Shout Out Louds:
Shut Your Eye’s
Normandy
Hurry Up Lets Go
Comeback
Very Loud
Arcade Fire-Recently played in NY. I heard they put on a good show but this was from someone who is really into Phish so I kinda took the recommendation with a grain of salt
Rebeilion (Lies)
Keep the Car Running
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Intervention
Shout Out Louds and Arcade Fire can get a little dark but its some really good stuff
The Kooks- I got turned on to this band by one of the bartenders that use to work in place I hang out. For the most part their stuff is pretty up beat:
She Moves in Her Own Way
Sway
Ooh La
Shine On
Good days and Bad Days
I Predict a Riot
Never Miss a Beat
The Fratelies- These guys are Scottish Band but have a lot of fun Rock and Roll Songs:
Chelsea Dagger(When you hear this one its from the Amstel Light commercial Dam Good Beer)
Creeping up the Back Stairs
Henrietta
Mistress Mabel
Country Boys and City Girls(One of My favorites but I can never find it on Juke boxes. I’ve been told to drop the “o” in country but that has not helped )
The Hives is another one of the British rock bands good fast beat music with distorted electric guitars:
Tic Tic Boom
Hate to Say I Told You So
Return the Favor
Vampire Weekend was the first band that I got into in this type of music. They are New York band that formed in Colombia and started gaining notoriety in the Williamsburg. They are interesting in that they use different instruments a couple of there songs even have harpsichord in it. I’ve heard them referred to as Chamber Pop. The have two Albums and an EP out. There first album was self titled and there Second album which came out in the Spring is Contra.
A few of the songs off there first album that I like are:
A Punk
M79
Kids Don’t Stand a Chance there is also a remix by Chromeo that is good.
Campus
There second album is pretty up beat and honestly there isn’t a song on there that I don’t like.
Some of the ones that stick out are”
White Sky
Run
Taxi Cab
Diplomats Son
One of the bands that I have really gotten into this past year is Muse, right around when I started getting into this music I went to see U2 at Giants Stadium. Muse opened up for them. They had just released their newest album The Resistance. I was absolutely blown away by there live show. I highly recommend this band. Having only recently getting into the band I like this album, however, a few of the die hards I’ve talked to are not that fond of it they feel it was not innovative enough. Some of my favorites by them include:
Take a bow (Actually on the Watchmen Soundtrack)
Starlight (This one seems to get the most favorable reaction when played on a Juke Box)
Uprising (Awesome Live)
Knights Of Cydonia
What is Independent (Indy) Rock?
One of the challenges I’ve had is describing this genera of music. It seems to me that any type of music that could be played on the radio but isn’t is lopped into the category of Indy rock. It really diverse in that you have band like Muse and Kings of Leon (which have had some commercial success ) being thrown into the same category as bands like Passion Pit, MGMT, & The XX which all have very electronic influences
How do you define or what do you define Indy Rock as? I’d like to hear what other people think.
About a year ago a number of things happened that lead me to a ton of new music I had never heard before and never would had I listened to main stream radio.
I had been into MP3’s since 1997 and after 10 plus years of listening to same music on my IPOD I had finally became board with music that was on it.
I had totally given up on Main Stream radio. Even stations like 101.9 RXP (New York) while they played some new music (I actually found out about The Airborne Toxic Event by listening to this station) it still was not enough.
I bought Guitar Hero 5 for Xbox 360. It’s almost embarrassing to say but yes this was the true spark that turned me onto Indy Rock scene. I had heard of Vampire Weekend but did not really know any of there songs. One of the songs on the game was A Punk..
I then found Slacker internet radio because my company blocked access to Pandora. I typed in Vampire Weekend and it populated a radio station with 40 or so bands that I had never heard of.
I’m a self admitted Juke Box Junkie. Armed with a handful of new songs I had heard on Slacker I started playing them at a bar that I’m a regular at. Before I knew it I was getting into conversations with people about all these new band like Arcade Fire, Cage the Elephant, Muse, and many other that will be mentioned in actual posts. After each conversation I would go back to Slacker and start listening to those bands and it just steam rolled from there….
(From the “About” Page but I figured this was a good start. Blogging is completely new to me so obviously this is a work in progress)
