Do your worst.

[alt-rock-confessions]

Wouldn't it be helpful for you to pin a post with a rough list of which acts exactly count as "alt rock"? because i could send an ask about kylie minogue but it wouldn't fit the bill even though she collabed with some of them jsjsjs

You’re not wrong, it might help, but also even as someone who’s been an alt kid for 10 whole years, I don’t feel any better qualified to define what doesn’t constitute an alt rock musician. Is it a certain level of success in the mainstream? Maybe at some point in the late 80s and perhaps early 90s, but like, Nirvana had a Billboard #1 album. Half the 90s bands we know as alt rock musicians put out their best work on major labels/their subsidiaries. Is it a certain kind of sound? Stuff with guitars? Idk, I’ll accept Depeche Mode or Eurythmics on here I think, so I can’t say for sure.

It becomes trickier the more I try to define it! And when I name a few bands, I exclusively get submissions about those bands, so it’s difficult. I posted a little while ago that the inbox was open again, and I figured I’d tag the post with a few bands, and it got So Long.

So I think I’d rather let people use their better senses when submitting stuff: if you’ve found this blog and find it interesting enough to want to stick around, you probably know the vibe of what something means to be alt rock. You might have artists up your sleeve I have no idea about!

I can generally say alt rock started being recognised as a subgenre from around the late 70s and up to today, and post-90s the meaning of the term has broadened/diluted quite a bit, depending on how you want to look at it.

I should make a pinned post in general at some point, but it will probably be very similar to the submission guidelines (or I might just pin this very ask, thanks anon!):

And if you feel it’s justified to send me an alt rock-related Kylie Minogue confession, I won’t stop you

[tomorrowillbeyou]

yes it IS gay to be in a band.

[alt-rock-confessions]

those glass animals are obsessed with fruits and I cannot look at a pineapple without singing their silly rhyme

^ posted on the band's actual official account.

Bonus:

Also it's just about food in general

Dave: Joe in the band gave me strawberries with pepper ground on. I had no faith in that even being digestible but it was actually quite good. [...]I have a problem with fruit and savoury. Like pineapple on pizza, [...]it’s psychopathic. 

So. Glass Animals fans. What is up with this band and fruits? Has Dave Bayley just got some kind of gustatory synaesthesia?

30 images. I actually hit the Tumblr image limit on this. Incredible.

[nelsonwoodlane]

idk if they’ve ever outright explained why they talk about food so much but if i may posit a theory:

i think it has a lot to do with how glass animals’ discography deals a lot in nostalgia, particularly in how to be a human being and dreamland. food is so tied to memory because of its cultural significance as well as the way it interacts with our senses (taste and smell are very powerful!) so dave often references food to evoke a specific time or feeling. personally i really do find it an effective visual!

in the zaba era and earlier, imo the food/fruit imagery helped conjure the gooey (ha), oozy jungle vibe. so much of their music from that time sounds… juicy like a fruit i guess? i imagine it just ended up becoming a motif.

the pineapple on stage became a thing when a fan threw one up there during a show in reference to the chorus of pork soda and the fruit merch really started in earnest after that. now it’s kind of their whole brand.

plus i just think those boys like to eat lol

[alt-rock-confessions]

Idk if you still answer these but I NEED to confess

I goon to the 2003 nardwuar blur interview pretending I'm the one dave is pushing around and bullying🥀😔

I’m absolutely still answering/posting confessions on this blog and this one’s an all-timer I’m afraid

[alt-rock-confessions]

Has anyone noticed how it's really difficult to eat out a girl while listening to dinosaur jr or is that just me

I have not attempted this myself yet so I’m going to have to open it out to the general public, anon

[foggyeyes]

tbh nothing compared to trying to eat out a girl while listening to sebadoh

[alt-rock-confessions]

Has anyone noticed how it's really difficult to eat out a girl while listening to dinosaur jr or is that just me

I have not attempted this myself yet so I’m going to have to open it out to the general public, anon

[dadrockconfessions]

why do the oasis brothers kiss so much it makes me feel bad and evil because it turns me on

[alt-rock-confessions]

I've recently come to a conclusion that literally every band you and I can think of has some sorts of sexual tension between at least two of its members. It's just something universal in the world of rock.

