DS Book Club: “The World Was a Mess, but His Hair Was Perfect: The Last Indie Music Scene” by Janine Warren

The indie scene in the UK exploded in the early 2000s; bands like Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs, and Bloc Party made their mark using some of the same DIY methods the punks had used before. Dubbed the era of “indie sleaze,” the bands and their peers tried to take the world by storm. Author Janine Warren helps tell their story in her book, The World Was a Mess, but His Hair Was Perfect: The Last Indie Music Scene.

Following an introduction by Franz Ferdinand vocalist Alex Kapranos, Janine details her journey through this era of UK rock music, which served as a refuge and source of healing during her teens, while also explaining the career path in the music industry that makes her uniquely qualified to write the book. It is appreciated as a reader in the US who, despite not knowing the author’s role in the scene, learned how much of it Janine Warren actually witnessed firsthand. Having been present in places like tour buses and nightclubs, Warren brings an intimate perspective to the scene.

We are finally at a place where we can get some perspective on this scene without the influence of fame, which clearly had clouded the participants’ judgments and reactions; given that the bands did have a breakthrough on our end here in America, the early 2000s era of music took a lot of the DIY ethos from bands like Bikini Kill, but gathered much of its sound from the Strokes. This new generation became defined by rejecting Britpop. They weren’t necessarily chasing a raw sound, but definitely a more intense one. Most of the people in the scene had worn out the lessons that DIY and punk taught them and wanted to cash in some of those chips, even if some in the scene treated their bands as jobs.

The book is an oral history that uses quotes as sound bites, which works while getting the feel for a topic and eventually jumping to the bigger story to bring it around again. There is much more commentary from Warren than other authors compiling oral histories. Granted, we want the stories from the people who were there, but we also want a guide. Warren does a great job of showing the ecosystem of how this scene worked. There are moments in this scene that almost echo the punk rock movement in England, and that is definitely not lost on the author or the book’s subjects.

His era of music didn’t really catch my ear, mostly because I was living under a punk rock. While I never had an interest in circling back, this book may have changed that. If you’re one of those people who like to see how the sausage was made regarding something you may have initially turned your nose up at, this may be a book worth checking out. Even if not, Janine Warren does a great job at documenting a scene that perhaps didn’t set the world on fire.

You can pick up His World Was A Mess, But His Hair Was Perfect: The Last Indie Scene 2000 -2010 from Omnibus Press or at finer brick and mortar bookstores.