OPO: Indie rock album from the 2000s

or possibly:

Fetch The Water! The Fire Is Too Bright! - The Queensberry Rules

(If only for the single "The Shovel Reacts To The Sand As The Shiv Descends Into Flesh")

http://www.getthatsound.com/General%20Assets/Images/Is-This-It-LP.jpg

Sufjan Stevens _Illinois_,
or
The Elms, _The Chess Hotel_.

I'm still trying to figure it out. Stevens is a hero for
demonstrating to his hip audience that prog is much more
than inflatable animals and mad caped organ players.

But the Elms could single-handedly bring the kickass guitar
solo back into indie rock. It's so hard to pick.

and I think I actually might have to pick Source Tags & Codes. every time I put that record on I expect to find that it's aged horribly, and every time I find myself completely captivated.

This is it, but only a few people realize it so far.

The Shins are more rock than many indie-pop bands. But I think indie-pop is just more specific in this case.

And I don't know about Chutes vs. OIW. I go back and forth. I certainly don't think Chutes mops the floor with it though. It definitely doesn't sound as unique. But it is more varied. But OIW has some great songs. But so does Chutes. I don't know.

If I had to OPO song, it would Mirah's "Cold Cold Water."

In terms of mainstream UK indie Is This It and Up The are undoubtedly the cornerstones, much as Definitely Maybe was in the 90s. But little of the music they've inspired will last, while LWB's cult can only grow.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000CBLAY.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_V1116035921_.jpg

is the top rated album of the decade so far:

http://rateyourmusic.com/top_albums/b1_is_2000_and_b2_is_2006

http://rateyourmusic.com/album_images/s2602.jpg

Not a great decade, really, for indie rock overall.

in what universe is Stevens prog - there's nothing more complex than a maj9 chord in his whole oeuvre

that's just off the top of my head.

His time signatures (11/8!) can be rather proggish.

and in what universe is Stevens indie rock?!

1. shiny tops and soda pops, when I hear your lips make a sound
2. I said 39 times that I love you, to the beauty I had found
3. have a doctor come and visit us, and tell us which one is sane
4. She says "come and kiss me by the riverside, bobby says it's fine, he don't consider it cheating"
5. Your mouth said this never, but your fingers have shown me
6. you might have to think of how you got started, sitting in your little room
7. who likes to smoke, enjoys a joke, and wouldn't get a bit upset, if he were really broke
8. I hope you know a strong man, who can lend you a hand, lowering my casket
9. and when I wake tomorrow I'll bet, that you and I will walk together again

the one where he puts out records on a label called "Asthmatic Kitty"

perfected what I think of as "indie rock"

I think White Blood Cells is a good call. That said, I haven't heard nearly as many bands rip off the Stripes as much as the Strokes. But WBC was the better record then and it still stands up as so.

This thread has got me listening to Life Without Buildings again and WOW! If only more people could hear this wonderful album! I love it even more now I noticed the Robert Wyatt reference in The Leanover ("I love you mostly late at night")

I was thinking Funeral but WBC is just more indicative of the decade so far.

Deerhoof Reveille
-- Steve Shasta (steveshast...), Saturday 11:44 AM.

(arguably not really "indie rock" though, but hell it came out on sub pop!)

Rank Strangers - I Only Fear That We Are Modern

For modern stuff that compares, "White Blood Cells" is the best call so far. That and/or "Illinois".

The Arcade Fire's "Funeral" joins 'em at the head of the class. These'll be as significant to literate & sensitive white thirty-somethings circa 2020 as "S&E" is now.

The way this question is defined, breaking at 2000, seems to exclude the first few Belle and Sebastian records. But fuck it. They belong on this list. "The Boy With the Arab Strap" and "Tigermilk" will be remembered at least as fondly as "Let It Be".

Whatever you think of it, "Lift Your Skinny Fists to Heaven" is gonna seem even MORE important to an only slightly smaller group of people. Another real milestone album.

The Shins' are pleasant enough, but their records just doesn't have any kind of groudbreaking, scene-creating, finger-flipping oomph behind 'em. "Oh, Inverted World" isn't a generational call to arms. It's ust another fucking swell rock 'n' roll record. Same goes for Spoon.

"Neon Golden" is lovely, and has a few great songs, but is more a historical footnote than an epochal standard-bearer. Same goes for whichever Firey Furnaces record you happen to prefer.

All that goes doubly for "Reveille", though it's better and more interesting than most of the competition.

"Life Without Buildings" are better than the post-post-punk (P3?) competition, but come on -- that ain't saying much.

Hell, Interpol and Death Cab are the invisible elephants in this room. "Transatlanticsm" and "Turn On the Bright Lights" are more heard, more loved and more influential than most of the albums being mooted. I hate 'em, and they're nothing new, but whatever...

"Is This It?" ain't indie in this or any other universe. Nor is "Source Tags & Codes". Or whatever the fuck Wilco's up to...

P.S. - The Dresden Dolls debut will be held to more tightly and remembered more fondly than most of the old-guy "indierock" being discussed here.

Interpol has been mentioned twice.

now that we are in '11 what would it be ?

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned.

― Toad Roundgrin (noodle vague), Sunday, July 2, 2006 6:04 AM (4 years ago)

feelin' this, but that album sure as shit ain't "indie rock"

Merriweather Post Pavillion

It's still Life Without Buildings.

someone said Funeral upthread, and that also kinda makes sense imo

i really love the first okkervil river album

i think if i could only have one indie cd from the 00s that wld be it

Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
― Brock! (Brock!), Saturday, July 1, 2006 12:08 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark

but for real prob Funeral

do the Black Angels count? if so, Directions to See a Ghost.

It's still Life Without Buildings.

Sin Ropas - Trickboxes on the Pony Line

..short revive

For me, the Human Television - All Songs Written By EP... it's as good as any of the classic 90s EPs (Water Domestic, vs. The Greatest of All Time, A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns, et al)

Funeral or Turn on the Bright Lights

silent alarm

Black Sheep Boy

broom by someone still loves you boris yeltsin

or spirit they've gone, spirit they've vanished by avey tare and panda bear

http://p.playme.com/cspv/21-59-64-00-00-MetaPreview-Cover-JPEG256x256/franz-ferdinand/franz-ferdinand.jpg?ts=1264608226

Still this i'm afraid for me, nothing else came close.

I don't really like indie rock, so I'm just going to be boring and say In Rainbows.

the M0unta1n G0ats - we sh4ll all be he4led

Meadowlands, White Blood Cells and Hissing Fauna are all in the running but for me The Glands stands the tallest:

http://www.epitonic.com/art/artists/theglands/theglands_cover250.jpg

Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

Battles – Mirrored, no diggidy, no doubt.