Sexual tension and tenderness, don't forget. Anon you have no idea how much fun putting together this post was, cheers.

[scrptrntvoid]

Let me add some to this just because... 😏

[alt-rock-confessions]

Hey!! Do you remember me? I'm the franzfiction anon from all that time ago!! I've written 4 chapters now!!!! They're all on ao3!! It's called Academic factory, if you're someone reading this who hasn't read it, you totally should!!!

(I think most people in the franz community just. Know who I am. But it's fine)

Glad to see you're back, fffic anon!

[alt-rock-confessions]

the coolest thing about writing Franz Ferdinand fanfiction is that sometimes they see it and reference it in one of their songs

OH MY GOD

(which song is that?)

[alt-rock-confessions]

Alex Kapranos on fan fiction in conversation with Canadian online review magazine Chart Attack in November 2004:

"[Fan fiction] was pointed out to me at one point and I thought it was very humorous," Kapranos says. "The thing I didn’t realize is that there are so many hot blooded girls who are really kind of into this voyeuristic thing about homosexual sex. At first I thought they’d been spying on my private life and then I realized it’s just fantasy."

"I think it’s brilliant. It’s really, really funny. And I like that sort of thing cause it means that there’s people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you’ve done, so it’s a good thing," he says.

"There’s absolutely nothing wrong with fictionalizing a genuine character as long as you make it clear that you are fictionalizing, which I think all that slash stuff does."

[...]"It’s what we do in songs as well," he says. "I mean, we take characters who are around us and write stories, write songs about events that have happened in their lives. Of course, when you tell any story, you make it dramatic, you use the tools of drama to make an exciting story. All they’re doing is an extreme example of what we do."

[grifoncito]

[alt-rock-confessions]

the coolest thing about writing Franz Ferdinand fanfiction is that sometimes they see it and reference it in one of their songs

OH MY GOD

(which song is that?)

[alt-rock-confessions]

Alex Kapranos on fan fiction in conversation with Canadian online review magazine Chart Attack in November 2004:

"[Fan fiction] was pointed out to me at one point and I thought it was very humorous," Kapranos says. "The thing I didn’t realize is that there are so many hot blooded girls who are really kind of into this voyeuristic thing about homosexual sex. At first I thought they’d been spying on my private life and then I realized it’s just fantasy."

"I think it’s brilliant. It’s really, really funny. And I like that sort of thing cause it means that there’s people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you’ve done, so it’s a good thing," he says.

"There’s absolutely nothing wrong with fictionalizing a genuine character as long as you make it clear that you are fictionalizing, which I think all that slash stuff does."

[...]"It’s what we do in songs as well," he says. "I mean, we take characters who are around us and write stories, write songs about events that have happened in their lives. Of course, when you tell any story, you make it dramatic, you use the tools of drama to make an exciting story. All they’re doing is an extreme example of what we do."

[grifoncito]

[alt-rock-confessions]

John Lennon, Beatles era, 1964.

The Dare, 2022.

[alt-rock-confessions]

‘What is a blogger to a rocker, what is a rocker to The Dare?’ do you see his vision

[alt-rock-confessions]

the coolest thing about writing Franz Ferdinand fanfiction is that sometimes they see it and reference it in one of their songs

OH MY GOD

(which song is that?)

[alt-rock-confessions]

Alex Kapranos on fan fiction in conversation with Canadian online review magazine Chart Attack in November 2004:

"[Fan fiction] was pointed out to me at one point and I thought it was very humorous," Kapranos says. "The thing I didn’t realize is that there are so many hot blooded girls who are really kind of into this voyeuristic thing about homosexual sex. At first I thought they’d been spying on my private life and then I realized it’s just fantasy."

