R & T Get Arty.

I'm starting to think I should have a) listened to all one hundred of these acts before I started this and b) taken more notice of how far down the alphabet I'd gotten when I began picking. Anyone would think the tracks I'm linking were the ones I liked best, when in fact they're only the ones I liked best of the ones I (not at all randomly) chose to investigate.

Anyway, we are where we are, as politicians are so fond of saying, as though it excuses how we got here. Best carry on as though everything's fine. That's what they do.

We seem to be somewhere in the Rs now. I wonder how even the distribution is across all twenty-six letters? I bet there are people who'd be a lot more interested in knowing that than knowing what any of these people sound like. I'm not saying any of them are reading this right now...

I almost didn't bother with this one. I seem to be developing an immunity, maybe even an aversion, to indie rock bands, just at the moment when they might be recovering some degree of cultural acceptance. Timing is everything, isn't it?

Even if I do like some of the new guitar bands, I find talking about them quite awkward. They nearly all remind me very strongly of other bands. Older bands. I have a considered objection to comparing new bands with old ones. Even though it's almost impossible not to think it doesn't mean you have to say it, let alone write it down and put it on the Internet.

One of the really annoying things about getting older (A minor one, sure.) is how often something reminds you of something else. It can be very useful, educational even, provided it's kept strictly in bounds, but it's crucial not to allow such recognition to color your understanding. There's an appallingly common tendency to equate a first experience with a best experience. I expect there's biology involved. We're supposed to be better than that, though, aren't we? As a species. Or is that just the outmoded, hubristic, humanocentric view?

Anyway, I'm very pleased to be able to say that The Rills don't particularly remind me of anyone. I'm very glad I did decide to give them a go (Abeit almost entirely on the strength of the title.) I love the energy, the exhuberance and especially that guitar sound. Nice video, too. If you're going to bother with it at all, I strongly recommend staying the distance - the whole thing goes somewhere I wasn't expecting at around the two-minute mark and it's a much better song for it.

Said I wasn't feeling it for indie rock right now, didn't I? Yeah, well, that was another one. Talking the verse, singing the chorus might be the thing we'll all remember, when we look back on the early 2020s indie scene. Always assuming anyone ever does. 

That and guitars, of course. It's always guitars. Will we ever be rid of them? (No.) By the way, I've stopped putting in the names of the artists and the songs. I realized it's always flagged across the video anyway. This one's not quite as clear, though, and the band have the easiest-to-miss of names so I'll tell you: they're called Stone.

You don't see a video like that every day. Or hear a tune. I liked it well enough to go listen to some more and it's all good stuff. It's curious the NME calls him a "Texan rapper". He doesn't do a lot of rapping in the tracks I listened to, mostly singing. I guess those definitions broke a while ago. 

We should probably have another from Teezo.

He shoots most of his videos against that wall. I'm pretty sure this is what we'd have called an art project back in the day. The world is better than it was in so many ways (And in other ways worse.)

And just because it's like that and that's the way it is, here's an actual, irrefutable, bona fide Art Project ("Formed after meeting at Wimbledon College of Art".) and they don't have any fricken' videos at all! What the hell is wrong with you people? There is some grainy live footage. You'll have to make do with that. I used to go see a lot of bands like this back in the late '70s, early '80s, for what it's worth and I can guarantee you this lot won't get to be any more famous than any of those did.

Let's just have one more. Not by the last lot. By someone else.

By Wallice. This is the kind of thing that if you like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you'll like. It's the kind of thing I like. I do like it. I'm not sure I like the video, though. I thought I was going to like it. All those bright, flat, primary colors. Then it got to the part that goes with the title. I didn't like that part at all.

Let's have another. One's never enough, is it? This video also has a bit I don't like in it but it's right at the end and it's short.

And that will do. Just about enough left on the first pass for one more post, I think. After that I might have to go look over all the ones I skipped. Probably should do that anyway.