Indie Rock or wot?!?

Woebot

Well-known member
So is there anything NME-esque that deserves attention beyond The Arctic Monkeys? Or is it a bit of a desert?

Arcade Fire seem OK-ish? (a bit tentative here) Maybe a little over-wrought, but not bad.
 

henry s

Street Fighting Man
maybe these are more indie pop than rock, but this last year found my toes tapping to:

The Boy Least Likely To, The Clientele and Magic Numbers

all pretty well known...lesser known are Russian Futurists (future-primitive indie rock via Toronto)...

also, I'm anticipating the Pipettes LP this year, which should really get this Girl Group revival in gear...

I think the indie field is still fairly fertile, once you see it as more than a guilty pleasure...
 

tryptych

waiting for a time
What does "NME-esque" cover?

From last year, I liked Arcade Fire a lot... can't think of much else that really stood out.

Recently, new stuff I've been enjoying:

Prinzhorn Dance School (nothing released yet, minimal Pixies-ish three piece).

The Klaxons (rave-cover thrash, lot better than the bloody Test Icicles)

Sunny Day Sets Fire (more in the indy pop vein, their "Brainless" 7" from end of last year was wicked)
 
Last edited:
Matson Jones - Cello-driven rock with great female vocalist who sometimes sings in Italian. Their track 'Fuck off new york' got five or six rewinds when i was driving around earlier this week.

http://www.matsonjones.net/

Italian song is probably best of their mp3s up there. You have to buy Rough Trade's Counterculture 2005 to hear the driving, choppy, bass-y "fuck off new york".
 
Last edited:

milkandhoney

Well-known member
WOEBOT said:
So is there anything NME-esque that deserves attention beyond The Arctic Monkeys? Or is it a bit of a desert?

Arcade Fire seem OK-ish? (a bit tentative here) Maybe a little over-wrought, but not bad.

arctic monkeys do NOT deserve attention

anyway yeah, arcade fire are good

other good bands include guillemots and secret machines

dont know about indie so this probably aint very cool at all but i quite like death cab for cutie and modest mouse too
 
Last edited:

dominic

Beast of Burden
i'm not exactly sure what people mean by "indie," so . . . .

bands that i have mentioned here numerous times =

kudu -- nyc
brazilian girls -- nyc -- their new stuff has a lot more edge than first album
ladytron -- liverpool -- hardly unknowns, but i love their stuff so i'll keep endorsing em
---------------------------

bands that i intend to investigate more, though all seem a bit "trad" in one way or another =

the long blondes -- outta sheffield
theo and the skyscrapers -- nyc
pink grease -- sheffield
the twenty-two's -- nyc
jungle junkies -- nyc
dead combo -- nyc
boy from brazil -- berlin
apollo heights -- old stand-bys, but i'll still mention em
the slack republic -- straight outta atlanta, they've been around for a while
tenderhead -- nyc
the human value -- california
chromatics -- seattle
cupids -- san francisco
hey gravity! -- london
jon kennedy -- manchester
-----------------------------------

bands that might be classified as "electroclash" =

electrocute -- los angeles
leslie and the ly's -- boston
the countess and the cunt rock revolution -- london
syrup girls -- nyc
persnickety -- nyc
8-bit -- los angeles
new young pony club -- london
g. rizo -- nyc
---------------------------------------

bands that don't really incite my interest, but kinda like anyway =

the glass -- nyc
death from above 1979 -- montreal -- a bit too gang of 4-ish at this point in the game
antonius block -- brooklyn -- also too obviously (or contrivedly) post-punky at this stage
---------------------------------------------

and last, i'm really loving ariel pink's haunted graffiti -- esp. "i get high in the morning" -- seriously behind the curve on this one -- but i knew w/ simon, k-punk and woebot all heavily behind him, there was no way i was not going to like ariel

and i'm still dragging my feet on checking out wooden wands, devendra banhart, etc -- though i like what i've heard of devendra
 
Last edited:

shudder

Well-known member
i think "indie" seems to mean rather different things in the UK vs. north america... it seems as though here (North America), "indie" refers a little mite bit more to the type of labels, distribution, etc., whereas "indie" in the UK seems to mean a certain kind of guitar rock favoured by nme etc...

anyone round here like Destroyer?
 