If that doesn't count as "trad indie" then: Low – Things We Lost In The Fire

los campesinos - hold on now youngster

The 2000s were the first decade where I was paying attention to music the entire time...and nothing mentioned above sound right. (not criticizing...I don't have a better suggestion either!). Which kind of makes me realize that Slanted & Enchanted and Let it Be probably don't mean a thing to 95% of people either.

something from Neil Michael Hagerty or Howling Hex

meadowlands was first that came to mind, but i wanna hear the glands now!

I would pick Bang Bang Rock 'n' Rock & Roll by Art Brut. The Tyranny of Distance by Ted Leo would be a close second.

Silkworm - Lifestyle

i was looking at my picks at the top of this thread and thinking what the hell are those???? then i remembered that i had made them up.

Deerhoof - Milk Man

this is probably my real answer. aand i'm actually playing it right now!

http://www.kemado.com/shop/images/197/4964-the-incomplete-triangle.jpg

Offhand, I'd probably say either The Real New Fall Lp or Each One Teach One (w maybe Internal Wrangler as a dark horse) but out of the mainstays I could probably throw my weight behind Hissing Fauna...

Thread makes me wanna check out Deerhoof and LW/oB

Broken Social Scene - You forgot it in people

Slanted & Enchanted and Let it Be probably don't mean a thing to 95% of people either. Then 95% of the people have crappy music taste son.

meadowlands was first that came to mind, but i wanna hear the glands now!

You are in for a treat my musical friend. Below is a highlight, Swim. It gets going at :45, after a long intro. I'll post more in a sec...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn-Ip7HwWLE

Here's another highlight, Lovetown. THe whole record is phenomenal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU9GJDqMqTI&feature=related

kornrulez! so far listened to "swim". puts me in the mind of a few bands i like/love - apples, shins, wrens, without sounding derivative. i hate trying to form musical opinion from computer listening (even with good headphones), but now i want to find a hard copy for full bitrate pleasure. hanx! for the links, eh

the fall is not "indie" imo (but that album rules), also oneida is psych/freak to me

for me: The Tyranny Of Distance by Ted Leo/Pharmacists

los campesinos - hold on now youngster

― bort, Saturday, January 29, 2011 11:01 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

^this was my #2

the fall is not "indie" imo (but that album rules), also oneida is psych/freak to me

I kind of figured I was going to run into that; I guess just don't know what indie is? I always thought of it as what postpunk morphed into when its bands started reverting back to the values & priorities of 60s countercultural music...?

saying something is not indie because it's actually "psych/freak" is such an absurd degree of hairsplitting

aren't the fall "indie rock" by definition?

I get what m@tt's saying, but I think The Fall went from "indie heroes" to "indie bands" at one of two points: 1) when they started charting shitty covers, or 2) when they signed to Matador...

I think M@tt's doing God's work by keeping The Fall & Oneida--two v cool bands--out of the whole morass of Vampire Weekend/Fleet Foxes/Arcade Fire/LCD bullshit. I should probably show my appreciation by keeping out of this thread.

heaven forbid that two rock bands that release albums on indie labels be lumped under the same wide umbrella as other rock bands that release albums on indie labels

i would like to say this is 'silent alarm' but realistically its probably that one rapture album or franz ferdinand 1

saying something is not indie because it's actually "psych/freak" is such an absurd degree of hairsplitting

not at all-- there's a massive quotient of stuff that falls squarely into psych/freak/drone/weird/free/etc. and has nothing to do with "indie rock"

the fall are more independant than any tinny trebly daft guitar band with nice haircuts

except how it's rock music released on an indie label

see, but it's not really "rock music" oftentimes

played with guitars ≠ rock music

oh

:x

surprised no one's mention yeah yeah yeahs itt

mentioned* ughhh

the fall formed in 1976! there wasn't even "indie" music then!

psych/freak is different! i don't think it's a stretch to say that oneida is coming at thing from a fundamentally different space than ted leo or the wrens or yeah yeah yeahs

like mark e. smith would probably knife you if you played him an "indie rock" record

the answer is obviously blueberry boat cmon now

honestly dude i just assumed you popped up in this thread to say blur

think tank was not indie rock and was quite bad

fiery furnaces are another band I've been wanting badly to get into...

haha wait did blur actually put out an album in the 00s, what a horribly researched joke i made

lol

am going with an aesthetic interpretation of 'indie rock' rather than a pragmatic one, otherwise there's a few bands (the fall, sfa etc) who'd be knocking on this particular door

btw lapsus linguae 'you got me fraiche' is my *actual* answer but none of you will ever hear it so there's no point -_-

unwound - leaves turn inside you

Thinking the answer may be Oneida - The Wedding or Electrelane - No Shouts No Calls, though already a whole lot of honourable mentions are running through my mind.

The narrowing of "indie" to mean the tamest, tinniest Pitchfork pick drives me mad, but then maybe I never really got what "indie" meant cz I was so obsessed with my own indie-ness a decade ago that I got used to figuring everything I liked was indie (this is not something to be proud of, certainly not on ILX, but it's pretty much true)

i wrote a rave fiery furnaces review once. true story!

http://www.villagevoice.com/2006-05-09/music/dream-theater/#

http://www.adistortedreality.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/lcwabwad.jpg

great write-up skot! and hints at what I think is a common occurrence in threads like these (and in the larger world)--a tendency to conflate "indie" with "MOR"

i'm shocked, just shocked that there's painful hairsplitting going on in here

no nerve endings in hairs fyi

howling hex - xi. that lansing-dreiden album is awesome. is "post-rock" indie rock??? sometimes?

maybe you just have to be young and earnest to make an indie rock album

still haven't heard the first lansing-dreisden album but the second one is brilliant

lansing-dreiden even ffs

i've been listening to the first lansing-dreiden all week. so great. still. forever.

psych/freak is different! i don't think it's a stretch to say that oneida is coming at thing from a fundamentally different space than ted leo or the wrens or yeah yeah yeahs

― smang a goon (get it on) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, January 29, 2011 3:01 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i don't see how psych/freak is separate from indie rock rather than a subset of it any more than dance punk or power pop or whatever. every indie band can be described more specifically as some specific subgenre like that, doesn't make them any less an 'indie' band.

the fall is not "indie" imo (but that album rules), also oneida is psych/freak to me

