Indie Rock

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Pibolar

Bluelighter
Joined
Mar 28, 2015
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It seems this genre of music is not favored among most drug users I know. I really enjoy a lot of indie, and emo revival music. I realize the name of the genre itself can put some off. I like a lot of music by acts such as Daughter, Foxing, Tigers Jaw, Milo Greene, and many others in that vein. Of course there are exceptions to this, plenty of users I know love Modest Mouse (I do too). But still it seems very unpopular when compared to electronic, metal, or rock music amongst others.

Am I alone on this one, or what? I was just thinking about this today so I figured I'd ask the community.
 
I think the term "indie rock" means a lot of different things to different people.

I personally think of bands like...i don't know, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement, Dinosaur Junior, the Pixies, the Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Daniel Johnston, Teenage Fanclub and - more generally, bands on independent labels - when i think of 'indie'.
Where "indie rock" starts and "post-punk" finishes, i don't know :)

I certainly love lots of music that would be termed indie rock, but as far as genres go, it's always been a bit of a tough one to pin down, for me.
I think initially it was more about (music) politics and not playing the "trying to be a rich rock star" game, as opposed to aesthetics - but these days it seems like people have narrowed-down an indie sound (or look) - when i always thought it was more about artists having a DIY ethos.
A bit like punk, but without the media hype baggage that idea picked up...

I have to admit though, i'm not really familiar with any of the bands you mention (besides Modest Mouse).

Either way though, i like lots of indie rock!
I'm going to see one of my favourites - Sleater-Kinney - next week, which i'm excited about.
 
Sleater Kinney are playing in Perth, Western Australia, as part of the International Arts festival.

Teenage Fanclub are incredible, i love their records. I would have loved to have seen them in the early 90s.
 
spacejunk said:
I certainly love lots of music that would be termed indie rock, but as far as genres go, it's always been a bit of a tough one to pin down, for me.
I think initially it was more about (music) politics and not playing the "trying to be a rich rock star" game, as opposed to aesthetics - but these days it seems like people have narrowed-down an indie sound (or look) - when i always thought it was more about artists having a DIY ethos.
A bit like punk, but without the media hype baggage that idea picked up...
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Yeah, I see what you're saying and definitely agree with you. With time and exposure, the term has been watered down, as is what happens with almost anything in this culture.
The Pixies are great, and I believe I've heard of Sleater-Kinney, but have never heard any of their music.
 
The Pixies are great :)
Sleater-Kinney kind of emerged from the whole Pacific Northwest "Riot Grrrl" scene. Check em out, they're pretty great. I went to one of their shows before they broke up (in about 2005 or 06 i think) - and they've fairly recently reformed.

maybe if people throw some names around, or link some youtube videos, we can better understand what indie rock means to different people?
 
Not familiar with most of the bands OP listed apart from Sleater-Kinney, Modest Mouse (though I've only heard their one perhaps two singles that went to radio whenever that was) and of course the Pixies

Spacejunk's list is right up my alley as we've discussed elsewhere, as proto/pre/post-punk (which labels have a surprising way of overlapping despite seeming like antonyms) ... but "indie" seems less a genre than a market category or perhaps at it's most grandiose a sort of ideology (the punk "DIY ethos"), musically I don't think there is much to link a lot of the bands that get called "indie."

One name that comes to my mind with the term, however, is The New Pornographers, self-styled "indie rock super group," or at least so called by David Letterman who is a big booster of theirs ... they are themselves pretty stylistically diverse, definitely usually within the constraints of pop songs usually fairly rockist in flavor but sometimes more or less experimental. This is a catchy anthem and an amusing video which plays with the concepts of indie-ness and 'selling out' ...they have a lot of interesting and weird videos, too.

Random songs of theirs that I like somewhat selected for stylistic diversity:

Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk

Champions of Red Wine
My Slow Descent into Alcoholism

Much of my love for them is a love (not to say a crush) on Neko Case.

Kathryn Calder*, the other female vocalist, is also lovely and interesting, but genre wise to me seems more "singer/songwriter" but I guess she gets also classed as "indie," though clearly not "rock"



Who I also find incredibly fetching ...

(^ linkis to another fun New Pornographers song and video, Dancehall Domine)

But yeah, I am not so sure that "indie" is a useful categorical term as a genre anyway... "emo revival" I'm not sure exactly what that is but I take it to mean a revival of "emotional hardcore" as it existed before mySpace? (I'm being facetious ,of course, but you know what I mean)
 
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spacejunk said:
Sleater Kinney are playing in Perth, Western Australia, as part of the International Arts festival.
Click to expand...
that's so great. look forward to a report
spacejunk said:
Teenage Fanclub are incredible, i love their records. I would have loved to have seen them in the early 90s.
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yep. i've seen them live a few times, including back to back nights in san francisco in 2001-ish.

bandwagonesque is a top 10 cd for me. but my favourite tracks are 'don't look back' (grand prix) and 'radio' (thirteen).

can i assume that you're a fan of big star?

alasdair
 
spacejunk said:
maybe if people throw some names around, or link some youtube videos, we can better understand what indie rock means to different people?
Click to expand...

