HIPSTER RUNOFF

Which Bro is Not In the Band? (tm) is a new HRO gimmick where the readers must identify which bro is not actually in the band even though he looks like he is in the band/is trying too hard to look like a bro in a relevant band. The pictured band is Grizzly Bears.

Photo via flickr

Which bro is not in the band?
a) Bro A
b) Bro B
c) Bro C
d) Bro D
e) Bro E

Kinda confused by Bro E. He looks not as authentic as the other bros [via highlights + designer plaid], so I guess maybe him.

Lately, MTV has been doing these in-depth investigative journalism pieces about parts of the world no1 has ever heard about. I wanted to share these rlly informative pieces with yall, because I assume that if you read this blog, you are one of the most culturally-connected persons within your local community. You are a first-line tastemaker, and you deserve to know about [EXCLUSIVE] stuff like this.

Please note that these videos are [HIGHLY RECCD], not only because you get to see John Norris' never-ending-quest to be a lil alt, but because you want to understand what it's like to participate in the revolution that is a geographically-contained creative renaissance.

Note: HIGHLY RECCT VIDEOS MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE IN YOUR RSS READER
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Un-Earthed Location #1: A small American city called "Portland, Oregon."
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Did this video almost make your head explode, too? SRSLY. I rlllly hate Portland and any other 'second tier' cities that claim to be culturally relevant by playing up the whole 'alternative gimmick.' There is an excess of shitty musicians who are Starbucks/Chili's employees in every city, so I hate when a city's personal brand revolves around 'sounding like they really mean it when they make their shitty music/attend their shitty, awkward concerts.'

I'd say Austin, TX is pretty good example of 'shitty city who is gimmickifying it's underwhelmingly-alternative brand', too. Most of the music in Austin, TX is more approachable indie fodder than the Portland concept crap, so I'll give the edge to Portland when it comes to 'moderately alt cities that major-city-alts-want-to-move-to-bc-they-think-their-life-will-be-simple, yet-authentic,yet-still-as-alt as they feel comfortable with.' No matter what, we all need an alt-city full of alts to feel comfortable around without the high-cost-of-living that major metropolitan areas have. Don't you feel like you have met a lot of people who have idealized Portland and Austin as 'heaven on alt-earth'? Like they imagine settling down with a humble-&-emotionally-connected trophy alt who is done with his/her 'partying phase' and ready to start buying well-designed carriages for their newborn babies (lil alts).

Common traits of overhyped 2nd rate alternative cities:

• Perception of being 'green'
• Perception of a bustling 'local economy'
• A high 'basically unemployment' rate (this figure represents people who are over 30, but still have the jobs a 16 year old would have)
• An excess of corporate and independent coffee shops
• An excess of people with too many tattoos working in independent coffee shops
• An excess of coffee shop employees playing RLLY gimmicky 'interesting' music in coffee shops during their shifts/playing the albums of their friend's band who sound exactly like _______
• Overhearing the 'future plans' of people who work in these coffee shops to start their own business in design/food/recordstore/boutique/other alternative biz idea.
• An excess of people in bands that have shows in an excess of venues
• An otherwise stable maintream economy which allows the alternative population to work in the service industry. While this usually happens in all cities, the minorities in the service industry are replaced by these aging alts.
• Overhearing all of these people talking about stuff that was cool between 2 to 40 years ago. They basically have a 2 year delay on 'what is currently cool' and usually just rely on 'liking aesthetics/bands that are from before 1985.'
• A handful of decent bands, a few imitators, and a bunch of krappie bands that have tied their identity to their home city and guilt their friends into attending their show/post a lot of myspace bulletins to impressionable local-17-year olds.
• They attempt to assert their city-wide inferiority complexes by having excessive representation when it comes to liberal activities, particularly 'marches.' Examples include Gay Pride Marches, Anti-Racism Marches, Marches Against 'The War', and general Marches Against Stuff That Exists Because of Conservative People.
• These cities have significant populations of 'cool dads' and 'free spirited moms' by choice/believe in their personal images, as opposed to the real-city versions of these parents who are simply 'participating in a gimmick which they have no control over.'
• A lot of these cities have a major university or a well-branded liberal arts school with a progressive identity which the 'hip side of town' feels like they need to cater to in order to keep up sales of vegan wraps, pizza-made-from-only-organic-ingredients, and interesting t-shirts.

