Despite their songwriter quitting the band not so long ago, Kaiser Chiefs have a new album out in March. I was informed via a link on Facebook; I have friends who have "liked" the Chiefs' page, but they're friends who've since moved onto genres like post-rock and dream-pop. Judging my circle of friends - a somewhat limited pool admittedly - the Kaiser Chiefs will find it harder than ever to flog their latest effort come March. They're not the only ones. Hard-Fi, the Pigeon Detectives, the Enemy, Razorlight, the Twang, Doves, Milburn and Reverend and the Makers have all either disbanded, or have been lost in the depths of obscurity. Bands that seemed to fit in with the indie crowd - like Klaxons or LCD Soundsystem - are struggling/no more, respectively. Even titans of that era, Bloc Party and Franz Ferdinand (above) are shadows of their former selves popularity-wise; creatively too, one could argue. But why? Why don't we care about indie anymore? Where's the next rock and roll band to grab Britain by the scruff of the neck? It was the Arctic Monkeys ten years ago, Oasis ten before that, and the Smiths a good decade before the Gallaghers, but is 2014 to going to disappoint on the indie front? Here are ten reasons that might go some way to explaining why indie rock's not quite what it was.