Word. Honestly Indie Rock can, in my opinion, contain a multitude of genres, I've heard many very different music groups that could be labelled "indie".
Anyway, here's a song by Daughter, one of the bands I mentioned previously. Probably their most popular song



There are a LOT of other bands I could categorize as "indie" that sound totally different. I'll post some more later

Also, I'll be sure to check out Sleater-Kinney. I just read a bit about them.

SKL said:
But yeah, I am not so sure that "indie" is a useful categorical term as a genre anyway... "emo revival" I'm not sure exactly what that is but I take it to mean a revival of "emotional hardcore" as it existed before mySpace? (I'm being facetious ,of course, but you know what I mean)
Click to expand...

As far as "emo revival", I am not referring to the hardcore days of myspace. Foxing, another band I mentioned earlier, could be labelled as "emo". As far as I know, the genre kind of faded out of existence, but there are a lot of modern acts bringing back the sound captured by earlier groups.
Anyway, here's The Medic by Foxing. My favorite song of theirs.

 
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spacejunk said:
I think the term "indie rock" means a lot of different things to different people. I personally think of bands like...i don't know, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Pavement, Dinosaur Junior, the Pixies, the Smiths, Hüsker Dü, Daniel Johnston, Teenage Fanclub and - more generally, bands on independent labels - when i think of 'indie'. Where "indie rock" starts and "post-punk" finishes, i don't know :) I certainly love lots of music that would be termed indie rock, but as far as genres go, it's always been a bit of a tough one to pin down, for me. I think initially it was more about (music) politics and not playing the "trying to be a rich rock star" game, as opposed to aesthetics - but these days it seems like people have narrowed-down an indie sound (or look) - when i always thought it was more about artists having a DIY ethos. A bit like punk, but without the media hype baggage that idea picked up... The Pixies and The Breeders. Francis and Deal make up. I have to admit though, i'm not really familiar with any of the bands you mention (besides Modest Mouse). Either way though, i like lots of indie rock! I'm going to see one of my favourites - Sleater-Kinney - next week, which i'm excited about.
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I hope Black Francis and Kim Deal make up.
 
Here are a couple more I'm really digging right now.



^Really enjoying this whole album really.

 
Bright Eyes and The Shins are two bands I enjoy the entirety of their catalogs.. All good stuff. Also Conor Oberst (of bright eyes ) has some really great solo stuff.
Broken Bells, which is the frontman of the shins and danger mouse together is also a great shins side project.
 
Laika said:
Bright Eyes and The Shins are two bands I enjoy the entirety of their catalogs.. All good stuff. Also Conor Oberst (of bright eyes ) has some really great solo stuff.
Broken Bells, which is the frontman of the shins and danger mouse together is also a great shins side project.
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Oh yeah, both great bands. I've been completely immersed in Bright Eyes' discography recently, it's so consistently good. I'm sure I've heard some of Conor's solo stuff at some point, such a talented individual. I'll be sure to check out Broken Bells too.
 
The Shins are great.

I'm a big fan of Of Montreal. I think they surely deserve a mention.
Has anyone said Yo La Tengo?
 
I was always trying to turn people onto indie rock. Radial Spangle and Afghan Whigs were my first indie bands and that opened up all these doors. The epitome of cool as a teen was sonic youth, the melvins and nick cave as well as names already mentioned. Then later a lot of that pinback, three mile pilot, broken social scene, cap'n jazz, halo benders, built to spill type stuff. Since I turned thirty I stopped exploring and staying up to date with the edgy stuff. I still want music I can feel viscerally and give two fucks about hi-ifi polished productions. Still get a kick revisiting the classics. I also listen to NPR a lot instead of music now. Guess that's what happens.
 
Oh man, of montreal are the greatest.
I saw them a few years ago, and their live shows are like full theatre pieces. Muscle men, fake priests, crazy gymnastics, sgt pepper-magical mystery tour esque costumes...and their songs are just divine.
Love their records.
They have this amazing sort of electro take on indie pop, with lyrics that are often really dark with synth pop musical accompaniment.
And great song titles!
[video=youtube_share;5VeIL7juFE0]http://youtu.be/5VeIL7juFE0
[/video]

One of of montreal's more famous stunts was the singer/songwriter kevin barnes riding into a show on the back of a white horse in new york city.
That gig is here on youtube :)
[video=youtube_share;sTDWSxTk6UI]http://youtu.be/sTDWSxTk6UI[/video]
Amazing performers, and nice people too.
 
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spacejunk said:
One of of montreal's more famous stunts was the singer/songwriter kevin barnes riding into a show on the back of a white horse in new york city.
That gig is here on youtube :)
[video=youtube_share;sTDWSxTk6UI]http://youtu.be/sTDWSxTk6UI[/video]
Amazing performers, and nice people too.
Click to expand...

Haha, dude. Fuckin' word! I love when musicians incorporate interesting "acts" in their live performances, I think it's really creative, plus it gives the audience what they paid for. That's really cool. I love art.

I'm watching that video now, I'm very intrigued. I'll be giving there studio music a listen later.
 
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