― smang a goon (get it on) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:34 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

don't buy it. in my mind, US indie = american post punk (and more often, post hardcore) that came out of a college radio/"corporate rock suck" culture in the early-to-mid 80s. forerunners & inspiration = jonathan richman & the beserkley/bomp crew, no wave, UK acts like the fall and wire, 70s fringe & proto-punk acts like the stooges, the velvet underground and pere ubu.

ground zero indie in the american 1980s = mission of burma, the feelies, the replacements, sonic youth, the smiths, savage republic, the pixies, dinosaur jr/sebadoh, meat puppets, flaming lips, camper van beethoven, beat happening, the pastels, throwing muses, etc. those acts more-or-less square with a contemporary conception of the genre, but it's important to remember that beside them, 80s independent rock included harsh "pigfuck" noise (pussy galore, swans, big black, the butthole surfers), the fuzzed out heavy rock that labels like amphetamine reptile and sub pop specialized in (halo of flies, mudhoney), and also certain punk & hc bands, especially those experimenting with the formal/aesthetic parameters of their genre (husker du, flipper, no means no, the minutemen). not saying all of these should be classed only or primarily as "indie rock," but they collectively defined american indie culture in its infancy.

similarly, when we lock back at 90s indie, we tend to focus on the artists that anticipated today's "NPR indie": pavement, guided by voices, cat power, built to spill, neutral milk hotel, liz phair, tortoise, beck, etc. that's fine, but we sometimes forget that bands like royal trux, charalambides, spacemen 3, the dead c, bikini kill, the jesus lizard, drive like jehu, earth, babes in toyland and the melvins comfortably camped under the indie/alt umbrella with them.

in that sense, i'm totally on board with treating both oneida and 00s-era fall as contemporary indie bands. the former are heir to and the latter a father of the genre as it was initially constructed and long existed.

mine might be oneida's rated O.

by year:

2000: the white stripes - de stijl
2001: dirtbombs - ultraglide in black
2002: sunnO))) - flight of the behemoth
2003: quintron - are you ready for an organ solo?
2004: black dice - creature comforts
2005: deerhoof - the runners four
2006: the gossip - standing in the way of control
2007: blues control - puff
2008: the rebel - northern rocks bear weird vegetable
2009: oneida - rated O
2010: sun city girls - funeral mariachi

^^^ methodology there was more intuitive-idiotic than considered or authoritative. like for instance i forgot electrelane - the power out, and that could easily go to to toe with (and let's face it, probably take) creature comforts. depends on the weather.

I definitely kind of feel that SST '84 is indie's ground zero

(but I wasn't around back then, so...)

oh man playing 2nd lansing-dreiden now. i think they are actually the ONLY indie rock albums i need from the 2000's.

as far as the 2000s decade goes my pyramid of greatness would start at the top with metal, then rap, then yer basic beyonce-style r&b/pop, then kompakt records (thanks, ilm!), then the two lansing-dreiden albums. then i'm done.

(for real, probably played/play kompakt total comps, etc more than anything else from the decade. still do. at least once a week. and all of mine are old cuz i stopped buying them like 4 or 5 years ago. but i really should buy some of the more recent stuff. i'm sure its all good.)

i mean i'm sure i've played immer more than a hundred times since i bought it. and there are very few albums from that time-period that i can say that about.

oh man playing 2nd lansing-dreiden now. i think they are actually the ONLY indie rock albums i need from the 2000's.

I have been and am doing this too!!!!! Album gets better with every listen. Need the first one. But wow, this is astoundingly good. I think its genius is that it doesn't have to explain anything.

This is a very uncool answer, but I'd probably say Destroyer's Rubies.

If I am only picking one:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RN-08AGrL._SS400_.jpg
Mclusky - Mclusky Do Dallas

Honorable mentions loosely ordered from my favorite on down:

The Sounds - Living in America
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Cursive - The Ugly Organ
TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
The Paper Chase - God Bless Your Black Heart
The Mooney Suzuki - Electric Sweat
Helios Creed - On the Dark Side of the Sun

I am sure I forgot many.

2000: the white stripes - de stijl
2001: dirtbombs - ultraglide in black
2002: sunnO))) - flight of the behemoth
2003: quintron - are you ready for an organ solo?
2004: black dice - creature comforts
2005: deerhoof - the runners four
2006: the gossip - standing in the way of control
2007: blues control - puff
2008: the rebel - northern rocks bear weird vegetable
2009: oneida - rated O
2010: sun city girls - funeral mariachi

none of these are even remotely close to indie rock! i agree w/ some of yr analysis about "ground zero" for indie in the 80s etc. but once we start talking big black and swans i think that's where i'd begin to diverge. this is pick yr favorite "indie rock album" -- not "rock album on an independent label" -- there's a big difference if we're talking "indie rock" as a genre to basically describe indie albums with rock instrumentation that don't fall under any other umbrella..

now, NYCNative's list -- that indie rock :)

I know I like a lot of stuff that ILXORs collectively dislike...

hey man upping a Helios Creed album = infinite ILX cred

What would be the definition of "indie rock" (ca. 2000s) that would exclude Dirtbombs/Quintron/Black Dice/Deerhoof/Gossip?

Oh, sorry, you meant the ones in bold type.

you should still argue about black dice tho

Right. Not sure why Quintron would be yes, Black Dice no.

What would be the definition of "indie rock" (ca. 2000s) that would exclude Dirtbombs/Quintron/Black Dice/Deerhoof/Gossip?

notice i was referring to the bolded bands only -- sunnO))), blues control, etc. --and that none of those you mentioned were bolded, except black dice, who are not indie rock so much as electronic/noise/experimental.

Oh, sorry, you meant the ones in bold type.

whoops just saw this; sorry! :)

Right. Not sure why Quintron would be yes, Black Dice no.

because i haven't heard quintron so can't really answer for them. if they are anything like black dice, they are a "no"

I just try to ignore band comparisons by categorization (death by association). Normally you would never see me mention EMO having started in the 90's. No one needs to know that, or remember that. And if someone wants to call Oneida psych/freak and leave off /indie, good for them

moving on

There was a point in the '90s, though, where I wouldn't have expected anyone to make the distinction that, say, Trumans Water were indie rock but Nautical Almanac (more of a precursor to Black Dice) were not.

