The state fair, guilty pleasure-nature of the reunion show has begun to shift. The Pixies, Dinosaur Jr, My Bloody Valentine, and now, even Pavement are back together. These are card-carrying indie legends and bands that aren’t rocking the fairground and casino circuit. Pavement’s four shows in NYC sold out within minutes of announcement. Doesn’t the idea of indie reunions undercut the underlying idea that indie is about artistic innovation? A reunion tour is, in and of itself, about nostalgia and not creativity.

While I don’t think this has any real weight for music fans (meaning people who don’t base their lifestyle on a music genre), for the indie that takes itself seriously, their own credibility is on the line. Indie prides itself on originality and there’s nothing original in a band that’s past its period of virility playing old songs. The Pixies didn’t do anything new on their reunion tour. They just played their old stuff and they played it very well. From what I hear, Sunny Day’s doing the same. Most of these bands need some extra money, are doing it for fun, or promoting the reissue of some back catalog. They’re not, as the indie genre would have, doing it for artistic originality. So far, the only band that’s reunited and put out more than one song of new material is Dinosaur Jr. The real question is, will indie acknowledge this conflict of self-interest? I really doubt it. Too bad they’ll miss out on seeing Kansas and Sunny Day within a week of each other.

Will Thompson enjoys putting somewhat carefully chosen words in relatively meaningful order.

As with Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillion, it is absolutely exhilarating to hear a creative and ambitious band tether its experimental tendencies to the concise demands of the four-minute pop song.

Grizzly Bear – Cheerleader (from 2009′s Veckatimest)