Official Indie Music Thread

[Star]

The Official Indie Music Thread​

I think that there needs to be somewhere for people to discover less mainstream but still AMAZING bands. I'm sure that there are a ton of people who like 'obscure' bands like me. Even if you don't, it's honestly worth it to check some out. You may not like all of my recommendations but there is definitely something for everyone.

When I say alternative, I mean a very large array of different music styles.

I'll start with a few good bands for everyone to check out/discuss:

Arcade Fire

Arcade Fire is an orchestral rock band which formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The band is known for their live performances and their use of a large number of musical instruments; in addition to the guitar, drums, and bass guitar, the band's members also play instruments such as the piano, violin, and viola. Arcade Fire were featured on the April 4, 2005 cover of Time Magazine’s Canadian edition, and hailed as a band who “helped put Canadian music on the world map”.

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Crystal Castles

Probably the most 'alternative' band I'm going to post today, Crystal Castles are a Toronto based duo consisting of multi-instrumentalist Ethan Kath and vocalist Alice Glass. Crystal Castles' music is easily recognized by their heavy use of samples and distorted female vocals. Their musical style has been described as having "ferocious, asphyxiating sheets of warped two-dimensional Gameboy glitches and bruising drum bombast pierce [the] skull with sheer shrill force, burrowing deep into the brain like a fever"

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Regina Spektor

For fans of Feist or for simply fans of beautiful voices and piano, Regina Spektor is exactly what the doctor ordered. Spektor's musical style has drawn many comparisons to fellow singer-pianists Tori Amos and Fiona Apple, as well as the vocal stylings of Björk. Spektor possesses a broad vocal range and uses the full extent of it. She also explores a variety of different and somewhat unorthodox vocal techniques.

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Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds are an alternative indie rock band from Stockholm, Sweden. Often thought of as 'pop in it's truest form', Shout Out Louds put ''Pop Bands" on the radio to shame. If you like Coldplay, you'll definitely approve of this super-fun and amazingly talented band.

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Tokyo Police Club

A Canadian post punk indie powerhouse, Tokyo Police Club has generated a ton of buzz over the past while. With various high profile appearances under their belt, including a guest spot on Ugly Betty, Tokyo Police Club is definitely a band to keep your eye on. They've been compared to Born Ruffians and Bloc Party, but they offer something of their own as well and it's not to be looked over.

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Final Fantasy

Owen Pallett is a solo violinist who has also toured with the above mentioned Arcade Fire. He is the sole member of the band Final Fantasy, and no, I don't mean the game. Pallett has been noted for his live performances, wherein he plays the violin into a sampler controlled by foot pedals, which then loops back one or more of the previously played musical phrases as he plays additional parts simultaneously, a technique also used by other musicians such as Feist.

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Well that's all I feel like doing for now but everyone please check these bands out and I would LOVE to hear some of your opinions and own recommendations- I'm always looking for new bands to check out!

And of course, I will be posting more in the future.

 

[chamber-music]

Any love for Patrick Wolf?

Been listening to alot of Interpol, Rilo Kiley and Empire Of The Sun lately.

 

[Star]

Actually that's kind of funny because while I was searching for Final Fantasy videos I found one of him with Patrick Wolf (who I had never heard of before today). I'm downloading some of him right now.

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[Cmill216]

I think "alternative" may be the most vague term in music today.

 

[Motown Marvel]

I think "alternative" may be the most vague term in music today.

"alternative" along with "indie" are the worst labels ever.

 

[Prison Mike]

I've been listening to Kings of Leon recently.

 

[Star]

I think "alternative" may be the most vague term in music today.

I take it to mean non-mainstream

 

[Motown Marvel]

I take it to mean non-mainstream

well, i'd have two issues with that:

1. labels should describe the music in some way. if it means "non-mainstream" then that doesnt describe the music, just its status in the general public.

2. alternative IS the mainstream. the biggest "rock" radio stations in the country (please note rock being in quotations) feature "alternative rock" (why would anyone want an alternative to rock anyways?). its just a poor genre label, a lazy one.

but whatever, its just semantics i guess. im not really into the music anyways, so...but i guess it can bug me when good bands get lumped under these lazy and irresponsible labels.

 

[Star]

It's true. It would also be lazy to lump them all into 'pop and rock' though? I don't know, it's really hard.