And even by '04, I'd think Creature Comforts would have been a featured review on Pitchfork, probably, right? (And that was early DFA, where they were labelmates with the Rapture.)

wow remember the rapture! i remember them.

in the 90s everyone was indie trans am boredoms pavement whatevs

*moves to portland*

pretty much the only indie rock i still own from the 90's is trans am boredoms pavement!

and sea and cake. kept a couple sea and cake albums.

royal trux

never owned any royal trux. my brother liked them.

thats surprising

i liked pussy galore. i bought boss hog records for the covers. never really played them though.

oh and i started in on the blues explosion. got the first records and singles up until orange. sold them all.

i get a really grizzled wild west 'that's when men were men and women were women' feeling about 90s indie compared to 00s indie.

in the 90s everyone was indie trans am boredoms pavement whatevs

― ice cr?m, Saturday, January 29, 2011 7:54 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yeah the effort to move away from this is presumably borne from the fact that some 2000s indie was irredeemably dorky but it should remain the case imo

indie today is so conservate and wimpy!

incorrect but relevant: http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/114581-how-the-decemberists-ruined-indie-rock/

not that you demands royal trux lessons scott but imo royal trux are p different/better than those jon spencer bands

Two of my favorites appeared at the very dawn of the decade:

Primal Scream - XTRMNTR &
Yo La Tengo - And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Overall, tho, I might have to go w/ this:

http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/t/the-clientele/album-the-violet-hour.jpg

out of the bands that are 2000s bands rather than people i was into in the 90s who just kept putting out records the only indie i really vibed to this decade is corny lolstreamer shit strokes/shins/vampy weekend - theres prob exceptions but i cant recall them atm

oh i like tv on the radio, theyre p fierce imo

yesterday's indie : today's indie :: punk : blink 182

today's indie that sounds kind of like pop meets psych, trance, or folk has also been wussified

and if the today's indie vocalists aren't nasaly, emo and/or camp then they are out to find new ways to disgrace the beach boys

and don't get me started on the folk-rock indie

I have never hated a decade of music as much as the 2000's and I don't even listen to the radio

so much great music in the 2000's. an embarrassment of riches. just like every other decade.

yeah the effort to move away from this is presumably borne from the fact that some 2000s indie was irredeemably dorky but it should remain the case imo

― call all destroyer,

if everything stays arcade fire, deerhunter, the decemberists, toro y moi, animal collective, caribou... I'll probably be dead by the end of this decade

so much great music in the 2000's. <--- biggest overstatement in the world

expand yer horizons

we'll miss u capt

so much great music in the 2000's. an embarrassment of riches. just like every other decade.

― scott seward, Saturday, January 29, 2011 8:46 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

yep

expand yer horizons

― scott seward,

you don't think I try? it pains me to try but I try

the pains of being lorax at heart

if you are even a LITTLE bit open to new rap, noise, metal, dance, drone, psych, electronic, r&b, pop, country, and/or latin sounds then you should be able to find endless hours of goodness recorded over the last decade. and it continues on to this very day. and even good indie rock if you know where to look. i don't look that hard for it, but i'll bet i could find all kinds of stuff if i tried.

and jazz too probably. and modern classical. the world is vast.

you wouldn't understand.

okay then nevermind

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/89/245063794_5ab866053b.jpg

(Linkin Park sucks too)

Really? Nobody has mentioned Acre Thrills yet? Basically the album that takes indie as far as it can go, right at the start of the decade.

[ good indie ][sucky indie]
[yer horizons]

vs.

[ good indie ][sucky indie]
[______yer horizons_______]

give us your top 10 of the decade, cap'n. tell us what you liked!

Simon Bookish - Everything/Everything, though not sure if it counts as "indie rock."

none of these are even remotely close to indie rock! i agree w/ some of yr analysis about "ground zero" for indie in the 80s etc. but once we start talking big black and swans i think that's where i'd begin to diverge. this is pick yr favorite "indie rock album" -- not "rock album on an independent label" -- there's a big difference if we're talking "indie rock" as a genre to basically describe indie albums with rock instrumentation that don't fall under any other umbrella.

― the new mordant & zingy ilxor persona (ilxor), Saturday, January 29, 2011 4:00 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

gonna beg to differ, bob. i'm about the big tent, fuck indie as a formal genre. if it's music in a rock format in any conceivable sense and occurs on an indie label, i'm probably gonna call it "indie rock," and you should too. i personally draw a weird distinction between "proper metal" and indie, dunno why, but i'm right and that's all you need to know. certain other genres, too, like goth and industrial. if nipple clamps are visible through torn fishnets, it probably isn't indie rock (rule of thumb).

There was a point in the '90s, though, where I wouldn't have expected anyone to make the distinction that, say, Trumans Water were indie rock but Nautical Almanac (more of a precursor to Black Dice) were not.

― timellison, Saturday, January 29, 2011 4:39 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, that's ridiculous. both obviously are/were indie rock. black dice, too. not like whitehouse though. all that UK transgression-as-art shit from throbbing gristle & nurse with wound on = it's own thing. arguably swans go in there too, but only if your argument is wrong.

indie rock is sebadoh and pavement and that is all fyi

I've never understood the mentality behind being disappointed with all the music you're hearing. If you don't like what you're hearing, find different things to listen to.

Lorax, you're too passive my man.

I have never hated a decade of music as much as the 2000's and I don't even listen to the radio

A lot of the best music of the 00s WAS on the radio, no shit. A lot of the rest of the best music of the 00s was so low profile, nobody ever talked about it.

another launching pad for the dilettante cru

I think the people who would qualify for a dilettante cru around here are so dilettante-ish that there would never be much agreement on anything.

That's part of the fun, no?

Yeah. I'm in.

There's still a lot of music I need to hear and yes I do look for and experiment with new music somewhat regularly. Here is my notables of this decade:

Death in June - 'All Pigs Must Die'
Jim O'Rourke - 'Insignificance'
Archer Prewitt - 'Three'
Jim Guthrie - 'Now, More Than Ever'
Arizona Amp and Alternator - self-titled
The Sea and Cake - 'Glass' EP
Robert Wyatt - 'Cuckooland'
Motorpsycho - 'Black Hole/Blank Canvas'
Radiohead - 'Amnesiac'
Tortoise - 'It's All Around You'
John Shough - 'Ultra Vega'

^all of these contains songs that I could edit out (including a whole LP worth of songs from the 2LP Motorpsycho album)

I like King Creosote a lot but he is so damn spotty that I couldn't include any of his albums. However I could easily make a whole LP of great songs using only his 2000-2009 material.

I definitely kind of feel that SST '84 is indie's ground zero

― lol at the witch trials (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, January 29, 2011 3:30 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

yeah, this shit OTDAM. mid 80s SST with like minutemen, meat pups, huskers. plus homestead recs, founded in 84 coincidentally, w/ like bigs black and dipper, sonic youth, squirrel bait, swans + overseas stuff like verlaines, tall dwarfs, pastels. plus touch & go beginning to outgrow HC and releasing weird ass shit like the butthole surfers (psychic...powerless in 84, too). plus mainstreaming of college rock via critics gooing over R.E.M. and "the athens scene" in 83. and a couple years later, in '86, MTV started running 120 minutes, which introduced a lot of people to the idea of secret cool rock hidden from unprying eyes.

