pigeonholes

Cliche's , genres, pigeonholes... I have a love/hate relationship with them but every now and again I have to admit that they do their job very well! My favourite types (and those that work best for me) are those I make up purely for the categorisation of my own sprawling record collection, such as 'scary electronica' and 'boom-cha / swirly house'.

Recently, though, I got a text from a mate asking if I knew anything of a guy called 'get cape, wear cape, fly'. I didn't, and forgot to reply. Then I spotted an ad for Resident Records in the Source which listed the tickets the shop have on sale at the moment. Lo and behold, our man 'get cape, wear cape, fly' was amongst them. This prompted me to text my mate back with the string of assumptions I instantly made about the musician in question based purely on this ad and the name of the artist himself.

Namely that, if theres tickets available at Resident, its likely that he's alternative - probably indie, folky or electronic if he's playing a live gig in Brighton. With a name like 'get cape, wear cape, fly', I hedged my bets that he was an indie/electronic crossover type. This was based on the trend I've spotted for alternative indie/electro artists/promoters to name themselves, their bands and their nights after statements. Examples in our fair city include 'It Came From The Sea', 'She Likes Parties', 'I am Magpie', 'You Slay Me', etc.

Now, tonight I heard a tune by Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly on my housemates computer. Funny how things go around. Anyway, it was a nice song with guitars and other twiddly instruments with a farily folky vibe, an indie-type vocal and a fair scattering of bleeps and pops and electro-tinkerings. So my assumptions were really quite accurate considering I'd based them all on a brief reference in an ad and the dudes name!

I don't think it's big or clever, incidentally, I just think its interesting how much you can assertain about an artist with very little info if you keep an eye on the habbits of musical subcultures.