were 'a British Arcade Fire' didn't actually listen to their debut album, which is well beyond indie and still excellent listening 15 years on (their follow-ups were of course horseshit). The song they picked is probably the worst on that album though it was at least a legit single.

3) They presumably forgot all about the existence of the Kaiser Chiefs who should get about three separate placings (which would also make 14) in the list.

4) The Futureheads cover of Hounds of Love is about 100 times better than the original shrieking nonsense version. Which is also a failsafe grenade to launch into a music discussion at any time to let it all kick off: the seethe from the Kate Bush fan club at this indisputable fact makes for a tremendous night's entertainment.

[vikingTON]

11 hours ago, Boostin' Kev said:

This thread has given me a genuinely heartwarming feeling knowing I spent my formative years growing up with the evolution of hip hop, house, techno, lo fi/art rock indie, grunge and Madchester.

That's actually the onset of your coronary M8.

[NotThePars]

This thread has given me a genuinely heartwarming feeling knowing I spent my formative years growing up with the evolution of hip hop, house, techno, lo fi/art rock indie, grunge and Madchester.

This is even lamer than being a big landfill indie head tbh

[Jimi Shandrix]

4 minutes ago, virginton said:

Try thirteen. 

A few points on the piece:

1) This article was a triggering experience on just about every other paragraph, which given the above figure was exactly what they were aiming for. Top notch outrage journalism tbh.

2) Anyone who thought that The Guillemots were 'a British Arcade Fire' didn't actually listen to their debut album, which is well beyond indie and still excellent listening 15 years on (their follow-ups were of course horseshit). The song they picked is probably the worst on that album though it was at least a legit single.

3) They presumably forgot all about the existence of the Kaiser Chiefs who should get about three separate placings (which would also make 14) in the list.

4) The Futureheads cover of Hounds of Love is about 100 times better than the original shrieking nonsense version. Which is also a failsafe grenade to launch into a music discussion at any time to let it all kick off: the seethe from the Kate Bush fan club at this indisputable fact makes for a tremendous night's entertainment.

[8MileBU]

The Music are one band who came through in the post Brit-pop indie era and remain one of my favourite bands to this very day. Totally unique sounding band and absolutely piss all over dross like Arctic Monkeys. Phenomenal live too and being off my nut on jack n jills right down the front when they headlined the NME stage at TITP will forever be one of my best gig memories. Seems they’ve reformed too. 

 

[Jimi Shandrix]

27 minutes ago, 8MileBU said:

The Music are one band who came through in the post Brit-pop indie era and remain one of my favourite bands to this very day. Totally unique sounding band and absolutely piss all over dross like Arctic Monkeys. Phenomenal live too and being off my nut on jack n jills right down the front when they headlined the NME stage at TITP will forever be one of my best gig memories. Seems they’ve reformed too. 

 

Must've been amazing pills.

[8MileBU]

1 minute ago, Jimi Shandrix said:

Must've been amazing pills.

They were. 

Go give more than one song of theirs a listen Jimi. If you still don’t like then fair enough.

[Boostin' Kev]

11 hours ago, virginton said:

That's actually the onset of your coronary M8.

 

11 hours ago, NotThePars said:

 

This is even lamer than being a big landfill indie head tbh

 

Gen X 4 Life. We're still living that millennial dream. 

[BallochSonsFan]

Most of the songs on that list are not landfill indie.

Landfill indie should only really apply to the stuff that came out between Britpop and the very early 00s when every arsepiece under the sun wanted to pick up a guitar and pretend that they were in Oasis.

[Moomintroll]

21 hours ago, Savage Henry said:

Oasis, Blur and Pulp, while exceptional for a while (And Pulp for decades), really did inspire some of the most insipid and bland music by pasty white men with floppy hair and a permanent Jesus pose.  The 1975 seem to be carrying the flag nicely in those terms, but you could add the Courteeners, Biffy Cliro, Gerry Cinnamon, The Dunts, Rascalton and any number of others, all of whom offer precisely zero originality or charm. In fact, there’s hundreds of them.  That being said, I think “landfill” just means boring and beige, and you could really go to any era and any genre and make a list of 50 boring songs. This list just happens to be targeted at the Vice reading demographic.   
 

Top 50 incompetent DJs would be equally dismal.

Edit: this reminds me of going to see the BBC Presents... day show at SXSW with Saint PHNX, Orchards, and The Dunts. The UK Embassy day show is famous for having free food, and it only just dampened my sense of everlasting doom.

Reddy for that Cliro pish, otherwise pretty accurate.

[Moomintroll]

11 hours ago, 8MileBU said:

The Music are one band who came through in the post Brit-pop indie era and remain one of my favourite bands to this very day. Totally unique sounding band and absolutely piss all over dross like Arctic Monkeys. Phenomenal live too and being off my nut on jack n jills right down the front when they headlined the NME stage at TITP will forever be one of my best gig memories. Seems they’ve reformed too. 

 

The Music were decent, Arctic Monkeys headlining TITP was one of my most dispiriting experiences I have ever witnessed & as I suffer from bipolar syndrome that says a lot.

[tongue_tied_danny]

35 minutes ago, BallochSonsFan said:

Most of the songs on that list are not landfill indie.

Landfill indie should only really apply to the stuff that came out between Britpop and the very early 00s when every arsepiece under the sun wanted to pick up a guitar and pretend that they were in Oasis.

I've always thought that landfill indie was from about the early/mid 00s to around 2010. Identikit and derivative guitar bands with floppy barnets.

My favourite band from that time period was The Go Team. One of the few acts that showed any originality in that decade. I saw them live and they were really good fun. They seem to be completely forgotten now though.

[Gaz]

13 hours ago, Boostin' Kev said:

[Gaz]

12 hours ago, virginton said:

4) The Futureheads cover of Hounds of Love is about 100 times better than the original shrieking nonsense version. Which is also a failsafe grenade to launch into a music discussion at any time to let it all kick off: the seethe from the Kate Bush fan club at this indisputable fact makes for a tremendous night's entertainment.

I will fight you