“Harmless” Indie-Rock Outfit Inspires Howls Of Protest

noah | March 13, 2007 2:10 am
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Poppy Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn & John is all over the SXSW schedule this week, and that fact has made somebody so mad, he’s started a whole blog about how the band is unworthy of the “biggest artist in indie rock” title. From the blog’s manifesto:

Which brings us to the question: Do we want Peter Bjorn and John to be hailed as the standard bearers for a whole genre of music? And the answer is: NO WAY. As I acknowledged in the previous post, “Young Folks” was catchy and harmless, but this band is not a significant band. Peter Bjorn and John must be stopped.

And we can do it. As admittedly cheesy as this may sound, if there’s one thing that blogs (and consumer-generated media more generally) have taught us in the last few years, it’s that those of us who try hard enough really can affect the culture, even if we never get some big cultural institution to back us up. This has been especially true with indie rock.

We make these bands ourselves, online, though our posts, listens, downloads, and links. If we want to take them down, we can. In the case of Peter Bjorn and John, we must.

Aw, they seem like kind of an inoffensive group of guys to launch such a broadside against–but we suppose that’s the point. Anyway, the blog was launched last week because of the “emergency” of Peter, Bjorn & John’s SXSW saturation; the blogger behind it is en route to Austin right now, and he’ll host a rally/protest outside a Peter, Bjorn & John in-store performance this Friday. Idolator will be on the scene covering it, cameraphones at the ready for any shots of flying peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or people holding “FAKE WHISTLERS!!” signs.

Event To Stop Peter Bjorn and John @ SXSW [stoppeterbjornandjohn.blogspot.com, via Gawker]