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An Instance of Indie Music

Written by Lauren Dobbie

On Thursday, November 15, there was a double disc CD release "beach party" for two, indie bands at E-Bar in downtown Guelph for Guelph's Elbow Beach Surf Club and Toronto's Spiral Beach--and all for $6.00 and a food donation. Elbow Beach Surf Club gave an impassioned, energetic performance, followed by the equally energetic, experimental Spiral Beach. I got the chance to speak with Lindsay Roe, 28 and Kirsten Palm, 21 of Elbow Beach Surf Club after their set. I took this to be my chance to have a first-hand experience with a real-life indie artist and see if this band represented what feels to me, is next to lost in the music industry today: music for music, not money.

Roe, whose voice is a love child of The Sounds' Maja Ivarsson and Controller Controller's Nirmala Basnayake, was happy to describe the band's creative processes: "You play until you find it" described Roe, and "experiment as much as possible" added Palm. Their musical influences prove interesting because their sound is definitely hard to pigeon-hole. Palm spoke for the other members Dougie Bazinet, Bernest McInerney, and Kevin Barnhorst as being influenced by "punk rock, jam rock... noisy music, and BB King". Roe stated "this is 2007 Lauren; everyone's influenced by everything" but she added that "we've been listening to a lot of music that would have been on '50s and '60s AM radio" which rings true in their slightly "surf club" sound.

So, was this band was any different from the posers I had heard in high school, I asked them? Roe told me that "it's different now than it was when I was in high school... but I think I enjoyed high school because I had to. I was conditioned into a lot and what I'm doing now feels like what high school should have been". There was no tone of boring, teenage angst to her description of high school and when I asked them who they played to, Palm said "we don't really aim for one crowd" which translated into a "footloose kinds of kids" for Roe who went on to explain their audience have a sort of "perception" that allows their music to reach them "but it's not like church" she assured me, laughing. Our conversation turned toward the money-making music industry; I asked them if they wanted to be a part of the mainstream music industry and they both replied "no" quite simply. "We make music because we like music and... we like each other" said Roe and I wondered how many big record executives had heard anyone say that as honestly and candidly as Roe had. You can listen to some of Elbow Beach Surf Club's music from their newly released, self-titled EP from Burnt Oak Records

Comments

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1. Posted by: kevin on Nov 20, 2007 @ 4:52pm

   how come there's a picture of spiral beach accompanying an article that's mainly about elbow beach surf club? just wondering.....

2. Posted by: on Nov 22, 2007 @ 12:15am

   Hi Kevin,
   
   I've put a word in to the editor about changing the picture :) Thanks!
   
   Lauren

3. Posted by: Jake on Jan 14, 2008 @ 2:45am

   Your writing sucks and this article is totally inaccurate.
   
   -Observant Fan

4. Posted by: on Jan 29, 2008 @ 6:35pm

   hey guys- apparently spiral beach is playing on campus somewhere on feb 6th? does anyone know where?? please email me if you do!

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