Even in a thread like this, where people are familiar with most things, your list of faves is still a little off the beaten path. I guess I'm wondering...if you're finding and liking those, then you must surely be finding and liking more things and, ergo, the 00s weren't a complete wash.

If my list is off the beaten path of indie then surely I've been and searched the main path as well

ergo, the 00s were almost a complete wash

^you know actually bringing up REM makes me think that I might be wrong...a LOT of what scans as indie these days comes pretty straight from the Paisley Underground & Southern jangle scene, neither of which had anything to do really with hardcore or postpunk stuff, except that the college audiences that loved this stuff (Dream Syndicate, dBs, Thin White Rope, Three O'Clock) were there to embrace the postpunk-indie stuff as it turned its back on hardcore's strict 'three-chords + aggression' recipe

I'd be willing to be that 0.000001% of people under the age of 24 know who the Three O'Clock is.

I prefer my southern jangle to be more alternative than punk

(btw lol ice cr?m & skot I just got a bunch of Boredoms and Trans Am albums not too long ago, haven't listened to those either (along with Brainiac & Melt Banana & a Space Streakings album))

I'm pretty sure that both of those last posts missed my point...? Just saying that a) stuff like E6, Belle and Sebastian, & P4k pop nowadays prolley has more in common w/ 3 O'Clock than with Black Flag or Sonic Youth, & b) most of the Southern jangle stuff IS alternative, but its the dB & REM fans that hardcore bands turned to when they got sick of punk fans imposing the "3 chords or gtfo" dogma on them; see Meat Puppets, Replacements, hell even SY and the Buttholes to my understanding got a collegiate following...

add Husker to the b) point up there...

trans am is rad

Yeah, that makes total sense. I'm just saying that the connection to 2011 music is more zig-zag than direct.

For music hobbyists I'm sure it's fun to point out individual zigs and zags

2000: The Delgados - The Great Eastern
2001: Elbow - Asleep in the Back
2002: Bright Eyes - Lifted or the Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
2003: Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co.
2004: Arcade Fire - Funeral
2005: Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
2006: The Knife - Silent Shout
2007: of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
2008: My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges (though i still think Third is better, that doesn't feel indie to me...more 90's)
2009: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca

Kid A really is the winner for 2000 but didn't include it as it came out on Capital Records.

Radiohead have never been an indie band.

Forgot this one:

http://www2.mediafire.com/imgbnc.php/7615979618d51b7657884667beb52d903g.jpg

What a great, great band Party Of Helicopters was.

Death in June - 'All Pigs Must Die'
Jim O'Rourke - 'Insignificance'
Archer Prewitt - 'Three'
Jim Guthrie - 'Now, More Than Ever'
Arizona Amp and Alternator - self-titled
The Sea and Cake - 'Glass' EP
Robert Wyatt - 'Cuckooland'
Motorpsycho - 'Black Hole/Blank Canvas'
Radiohead - 'Amnesiac'
Tortoise - 'It's All Around You'
John Shough - 'Ultra Vega'

okay so basically yr favorite records OF THE LAST DECADE include radiohead's worst album since pablo honey, tortoise's worst album period, and jim o'rourke's record as a singer/songwriter with a full-fledged band (aka, at his most boring)??

props on the robert wyatt record, that one's awesome, though

saying something is not indie because it's actually "psych/freak" is such an absurd degree of hairsplitting

― based god on a true based god story based god (some dude), Saturday, January 29, 2011 12:53 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

true, i mean i can't really even tell which one of these is ted leo and which is oneida

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ti8Y9I9gHR0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VoJNYppNlzU&feature=related

Mclusky Do Dallas ftw.

yah that & unwound are the best not-my choices so far

^you know actually bringing up REM makes me think that I might be wrong...a LOT of what scans as indie these days comes pretty straight from the Paisley Underground & Southern jangle scene, neither of which had anything to do really with hardcore or postpunk stuff, except that the college audiences that loved this stuff (Dream Syndicate, dBs, Thin White Rope, Three O'Clock) were there to embrace the postpunk-indie stuff as it turned its back on hardcore's strict 'three-chords + aggression' recipe

― lol at the witch trials (Drugs A. Money), Saturday, January 29, 2011 7:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

yeah, that's the other side of the coin. we can easily work back from the present using a contemporary and rather narrow definition of indie (e.g., the shins or w/e) and retrospectively construct a "real indie rock" trajectory that excludes non-canon outliers. i suppose you would start with the velvet underground; then add the talking heads and mission of burma; work up to the smiths, the paisley underground and REM; and close out the 80s with the sweeter and poppier bands on labels like homestead, K records and flying nun. 90s indie is then reduced to pavement and what she bore.

that bugs me. i hate to see all the the interesting spurs and angles planed off of what once was a highly diverse and flexible genre. perhaps that's inevitable, a product of the simplification that necessarily accompanies history. as a parallel (inverse) example, i define "metal" rather narrowly, in terms of the genre's development and codification in the 80s and 90s. people like xhuxk, otoh, only a few years older than me, fight to preserve a more open-ended definition. that's probably what's going on here. people younger than myself who know "indie" primarily as the line drawn through spoon from pavement to vampire weekend don't get why i'd foul the pure waters w the likes wolf eyes and lightning bolt.

xp never got into that Unwound record, need to give it another listen i think.

2006: The Knife - Silent Shout
2007: of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

― World Series champion San Francisco Giants (Bee OK), Saturday, January 29, 2011 10:51 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

these are great suggestions. i want to object that the knife are certainly indie but hardly "rock," but am working to suppress the urge. oops. prefer to think in terms of indie-(not-necessarily)-rock anyway.

Mclusky Do Dallas ftw.

