A New Indie?
The Shins and Of Montreal Redefine Independents
Let’s go Outback tonight/Life will still be here tomorrow.” This tune may ring familiar to many as Outback Steakhouse’s newest advertising jingle, but for the indie music community, these two lines make menacing steps toward the mainstream. Unsurprisingly, Of Montreal, the band behind the slogan, faced significant backlash for licensing “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games” to Outback Steakhouse. Fans accused Of Montreal of indie’s cardinal sin—selling out.
But Of Montreal’s recent commercial notoriety hardly affected buzz for its newest release, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? With each leaked MP3, anticipation heightened for the album, and for good reason. Hissing Fauna embodies the best Of Montreal has to offer—theatrical, psychedelic ’60s dance pop. The lyrics are silly and the song titles kitschy, but it’s impossible to resist Hissing Fauna’s catchy hooks. Hissing Fauna is sure to be a strong contender for one of the best albums of 2007—and if it’s not the best, then it’s definitely the most whimsical and fun.
Similar to Of Montreal, The Shins suffered a similar fall-out after McDonald’s used “New Slang” to hawk Big Mac combos. Insults like “McShins” wrecked The Shins’ reputation, but that didn’t stop Chutes Too Narrow from reaching #86 on the Billboard Top 100, a feat the band certainly hopes to repeat with their newest release, Wincing the Night Away. While The Shins stick true to their successful formula of delicate pop hooks with well-crafted and enigmatic lyrics, they attempt to mix it up with electronica and synthesizers. Though the album is solid, The Shins are famous for songs that people butcher on guitar, not cast-offs from Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. The comparisons to Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World are inevitable, though unfortunately, none of the songs are as catchy or as upbeat as classics like “New Slang” or “Kissing the Lipless,” to the disappointment of the legions of post-Garden State fans expecting a Chutes Too Narrow sequel. The Shins were never the most interesting band on the indie scene, and this foray into foreign territory proves that maybe Chutes Too Narrow II wouldn’t have been so terrible after all. Regardless, Wincing the Night Away will sell. Use of The Shins’ music in movies and on television has cemented their status as the lite-FM of indie rock.
Though the extra exposure in popular media outlets extends artists’ audience, an original, protective fan base will always resent newfound popular discovery. After all, a band can only “cool” if it isn’t “hot”. While The Shins’ album sales multiplied exponentially after Natalie Portman’s glowing appraisal in Garden State, the band’s credibility suffered when “New Slang” became a dormitory mainstay.
Strictly speaking, the term “indie music” refers to bands on independent labels, and once upon a time, it did abide by that classification. Nowadays, that definition is out of date. Instead, the indie category evokes a sensibility rather than a label distinction. When artists as diverse as Girl Talk, Death Cab for Cutie, and Grizzly Bear all fall under the ever-broader category, what makes a band definitively indie? A review on Pitchfork Media? MP3s on stereogum.com?
When indie is used as a marketing device, it may contradict the tenets of the genre, in which people create music purely to satisfy their artistic temperment, and not their empty vegan wallets. Yet, no matter how much some may argue that indie musicians are above the commercialism of Hilary Duff and Fall Out Boy, indie music remains a business, and profits are necessary to sustain it. Indie may soon depend upon the mainstream, but if it means less Dave Matthews Band blasting in the hallways, then so be it.