Week 4: Slanted and Enchanted

This week, I finished the book, Slanted and Enchanted by Kaya Oakes. It was a very interesting read. This is the kind of book that should come with a cd/soundtrack. I was really sad I had to take it back this evening after I finished it. The book was full of indie history, and references to things I only knew vaguely about. I bought a copy on Amazon upon finishing it so I could go back and highlight things I need to discover for myself. Here are the four songs I picked out as a mini-soundtrack for this book.

1. AgesandAges - "Souvenir"

I picked this song for a few reasons. First, they're one of my favorite bands. Second, the song features a strong DIY lyrics (a huge theme of the book and indie in general). Three, it was filmed in the indie haven of Portland. Four, it was filmed outside of a recently shutdown artist community center. A major theme of the book was about the struggle for small indie businesses to survive.

2. Minutemen - Corona


The book talked a lot about 80s indie-punk band, The Minutemen. While I had heard of them, I didn't know all that much. I'm looking to get my hands on the rock-doc We Jam Econo, alhtough it appears to be on youtube in it's entirety. Jamming Econo was a style of music and presentation that was low budget and for the love of music in a time when hair bands were playing sold out stadiums.

3. Pavement - "Here"

The book takes it's name from Pavement's debut album, Slanted and Enchanted. This track comes from that album. The album is considered one of the best indie releases of the 90s, maybe ever.

4. Grouplove - Colours


I had to include Grouplove as my last song because a major theme throughout the book (especially the last chapter) was, WHAT IS INDIE?!? To me Grouplove is indie. Why wouldn't they be? They're signed to Capital Records. The music definitely fits the indie-rock asthetic. I considered their album, Never Trust a Happy Song the second best album of last year (behind AgesandAges). I also wanted to pick this song because of the commercialization of the band via a recent iPod commercial. Some indie fans wanted to abandon Grouplove after the commercial, but to me, good music is still good music.

Hours read this week: 2 hours
Hours read total: 9.5 hours