Keys to Indie Rock Geekery

If Lucia is going to partake in the same indie rock geekery (or snobbery) that dominates her father's life, she will need to follow some basic principles. Here is a list of keys to that geekery. If Lucia follows this advice, she too will know the joy that is indie rock.

1. Pavement, Bob Dylan, The Clash, or Sonic Youth are all acceptable bands on which to base your music collection. Really, these are the only ones. To stray too far beyond this list will adversely affect any music collection. You can like all kinds of bands, but your collection should be based on or somehow linked to these four acts. Other acceptable and like-minded acts are The Rolling Stones, Guided By Voices, The Replacements, and Pixies.

2. Vinyl is better, but be sure to have it all in digital format as well. Sadly, there will likely be very little vinyl available for Lucia as she gets older. Luckily, she has her old man's collection to raid. Vinyl has a softer sound that leaves room for all the bits and pieces (not to mention crackles and pops) not found on digital recordings. Of course, we are nomadic creatures and turntables don't travel well. So, there is certainly room for an iPod loaded with 10K+ songs.

3. A mixed tape/CD/playlist is your calling card. Well, cassette tapes aren't really utilized anymore. Hell, almost no one burns CD's anymore. The playlist one makes tells the recipient everything about you. So, choose wisely, sequence carefully, and always find a way to include a Beat Happening track.

4. Never go to a show wearing that band's t-shirt. This is more of a faux pas, but it's an important principle to remember. If you are at a Spoon show, everybody else there is a Spoon fan to some degree. A Spoon t-shirt at such an event would be redundant. Instead, wear a Radio Birdman or vintage Dinosaur Jr. t-shirt to show the route you took to Spoon or to show that you like even cooler bands.

5. Record labels do matter. I don't care what anyone else says or that major labels have squandered their social capital. It does matter that Arcade Fire is on Merge and that Okkervil River are on Jagjaguar. A label tells you about a band's ethics and commitment to independence. A label's roster can lead you to other bands of similar quality.

6. A band's best work is behind them at about album four or five. I am not going to tell you that a band's best record is their first. One does not have to look past bands like Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and The Flaming Lips to know that that is not true. Also, I won't tell you that a band's second album (the sophomore slump) is their worst. Weezer, The Shins, and Yo La Tengo disprove that theory. However, you should be aware that by the time a band records albums four and five, much of their edge is lost. Sure, some bands produce great work beyond the fifth album, but more of their releases after #5 or terrible than good. Take Wilco for example. Album four was Yankee Foxtrot Hotel. Classic. After that was A Ghost Is Born. I feel a downward trend about to happen. What happens next? A live album is followed by a record for Volkswagen and so on. It's the same story for most bands. Pavement's fifth album was also their last. They knew when to quit.

7. If you hate the album in the first two songs, the rest won't change your mind. Albums should be great by track four to have a shot at being a part of your rotation. Musicians should try to impress in the front end of an album. If the first two tracks are unbearable, the rest, no matter how good, won't make you forget that first impressions. Conversely, an album cannot be great if it isn't a third or fourth of the way through. I often judge an album in those first four tracks and I'm rarely wrong about what's left.

8. Make lots of top-5 and top-10 lists. Growing up, many people your dad's age and older learned to love music through radio countdowns and eventually end-of-year lists in magazines. This is how we indie geeks communicate our tastes. A top-5 list can show complexity and depth as well as superior listening ability. For example, my top-5 shows of all time are - in order from fifth to first - Arcade Fire in KC circa 2007, Archers of Loaf/Helium/Earwig at Stache's in 1995, Modest Mouse/764-HERO at Sudsy Malone's in 1997, Pavement/Dirty Three/Come at the Agora Ballroom in 1995, and The Flaming Lips (f/"Motor Away" as performed by Bob Pollard) in 1995.

9. Claim a favorite band by 20. This is similar to the idea that you should pick your favorite football team by age 8. There's no bandwagon jumping and you'll earn the respect of others as you stick with your team/band through thick and thin. Plus, once a band breaks up, you can reminisce how great they once were.

10. Whenever you find a band that you really love, accept that there was a band before them that did it better. You will inevitably run into that guy at a party who has to tell you how much better The Fall were than Pavement could have ever dreamed. That's OK, because Can and The Velvet Underground came before The Fall. The important thing here is that you acknowledge the obvious influences but add that your band took the form to new heights. "Pavement certainly sounded like The Fall, but they did it without any reputable drummers and added things like Moogs and Nasty's screams for a more dramatic sound."

Those are my ten. What are some things that you feel is important for indie (or any kind of) music geekery?