N e ways. Do yall like these types of cities or what? Am I wrong? Should the Mayor of Portland 'show me around the alt side of town' and then 'take me on a tour of their business district'?

I think a lot of cities/hip communities within a city all have some of these traits. Did I miss n e traits?

[PLEASE NOTE: I DO LIKE STARFUCKER FROM PORTLAND, BUT I WILL STOP LIKING THEM WHEN PEOPLE START CALLING THEM 'THE NEXT MGMT' AND THEIR RCRD LABEL FORCES THEM TO CHANGE THEIR NAME. ]

[PLEASE NOTE: I MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE GONE THROUGH AN EXISTENTIAL PHASE WHERE I LISTENED TO A LOT OF THE MICROPHONES AND HAVE DECIDED TO NOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM PORTLAND SERIOUSLY IN ORDER TO FORGET THE PERSON WHO I USED TO THINK I WAS IN 2KNEVER.]

[PLEASE NOTE: I H8 95% OF THE PEOPLE I HAVE MET FROM PORTLAND. I THINK I JUST DON'T LIKE PEOPLE WHO THINK WHERE THEY LIVE IS ANY MORE/LESS INTERESTING THAN N E WHERE ELSE.]

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Unearthed Location #2: A country called France

Can some one please explain the differences between the bands JUS-TICE and JEW-STEESE? If they are going to use an American world, I think they should say it like a proud American. "Justice" was a concept invented in America, so it doesn't matter how.

N e ways, this video is s00 true. Those Frenchies are stealing our culture and selling it back 2 us. SOME1 NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS. Our American alternative celebrities are letting us down. Also, the American government should ban foreign artists from utilizing our memes and media from the past in order to make money off their art. America should probably ally with Australia in the ElectroWar.

Journalists need to stop focusing on geographic locations, and start realizing that
we all live on the Internet. There's no such thing as a 'city' n e m0re, yall. We're all citizens of Blogville/the blogosphere/the memesphere/the information super fagway.

In conclusion, we need America to unite as a nation to create popular alternative music. Carles is doing his best to help the United States by working hard on the HIPSTER RUNOFF debut EP.

HRO is sooo mainstream. I can't believe I still blg abt all of these mainstream bands that are alllll over MTV.

I'm just searching for authentic authenticity. :-(

I wonder if Pitchfork ratings have a more significant effect on hype machine blog buzz, or on album sales.

How did NO AGE trick the world into being a critically acclaimed band? They are apparently a lofi punk band, and even had coverage with a bunch of other bands (such as Times New Viking,and Jay Reatard) on MTV.

Feel free to sample 8 seconds of this song before turning it off.

Is NO AGE even a good lofi band?

There needs to be some sort of committee that makes sure music like this stays in the suburban garages of parents whose kids dropped out of highschool before they move to NYC/LA. I just think we shouldn't really honor genres like this, particularly when atleast 50% of the blurbability has to do with 'how it sounds like stuff from the past, back when things were authentic.' When band blurbs are focused on tying the sound down to an era, I think it crowds out the demand to actually appreciate the music, and can really detour people from confessing that the product isn't very bloggable.

I've read that No Age is supposed to remind me of Sonic Youth. Is that true?

Here's a video for the hilarious MTV segment about 'the new lofi punk genre that every1 needs to hear.'

[Video May Not Be Viewable in your RSS Reader]
Do you trust John Norris as a tastemaker?
Remember when Gideon Yago tried to replace John Norris as the VJ who was 'young, cool, and indie', but then John Norris just got 10 makeovers in a row?

ALTERNATE NO AGE THEORY: Is No Age kind of like Health, except without any remixes to make me buy into them?

More Realistic Theory: 'lofi punk music' is a pyramid scheme (or inside joke) for people who honor traditional musical criticism too much.

Did u ever listen to punk?
<3 <3 Or was Taking Back Sunday as punk as you got? <3 <3