music in austin

[artsyguy]

Why do the majority of the indie rock bands always sound depressed and nasal? Bad singing and unoriginal song writing is a major deterrent to album sales and fame. At the best most of the indie rock bands try to copy muse and cold play. Are you happy now?

Originally Posted by wpmeads

The All American Rejects? Really? That's the best you could do? You don't seem to know very much about the "genre" (it's a rather vague genre to try and pen it to one band much less one that's almost unanimously hated by every indie music lover) but what ever man.

[wpmeads]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

Why do the majority of the indie rock bands always sound depressed and nasal? Bad singing and unoriginal song writing is a major deterrent to album sales and fame. At the best most of the indie rock bands try to copy muse and cold play. Are you happy now?

Coldplay and Muse? Not really, especially sense both of those bands don't really have an original sound to begin with. Coldplay would probably be the second most hated bands by indie music fans (BTW, indie includes WAY more than just indie rock) behind All American Rejects. The rest of your description sounds more like emo then indie.

[artsyguy]

I know what you are saying though. True indie rock is about being different than the garbage in the mainstream. I'm waiting to hear something different and good. I like your points though. Thanks.

Originally Posted by wpmeads

Coldplay and Muse? Not really, especially sense both of those bands don't really have an original sound to begin with. Coldplay would probably be the second most hated bands by indie music fans (BTW, indie includes WAY more than just indie rock) behind All American Rejects. The rest of your description sounds more like emo then indie.

[wpmeads]

Originally Posted by artsyguy

I know what you are saying though. True indie rock is about being different than the garbage in the mainstream. I'm waiting to hear something different and good. I like your points though. Thanks.

Indie's a very eclectic genre. You can DEFINITELY find stuff that's different from the mainstream, but good is a matter of opinion. BTW, many of these mainstream bands try to market themselves as "indie" to keep up with the times (or just to be trendy) but they didn't really get big in the indie scene and certainly don't reflect the sound coming out of the genre. I've never heard anyone classify All American Rejects, Coldplay, or even Muse as indie. If your going to look at mainstream bands who actually got big in the indie rock genre, look at Arctic Monkeys, The Shins, Spoon, Grizzly Bear, The Strokes, Vampire Weekend, or Arcade Fire. I'm not sure how you feel about those bands, but these are a much more accurate representation of what's coming out of the indie rock scene then All American Rejects, Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, etc.

[twange]

It's sad (but kind of funny in a sardonic way) that a simple question about the music scene in Austin from someone looking for a new place to do their thing, turned so quickly into a "f*ck Austin and it's music scene" flame.

Generally lame.

For all we know, this person (from my hometown of Cleveland, Oh) might turn out to be the next "famous" Austin legend. It only takes one. I say the more the merrier.

[wpmeads]

Originally Posted by twange

It's sad (but kind of funny in a sardonic way) that a simple question about the music scene in Austin from someone looking for a new place to do their thing, turned so quickly into a "f*ck Austin and it's music scene" flame.

Generally lame.

For all we know, this person (from my hometown of Cleveland, Oh) might turn out to be the next "famous" Austin legend. It only takes one. I say the more the merrier.

I like your attitude twange! I really get sick of all the over exaggerated pessimism that erodes so many of these threads. We need more positive comments like this on C-D. +1 for you.

[absolutely]

Originally Posted by wpmeads

Jeez eepstein. You need to stop trolling Austin threads. Your very bad at it. Well for starts some musicians that got their start in Austin are Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Steve Ray Vaughn, Janus Joplin, Ben Kweller, Bob Schneider, and Eric Johnson for starters. And as for bands, there's Spoon, Ghostland Observatory, 13th Elevator, Explosions in the Sky, The Sword, and a few others. Many of the indie bands get national attention in the underground world like What Made Milwaukee Famous, Neon Indian, White Denim, ...Trail of Dead, Okkervil River, The Black Angels, and that list goes on for a while. Regardless of your opinion of these bands and musicians, they do get/have gotten national attention. And to be fair, any city that's well known for music is going to get a decent amount of crappy musicians trying to make it in an industry they have no business being in. But anyway, I also agree with twange in that a good music scene shouldn't be determined based on how many bands make it to the mainstream, especially considering how s**ty the mainstream is today.

i'm glad someone sensible had the patience to actually reply to these guys...great post and great examples.

[bgrn198]

Also the Fabulous Thunderbirds are from Austin

[passionatearts]

Originally Posted by absolutely

i'm glad someone sensible had the patience to actually reply to these guys...great post and great examples.

Artsyguy and eepstein take every chance they can get to slam Austin even if their claims are totally unfounded (such as their statements in this thread).

Anyway, back to the topic at hand: I'm a vocalist and songwriter and have a lot of friends and acquaintances in Austin who are also involved in the music industry. The general consensus among my musician friends seems to be that Austin is a great place to gain exposure for your musical act but a really tough place to make a living at it even if you're really good. Most musicians I know in Austin who are good and make their entire living from music end up having to perform a lot in other cities in Texas that are less saturated with music. Many of those cities (ex: San Antonio) have clubs that on average pay better than the ones in Austin.

Long story short: Austin is an excellent place to be a musician but a hard place to make a living as one.