Today the Guardian printed a trend piece that featured the latest installment of misapplied response to SFJ's disasterous Arcade Fire piece, called "New literate British bands" in which the writer tried to pin the current trend for indie in afro-pop as intelligent multicultural/fusion and not, sadly, the next phase in the no wave, post punk, new wave, world music late 1970s to mid1980s rehash that it could, with a listen to Talking Heads first five albums, easily be argued as the narrative. The piece also rehashes almost every one of my dear friend Wendy Fonarow's arguments about the ideology of British indie as per her Empire of Dirt book, including denial of the homoerotic nature of bands, lack of women participants, obsession with adolescence, display of flatulent arrogance, obscurantism, denial of commercial ambition, working class signifiers by clearly middle class participants, and the lauding of clever lyrical references as transcendant of the "true" spirit of rock. And to call this whole thing a recent trend in a post-Libertines fury world and still raging Decembrists era can only be a sign that the writer is as young and desperate to seem original as the brilliant bands of which he writes. Perhaps there is a zeitgeist in something about these bands but I don't think it's in their "intelligence" - try listening to them, thinking about what they are reacting to, and what their artistic goals are and what the conditions of their music making are - it could be a great story, if only it were reported and not speculated.