2000s indie rock • Page 7

If The Format are indie rock then hell yeah to them.

 

How you gonna lump The National with all those other bands? I almost agreed with you because I too think bands like Vampy Weeks and The Killers and Franz Ferdinand are bullshit haha, don't really feel like there's much substance on top of just writing a gimmicky guitar riff and playing a contrived offbeat drumbeat. But then the National is one of the least gimmicky and most lyrically memorable bands in that bottom list...

Also, Iron & Wine doesn't even belong in this thread, there's hardly any "rock" in his sound at all haha. Isn't he more so Americana/Folk/maybe a little country?

 

Vampire Weeknd are excellent songwriters

I can maybe see the first albums as gimmicky, but MVotC is like a course in writting perfect, compact songs

 

Because for the most part people who love those other bands also seem to love The National and vice versa?

And there are definitely some rock elements to Iron & Wine, and I&W was also definitely one of those "it" indie rock bands to love in the mid-2000's.

 

I've admittedly only heard the singles from that album, but I find "Diane Young" and "Ya Hey" to be incredibly grating and "Unbelievers" and "Step" to be just plain boring.

 

Actually you're probably more likely to find a Sufjan or Death Cab fan who loves The National than a Vampire Weekend fan who does. Most of the National's appeal is in their brooding, perspective-laden, self aware commentary on modern young adult life that millennials, particularly those with various forms of depression and anxiety, can relate to as they come of age. Which, in turn, is shared by more of your list A bands than list B bands, Gibbard and Stevens are the biggest examples of earnest, purposeful writers who also become very emotionally vulnerable, and are known for connecting with their audience on deeply personal feelings.

I also think they have thicker and more unique sounding production than a lot of those overly angular sounding pop bands you mentioned on the bottom.

People who listen to Vampire Weekend or Franz Ferdinand to me seem to be looking for more of the sugar rush that comes out of catchy tunes, I don't really think those bands have the same deeply emotional undertones or require the same patience to listen to. I feel like most Vampire fans would find the National slow, boring, and uneventful.

I don't think you can trace Iron & Wine back to C86 tapes and bands like Built To Spill at all, but you can easily hear influence from folk acts like Cat Stevens, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Drake, honestly. I think he's in an entirely separate department. A folk artist who picks up an electric guitar and gets praised by Pitchfork isn't automatically indie rock (lol), for most it more often translates to Americana or Country (which is how I would characterize Shepherd's Dog).

 

Like Fleet Foxes is an Americana band. I guess in loose ways you can characterize parts of the sound as indie rock but you're maybe talking about 3 songs per record if you do that. It makes more sense to group a band like that by where the majority of their influence comes from, i.e. traditional folk and country songs in their case and in Iron & Wine's case. I don't really call Will Oldham indie rock either.

 

We got a little off-topic here, but nothing in your first point changes the fact that these are bands that many consider to be "essential" 2000's indie rock that I don't like.

And to your second point, I think you can definitely find connections between Iron & Wine and Built To Spill's early work, for example; it's not as direct as the connection between Built To Spill and, say, Death Cab, but it's also not a tenuous connection. But regardless, this is a very narrow definition of what constitutes "indie rock", and it's not one I would ascribe to.

 

That's fair it was just odd the way you grouped them. Felt like "one of these things is not like the others..."

BTS is just an example I use because nobody really disputes that they are the archetypal indie-rock band haha. But meh, I see indie rock as having jangly, stirring guitar parts with wide differences in dynamics and melodies that change modes and scales often rather than staying in a standard rock/blues pentatonic scale (Which Sam Beam typically does). Even when Iron and Wine goes full electric he still has a calm, twangy sound about it, that follows the same melodic patterns as a lot of classic country music, and those are totally different approaches to using a guitar to me.

 

I'll give that album a listen. I don't want to be closed minded that a band can get better over time. I just really didn't like their early stuff.

 

Haha, they're definitely the one out of that group that I get the most pushback on when I tell people I don't like them (especially when they find out I like Death Cab and Sufjan, as you pointed out) but they just bore me to tears.

And I get you on BTS, I would agree they're the archetypal indie-rock band and they're one of my all-time favorite bands that I've been listening to for about 20 years now. But I think in the 2000's the "indie rock" sound began to morph, or at least expand, and I&W is definitely on the outer edge of the quieter side of that sound.

 

Gonna jump in here and note that Vampire Weekend's first two records annoyed the shit out of me when they came out but Modern Vampires is probably one of my favorite albums of the decade so far. So yeah, I'd say there is definitely a difference; Modern Vampires felt like a giant leap forward to me. It's worth checking out, even if you end up not liking it (which is understandable - it's still recognizably Vampire Weekend, after all).

 

Probably aping Ian Curtis who admittedly sounds a lot like Paul Banks

 

Im fine with being wrong on the whole thing. I agree that they dont use the same range or timbre. But... back when they came out I remember thinking his drawl was very much supposed to sound like Banks'. Considering that Interpol received accolades and revived the genre the two immediate years prior, I think it was a conscious decision since the style was in vogue.

 

congratulations is one of the best albums of the decade so far. fucking amazing record, huge leap for them from oracular. what an amazing band.

 

yeah i love it i reviewed it back on AP gave it an 8.0 half the comments were like "this isnt even music"

 

This was certainly an interesting show

 

They both use a similar vocal effect on a lot of the songs off their first albums, same with the Strokes. It distorts their voices a bit and I think makes Flowers and Banks sound closer than they do to Casablancas. That might make the similarity.

 

honestly, the JD:Interpol comparison always annoyed me

neither does the band sound the same, nor the vocals... similar style, maybe... but come on - it is more obvious on the later albums - I honestly don't think the band wanted to mimick them, even under their obvious influence

 

I agree with this but at the same time, Contra is my fav VW - precisely because of the annoying VW elements :P

 

This thread is so interesting. It is all over the place with the suggestions and I barely registered in my head how broad the term "indie rock" is post 90s. Really cool, partially why I think most genres are kinda arbitrary and better used as like vague descriptors than anything fast and hard. I mean this in a good way, of course
SHOUT OUT TO CYMBALS EAT GUITARS' ENTIRE DISCOGRAPHY THO
Also Pedro the Lion

This is so underappreciated imo, good post, thank you

 

I am listening to the Ugly Organ for the first time rn and this makes a strong claim for the best Saddle Creek album that I have listened to. Shades of Moon and Antarctica era Modest Mouse in the vocals sometimes. Jesus, it really grooves sometimes too. So good, not what I was expecting at all

 

That and Cassadaga are my faves.

 

That's Cursive right? I've been meaning to check them out.

 

Yeah. It's an unbelievable album; I think fans of e&i can find a lot to love in it