Welcome to the "Indie Rock" edition of Off-Center Views. Indie rock used to mean that a performer was
unsigned. These days it's a label that bleeds into Americana and is just as
ambiguous. For sake of discussion, let's acknowledge that the borders are
porous but that Americana tends to be
encompass music from the folk, blues, and roots spectrum whereas indie music
borrows more from rock, pop, and other electric-based sounds. Its trademarks
are to start soft, and cut to a moment where a bunch of instruments jump in
suddenly. Often there is also a lot of "whoa-oooo-ahh-ah" vocal
filler.
We will revisit the what-do-you-want-to-call-it question
many more times on this blog, but for now here are four for thought.
Let's start with THAD
and his West Coast EP. THAD is Thad Cockerell, who used to front a
Nashville rock band called League. If you want to know how that's worked out so
far, listen to "Fill My Cup": I've
been walking to the city/ I cannot see… I am tired/And I am lonely/It's hard to
keep on doing this… I am you child in
need. He sings it with earnestness, smoothness, and the soft to loud format
mentioned above. I can't even imagine how many musicians can relate to that
sentiment! "All I Want" has the rapid beats per minute urgency of
80s' New Wave music. This one is about self-examination, a different kind of
urgency. "Susie From the West Coast" is a love song that is his
answer to the previous song's longing of All
I want is you. It's a tender and quieter counterpoint to the other two
pieces and perhaps a lesson that indie performers do best when they mix things
up. 
San Diego-based Steve
Welty views indie rock from a perspective occasionally spiced with hints of
reggae. He has two EPs recorded in 2018 on offer–26 Black and Fly With Me–that are tantalizing come-ons for several new singles and an LP
I've heard is in progress. You can definitely hear the reggae influence on
"Done Drinkin'." These come through in both solo and studio versions.
In case you don't get it, there are references to "kick drums" and
"reggae grooves" in the lyrics, some "ba-ba-ba-ba" riffs,
and accents that skirt the edge of cultural appropriation. Good song, though,
if you can leave your PC on the shelf. The reggae influences are more subtle in
the wonderfully named "I Never Dreamed to Be Employed." 26
Black also sports folk/folk rock offerings. In fact, "Floating in Space" has a few
New Age ameliorative adornments. It's a love song, but one in which the main
point–I need you in my life–comes
about through the enlightenment that comes from floating in space in ways that are only partially metaphorical.
Things get a bit confusing as this song is also the title track on Fly With Me. Welty's hardly the first musician to rename a song, but I
wanted to warn you so you don't think you're having a senior moment. Staying in
the celestial mood, you'll hear more reggae-influenced grooves on "Falling Star." Reverberating electric
guitar also spice "Little Steps" with interstellar suggestiveness. Then it's back to acoustic reggae for
"Stronger As One." Welty's light tenor voice and a repertoire that
plays well with or without a band begs the question as to whether he's a folk
or an indie rock artist but like I said, these days boundaries are in the eyes
of the beholder.
Peter More takes
a Tex-Mex approach to indie rock. This EP has smoother production, as one might
expect given that Donald Fagen (Steely Dan's producer) is at the helm. The EP
is several songs left off of his recent album Beautiful Disrepair and
is thus titled Shoulder, wordplay on the definition of shoulder that means to
push something out of the way. (The EP also has a few songs from the album.) More
has a high tenor voice that he shouts out when he goes electric. You can hear
that when he goes big on the title track. These days, though, he's been working
with Spanish flamenco guitarist Jose Juan Poyato and More's music has gotten
quieter and more introspective. A fine example of this is "Caddis Moon,"
which is a searching-for-wisdom song tinged with an ambience of melancholy.
"What We Used to Be" is plenty energetic, but it has a shinier
bluegrass/honky tonk/rock vibe. Pay attention to the small echoes of horn
(trombone?) in the background. I actually like More's music best when he lowers
the noise level. If that's also your taste, try "Marlene," his sweet
find-you-someday song backed by Amy Helm.
Tyler Ramsey is a performer who gets tagged with just about
everything: folk, folk rock, Southern, indie.... If his name sounds familiar to
you, that's because he was for years the lead guitarist for Band of Horses. His
Candler
Sessions EP is named for the woodsy town 20 minutes outside of
Asheville where he and his family now live. The EP is a sampler of songs from
his new album For the Morning. You need listen to approximately 20
seconds of "A Dream of Home" to both feel his nostalgic rootedness
and think, "Neil Young," especially Young's early days with Crazy
Horse. Replace Young's lyrics of "Everybody Knows This is Nowhere" (Everybody seems to wonder/What It's like
down there/I gotta get away/From this day-to-day/Running around…) with
Ramsey's There's a dream of home/For
those that work out on the road/And there's a vision of the road for all the
others… There'll be a time you wish you could trade your life for another
and you know you're on homage turf. "Your Whole Life" has a few more
mountain inflections in Ramsey's voice, but you will also hear plaintive vocal
colorings that characterize Young. Mind, I am not saying that Ramsey is in any
sense derivative. Call it a fortunate evocation. I enjoyed every song on this
EP, especially "The Valley Wind." You can also find the title track of his new album on YouTube. It, like all of Ramsey's songs, begs our central
question. Is it indie rock, Americana, folk, or something else? How 'bout we
just call it good music?
Rob Weir
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