Awash In A Sea of Indie Tees
Brendan and I kept a list of all the ironic tees we saw at Pitchfork last weekend. This list excludes (for the most part) thrift store finds that were merely worn ironically (my favorite: a sunset with the word “serenity,” all rendered in classic 80s style) as well as the numerous band t-shirts (the general rule of thumb seemed to be “the more obscure, the more better”).
We planned to do the same for Lollapalooza this past weekend, but the crowd was far more mainstream (I spotted exactly two Dave Matthews Band t-shirts and a handful of Hollister tees), and given the thousands and thousands and thousands of people, the payoff wasn’t very good. Just too much work for mildly-clever t-shirts. Brendan made the excellent point that any sort of list-making should occur naturally out of whatever presented itself; I suggested “most unlikely person listening to a given band,” but I think I trumped all possibilities when I saw the group of frat boys dancing to Mates of State on Friday afternoon.
So the list that follows is Pitchfork only. Anything in parenthesis was actually on the t-shirt in parenthesis or as a subtitle of sorts. The bracketed comments are my own. For your reading pleasure, ladies and gentleman: the good, the bad, the inexplicable.
- spokes man for jesus [with picture of bike]
- reading is sexy
- achiever
- you have died of dysentery [with picture of oregon trail covered wagon]
- i support homo marriage
- strictly for my ninjas
- gang of four..$45, the pixies…$60, robert pollard…priceless
- who the fuck is mick jagger?
- cuckoo for cocoa puffs
- it’s my f*cking birthday
- famous movie quote
- ithaca is gorges
- third eye blind [we hope this one was ironic]
- indier than thou
- gin and jews
- love me, love my alcoholic rages
- librarians have tighter buns
- f’n ho
- hamster man
- hernia movers inc.
- justin says let’s rock
- just another sexy bald guy
- we be illin’ (sacred heart children’s hospital)
- i ♥ to fart [on the butt of granny panties worn with a black bikini top]
- a wizard has turned you into a whale. is this awesome? y/n
- vote for jesus
- flying nun 333
- [requisite threadless.com t-shirt]
- sex, drugs, & christian rock
- wittgen
stein - windows ‘95 is like mac ‘87
- this is me (smiling in a black t-shirt)
- j dilla changed my life
- i ♥ lesbians [worn by a man]
- ike turner
- junior private dectective
- arm wrestling championship – yeti vs. jesus – time to knuckle the fuck up
- oh-so-HI-o
- defend brooklyn
- new kids ON TOUR the block [also hopefully ironic]
- please sell us some pot [actually a piece of paper pinned to a t-shirt]
- [requisite The Smiths t-shirt]
- computers are fun and useful
- meat, the press [with a picture of andy mooney]
- die naked
- give me your tots [with a picture of tater tots]
- i’m on crack. how are you?
- put down the drugs and come get a hug
- 40 is sporty
- expose yourself to mathematics [with a drawing of a man flashing]
- hooked on oriental drugs
- soy be it
- raise your level of communication
- chemists react faster
- modern art makes me want to rock out (art brut)
- sex, drugs, and dungeons & dragons
- fighting cancer, now that’s a job
- connect with music
- hartford can get it up again
- corporate radio sucks
- 7.9 recommended
- crazy glue it!
- wrigley field: home of the world’s largest gay bar
- have a golden day!
- “gasp!”
spotted by other astute pitchforkers:
- popular culture no longer applies to me
- i beat anorexia
Posted 6 August 2006
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I have a picture of the I Beat Anorexia guy. I’m guessing the ‘Corporate Radio Sucks’ tees were woxy.com… and my all time favorite, the navy blue shirt with a yellow drawing of a frowny cloud and lightning bolt above the phrase “God Hates Techno”.
Yes. Yes he does.
and my grammar is atrocious in the previous post. My apologies. It’s midnight.