Neon Indian is an electronica act based in Texas, founded in 2008 by Mexican-born Alan Palomo. Palomo is also the only constant member, and does almost all of the studio work, but is joined by a whole band for live performances. Palomo got into music by accident; while in college studying film, he and his then-girlfriend planned to do LSD one night, but he stood her up. As an apology, he wrote what became the first Neon Indian song, "Should Have Taken Acid With You", and sent it to her. She was very impressed, and told him to keep making music.
The band's first album, 2009's Psychic Chasms, was released right as the "chillwave" subgenere rose to prominence. Chillwave was a Genre Mashup combining 1980s-inspired synth pop and newer indie subgenera like lo-fi and shoegaze, with lyrics usually involving "chill" activities like doing drugs and going to the beach. Neon Indian, along with Washed Out and Toro Y Moi, was named one of the "big three" chillwave acts, and Psychic Chasms came to be known as the Trope Codifier for the subgenre. The band continued to explore this sound with 2011's Era Extrañia.
By the mid-2010s, chillwave was considered a dead genre by most critics and fans. Palomo seemingly agreed, and Neon Indian's first album in 4 years, VEGA Intl. Night School, was a New Sound Album that did away with the dreamy, psychedelic sound of chillwave, while more fully embracing 1980s aesthetics with a dancier disco sound. Critics have compared this to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories, another example of and electronic band fully embracing their retro influences.
Discography
- Psychic Chasms (2009)
- Era Extrañia (2011)
- VEGA Intl. Night School (2015)
- World of Hassle (2023)
Should have described tropes with you, touched the stars and the planets too...
- Animated Music Video: "Fallout", notable for being a collaboration with [adult swim] (and was available on the AS YouTube channel for a while, before being removed for unknown reasons). It involves a sexy woman with a Cool Car flirting with mechanics, until she takes off her glasses and reveals herself to be a Butter Face.
- Album Title Drop: Lampshaded in "Smut!"
- I know it's wrong, but I'm overruled
Tonight she takes me to night school
Hey, that's the name of the record!
- Band of Relatives: Alan's brother Jorge played bass on VEGA Intl., and has been the band's live bassist since 2015.
- Break-Up Song: Much of Psychic Chasms consists of these. "Should Have Taken Acid With You" was written as an apology from Alan to his then-girlfriend, whom he stood up for a date. "Local Joke" involves a woman looking for an excuse to dump her embarrassing boyfriend, the neighborhood laughingstock. "Mind, Drips" is about post-breakup loneliness, with Alan knowing it was his fault. "Deadbeat Summer" is about feeling nostalgic for last summer's romance, and having nothing to do but laze around bored this year.
- On Era Extrañia, there's "Arcade Blues", about playing video games to forget an ex, and "Fallout", about still having feelings for someone who wants to move on.
- Butter Face: The woman in the video for "Fallout" has long, sculpted legs, flowing pink hair, and gigantic breasts which the camera keeps focusing on. The mechanics in the video fall madly in love with her, and give her car a full tuneup. Then, at the very end, she takes off the sunglasses she'd been wearing up to that point, revealing some seriously derpy eyes, and the mechanics gape in shock as she drives off.
- Deliberate VHS Quality: The "Annie" music video, which, according to an on-screen graphic, is supposed to take place in 1993.
- Hellish Horse: The "Sleep Paralysist" video features some eerie horses with glowing green eyes that come out at night and get the souls of sleeping girls to ride them. One could say that they're... night mares.
- In the Style of: "Future Sick", from Era Extrañia, is a Boards of Canada tribute, featuring warbly synths similar to theirs. The later "News From the Sun", from VEGA Intl., draws heavily on Prince's Signature Style.
- New Sound Album: VEGA Intl. Night School still draws on the 80s nostalgia of their first two albums, but in a very different way. The chillwave sound exemplified by the preceding albums was, well, chill, with even the more upbeat songs having a somewhat relaxed feel to them. They were also more psychedelic in both lyrical and instrumental content, and achieved the 80s nostalgia through Stylistic Suck (such as trying to sound like a warped cassette tape). VEGA Intl., meanwhile, is a tribute to disco, and consists mostly of dance songs. It is also far less psychedelic, and mostly foregoes the warped sound quality for a more polished one. It is often compared to Random Access Memories, Daft Punk's New Sound Album with similar themes.
- The Oner: The video for "Slumlord" is eight minutes long; of that, about 5 consist of one continuous shot.
- Police Are Useless: A comedic example in the "Annie" music video. After reporting his girlfriend missing, the police show Alan some sketches in an effort to identify her. However, instead of Alan's lost love (or any real woman), the sketches depict Holi Would, a female Joe Camel, and the Forever Alone meme. Alan tells them this is stupid, so one of the cops tases him.
- Pun: In "Annie", Alan says that "with the brush you left, I combed the alleyways."
- Retraux: The chillwave sound Neon Indian helped to pioneer is based on 80s pop music. Many of the songs have an intentionally warped quality, meant to evoke an old cassette tape that hasn't been played in a while. Some songs on Psychic Chasms also sample some Todd Rundgren works from the 70s, further evoking the feel. Even the New Sound Album VEGA Intl. draws on 80s nostalgia, being inspired by disco and early house music.
- Outside of the music itself, much of the band's promo material is retraux as well. For example, this video, meant to promote
VEGA Intl., parodies this real ad for the "Corey Hotline" that existed in the 90s, right down to the Deliberate VHS Quality.
- Outside of the music itself, much of the band's promo material is retraux as well. For example, this video, meant to promote
- Sampling: A staple of the band's work.
- Psychic Chasms: "Deadbeat Summer"'s instrumental is the same as Todd Rundgren's "Izzat Love?". Later, on the same album, a sample of Rundgren's "How About A Little Fanfare?" makes up part of the intro to "Local Joke".
- The single "Sleep Paralysist" samples the theme to Beyond the Darkness.
- VEGA Intl. Night School: The voice saying "Friday after dark!" in "Bozo" comes from this Cinemax ad from the 80s.
- Something Blues: "Arcade Blues", which is about playing video games to forget a breakup (and which is not a blues song, but a chillwave one).
- Surreal Music Video: The "Sleep Paralysist" video has Alan and some girls sleeping in a house. Sounds normal...but said house has dancing Boohbah dolls, an axolotl in a small tank, some creepy taxidermy, and two identical men playing chess against each other. Then the girl's souls leave their bodies and follow some horses with creepy glowing eyes (Probably meant as a pun on "nightmare"- they're night mares). This is all justified, as the song is about dreaming, and the video is meant to feel like a dream.
