Dimes hold their worth in indie rock scene

by John Bear

Daily Lobo

The Dimes are part of the burgeoning indie rock scene in Portland, Ore. But don't call them hipsters.

Drummer Jake Rahner said his roommate is one, but added the state of being hip eludes an easy definition.

"It's hard to define," he said. "It's not a look, not the way you talk. It's more along the lines of indie kids - People who like anything that's underground, not because it's good, but because it's underground."

He said hipsters tend to have CD collections featuring mostly self-released acts and little if any bands on record labels. He said they often have a preternatural knowledge of indie scenes in towns they have never been to.

Rahner said the indie scene in Portland and other cities is often plagued with hipsters.

"It's indier than thou," he said.

He said the Portland scene is diverse, with an abundance of good bands coming out, but critics often go for the gimmicks.

"The critics like to celebrate mediocrity," he said. "If something is fully bizarre and strange, it gets a lot more press than it deserves."

He said the scene in Portland tends to like bands that are too weird to be mainstream.

The Dimes said they just like to play music and aren't doing it to impress anyone.

Guitarist Pierre Kaiser cites numerous British guitarists as influences, including Johnny Marr from the Smiths, Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead and the Edge from U2. He said the Dimes sound like a cross between Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie, a Portland indie band recently signed to a major label.

Rahner said his roommate, a long-time fan of Death Cab for Cutie, now hates the band because it was signed to a major label.

But, members of the Dimes aren't adverse to signing to a major label, if it suits their needs.

"We just want to play music for a living," Rahner said. "That's the goal. If a label can help us with that, and that's the best thing, we'll do it."

The band has no immediate plans to sign to a major label. Most of them have quit their day jobs, but fame and fortune still lie distantly on the horizon. Kaiser has taken time off from his mechanical engineering job to go on this tour.

Kaiser compares label shopping to relationships.

"Finding a label is like finding a girlfriend," he said. "There has to be chemistry."