Blender's Top 100 Indie Rock Albums

I think every choice and every placement is 1000% perfect. Nothing could possibly be wrong with this list.

ha!

Wait! Where's Armand Schaubroeck???? Forget this list!!!!

27 M.I.A. - Arular

Lololololol.

14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising

i like most of this music

no way is today galaxie's best record

typical dumb list

89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll

http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/images/8/81/Fursecution.jpg

80 Feist - The Reminder

Not even top 500. Maybe not top 1000.

<I>14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High and Rising</i>

http://www.indianajones.dk/Webside/Billeder/Indy-side/Hvor%20er%20de%20nu/Short%20Round.jpg

<B>"Be careful, Indie!!!"</b>

Will someone fix that? I'm horrible.

I think every choice and every placement is 1000% perfect. Nothing could possibly be wrong with this list.

-- Kevin John Bozelka, Sunday, November 25, 2007 3:14 PM (Sunday, November 25, 2007 3:14 PM) Bookmark Link

A++

There are some questionable choices in regards to what was released on an indie label, but I am not averse to young nerds checking out most of these albums. I did.

It speaks volumes about how debased and nu-ILM I have become that I'm now wondering 'why is this not a poll?'

Aside from the usual cavils about canonizing acts still recovering from Pitchfork-Stylus hype and wtf New Order as an "indie rock" act, this is far from an awful list. I own most of these albums.

haha the top ten looks very similar to the big orange SPIN book's.

60 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois

42 Brian Eno - Another Green World

Eno is wicked indie rawk rawk.

This is too easy: 80 Feist - The Reminder

lololololol

actually i think i like about half of this music

Yeah me too. Maybe their idea of indie would make more sense to me if I'd ever read an issue of Blender, who knows

albums that people who like indie rock like

this has the most comically broad range of quality of any list i've ever seen (feist, smashing pumpkins, and sufjan stevens are too-easy targets). but pleasantly surprised to see the mekons on there. sadly, as with most of these lists, no green, no credibility.

61 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
27 M.I.A. - Arular
26 Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
20 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
17 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
06 Arcade Fire - Funeral

Y'gotta give it up for Blender, not falling for all the hype surrounding the follow-ups

sure, a good half of these albums are excellent. but, um, "fresh fruit for rotting vegetables" is indie rock?

Everything on the list is now flagged for being trendy indie scenester music (except Various Artists - No New York). The sad thing is that Blender missed a few trendy indie rock groups. It's a shame that they didn't make the list to 200 because as long as they are making a 'popular indie album' list they might as well destroy them all.

I know! Blernder, whatta buncha jerks!

This list allows people to make comparisons of Green Day with Eno for instance. If this list isn't blasphemous than I don't know what is.

Oh pleeze. What comparison? All they've got in common is that they're on the list and Eno and Billie Joe love sex.

forget it. no harm in making a list. this list is just bound to piss people off for containing crappy music and good music. that's all.

a lot of compilations on this list

I hope this inspires a VH1 special.

We can all comment!

100 The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World

Who the fuck are they?

99 Dream Syndicate - The Days Of Wine And Roses
98 Palace Music - Viva Last Blues

Same

Like most of the acts listed, they're very ugly.

(xpost)

63 Nirvana - Bleach

Now, THERE's a real band

79 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

I bet this is a typo

LOCK THREAD

Clap Your Hands Say Lock Thread lololololololololololololol !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

100 The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World

Who the fuck are they?

-- Tape Store, Monday, 26 November 2007 11:46 (4 minutes ago)

Dude, this shows that Blender has an encyclopedic knowledge of indiehistory - they are truly indie 4 life.

Lest Blender 4get.

89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Lock & Roll
87 Wolf Parade - Apologies To The ILX

i don't have any problems with this list.

i mean it's a list. how many "omg what a retarded list" threads are gonna be started before we all just yawn and scroll down. i thought this might have stopped with the "pitchfork's top albums of 2002" thread.

the point is to obviously feul "discussions" like this. your terrorists have won.

indie rock kinda sux recently huuh

^^^Trolls

no srsly this time

yep.

lol

though their publishing company begs to disagree

66 Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

seems like their recent reunion & box set have paid off in terms of overall hipness/recognizability. At any rate, I wouldn't expect to see them mentioned in a similar list from, say, 2002. neat.

(i know i'm sounding like a dick there above, sorry, i have and love about 1/3 of these records)

52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground

^ isn't that Saddle Creek?

MORE LIKE SADDLE WEAK

OR WEAK SADDLE 'CAUSE THIS ISN'T SPAIN, AMIRITE?!

J0hn, how does it feel to know that you are now better than both the Misfits AND Daniel Johnston?

