2000s indie rock • Page 2

Los Campesinos! are the best thing to happen to indie rock. All 5 of their LP's are perfect.

 

if Appleseed Cast, Wearherbox and Unwound count, then I'll add Low Level Owl, Cosmic Drama and Leaves Turn Inside Out - three of the most profound and powerful albums I know

and if those count, Fugazi does too and I'll say the Argument, which is god

 

Y'all in here talking about The Ugly Organ when Domestica is the best Cursive album...

Edit: though I am very happy to see that The Cosmic Drama has already been mentioned.

 

Transatlanticism is the best. Really though a lot of my favorite 00s indie rock is either strongly influenced by or leftover from 90s indie rock because I'm really into that Built to Spill sound

Also loving these Broken Social Scene name drops

 

I wouldn't really lump Fugazi with indie rock bands but yes The Argument is one of the best punk/post hardcore records of all time

 

Almost all mine have been mentioned, so I'll toss the oft-forgotten False Cathedrals in here

 

How do you guys define indie rock?

I know its a broad and vague term that doesn't mean what it used to, but we all have our own versions of it and bands we associate with it. My own personal connotation for indie rock comes from actually listening to NME'S C86 tape (the first release ever to be dubbed indie rock, it was a compilation of unsigned but popular bands in England at the time, hence why British boutique guitar tone is something I associate with the genre sound-wise.) When I compared that tape to a lot of my favorite 90s, 00s and 10s bands that I consider indie rock I noticed some similarities and that's what the genre is to me.

To me this includes low to mid fidelity recordings, unique jangly/fuzzy guitar tones (basically ones that aren't as heavy or sharp as standard rock tones), cute dulcet vocal melodies, and blending all kinds of influences from surf rock to jazz to soul into the sound. Also feel like the jazz influence in indie rock lends itself to complex 7th and 9th chords being used fairly often to create that dreamy atmospheric sound, and also influences indie rock bands to use syncopated, off beat rhythms more often than regular rock bands as well.

Overall I see it as a humble and unstandardized potpourri of mostly soft and expressive influences, with a little garage rock mixed in to the louder indie-rock bands, that contrasts and exists as a more emotionally complex alternative to the shallow ego and marketing of a lot of hard rock.

 

a lot of goods ones have already been said. Moon & Antartica wins i think.

has In Rainbows been mentioned?

 

also im the first one mentioning Reconstruction Site, which is both an honor and a problem

 

People said Left and Leaving.

But im with you on this cause I think Reconstruction Site is their best album

 

And the interesting thing is I would include In Rainbows in my sound description of indie rock - that album is everything I described in those paragraphs, except it's polished and not lo-fi...

But it's weird because although they self released it and weren't on a label deal, it's also popular enough to be shunned by indie rock purists haha.

 

The NME C86 tape defined the concept of indie pop, those jangly guitars and catchy melodies, but not indie rock. Also most of those bands weren't unsigned, they were on small indie labels. For the concept of indie rock I would go further back to Zen Arcade by Hüsker Dü, or even Crazy Rhythms by The Feelies, or even the first Mission of Burma single 'Academy Fight Song'.

I wouldn't define indie rock purely by sound. It's mostly about the independent D.I.Y. spirit as defined by the bands mentioned in the book Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad. It wasn't really until the 90s that indie rock became known as a sound, before that it was all over the place.

 

Yeah but it's been like 30 years since then haha so I don't really consider it that important to preserve the original meaning of indie rock. The fact that a lot of people are mentioning similar bands tells me indie rock IS a "sound" now. The weird thing about genres is they are defined populistically so their definitions are static and based more on common perspectives about music.

Also I feel like more bands considered indie rock nowadays mention the C86 tape and bands off shooting from that. Usually only see Husker Du as a punk influence - Fugazi claimed to be very inspired by them early on.

 

Transatlancism and Black Sheep Boy are the two main ones that come to mind for me.

 

It's true that indie rock has become defined as a "sound" now. But for me a key defining factor will always be the independent aspect of the music. I might be contradicting myself slightly here since I mentioned The Moon & Antarctica in my original list, which was released on Epic Records (a subdivision of Sony at the time), thus making it a major label release.

Zen Arcade is one of the most influential albums ever in my view. I see it as one of the main albums that set the wheels in motion for what would become indie rock. It's influence on post-hardcore cannot be denied either.

 

What do you make of bands who start out as fiercely DIY, record and promote themselves, and build their fanbase organically through performance more so than marketing... but then as their ambitions get bigger, they realize their limitations and start allowing third parties to help out with the dirty work?

What do you make of bands who are on really ethic indie labels, but then that label gets swallowed by a corporate giant, maybe not even because of an acquisition but because of some legal battle... but that band is one of the lucky ones who are supported by the label to keep doing what they're doing?

I don't think in either of those circumstances that the band's values change. There's too much grey area when you define music by exterior factors outside of the sound, because a lot of the business aspect of music is in constant transition, and a lot of times the bands have zero control over that. They just kind of get strong-armed into specific marketing deals, by people they thought were genuine, because if they show any resistance they lose plugs and support that they've worked for years to build up. And it can be very hard to revive a successful music career after the wave leaves you behind.

To me drawing a line in the sand is a bit like the attitude in some punk scenes where if you don't maintain a specific image you're totally shunned. In my mind this is a superficial way of looking at music and a lot of my favorite bands challenge this concept -- to use punk as an example, Jawbreaker sarcastically sings "1 2 3 4 who's punk, what's the score"... Fugazi was a hardcore band that actually stopped the show if the crowd got violent... Millencollin sings "I don't think contrast is a sin" and "They'll tell you that you're close but no cigar" which I think is as much a commentary on music scenes as it is about society.

A band can thoroughly believe in producing earnest, unfiltered music no matter where they are in their careers and that's why I take issue with indie-rock as a business label rather than a sound description. Death Cab For Cutie for example, regardless of their success now, will always be a model of the independent music "hustle" to me because they steadily grew with each album, built their fanbase the hard way, recorded and mixed all their own records.. and by the time they were making polished albums on major labels it made sense because as adults they'd come to appreciate a more traditional approach to melody and songwriting, and Chris Walla had just finally gotten THAT good at self-production by then. To me that's still indie rock because it represents their own values and hard work through all the corporate hype.

Definitely need to give it a listen hearing you say this.

 

Tortoise - Standards
New Pornographers - Electric Version
Franz Ferdinand - S/T
Wye Oak - The Knot

Also, what's Carissa's Wierd's sound? I feel like I've heard about them often on here, but never listened.

 

Tortoise is fucking great. I consider them more post rock since their music is so progressive and self indulgent and not structured like typical songs.

I do also love the Sea and Cake though, which is a very jazzy indie rock band with the same drummer as Tortoise.

Actually, yeah throw The Sea and Cake - Oui on this list of fantastic 00s indie rock albums.

 

I still need to check out a lot of their stuff. I love the new album. Living All Over Me, and Where You Been are great.

 

Folky slow-core, chamber pop kinda stuff. Maybe think bright eyes with a bit more going on? Idk, they're pretty unique IMO but excellent

 

For me indie rock has always been simply bands that take the rock sound and do something a little different with it, in addition to just generally being underground and out of the mainstream limelight. Or at the very least getting brief mainstream attention but having a devoted cult following.

I think it's already been mentioned but Mean Everything To Nothing is another good album to throw out

 

I'm like a virgin losing a child >

 

I oscillate between the two but lately I've been feeling METN

 

Fair enough, both are classic

 

Brother, Sister deserves mention