The 21st Century Yelp

The Yelp is passion. The Yelp is pain. The Yelp is joy. The Yelp is consummate quirkiness.

The Yelp comes from the late 70s. Not the 70s of Cock Rock, or the 70s of Disco. The 70s of New Wave, that gave birth to 80s pop, and angular 2000s rock. (More on Talking Heads in another post.)


Let's talk 2000s rock from North America.

The Arcade Fire's masterpiece Funeral was my first foray into this vocal and emotional territory. Strange, sad, inspiring, and relentlessly catchy - this circus of oddballs from Montreal has something for U2/Radiohead-style arena rock lovers, as well as fans of folky singer-songwriters.

The Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
The Arcade Fire - Born on a Train (A Magnetic Fields cover - more on them later maybe.)


Wolf Parade is another Montreal band I really like. They fall into the same broad category, but have a little more muscle and edge, in my opinion. Their album Apologies to the Queen Mary is quite possibly even better than Funeral.

Wolf Parade - You are a runner and I am my father's son

Wolf Parade - This heart's on fire


Now we come to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! Woo hoo! The weirdest of the lot, but also most distinctive. One of the 2 bands that proved the marketing power of the internet (the other being Arctic Monkeys). Not necessarily a crowd pleaser, but deserving of multiple listens before the passing of judgement.

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - The skin of my yellow country teeth

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Upon this tidal wave of young blood


The Killers don't fall into this category exactly, but I've been listening to them a lot recently. Brandon Flowers' voice is more a warble than a yelp. They disappointed the indie kids by dropping the flashy clothes and eyeliner for moustaches and Americana. I like the change though. Here are two insta-classics: the first is from their debut, Hot Fuss, and the second is the current single from their new album Sam's Town.

The Killers - Mr. Brightside

The Killers - Read my mind

Good blood, Bad blood

The truth about Indie music is that it hardly is what it seems. Though termed Independent Music, it has now become a symbol of hopeless bravado. Dickheads in dirty haircuts.
Only bands that can truly set themselves apart with their unique brand of thinking can call themselves an Indie band. Like the Arcade Fire, who despite all that's written and said about them, are excellent musicians not only because of their style but because of their skill at playing a variety of instruments.

People like the Kooks, the Klaxons, the Vines etc.etc. are just their for the free ride. The free press NME so generously and unecessarily bestows upon them. NME has made demi-gods of mediocre mods who want a slice of the pie. Their reviews disgust me, their style of writing celebrates everything, regardless how unimportant. The hype generated chokes you and you have no way out except listening to the bands they are talking about. Gone are the days where music is a personal discovery. Now it is forced down your throat with great vigour. Listen to THIS BAND, you haven't heard THIS BAND? Go tell your mom what to listen to you assholes.

No wonder the Arctic monkeys, when accepting some award said "Thanks to you guys. Not YOU guys who hyped us up, but YOU guys who voted". No wonder I like them.

Spare me your Chemical Romances and your Views. I'll judge for myself. And cut your damn hair.

And what's with all the "I am cool. Hence I listen to Indie. I am smart. Hence I listen to Indie." phenomenon? When does the music to listen to define you. People like Vikram Seth write articles for Stephens publications about how intelligent he was because he could identify some classical music piece played in Rukun Advani's room. Such isoteric hurrah is typical of our college. And all said and done, I am sorry, but they are real losers.

"What you eat don't make me shit" - JayZ

So here goes.

JayZ with DJ Dangermouse from the famous grey album. Its what certian yuppies would call a "killer track". It is a masterpiece in sampling, with the Beatles providing the riffs to JayZ's, arguably, most famous song. He performed it with Linkin Park too and that will remain one of the best concerts, musically, ever.

The Chemical Brothers track is voted the hottest piece of music on the planet right now, by none other than 6music. They are right.

Snoop Dogg asks a simple question.

JayZ with DJ Dangermouse - 99 problems [mp3]

Chemical Brothers - Galvanise [mp3]

Snoop Dogg - What's my name [mp3]

Kings of Carrot Flowers

When was the last time a band made you take a large swiss knife, cut out alphabets from an important document (like a printout of an airline ticket), arrange them on a silk souveneir brought from Sikkim and decorate them with your eight year old cousin's art?

When was the last time you felt like expressing music physically in a crude expression of pure joy?

For me it was when I heard Elephant and feverishly pasted Jack and Meg on the dirty plaster of my room. And now.

Neutral Milk Hotel. I don't know anything about them. I don't know where they are from, I don't know what they look like. All Tommy said was "They are this sort of cult band that influenced Franz Ferdinand and the likes". This was before he told me reproachfully "You never like any music I give you".

They are bloody brilliant. It music to stop and listen and jump and wave your arms to invisible orchestras and feel and fall and follow and free and fog and find and frown and frump and fox and fababadabadurticate to.

Nice to be back, Yohan, O brother where art thou.

Ok Go! won a grammy for best short video for Here it goes Again. Yippee. Yohan was the first person in whole wide world and all to find them and post them on Zonuts, you can find them here. Yes, I learnt how to hyperlink.

This is what Ok Go! looked like at the Grammy function.

Have to run to work now, but the Indie scene is back. God save the Bean.





Neutral Milk Hotel - King of Carrot Flowers [mp3]

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea [mp3]



Neutral Milk Hotel - Holland, 1945 [mp3]