well, here's the problem: at the same time that the indie scene enables so much in the way of diversity of experiences, trying new things artistically, etc, there's a HUGE element of people who like to mock/make fun of "different" things that don't also happen to fit the weekly definition of what they think is cool. i cannot believe the ease at which people improperly throw around the adjective "pretentious" for example. so if you're gonna try new stuff, you're gonna get some bad reactions.
but that doesn't mean not to try new stuff. i dunno if i have any good ideas though.
what if you maybe did something where you did, like, the provenance of a particular album, band, musician, or even song? like explained why it was a cultural touchstone for a lot of people and what it meant. like maybe take "the shape of punk to come" and instead of doing a "review" of it, focus entirely on explaining when it came out, what its influences were, who its members were, its reception, its current position, did it sell well and in what areas, was it part of a current trend in music or did it kick off a trend and if so who took up the mantle, et cetera.
this requires a lot of work and knowledge--more knowledge than i have--and you run the risk of sounding like an authority and then people whio know more being like "jesus but you completely forgot how dennis lyxzen said he sang exactly like screamy mcscreamerson of the scene screamers in order to establish a connection between swedish hardcore and costa rican extreme doom!!!!"
