Gimme Indie Rock

Bob Mould said in a recent interview with Paste magazine that the first time Hüsker Dü booked a gig in Chicago, they took The Replacements with them. When he toured California, he took the Minutemen’s D. Boon as a roadie. As such, he subscribes to the “rising tide theory”—the idea that success for one band can translate into success for a scene at large. “If you hit the lottery, the first people you’ll invite to the party will be your friends,” Mould said. Nashville’s local scene may not have hit lottery status, but if the rising tide theory holds any water, the recent success of a new crop of local bands may be one crest of a wave that leads to a flourishing indie scene similar to Chapel Hill, N.C., or Omaha, Neb. Theory 8 Records, a label started by Belmont alum Aaron Hartley, has seen growing success for a handful of acts on the budding label’s roster. In addition to securing college radio play and chart success on CMJ’s Top 200, local bands Apollo Up, De Novo Dahl, The Whole Fantastic World and Forget Cassettes have scored a bit of a coup—a Theory 8 Records label showcase at CMJ’s 2005 Music Marathon. The annual festival, which will be held Sept. 14-17 at Lincoln Center in New York, features bands like Arcade Fire, Doves, Coheed & Cambria, among thousands more who’ll take the stage at venues around the city and play to some 90,000 industry types and fans. “I think this is the perfect town to formulate a diverse scene of bands and form another label like Saddle Creek, Sub Pop or Merge,” says Hartley, who likes the idea of having a solid lineup of bands who are all strong but varied. “I think I’m following their model of musical diversity when it comes to what I release. For instance, Matador has had huge success with Interpol, but they do not keep signing bands that sound like Interpol. They have Cat Power, Laura Cantrell and Yo La Tengo. Same with Merge—they’ve had success with the Arcade Fire, Spoon and Magnetic Fields. All of these releases are top notch, but none of them sound the same. There are so many labels out there who specialize in a ‘genre’ sound, like pop-punk, emo or hardcore and are having a lot of success. I don’t want to be one of those genre labels.” Playing a showcase like CMJ or SXSW is mainly a résumé booster for an indie band. It won’t guarantee success or recognition, but it can lead to crucial networking opportunities and industry exposure. For example, tastemakers at college radio stations across the country are often in attendance. “Just because you play CMJ or SXSW doesn’t mean that you’re on the top of the world and you’re going to start selling more CDs,” Hartley says. “You have to build on top of that success, you know, ‘strike while the iron is hot.’ I am going to use this showcase as an opportunity to get people in New York like booking agents out to see bands that can take us to the next level.” While Hartley is enthusiastic about the recent success of Nashville bands like Kings of Leon, Be Your Own Pet and The Pink Spiders, he argues there’s more to a scene than a couple of successful acts. “I’m a little pessimistic because, look at all of the next great ‘music scenes’ that were supposed to be huge in the last 10 years: Athens, Auburn, Chapel Hill, Omaha and Olympia,” Hartley says. Yes, those towns produced a few good bands, but they didn’t necessarily blow up and become like Seattle did in the ’90s. These things take time. “We don’t need one or two rock bands to sell a million copies,” he goes on. “What we need is our own little structure of rock music where not only do you have bands signing to major labels, but you also have indies like [Theory 8] and Fictitious and Vacant Cage selling 50,000-plus [copies] nationally of good local music as a foundation. If you have that foundation, you will continue to see good music flourish out of Nashville and will have a scene that can stick it out through the good and bad times.” Still, Hartley believes Nashville can boast a strong, supportive music community. “I signed every new band based on a strong recommendation from my current artists. I think that is helping each other out,” Hartley says. “I think if some of the bands in town who are getting more media exposure can get to where they are headlining their own tours and have the ability to take some of our artists out with them for exposure, that would be amazing. “I think if we all work together to heighten Nashville’s visibility as a town who can put out good rock records, we will do it. Most of us already have. A lot of bands in town tour together. I meet with other labels to talk about how we can share in each other’s success. It’s a great thing to go out and have people from other towns say ‘Hey, I read about Be Your Own Pet in Rolling Stone. Tell me more about Nashville,’ which is something we haven’t seen in a while and I’m excited about that.”