Robert + Karen - Life as a Handicapped Adult EP
(self-released)
They don't make indie rock records any more, do they? All the indie rock bands either died, went major label, or stopped rocking in other equally tragic ways, leaving indie rock dead and forgotten. All the kids in college now couldn't care less about Superchunk; they couldn't care less about Pavement; they couldn't care less about Built to Spill.
Robert and Karen are some kids who still care about that old thing people used to call indie rock. They like all those bands. They know how to play a slow progression really loud, and then how to make it soft for a while, and then make it jump back up to being loud. They aren't very emo though. They're from California so somehow they sound a lot like Rainer Maria (check leadoff track "Election Day"), but since they are not from the heartland, they don't sound that emo, even though just like an emo band, none of them can sing very well (or in an otherwise unique or interesting manner).
They mix some other influences in as well. On "Wednesday Blue," they try their best to sound all forlorn like Nick Drake does on all those Volkswagen commercials. But when they are really kicking it, they are just kicking out old school indie rock jams. Yeah, Robert and Karen make pretty good indie rock (special note: no one in the band is named Robert or Karen, nor Belle nor Sebastian). It's refreshing that some of the kids still care about some good old straightforward indie rock. I guess my only problem is figuring out whether I am still that interested in plain old indie rock. Sure, I'm interested in the indie rock, but I'm not so sure about the plain old kind.
|