59 Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
58 Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love

My absolute two favorites in high school and they couldn't even break the top 50?! The ONE thing I had going for me during those godawful years was my indie fuxxor status.

Status revoked.

probably 10 of these would make my top 100, not a bad average

unrest love is always nice to see

52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground

^ isn't that Saddle Creek?

sorry I looked up "Son, Ambulance" and "Beep Beep" with the Find In This Page window and having failed, I wrote my post in violent disgust.

I'm thinking about writing a long letter to Puncture about how bullshit this list is.

as well as my congressman and several men from DC named Ian.

06 Arcade Fire - Funeral
32 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea

Surely they meant to swap the positions of these.

OMG. NO INSANE CLOWN POSSE?

So if I'm reading the list correctly it is saying about The Velvet Underground:

1) it is an indie rock record, and
2) it is not as good as Pavement, Arcade Fire, etc.

Hm ok

"European Son" is a bit of a weakling.

yeah but European son is on The Velvet Underground and Nico

4. R.E.M., Mumu, I.R.S., 1983

I think Slanted and Enchanted (as well as DN and Murmur) is better than The Velvet Underground.

("European Son" was always one of the highlights of VU & Nico for me though.)

saddle creek's gonna cancel that complimentary basket of french ticklers they were sending for the four-star cursive review when they see nobody made this list! i guess nobody there remembered a little song called "Worked Up (So Sexual)" that probably got them to third base once back in 03.

-- da croupier, Monday, 26 November 2007 02:18 (15 hours ago) Link

lolz

why the fuck is there no Fugazi on this list

Repeater's on there #45

@

eh. blender suuuuxxxxx

the reminder and ratfucker are pretty good records

and jawbox was great

polvo - celebrate the new dark age
boredoms - chocolate synthasizer
firehose - ragin full on
melvins - ozma
helium - the dirt of luck
king kong - funny farm
royal trux - pound for pound
ween - the pod

I wish I got Pavement. I really do.
And if you're going to include the Velvet's debut, how can it possibly be only #7 on the list (behind Arcade Fire - WTF)?

there must be some sort of indieness axis ie it cant be first cause its not that indie

so much wtf but big black as indie? black flag?!

yeah i don't know what criteria they're using exactly

oh c'mon, some SST bands were definitely more "punk" than "indie" but I'd say all of them are fair game for a list of indie rock albums.

i dunno, damaged is just hardcore to me, i think of indie of that time being more REM and stuff like that...like the definition almost. i mean i guess this list is more like "100 CDs a certain type of person would have if you went over to their apartment and looked" instead of "indie"...

i guess, but as far as debatable entries, i'd say it's a lot less questionable than VU (I'd say anything pre-1980 or so probably shouldn't be there, since "indie" didn't really exist back then). hardcore and indie audiences didn't really split off into 2 distinct things until well after Black Flag, anyway.

haha the top ten looks very similar to the big orange SPIN book's.

Thought the same thing.

"100 CDs a certain type of person would have if you went over to their apartment and looked"

OTM, aka this was my CD collection in like 11th grade

i was so advanced that i had the arcade fire cd 2 years before it came out

The list could have been far worse. Was there an accompanying article that defined "indie rock"?

I was going to say that Blank records was releasing stuff like The Suicide Commandos Make A Record in 1977 and Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance in 1978, but it was actually an imprint of Mercury Records (who traded studio time with Glenn Danzig in order to use the name, which he was using for his own label that became Plan 9). The Our Band Could Be Your Life book does a good job of showing how indie rock developed as a subculture.

Ha, I just remembered that SPIN book had Madonna's The Immaculate Collection among the top 10 "alternative" albums of all time.

That is the 3rd VU album not the debut.

i bet guccione tried to get the COOG on there too

not that the Lonesome Jubilee didn't smoke but its really not alternative in the way Belly or Shockabilly was.

Blame Michael Azerrad.

The Lonesome Jubilee is no Scarecrow

yeah buts politically sounder, with realer instruments - the logical choice pick aesthetically, the grander accomplishment

but ITS politcally sounder

haha butts politically sounder...PHHBBBTTT

You know what would be cool along these lines - if CMJ published a book, just straight reprinting (say) the four "best of the week" highlighted reviews from each issue of their weekly mag, from 198-whatever until whenever. You'd get a look back at all these albums (both famous and "forgotten"), plus their (often great) little contemporaneous reviews to arouse interest in all the stuff you've never heard of

(not "all these albums" as in the 100 above - but "all dese albums," like 1000s of 'em)

http://gawker.com/5185428/blender-magazine-folds

Bye bye Blender.

That's what happens when you call The 13th Floor Elevators indie rock