Ness Rowlah

Norwegian Wood
Monomen - a bunch of teenage kids from smalltown Norway playing post-postpunk (judged by the demo "Pretty Dirty Houses" they might be on to something and they have signed a deal to a small local label) and I like The Heartless Bastards (US, a bit more trad) - for Erika Wennerstrom's voice and swagger on "Pass and Fail" (free MP3s on both sites).
 

tryptych

waiting for a time
Ness Rowlah said:
Monomen - a bunch of teenage kids from smalltown Norway playing post-postpunk (judged by the demo "Pretty Dirty Houses" they might be on to something and they have signed a deal to a small local label) and I like The Heartless Bastards (US, a bit more trad) - for Erika Wennerstrom's voice and swagger on "Pass and Fail" (free MP3s on both sites).

Quite like that Monomen, but it's very Interpol innit?
 

big satan

HA-DO-KEN!
hail

be your own pet seem like they'll be worth keeping an eye on, other than that, i've no idea. i haven't read the nme in years so i have no idea what they have to say about people like magik markers, lightning bolt, wolf eyes, afri rampo, melt banana, jessica rylan/can't, prurient, comets on fire or oshiri penpenz, who to my mind would be what they would write about if they had any interest in music and/or journalistic integrity.

anyway, clips of be your own pet:

http://www.xlrecordings.com/broadcast/~letsgetsandy/

http://www.xlrecordings.com/broadcast/~damndamnleash/
 
Last edited:

Tim F

Well-known member
I really liked Glass Candy's "Sugar & Whitebread" (abstracted Blondie-meets-ESG shimmering post-punk-disco, basically a femme vox version of "Me & Giuliani Down By The Schoolyard") but then i bought the album by them which preceded it and wasn't terribly impressed.
 

bergholt

New member
Can-Rock?

I've thus far missed The Arctic Monkey bus, but what about these:

Wolf Parade: Apologies To The Queen Mary was one of my top few from last year
The New Pornographers: ... and Twin Cinema was another
Broken Social Scene: You Forgot It In People is a kinda masterpiece

Which all happen to be Canadian. One from the US:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: their self-titled LP is lots of fun

Only heard a couple of tracks from these but they seem pretty great:

The Guillemots
The Isles

As for the over-wrought Arcade Fire - well, yeah, I think that's kinda the point. It's not music for every occasion but it's an enjoyable epic singalong.
 

zhao

there are no accidents
does einsterzende neubauten count? no? didn't think so

smog surely does.

what's blonde redhead up to?
 
Last edited:

Woebot

Well-known member
spackb0y said:
What does "NME-esque" cover?

:eek: dunno! prolly ought to read it ;)

spackb0y said:
From last year, I liked Arcade Fire a lot... can't think of much else that really stood out.

yes been listening to it a fair bit. its grown on me. what i do have with it is a really intensely strong feeling of recognition. like i'm missing some obvious influence. the pixies loom pretty large. but who else? it's one thing in particular (gnashes teeth)
 

tom pr

Well-known member
WOEBOT said:
:eek: dunno! prolly ought to read it ;)



yes been listening to it a fair bit. its grown on me. what i do have with it is a really intensely strong feeling of recognition. like i'm missing some obvious influence. the pixies loom pretty large. but who else? it's one thing in particular (gnashes teeth)
dunno man, i find win butler sounds a lot like david byrne though.

indie types to check out:

saturday looks good to me - charming band - first album all your summer songs was a lot like a weird lo-fi guided by voices/beach boys hybrid, but they really discovered their own sound on every night, which is a beautiful record with a lot of sax and great song-writing. Check out the downloads on the site, especially 'underwater heartbeat' and 'ambulance'. their single 'alcohol' is also excellent.

fiery furnaces - insane band who play really stretched, fucked-up pop music..there's a bit of Who-style proggyness, but the real appeal is in Eleanor's beautiful vocals, and the sheer charm of them. Really prolific band too, they have another three records or so scheduled for this year. their best is Blueberry Boat from 2004, though the album with their grandmother on vox (Rehearsing my choir) was fun in just how surreal it was.

bunky - duo who play super cute indie type music that sometimes gets noisy to the point of a Wolf Eyes or White Mice..check out 'gotta pee' for an example of how heavy they can get, and 'cute not beautiful' for an example of how gorgeous they can be.
 

mms

sometimes
WOEBOT said:
So is there anything NME-esque that deserves attention beyond The Arctic Monkeys? Or is it a bit of a desert?

Arcade Fire seem OK-ish? (a bit tentative here) Maybe a little over-wrought, but not bad.

they don't / it doesn't.

soul jazz tropicalia comp just out you know.
 
predictable Arctic Monkeys hate....

there's too many bands to mention in the short net time I have get me but all you need to know is:

Secret Machines

Buy tickets for the concert at Shepherds Bush for the 4th April. Album's out soon - March something. Thank me later.
 
Top