― Neil S, Sunday, January 30, 2011 11:31 AM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

yus. considered mentioning it as the best of 2002, but am more sentimentally attached to the dirtbombs and the goo-goo eyes won out.

a) stuff like E6, Belle and Sebastian, & P4k pop nowadays prolley has more in common w/ 3 O'Clock than with Black Flag or Sonic Youth, & b) most of the Southern jangle stuff IS alternative, but its the dB & REM fans that hardcore bands turned to when they got sick of punk fans imposing the "3 chords or gtfo" dogma on them; see Meat Puppets, Replacements, hell even SY and the Buttholes to my understanding got a collegiate following...

yeah, this too. OTM

i hate to see all the the interesting spurs and angles planed off of what once was a highly diverse and flexible genre

it might be semantics, but that wasn't Indie Rock imo, it was Alternative. 00s Indie was codified by Seth Cohen in The O.C. and Garden State to be mild-mannered sensitive (white, shhhh) guitar music. It doesn't go back to Nevermind or Zen Arcade but Out of Time and Blind Man's Zoo.

true, i mean i can't really even tell which one of these is ted leo and which is oneida

things have to sound alike to both be indie? c'mon man

plus i mean if your case is that Oneida are more influenced by pre-indie stuff, contrasting them with someone as classic rock as Ted Leo is probably not a great idea

...but for me The Glands stands the tallest:

― kornrulez6969, Saturday, January 29, 2011 7:00 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

okay so, THE GLANDS. for several months i'd been looking sideways in the direction of a $5 vinyl copy of their self-titled double LP at a local junk/antique shop. (n mint! cheap!) i knew nothing about the band, but remembered that several ILXors had expressed support over the years and figured i could at least ebay it if it sucked. so on a whim, i went and picked it up yesterday.

pretty great! dunno that it'll ever be a decade-defining personal favorite as the schmindie factor is v high and there's a squeeze-esque "ears like radios" vibe to the whole thing, where it seems more like a catalog of 90s indie hits and influences than an album w a distinct sensibility of its own. but the good songs on here are fucking fantastic. oddly, the ones posted ITT thread don't number among them, imo. prefer these:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTWBIdIRffE
^ "when i laugh" - supershitty fan video, unfortunately. "it only hurts me when i laugh / so don't laugh..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8d6ThZ7KMJg
^ GODLIKE big star ripping vinyl-only bonus track. love this

"head that's mine" is another good one, but i can't find a video. haven't spent as much time w the 2nd LP. good looking out, kornrulez!

it might be semantics, but that wasn't Indie Rock imo, it was Alternative. 00s Indie was codified by Seth Cohen in The O.C. and Garden State to be mild-mannered sensitive (white, shhhh) guitar music. It doesn't go back to Nevermind or Zen Arcade but Out of Time and Blind Man's Zoo.

― Mangrove Earthshoe (herb albert), Sunday, January 30, 2011 12:17 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

dude, i can't tell if you're kidding or not (halp me out becuZ i am stupid), but i'm not gonna cede the definition of a musical genre to dorky fucking TV and movie characters. indie rock didn't spring into being in 2004, not even 00s indie. "alternative" was a marketing term invented by record companies and radio programmers to sell hipness to genXors. smashing pumpkins, the red hot chili peppers and nirvana were "alternative." it means nothing.

you want an early definition of indie rock, here's sebadoh's "Gimme Indie Rock", from 1991:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwzxH1c3yk0

Just gimme indie rock!

Started back in '83
Started seeing things so differently
Old hardcore was doing it for me no more
Started smoking pot
Thought things sounded better slow
Much slower, heavier
Black magic melody to sink this poser's soul

VU, Stooges, undeniably cool
Took a lesson from that drone rock school
Manipulate, musician hack, righteous drool
Gettin loose with the Pussy Galore
Crackin jokes like a Thurston Moore
Pedal-hoppin like a Dinosaur, J...

Rock 'n' roll genius ride the middle of the road
Milk that sound, blow your load
Soon its further than you ever said it go
Four stars in the Rolling Stone
Oh, sludge rock
God that's harsh

chorus:
Just gimme indie rock
It's gone big
C'mon indie rock
Just gimme indie rock

Taking inspiration from Hüsker Dü
It's a new generation of electric white boy blues

[chorus]

Breaking down the barriers
like Sonic Youth
They got what they wanted
Maybe I can get what I want too

[chorus]

Time to knock the hard rock on its side
Time to knock the shit rock off its throne
Time to amaze with the indie sludge...
Grunge!

That's not a definition of indie rock, that's an assassination.

well, yeah, but it's also an insider's portrait of the scene/genre. and a joke. a bitter one, but funny and OTM.

ex-hardcore
pot-smoking
slow & heavy
VU, Stooges, drone rock
Pussy Galore/Thurston Moore/Dinosaur
harsh sludge rock
Hüsker Dü
"the electric white boy blues"
Sonic Youth
grunge

of course that's only one aspect of indie rock, but pretending that it's completely unrelated to the genre is ridiculous

That's not a definition of indie rock, that's an assassination.

― Euler, Sunday, January 30, 2011 12:53 PM (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

ha! the more i think about this, the more i think there's a deep truth to it. sebadoh helped author the rulebook for late 90s and 00s indie, so maybe lou's "assassination" of the harsher punk, noise & rawk elements of the genre was successful in the long run.

I haven't gone to an indie rock show in a long time now, but I went to tons of them between 1988 & 1994 or so, before the transition to Garden variety indie. It was remarkable in those days how "tough" the scene seemed, lots of leather garb, metal-y sounds; Superchunk was on the lighter side of indie in those times & they covered Motorhead & rocked tremendo.

I mean I tend to think the critical thing in shifting this was Green Day breaking & making alt-y "punk" mainstream; like I kinda think understanding Green Day's trajectory is the key to the ~~mystery~~ of indie rock in the 2000s.

Sleater-Kinney - The Woods

Death in June - 'All Pigs Must Die'
Jim O'Rourke - 'Insignificance'
Archer Prewitt - 'Three'
Jim Guthrie - 'Now, More Than Ever'
Arizona Amp and Alternator - self-titled
The Sea and Cake - 'Glass' EP
Robert Wyatt - 'Cuckooland'
Motorpsycho - 'Black Hole/Blank Canvas'
Radiohead - 'Amnesiac'
Tortoise - 'It's All Around You'
John Shough - 'Ultra Vega'

okay so basically yr favorite records OF THE LAST DECADE include radiohead's worst album since pablo honey, tortoise's worst album period, and jim o'rourke's record as a singer/songwriter with a full-fledged band (aka, at his most boring)??

props on the robert wyatt record, that one's awesome, though

― the new mordant & zingy ilxor persona (ilxor),

lol, I'm making a poll and including all those albums and five more + I'll provide streaming links to each album. but I welcome your criticism in that thread once it is made. and I will tell you why I chose those albums. but yeah, your criticism isn't that uncommon for those albums but I'm prepared to offer legit counter-criticism once I get my poll finished

I really hated rock in the 00's but Sleater Kinney was probably my favorite best rock band of that decade

well straight up rock band

Yeah, my favourite too.

fuck yeah. should have made room on my decade list for dig me out in 2007, one of the greatest fucking rock records of any decade. shortchanged electrelane's the power out in 2004, too.

xxp no, not kidding. Alternative was an umbrella term for non-mainstream rockish genres long before it was co-opted by major label PR guys in 1992, just like Indie meant non-mainstream rockish genres before it was co-opted around 2004 to make GenXor parents feel hip. I just don't see 00s top-10 indie - Arcade Fire, Shins, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Decemberists - as being a coalescing of Lou's Gimme Indie Rock or SST '84 but coming from a kinder, gentler place in the alt universe. like I said, semantics, but if you can draw the line from Pussy Galore to Grizzly Bear, go for it

and dorky characters don't define the genre but nail it's definition into pop culture, just like Singles, Reality Bites and the obligatory sitcom slacker did to 90s Alternative.

since we're just listing albums we like:
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi
Mew - And The Glass Handed Kites
Silversun Pickups - Carnavas
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest

no indie fuxx cornier

should have made room on my decade list for dig me out in 2007

That would be fine if it had, indeed, come out in 2007. But it came out in 1997.

