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"

'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.