I semi-carefully sifted thru several months of new release books from four different indie music distributors. New release books are filled with one sheets from record labels which are designed to help sales people and record store buyers understand what a band sounds like / is all about without actually listening to the cd.
This is where the buzz band names come heavily into play.
A label will list bands randomly in hopes of impressing the reader and hoping you will connect their artists with bigger more familiar artists. The really silly part about this trick of the trade is how a label might slip a point of reference in. It won't be just that this band sounds like some other band or is inspired by such artists, they might list bands they have played on the same stage with, passed on the highway once, shared the same producer, caught a cold by, is label mates with....well you get the idea. If there is a way to drop an icon of the week, they are going to do it. So that being said, here is a list of bands + artists mentioned more than just a few times. Personally I was pretty amazed to see certain trends and while the names will change like the seasons, this particular collection represents the summer into fall of 2005.
Again, I didn't do a severe number count but this is roughly what I discovered.
Mentioned 5-8 times: Boards Of Canada, Mogwai, Neu, Beck, White Stripes, Can, The Faint, Bright Eyes, Led Zep, MC5, Will Oldham, Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Arcade Fire, Death Cab, Thievery Corp, My Bloody Valentine, REM, Radiohead, Sunno))), Nick Cave, Franz, Television, Talking Heads, Dillinger Escape Plan, Modest Mouse, Interpol, Pixies, and The Clash
Mentioned 9-12 times: Rolling Stones, Eno, The Kinks, E. Smith, Bowie, Beatles, The Cure, Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop and or The Stooges
Mentioned 13-18 times: Sonic Youth, Black Sabbath, Neil Young, and Animal Collective
"wall of sound" as an adjective – 3
Most random and useless shout out: Gwyneth Paltrow is a fan
Canada/Canadian city and or Brooklyn = too many references to keep track of
Pitchfork Media quote or mention – I lost count after 40...and this is why I regularly target them in my blog. PFM is the key music review source for all aspects of the music industry and in turn is given more power than any one site should maybe have. Like it or not, I try my best to offer a system of checks and balances.