I kinda think understanding Green Day's trajectory is the key to the ~~mystery~~ of indie rock in the 2000s.

OTM

That would be fine if it had, indeed, come out in 2007. But it came out in 1997.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, January 30, 2011 10:20 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

jheezus, i sometimes can't see the brain for the neurocysticercosis. of course it did. or somewhere around then. can't imagine what i was thinking, except that i apparently believe that 1997 actually meant 2007 in some kind of indeterminate, live cat/dead cat sense.

Alternative was an umbrella term for non-mainstream rockish genres long before it was co-opted by major label PR guys in 1992, just like Indie meant non-mainstream rockish genres before it was co-opted around 2004 to make GenXor parents feel hip. I just don't see 00s top-10 indie - Arcade Fire, Shins, Fleet Foxes, MGMT, Decemberists - as being a coalescing of Lou's Gimme Indie Rock or SST '84 but coming from a kinder, gentler place in the alt universe. like I said, semantics, but if you can draw the line from Pussy Galore to Grizzly Bear, go for it

well, "alternative" started to show up as a marketing term in the late 80s, iirc, taking over from "modern rock." gained traction in the early 90s when the likes of beck and then nirvana generated real hits, but didn't exist prior to the mid 80s. point is that it wasn't then the common insider's term for oddball rock music on independent labels. instead, we talked about "independent music," which we eventually shortened to "indie rock." this was true in every 80s and 90s scene i was party to. i'd agree that that 00s top-10 indie descends from the smiths and REM more than most of what passed for independent music in '86 or indie rock in '91, but disagree that kinder gentler 00s top-10 indie should be taken as a boundary-setting definition of the genre. in every genre the top-10 is more friendly than the weird outliers.

I'm changing my pick to the Avalanches.

wait. that's not indie rock? oh f*#k, whatever. pop/rock album of the decade.

shoutout to herb; Silversun Pickups are totally awesome!

Mclusky Do Dallas ftw.

― Neil S, Sunday, 30 January 2011 19:31 (Yesterday) Bookmark

2nd'ed

I think Mclusky has been 4th'ed or 5th'ed by now, if not more times.

I say we just name it the winner and close the thread.

Here are my 20 fave indie rock albums of the 00's

1. Battles - Mirrored
2. Black Dice - Beaches And Canyons
3. Lightning Bolt – Wonderful Rainbow
4. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire
5. White Stripes – White Blood Cells
6. Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
7. Animal Collective – Feels
8. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
9. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
10. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
11. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
12. The Mae Shi - HLLLYH
13. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
14. Young People – Young People
15. Hella – Hold Your Horse Is
16. White Stripes – Elephant
17. Mogwai – Rock Action
18. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part
19. Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum
20. Beck – Sea Change

need to hear some more of those ^

the ones I have heard range from stellar (Battles, Mogwai (their best along with HSFHP), Of Montreal) to very good (Beck (yeah), White Stripes, Lightning Bolt) to ok (TVOTR (have warmed to this album but don't think it's their best)) to INTRACTABLE DIFFERENCES (u kno who, Fuck Buttons)

I picked up The Glands and The Wrens after seeing them bigged up on ILM threads, distinctly underwhelmed by both of them really. Spoon's Gimme Fiction would be my choice for indie rock album of the '00s.

You're wrong! The Glands rulez. And so does Meadowlands. I'm distinctly underwhelmed by your opinion!!!!!!! In fact it blowz!!!

LOL. Just having a good time, folks.

Pretty good list Whiney, but couldn't you bump that Of Montreal record with some Oneida. Thanks.

of montreal backlash will never not perplex me, it's a bit like the fiery furnaces backlash. let the kids make their spangly mad music in peace

Of Montreal is a band who never made an album I could listen to before or after that one.

Of Montreal is a band who never made an album I could listen to before or after that one.

'skeletal lamping' could have done with some editing but its second half is solid-gold brilliance

'false priest' was horribly disappoint tho yes

I don't need OM to stop, they can make as much spangly goo as they want, it was just a lighthearted suggestion to an Oneida fan. Carry on.

while we're talking about flamboyant indie dudes i will admit to patrick wolf - the magic position being my OPO indie album from the decade but i figured we were limiting this thread to \m/ rock \m/

1. Battles - Mirrored
2. Black Dice - Beaches And Canyons
3. Lightning Bolt – Wonderful Rainbow
4. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire
5. White Stripes – White Blood Cells
6. Liars – They Were Wrong, So We Drowned
7. Animal Collective – Feels
8. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
9. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
10. Joanna Newsom – The Milk-Eyed Mender
11. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
12. The Mae Shi - HLLLYH
13. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?
14. Young People – Young People
15. Hella – Hold Your Horse Is
16. White Stripes – Elephant
17. Mogwai – Rock Action
18. Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds – No More Shall We Part
19. Mark Lanegan Band - Bubblegum
20. Beck – Sea Change

a lot of these are basically "non-indie rock records loved by indie rock ppl" -- no way are black dice, lightning bolt, hella, nick cave, lanegan, fuck buttons, liars, battles, etc. indie rock. but i'm not gonna split hairs, most of these are great records (with exceptions: beck??? lol)

Lorax, yr poll sounds great, pls link in thread when you're all set!

if their audience is 90%+ indie, and they're on an independent label, and they get written up in Pitchfork, and they play rock instruments but aren't metal or hard rock or hardcore punk, y'know what? get used to them being categorized as indie.

well, "alternative" started to show up as a marketing term in the late 80s, iirc, taking over from "modern rock." gained traction in the early 90s when the likes of beck and then nirvana generated real hits, but didn't exist prior to the mid 80s. point is that it wasn't then the common insider's term for oddball rock music on independent labels. instead, we talked about "independent music," which we eventually shortened to "indie rock." this was true in every 80s and 90s scene i was party to. i'd agree that that 00s top-10 indie descends from the smiths and REM more than most of what passed for independent music in '86 or indie rock in '91, but disagree that kinder gentler 00s top-10 indie should be taken as a boundary-setting definition of the genre. in every genre the top-10 is more friendly than the weird outliers.

http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/chart?content=alternative%20rock%2Cindie%20rock%2Ccollege%20rock&corpus=0&smoothing=3&year_start=1975&year_end=1995

Also, I could be wrong, but I seem to remember my local modern rock radio station referring to everything as "progressive" back in the 1980s.

hey, the early seventies!

