Cribs slam careerist UK indie bands

The Cribs have lashed out against the current crop of UK guitar bands – claiming they are too careerist to be truly indie.

The Wakefield/Manchester band said that despite there being a huge amount of anticipation for their forthcoming new album, 'Ignore The Ignorant' (set for release on September 15), their first featuring ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, they still saw themselves as outsiders.

"People aren't doing it [indie music] well," frontman Ryan Jarman said. "The people who are in it for the wrong reasons have fallen by the wayside."

Guitarist Johnny Marr added that he believed that his band's politically-charged new album title, partly influenced by the worrying rise of the British National Party in UK politics, was a symptom of how The Cribs refused to compromise their values in an attempt to grab sales.

"Whether you want to call it politics with a small 'p', or in capitals," he outlined, "the band have made no apologies about being political in the past. That makes us a different prospect to a bunch of bands in white plastic suits.

"Everyone knows that The Cribs are a group of individuals rather than coming off some cold ironic faceless band conveyor belt."

For the full interview with The Cribs, see the new issue of NME, out now.

The Cribs tickets: