Update: This Is Why Indie Rock Bands In Philly Can’t Have Nice Things
Pardon us: When we posted about Gregg Foreman’s new band, The Rare Birds, on Friday, we didn’t mention the other Rarebirds here in Philly, because we honestly believed they had disbanded and we didn’t wanna confuse you with all of these rare, birdy bands. But apparently, God DOES want to confuse you. So let’s be godly and also tell you that we also failed to mention: The Rare Birds of South Royalton, Vermont; the Rare Birds of Gainesville, FL (who sadly only Tom is a fan of); Rare Bird, the English prog band of the early 1970s; Atlanta’s Rare Birds; and to bring it all back home, Rare Bird Show, the Philly improv comedy troupe. So, now we did. Good luck with all of that.
But as discussions played out in the comments on our original post and on this thread on BCO, we quickly learned the following things:
A) The South Philly Rare Birds – Rarebirds, that is — did not in fact break up. (They play the M Room on Feb. 19.)
B) There are people who apparently hold decades-old grudges with Foreman.
C) There are people who do not.
D) BCO poster Ziga of Rarebirds seems to think of Philebrity as an arbiter of indie rock morals that no one else cares about anymore, and that we failed him miserably in this regard. (That’s not really what you people think about us, is it? We’ve had a lot of insults hurled our way over the years, hell, over the weekend, even, but this is, well, it HURTS, OK?)
E) And finally, that both Philly Rare Birds/Rarebirds seem to be having a civil conversation with each other about working this all out, even though neither side seems to have any real interest in ditching the name.
And it’s on that last point that all of this brings to light a dirty beast that has been lurking in this strange micro-realm of the city for as long as we can remember. We shall call it The Indie Rock Class Wars. In a nutshell, the IRCWs are that dark state of affairs that exists between the meek in rock — weekender bands, let’s say, whose primary ambition is to have fun, play a gig at the M Room every month or so, and enjoy the community and satisfaction of making music — and those whose hubris is such that, even at this late stage in the death of rock, still believe the dream and do everything they can to go pro, succeed, and get on Conan once or twice. There are great things, and there are awful things, about each column. And it’s all being played out in this Rarebirds/Rare Birds debate. On the Rarebirds’ side — the sweetly indie-pop one fronted by Carolynne McNeel — the argument is that, shit, even though there’s a lot of Rare Bird bands in this world, they had it first in Philly. And they did; Philebrity archives alone bear this out. And on The Rare Birds’ side — the fuzzy space-groove one fronted by Foreman — the argument is basically that, well, if a Rare Bird falls in the forest, who hears it, because Foreman plays in Cat Power, already has label interest, and will take that name farther in six months than any of the other Rare Birds did in years. Or so he claims. And you know what? They’re both right! And they’re both wrong. Shit. There’s gonna be tears over this, we can tell already.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Jeff Ziga is not in Rarebirds
January 19th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
There’s no such thing as ‘Indie-Rock morals’ just convictions, and convictions are easily dismissed in times of opportunity or convenience . In this instance it’s called cease-and-desist OR just suck it up and move on.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:54 pm
@sixela & the real Jeff Ziga: We regret the error. Post has been edited accordingly.
January 19th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Look I came up with the DRUG BIRDS and Joey stole that and called it DRUGBYRDS but my ORIGINAL NAME is still up for grabs so why not use that? It’s superior and it’s based on a Real Actual Bird that anyone who has stayed up after 4am in Philadelphia can here walking home, with hits distinctive mocking song that sings “4am! 4-am! You’re a-wake! And-on-drugs! Long-walk-home! Didn’t-get-laid! Why-you-awake?”
Fucking drugbirds.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I was there when you coined that phrase. Brilliant concept. However, I think there should be a moratorium on all indie rock animal names for a while.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
they could always change their name to The New Originals.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
“But we didn’t wanna confuse you” is the funniest moment of this lazy band namers/internet blogger saga. Philipity does it again!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Actually, Rory, you deigning to register and comment on this site — thereby effectively leaving your rockist toilet seat warm and unattended — takes top honors.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Rockist toilet seat? Wait, now I’m more confused than ever. You told us you didn’t wanna do that!
January 19th, 2009 at 7:25 pm
Back to the beardshed, Rory.
January 20th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Jeff Ziga is in a band called Women. There are at least two bands called Women too. The other one is in Canada. Jeff’s brother is in The Rare Birds. The real Rare Birds, not the new hipster Rarebirds. Sweeney, all you had to do was a quick myspace search and you would have seen they were still an active band. We’re not so simple as readers. We get confused when you DONT comment on something obvious to many of us! We don’t want to think you’re that daft. We read your blog so we must like your writing and/or content but we’re gonna keep you honest, son.
January 20th, 2009 at 1:26 am
@blacklodge: I hear everything you are saying, and I appreciate it, but I also bristle at the conspiracy theory-ness of all this. Really, when it came down to it, I just didn’t bother to to Google. Seems like there’s a lot of that going on here.
January 20th, 2009 at 3:50 am
The internet was created by Al Gore so that we humans can anonymously theorize conspiracies. Are we hipsters not human? I hear you though. I’m sure it was innocently overlooked. Sometimes a little oversight can lead to people feeling slighted. There blood is on your hands, dude.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Terrific content, Philebrity! You even managed to draw out some salty saltboard action. Nothing beats a Philly band discussion. Gregg’s busted his ass over the years. Why so much heat over his creative output? If you don’t like it, just ignore it. Does his success or the potential goings on of this band have and real, concrete impact on your life?
January 20th, 2009 at 12:42 pm
it’s good old fashioned philly haterism and nobody elicits it like Gregg. How come ?uestlove and Pink don’t get as much shit as Gregg? Who knows? Me? I was happy and filled with hometown pride when I opened my gatefold CatPower record and saw his big fuckin crazy face!
January 22nd, 2009 at 12:10 pm
OG rarebirds, change yr name to Junction
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:48 am
“There blood is on your hands, dude.”
Please.
I know this entry is now fairly buried, but I just came across this the other day, and wanted to post it for whatever it’s worth. It’s almost a year old: http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/02/07/jukebox-hero