Was the local modern rock station staffed by LJ?

oh ilxorpaws

no way are black dice, lightning bolt, hella, nick cave, lanegan, fuck buttons, liars, battles, etc. indie rock.

i think we know where we stand

3. Lightning Bolt – Wonderful Rainbow
4. Low – Things We Lost In The Fire
11. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing

yes, these

ilxor, I would def file all of those (except Cave and Lanegan) under my shipley-befuddling genre tag of "avant-indie," but its still essentially a subset of contemporary indie rock for better or worse

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_YnCEJaaWFiU/TQe4oaWi9BI/AAAAAAAAAGY/FDtXyVCSn-E/s1600/dantes-hell1.jpg

maybe it's the fact i'm british but for me fuck buttons are probably the worst 'experimental' band in the history of the world

what's the experiment?

yeah, they don't experiment, they just make some jams. good for staring at the wall.

the experiment is 10-minute accessible noise-dance rave-ups, which isn't done very often, and for me they don't have any sense of narrative except 'make it louder, then make it softer again'

rong

12. The Mae Shi - HLLLYH

hmmm

for me they don't have any sense of narrative except 'make it louder, then make it softer again'

lol so rong. try using yr ears next time!

1. New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
2. Pinback - This is a Pinback CD
3. The Wrens - The Meadowlands
4. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
5. Cat Power - You Are Free
6. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
7. Field Music - Field Music
8. The Shins - Oh Inverted World
9. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
10. Guided by Voices - Isolation Drills
11. Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days
12. Dungen - Ta Det Lugnt
13. Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
14. Mew - And the Glass Handed Kites
15. Midlake - The Trials of Van Occupanter
16. Rogue Wave - Out of the Shadow
17. Spoon - Girls Can Tell
18. The Velvet Teen - Out of the Fierce Parade
19. Ambulance Ltd - Ambulance Ltd
20. Elliot Smith - Figure 8

^^ indie rock 101

ta det lugnt holds up really really well, love that record

ilxor you know you don't have to use ^^^ arrows ^^^ every single time you comment on the above post right

^^ thank you for pointing this out

(really though, thx, will keep in mind if it rly bothers u that much)

is indie rock 101 supposed to be better or worse than indie rock 201 or something?

i heard "free" off that cat power album on the radio this AM, shit sounded pretty awesome

the experiment is 10-minute accessible noise-dance rave-ups, which isn't done very often, and for me they don't have any sense of narrative except 'make it louder, then make it softer again'

I've gotcha back on this LJ, goddamn Fuck Buttons.

is indie rock 101 supposed to be better or worse than indie rock 201 or something?

I've been trying to figure this out, too.

sorry, i just meant "those are actual indie rock records"

so which one is the Let It Be or Slanted and Enchanted of the 00s?

Whether you hate them or not, probably that first Shins album.

for me they don't have any sense of narrative except 'make it louder, then make it softer again'

lol so rong. try using yr ears next time!

Suggest Ban Permalink
― the new mordant & zingy ilxor persona (ilxor), Monday, January 31, 2011 12:20 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

rong losers! burden of proof lies not with me, but...somewhere else.

btw thanks 2 this thread I listened to 'Mclusky Do Dallas' in its entirety just now. FUCK YEAH. amazing album. :D

gonna think abt some suggestions 4 this thread; gorky's zygotic mynci 'how i long to feel that summer in my heart' requires consideration imo

as does half man half biscuit - trouble over bridgwater

all 3 bands either from wales or a cannon's fire from wales

would just like to once again point out that the correct answer is Funeral

would just like to once again point out that the correct answer is The Loon

― markers, Monday, January 31, 2011 8:08 PM (42 seconds ago)

http://www.mrdevious.com/forum/Smileys/default/barf.gif

http://escobar300.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/loon.jpg

life without buildings, the wrens, mclusky and... *flees* wilco are the best suggestions so far for mine.

i also have a soft spot for cursive's the ugly organ. don't expect many to share my love there.

dude i'll take cursive's ugly organ over the wrens any fucking day

i found the wrens album to be a bit of a sleeper. i dismissed it as being bland and unremarkable back in the day, but about a year back i started connecting with some of the lyrics and became quite obsessed with it.

walkmen - everyone who pretended to like me is gone

damn right they are

doing the one a year thing, for fun:

2000: jackie-o motherfucker 'fig. 5'
2001: unwound 'leaves turn inside you'
2002: okkervil river 'don't fall in love with everyone you see'
2003: weakerthans 'reconstruction site'
2004: panda bear 'young prayer'
2005: the national 'alligator'
2006: carla bozulich 'evangelista'
2007: charalambides 'strangle the wretched heavens'
2008: shearwater 'rook'
2009: emeralds 'what happened'

Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice for me

i also have a soft spot for cursive's the ugly organ. don't expect many to share my love there.

― charlie h, Monday, January 31, 2011 9:18 PM

That disc - and not 'Domestica' - made my Honorable Mentions post above, actually. I love the cello on it, the one album of theirs where it is prominent and proficient.

I am sad there's no more love for The Party Of Helicopters... I realize they were an Ohio band thus I was more likely to know them, but they received much critical praise when they were around.

didn't notice that you had already mentioned the ugly organ. i commend you for doing so. i also like the use of cello and how purposeful and orderly it sounds. it's almost like it's the one thing keeping these songs in check, preventing them from collapsing under the weight of their volatile, emotionally-charged foundations. it's also an album that can really sink under your skin on repeated listens. it benefits from how a lot of the lyrics come across as angsty first-drafts, like confessions drawn from tangible human emotions, which become convoluted and obscured through probing and minute self-reflection. i would name 'sierra' as one of the songs of the decade. it does an extremely effective job of channeling a legitimate sense of resignation and regret from an imagined scenario. i think it's a very common for humans to think this way and contemplate entire spectrums of "what-ifs", but it seems to be rarely explored through song.