This is about alternative lifestyle.
This is about you.

This song is about pursuing (indie) dreams + putting up with the mainstream world.

Here are the most relevant parts of the lyrics from zany Aussiebro band Theatre of Disco‘s Disco Donnie (picked the rmx instead of the OG, via the better rmx theory):

My name it like “not!” and i drive a motorbike
and i’m like not cool, but that don’t matter
cause i can pretend to be cool, my drug is motorbike

i wear my earrings everyday and every night
but when i go to work i say “fuck you, i’m not a computer programmer”
i’m just like a cool dude, i hang out with my gang, my people

they go round, people go round, Tokyo,
we go up and down the stairs on a motorbike

Having an alternative lifestyle is not easy.

"No one gets me. I'm indie." (credit: permanently scatterbrained via Flickr)

Your parents don’t get you, your cowokers are pretty lame except for that girl you take smoke breaks with.

You “dress uniquely” but really, you’re just indie-fashioned.

You can’t help but feel alone and that no one really understands you and your alternative lifestyle.

Everyone is so mainstream.

Your entire life is a lie.

You listen to cool indie bands that sound like a rehash of the 60s/70s or any other music decade that everyone just ‘rediscovered’.

You’re on Lookbook for like 3.5hrs+ a day even though everyone dresses the same and Photoshops too much.

You got your neon AA clothes ready for ‘electro-night’ that your local venue holds every Wednesday/Thursday — they mostly play bangers or some sort of techno and when they play brostep, the crowd gets into a riot.

Bros/broettes altpartyin' (credit: Zellaby via Flickr)

But it doesn’t matter, you don’t really have to be authentic/indie, just pretending you are is perfectly fine.

You’re not just some bro/broette at a dead end mainstream job, you are a cool (or at least chill) bro/broette.

And you have your alternative friends to fuel and validate each other’s perceived althenticity.

You want to stand apart from the mainstreamers, yet still feel connected to a niche that validates your lifestyle and makes you feel like you’re part of something.

But your alternative lifestyle crisis doesn’t let up.

You go after your alternative aspirations. You want to start a blog.

You feel like Pitchfork’s ratings really mean something and you fantasize about starting a band and getting ‘rated’.

You have sO much to show/bring to the world.

[this is that girl at every alternative party]

you know like, like, like when i first met him

i was just like really intimidated,
cause he was so such a smart person, and like you know
i just like sometimes when i meet really smart people i can’t talk to them

and we had such an amazing connection
and we talked about actually these monkeys and they like to have sex for pleasure

(really you did?) and they found, but no, yeah, yeah, and like
and then there these types of whales, and they do stuff

yeah i like environmental issues

Your alternative lifestyle makes your life relevant

Meeting indieresting people at relevant parties, making meaningful Four Loko-fueled connections with qt bros/broettes, talking about issues that impact you and your perceived niche community.

You’re buzzin’ pretty hard after 3 1/4 PBRs.

You see her.

She sees you, her eyes beaming, maybe, from the coke she gummed like 5 mins ago with her broettes at the powder room.

She’s all over the place but you’re all over her, such an amazing connection.

What’s your alternative lifestyle like?

Are you a (pretend) cool bro/broette or just a fucking computer programmer?

Care to share your alternative lifestyle experience(s) with us?

Alternative lifestyle featured photo credit: Jack Newton via Flickr