ALTERNATIVE - INDIE [INDEPENDENT ROCK]

For Indie Rock (Independent Rock) we intend, literally, music released by record labels independent of control by multinational entertainment

conglomerates; more specifically, noisy guitar bands descended from late-'70s punk and '80s college rock. Indie's do-it-yourself ethic fueled the growth of a nationwide network of like-minded clubs, radio stations, labels, and record stores that laid the groundwork for the Nirvana-led alternative revolution. The mid-'90s found indie-rock-or, as it's sometimes known, Amerindie-heading in two distinct directions. Larger independents embraced major-label distribution and backing, while other, smaller labels continued to release stubbornly unmarketable music to brand-loyal cult followings.

Under the cumulative influences of punk and '70s heavy metal (and, occasionally, heroin), a cohort of Seattle bands developed a soulful hard-rock variant that was instrumental to alternative music's early-'90s move overground. "Grunge" was originally a tongue-in-cheek term for the pungent guitar noise propagated by cultish independent label Sub Pop. When former Sub Pop act Nirvana went platinum after signing on major label Geffen, grunge bands displaced pop-metal acts on MTV; by 1993 the desolate anthems and crepuscular images of Seattle's Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Stone Temple Pilot would replace the tumescent choruses and perky videos of Warrant, Poison, and Slaughter as the station's dominant aesthetic. Numerous culture makers embarrassed themselves in the rush to exploit the most vital white youth culture in years. Grunge "fashion" - the perennial flannel shirt/combat boots/ripped jeans uniform of suburban burnouts everywhere - was suddenly used as an exotic novelty by designers like Marc Jacobs, Anna Sui, and Christian Francis Roth, who created their interpretations of same; department store racks groaned under the weight of these unsold, high-priced Kmart knockoffs.

In the early nineties, the American city of Seattle, became a nest for all the white guys following the alternative rock bands and philosophy. Some of the bands here playing reached fame, and we can't give no mentions for the Melvins, Mudhoney (maybe the real first Alternative Rock bands, Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and the best selling Nirvana and Pearl Jam, and groups that never become as famous as the other bands, like Screaming Trees, Tad, Huggy Bear, Sebadoh, Afghan Whigs, Pigeonhed. Before June 1997, most people still know the group Brad better as individuals than as a band: Stone Gossard as a member of Pearl Jam, Jeremy Toback as a solo artist, Regan Hagar and Shawn Smith from their other band Satchel. This situation is certain to change with the 1997 release of Interiors, the second album by Brad, after the half masterpiece Shame. Brad abandoned the grunge clicheès, even if Stone Gossard is one of the most important personalities of the Grunge movement. Shawn Smith's voice was really unusual for that period, really high pitched and sometimes in falsetto, uncomparable from the crusty and dirty voices of the other grunge singers, while the drummer never seemed too involved in punkish rythms, preferring to play in a more funky way. Also the use of Smith's piano parts made Brad a really different band.

The other Smith's bands Satchel and Pigeonhed are a must, like Brad, for the people tired of the clicheès in rock and expecially in grunge. Maybe the cause was the overpopulation of good bands, maybe the hardcore approach was too strong expecially for bands as Tad and Huggy Bear, maybe the attention of fans and newspapers was more dedicated to the famous drug excesses of Kurt Cobain or Layne Staley. Thanks to the big boom of grunge in the early nineties, independent music had a better following also in non-necessarily rock music. With last years return to psychedelic rock and the growth of electronic music following, together with the post rock scene, all independent labels have a great chance of gain and choose of the bands. Acts like the new psychedelic monsters Motorpsycho, Bardo Pond, early Porcupine Tree have released the first material (that let them now well known) on independent labels, and the same can be said for electronic artists like Aphex Twin, Plaid, Autechre.

Post-rock (the genre that Sonic Youth made famous and infamous...) is nowadays a good selling genre, thanks to the help of good and original bands like Blonde Redhead, Unwound, June of 44, Karate, (Only If You Call Me) Jonathan and the math-rock (where math stays for mathematics, because of the jazzy precision and time changes) of bands like Pedro The Lion, Don Caballero (now Storm & Stress), and the amazing early Tortoise. Getting a little far in the genres, we must mention labels like Touch & Go and Noise Amphetamine (branch of Anphetamine Reptile), both dedicated to the heaviest bands in Indie Rock. Bands like Killdozer, Shellac (band of the producer and ex-Big Black bassplayer Steve Albini), and Jesus Lizard used to melt a lot of postcore music, with the big influence of traditional American music and of course a lot of Bourbon. For over a decade, the indie rock saga, with it's excesses, it's early grunge rage and later it's MTV's exposures, has assigned a new chapter to the history of music, a chapter that is in a continue evolution, and that embraces many kinds of mentality and styles of playing instruments. Now, bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Rachel's, Black Heart Procession seems to find their roots in chamber music, twisting and developing it to the paradox of itself, mixing it with early psychedelia and dirty rock tunes, soon without the help of vocals, like to build up a soundtrack for the decadence of time. Surely, the intent of these bands is to find an own way, considering that today, clones of Nirvana are countless, and the future of indie rock and grunge is uncertain. Major labels are now hunting new fresh bands to contract, expecially in the grunge scene, because they are seen like easy money. The story repeats itself, and like did by Geffen with Nirvana, it will happen again and again. Surely it's not the same for independent music in it original sense, the sense of experimenting new form, new style, new mixtures of colours, smells, and points of view. In this sense, Independent music has a strongly defined tomorrow.