Sometimes in our RSS-haze we forget that “indie rock” wasn’t always so fashionable. In fact, if you go back to early nineties, the style was a lack of style, and not in some “I’m going to wear this because no one would think that I would actually wear this” sort of way. (Look at you Mom jeans.) Rather, it was earnest, as if all indie rockers of the ’90s merely woke up, saw their jeans and put them on. It was honest. It was real. Often, it was pretty ugly. While the slacker style has surely come back into play by kids whose first CD was Bush Sixteen Stone, it just doesn’t feel as “authentic” as it did back then. Times have changed kids, but the classic t-shirt, Levi’s and All-Stars will never die. It just will never look as cool as it did on these dudes.
You could even be a fat dude in shorts and that was cool…even in Europe! (Fun fact, pretty sure Ira Kaplan has been swapping between the same two t-shirts since Yo La Tengo began in 1984.)
As Pavement demonstrate, your clothes did not have to “fit,” let alone be “form fitting.” Also note, white long sleeve tee. God I miss the ’90s.
Sonic Youth wear coats. Long leather jackets, black and purple nylon ski parkas and denim jackets with leather collars.
As for video fashion, Chavez may have put it all out on the table when they shot their video for “Break Up Your Band” on a trans-gender hosted talk show featuring suburban moms, stripping firemen, kimono clad rickshaw drivers, loin cloth covered dudes in bear masks, and a bevy of gigantic collars.
Something tells me Veruca Salt will opt against the floral crop tank top when they inevitably reunite. (Notice the gold microphones. Oh, Glastonbury.)
Lou Barlow in Germany in 1995 looks like my fifth grade Earth Science teacher in Germany in 1995.
On the other hand, J. Mascis looks pretty much exactly the same.
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- Built To Spill Spending Two Months Bringing Indie Rock To The Kids
September 30th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
i think that veruca salt crop top is AMAZING. if you’ve got the bod for it, that shit is always in style. also- “seether” made my life when i was in middle school. i couldn’t imagine a world without it. bring on the reunion!!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
I lived thru the ’90’s, and I gotta say, that time period rocked balls to walls. We had cash, fun, & Bubba. Oh, and Kurt was still around for a few of those years. I often wonder, what would Kurt think, nowadays. These are the times that try our souls, not the beloved 1990’s.
peacE!
September 30th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
I think Veruca Salt tried to reunite, and died after the Volcano Gilrs/giant hoop dress video… oh and what was that rumour about the celebrity one was dating?
September 30th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
Wasn’t Dinosaur Jr’s Freakscene more like 1988?
November 13th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
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