"I think it’s brilliant. It’s really, really funny. And I like that sort of thing cause it means that there’s people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you’ve done, so it’s a good thing," he says.

"There’s absolutely nothing wrong with fictionalizing a genuine character as long as you make it clear that you are fictionalizing, which I think all that slash stuff does."

[...]"It’s what we do in songs as well," he says. "I mean, we take characters who are around us and write stories, write songs about events that have happened in their lives. Of course, when you tell any story, you make it dramatic, you use the tools of drama to make an exciting story. All they’re doing is an extreme example of what we do."

[grifoncito]

[alt-rock-confessions]

Well this has blown up. Gang! I'm reviving the blog; send alt rock confessions

[alt-rock-confessions]

the coolest thing about writing Franz Ferdinand fanfiction is that sometimes they see it and reference it in one of their songs

OH MY GOD

(which song is that?)

[alt-rock-confessions]

Alex Kapranos on fan fiction in conversation with Canadian online review magazine Chart Attack in November 2004:

"[Fan fiction] was pointed out to me at one point and I thought it was very humorous," Kapranos says. "The thing I didn’t realize is that there are so many hot blooded girls who are really kind of into this voyeuristic thing about homosexual sex. At first I thought they’d been spying on my private life and then I realized it’s just fantasy."

"I think it’s brilliant. It’s really, really funny. And I like that sort of thing cause it means that there’s people who have imagination who are inspired by your personality and the things that you’ve done, so it’s a good thing," he says.

"There’s absolutely nothing wrong with fictionalizing a genuine character as long as you make it clear that you are fictionalizing, which I think all that slash stuff does."

[...]"It’s what we do in songs as well," he says. "I mean, we take characters who are around us and write stories, write songs about events that have happened in their lives. Of course, when you tell any story, you make it dramatic, you use the tools of drama to make an exciting story. All they’re doing is an extreme example of what we do."

[alt-rock-confessions]

Since you all are here and this post is taking off half a year after it was made (as Tumblr is meant to work), submit your alt rock confessions and I'm reviving this blog

[alt-rock-confessions]

I would give anything for the timeline where the cornerstone of Britpop wasn't Wonderwall but The Drowners

What we could’ve had… given that Suede first earned that Britpop label (as much as they would come to despise it later) and were briefly the biggest thing in the UK, we really could’ve had it all.

[alt-rock-confessions]

#reader they were never the biggest thing in the UK#lmao

Hmm, I could argue that the brief period in 1992 when they were Melody Maker front cover stars before ever releasing any music, just on the back of live hype, when they'd been on the front covers of magazines 19 times that year, when they had the fastest-selling UK album of all time for a brief period in 1993, before Oasis broke their record in 1994, that they were the biggest band in the UK briefly.

When music journalist Stuart Maconie coined the phrase Britpop in 1993 in a piece for Select Magazine, describing this new wave of British bands making what he called very British music, with Suede as the cover stars, that was definitely a small window when Suede were the British zeitgeist and the biggest band in the UK, no?

[alt-rock-confessions]

oi, since there are suddenly a lot of Oasis fans in my notes after that "being in a band alters your brain chemistry/becomes your sexuality" type post yous reblogged, send in your Oasis confessions. They're also an alt rock band, they count. I've gotta restart this blog anyway, could do with more asks in the inbox, Oasis or any other alt rock music.

[catsxratsxbats]

I enjoy how every Glass Animals song sounds like "ouhhhhhh blue sky lemonade like an Arnold palmer I wish u and I were calmer drown the memory of youuu in goji berry water *the strangest noises you've ever heard* hot tub in a swimming pool mind full of Scooby-Dooby ghouls you were always too cool for school hot cheetos and cotton candy juuls *water dripping sound effects*" and it slaps mega juicy balls every time