This may seem a rather odd topic but it's one close to my heart. My musical taste largely consists of music in the Math Rock and (underground) Indie Rock genres, and bands in this scene often have funny song names: I haven't had a lunch break since window's vista came out - Alpha Male Tea Party, lyrical content that can only be written by a 20-something year old having an existential crisis: I need to sort my life out / I need to sort my hair / but the barber's got no answers only stories i don't care about - Don't Worry, and an aesthetic and relatability for so many of my generation.
Don't Worry's recent release Who Cares Anyway?
Can guitars sound sad? Absolutely. I don't believe any other genre makes guitars sound as sad as underground emo/indie/math rock does, and I know 'sad' definitely isn't a technical term but as soon as you listen you'll understand what I mean.
This blog was inspired by a band I discovered by accident at Tooting Tram and Social a couple of years ago. They were playing alongside an underground Math Rock band called The Yacht Club (who incidentally have a really exciting album in the works - and I cannot wait for it to come out and tell you all about it).
Anyway, I was totally drawn to Don't Worry because line after line was relatable and so cleverly crafted. Why am I so Unorganised is the first and main lyric of the chorus to Three Nil. The bridge of the song consists of the singer talking in a matter-of-fact way, and it's one of my favourite parts of any song I've ever heard (see below)
“I walked out of the tube station and waited for the bus driver to finish his cigarette so that we could all get on board and he could start the engine.
I sat facing backwards looking only at where I’d been and not where I was going and a sense of non-interest and disappointment flooded my brain.
I couldn’t wait to get home to carry on feeling this way. But once I was at home I would be alone and more comfortable, and my eyes wouldn’t be bouncing around in my head like the numbers on the national lottery.”
Something else that I've always loved about going to underground gigs is how intimate they are. The bands are usually fans of each other anyway so when they're not on stage, they're right next to you in the crowd. Also, you get little personal touches when you buy things from them - my Don't Worry cap came in shiny paper with a handwritten note. Even though these bands I listen to sing about the relatively sad things in life, they're happy as lary doing what they do and I massively respect that.
What I really want you to take away from reading this is to go to local and underground gigs. They're cheap so it's no worry if you don't particularly enjoy the band you took a gamble in seeing. The venues are usually unusual and a bit interesting so you get a decent night out either way, and you might even come away with a love for a new band you wouldn't have otherwise come across.
A recent example of this for me was Leo Nappier in The Ram Jam. Him with his band were relatively new in playing together back in March and ended up blowing everyone away, and they're back again on 28th July!
A great way of discovering underground artists is to look for indie record labels and look at their artists. A great one to check out for the sort of 'sad' / math rock I'm in to is Big Scary Monsters. They released a fantastic Math Rock record titled Animals by This Town Needs Guns, and some of their current artists include Gnarwolves, Alpha Male Tea Party, and Nervus (who very recently played in Kingston). Another indie record label I'm a big fan of is Failure by Design records. Alternatively, find some venues in your local area and look to see who plays there regularly or is playing there soon!