 

[Motown Marvel]

It's true. It would also be lazy to lump them all into 'pop and rock' though? I don't know, it's really hard.

no, i think pop and rock are perfectly acceptable labels, more so rock. i mean, rock and roll is a sound. you hear the sound and its like, yeah thats rock and roll. pop music, a sub-genre of rock, can admittedly be a bit more vague. obviously, it meant popular music, which can mean anything. but i think it came to have a sound attached to it. pop may have originally been short for popular...but it came to just be pop....the 3 minute upbeat song that has....pop. ha ha. it makes sense to me.

i mean, if you really wanted to, you could really call out and question any genre label. but most are rather suitable and are at least an attempt to describe the sound of the music. i just dont see that in labels such as "alternative" and "indie".

 

[Cmill216]

I just think alternative is such an incredibly broad term. What is it an alternative to? You can have alternative rock, alternative pop, alternative hip hop, etc. But that still doesn't really describe the music all that well.

Take Crystal Castles. I've listened to some of their stuff before. If I had to describe their music, I wouldn't describe it as alternative. I'd describe it as something along the lines of electronic rock. To some, even that might not do their sound justice. But I think it's better than labeling anything that doesn't fall under a simplistic, corporate label as "alternative".

 

[Brick]

One man's alternative music, is another man's pop music.

 

[ComicChick]

Of the band's listed, I've only heard of the Arcade Fire. I adore their song Ocean of Noise and I really need to branch out into listening to more of their works.

 

[Motown Marvel]

One man's alternative music, is another man's pop music.

thats like saying one man's roast beef sandwich is another mans vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. i mean, i guess music labels arent quite as definitive, but still. generally, most music can be pretty clearly defined. i think now a days most people are just too lazy to properly define the music, and i really think thats because they dont have the musical knowledge to adequately define it.

a lot of people today claim to love music, and im not really calling that into question. but i think more people who make that claim should have a better working knowledge of music's history, and appreciation for it. not that they need to love it all or anything like that, nor be any expert, but just have some sort understanding and appreciation and knowing where things came from. i have great respect when people do that. i try to do that myself, and always try to dig deeper for a greater understanding of it all. its helped me have a greater appreciation for music and enjoy it more. but sometimes i do wonder how many people really know where their favorite music and bands came from? do they care to know? i dunno. maybe i'm the dick. ha.

 

[chamber-music]

I've been listening to Kings of Leon recently.

I liked the first too albums the most. The last two have been okay.

alternative is just a broad term for slightly left field music in America.
In the UK we use indie even though most of the bands are on major labels and have different sounds. From Coldplay to The Strokes they all go under the banner term of indie over here.

 

[Watson]

I suppose this could be the indie music thread? Or does that not work either?

And I would highly recomend Metric (http://www.myspace.com/metricband), The Arkells (http://www.myspace.com/arkellsmusic), Ted Leo (http://www.myspace.com/tedleo), and Stars (http://www.myspace.com/stars). There are quite a few more, but I'll think of them later.

 

[Star]

Stars are great. Metric is loosing their appeal to me though. I saw them a few weeks ago and I was SO disappointed with the concert.

 

[Cmill216]

Metric's Grow Up and Blow Away is a top ten album for me.

 

[Star]

I won't debate that. It's a great album

The concert I saw though. They only played THREE songs from that album and the rest were random songs of their 'new' album (which hasn't been released yet)

No one in the crowd was that impressed.

 

[Cmill216]

Were the songs just not that great, or was it just that they were new?

 

[StorminNorman]

My favorite Indie band is Lord of the Strings.

 

[Star]

Well... I think it was that they were all very unfamiliar to the audience. I find it really hard to get into a song the first time I hear it. No one really had enough time to decide if they liked the songs or not because it was hard to tell

 

[Star]

Well... I think it was that they were all very unfamiliar to the audience. I find it really hard to get into a song the first time I hear it. No one really had enough time to decide if they liked the songs or not because it was hard to tell

 

[Cmill216]

That makes sense. From what I've seen, Metric seem to put on a pretty solid show. But I can't imagine a set made up of mostly new music going over as well as a collection of fan favorites.

 

[Watson]

Stars are great. Metric is loosing their appeal to me though. I saw them a few weeks ago and I was SO disappointed with the concert.

I've heard through the grapevine that Emily Haines has been struggling with some drug problems, so sometimes at concerts she comes off badly. The last time I saw them was at a McMaster frosh week concert and they were pretty good. However, they ended their set early because the idiot frosh didn't seem to be huge fans of Metric.

And Stars has become my favourite band. I'm so mad I missed their Olympic Island gig with Death Cab !

Metric's Grow Up and Blow Away is a top ten album for me.

Cmill, you should check out Emily Haines's solo project Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton (http://www.myspace.com/emilyhaines). I can't remember if I recomended it to you before or not, but it is really good.