The first time I’d heard of Owl City was when I checked the Emo’s show listing in the back of the printed edition of the Austin Chronicle and their show at Emo’s was sold-out about three months in advance. Out of 50 upcoming road shows, the Owl City show was the only one sold-out. I immediately went to their MySpace page (normal early 21st century protocol) and diligently listened. I had to know: “What’s the deal?” Why were they special?
Part-time Austinite Alan Palomo is Neon Indian (with a little help from his friends).
Within 10 seconds of hearing their music I discovered that they were one of those bands that would have never gotten exposure even ten years ago, before the days of MySpace and Facebook, back when radio, a killer live show and an A&R guy dictated what records got recorded.
Owl City is one guy…creating music on his computer…in his bedroom. Owl City is just a kid that spent way too much time listening to the Postal Service; Owl City’s music is like vanilla tasting vanilla ice cream. Their tracks have the gloss of a $100,000 studio, yet its just ultimately…a guy making pop music for the masses out of his bedroom.
Granted, musicians have always recorded masterpieces in their bedroom or rehearsal space, but prior to a few years ago those musicians never had a world-wide distribution network which costs pennies on the dollar. They never had blogs and social networks to spread the buzz. In fact, a great mixtape was lucky to make regional impact.
Now that technology has evened the playing field for recording and distributing music, the bedroom Beethoven can now find his/her niche audience. And his/her niche audience can become such passionate proselytizers that their feverish fandom becomes contagious.
During the music businesses’ old business model (selling CDs), the artists never made money on albums unless they were moving several hundred thousand. The companies had the machine rigged that way (See Steve Albini’s treatise, “Why Some of Your Friends Are This Fucked”).
While Owl City’s music these days exudes a hi-fi gloss, Austin’s latest bedroom maestro Neon Indian (a.k.a. Alan Palomo) possesses a novice, lo-fi charm. Earnest in its cheekiness, the Neon Indian listener feels like they could play in the band. It’s accessible while being arty. It’s the perfect mix of low art and high art pastiched into pop art and pop music.
Neon Indian list their location as Brookyln (cq)/Austin on MySpace. The hipsters of the world with too much money are moving back and forth these days (and occasionally to Portland and San Francisco). This artistic collision between Brooklyn and Austin was inevitable sealed with a miss as soon as Brit Daniel remixed Interpol several years back.
Prior to that, many hipster musician discovered Daniel Johnston through Kurt Cobain, although they likely won’t admit it now.
Every now and again a musician bubbles up from the underground scene in Austin and becomes the flavor of the month in taste-maker circles the world over. Ghostland Observatory took Bob Schneider’s formula for success (self released product + killer live show x ass shaking = exponential word of mouth fame) and moved the happening from the frat party to the dance party, complete with smoke and laser lights.
Now Austin has birthed another musician that combines dance music with a dreamy visual special effects show creating pastiche remix pop art with the insider-meets-outlier feel of someone like Andy Warhol or Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Neon Indian tastes like psychedelic candy mixed with late-night discussions about why every moment in the present is the most important moment in the universe. We live in the moment that will simultaneously decide our broken past and our translucent future. Can you dig it? Let me know what you think about the current Brooklyn-Austin collabo…
Grizzly Bear: “Cheerleader (Neon Indian ‘Sega Genesis P-Orridge’ Remix)”:
Grizzly Bear: “Cheerleader (Neon Indian ‘Studio 6669′ Remix)”:
Friday, November 27, Neon Indian will headline the kickoff show for a new series sponsored by Austin transplants WOXY.com. Click here for tickets.
