guerrillaradio
14th June 2002, 13:13
The latest craze in the UK (dunno about the US) is something loosely described as "garage-punk/rock". The Hives, The Strokes, The White Stripes and The Vines have all had UK Top 40 singles and appeared on Top of the Pops (grr). To be a garage rock band you have to sound raw and retro, preferrably only with one guitarist. And your name has to have "the" in front of it.
People have been claiming it's "bigger than grunge". What do you reckon?? Personally i think musical scenes as such are defunct concept cos the internet and advanced communication of music means that music spreads beyond a certain area, and therefore there no "local" sound to the scene. For instance, punk broke in London and grunge came from Seattle. However, garage rock has The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs and The Von Bondies from Detroit, The Strokes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs from New York, The Hives and The Soundtrack of Our Lives from Sweden and The Vines from Australia.
Personally, the jury's out on this new craze. I have shocked myself with the amount that I can hate The Strokes, but I love The Hives and The Vines sound quite cool. I'll be seeing the rest @ Reading, which seems to have every single garage rock band ever on it.
People have been claiming it's "bigger than grunge". What do you reckon?? Personally i think musical scenes as such are defunct concept cos the internet and advanced communication of music means that music spreads beyond a certain area, and therefore there no "local" sound to the scene. For instance, punk broke in London and grunge came from Seattle. However, garage rock has The White Stripes, The Dirtbombs and The Von Bondies from Detroit, The Strokes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs from New York, The Hives and The Soundtrack of Our Lives from Sweden and The Vines from Australia.
Personally, the jury's out on this new craze. I have shocked myself with the amount that I can hate The Strokes, but I love The Hives and The Vines sound quite cool. I'll be seeing the rest @ Reading, which seems to have every single garage rock band ever on it.