Well shit, you guys went to town in the comments section yesterday, didn’t you?

I was playing some blog-a-link follow-the-leader yesterday and it yielded some interesting reading. Starting from Brookylnvegan’s post about hipsterdom triggered by the Wikipedia entry for said term. From there, there was quick visit to Catbirdseat’s clasic Hipster Bingo (and it’s companion piece The Guide To Indie Hair) as well as pit stops at The Hipster Handbook and The Morning News’ Non-Expert: Hipster. Also fun were links in BV’s comments to Austinist’s His & Hers guides to bagging yourself some hipster action in Tejas’ capital.

But the most interesting link was the one to Pandas That Won’t Screw To Save Their Species, which expands the discussion on the hipster phenomenon to include auteur-of-his-generation Wes Anderson and irony in general. The Slate article that inspired the post is a particularly good read, and helps articulate some of the disappointment I felt with The Life Aquatic (though I think I was considerably more generous to the film than most). N+1 looks at the arrested development that links Anderson and the Hipster generation. CityPages also riffs a bit on the art and culture of what it terms the “LittleBlue SmurfBoy” generation. And, on the flipside of it all, The Orlando Sentinel has a piece on hipsterism burnout (I found this one myself!). And tangentially-related: Stylus continues to analyze what they call “the problem with indie”.

I found all of this reading quite fascinating – I think I’m just old enough to have escaped ground zero of the Hipster phenomenon (I like how one of the pieces, I forget which, calls the Hipster the younger sibling of the Slacker), instead lingering at the periphery of the blast radius and playing observer, watching with frequent confusion, occasional disgust but always complete fascination. I think one of the fundamental differences is that I’m not big on irony. I love it in my comedy, but not in my lifestyle. It’s too much goddamn work, life’s too short to waste on things you don’t genuinely enjoy and really, I’m too self-conscious to not realize that, ironically or not, I’d still look pretty stupid in most of those clothes. And I can’t grow a moustache, ironic or otherwise.

Everyone who missed out on The Go! Team at Lee’s Palace last week will get another shot to see the UK outfit October 30 when they play the Phoenix. Speaking of hipsters… I kid. Everyone I know who went to their last show said it was fantastic, unabashedly and unironically. Expect this one to sell out just as fast.

The week in shows at Torontoist, via me.

The Guardian talks to Colin Meloy of The Decemberists in hopes of determining what it is about them that inspires such fierce loyalty amongst their fanbase. Via Largehearted Boy.

The Toronto Star previews Aimee Mann’s show at the Phoenix tomorrow night.

Torr has the new Cardigans single, “I Need Some Fine Wine And You, You Need To Be Nicer”, available to download. It’s surprisingly rocking and upbeat, considering how melancholy Long Gone Before Daylight was. The new album, Super Extra Gravity, is out October 17.

Producer Rob Thomas spills the beans on what he’s got in store for season two of Veronica Mars, premiering on September 21. The season one DVD isn’t due out till mid-October. Thanks to Zoilus for the link.

np – British Sea Power / The Decline Of British Sea Power

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