need some help with indie rock

[JesustheMexicanBoy]

Check out Neutral Milk Hotel. ITAOTS is one of the best albums of all time, in my opinion.

[underclass hero]

i didnt like them much but thanks for the offer

[CMB1888]

The Arcade Fire & Arctic Monkeys (best 2 indie bands beginning with A on my ipod)

Also - the Libertines - so indie it probably hurts

[JonG]

I think "indie" gets used to describe what used to be called "alternative". Five years ago all three of the above bands would have been described as such.

[CMB1888]

Mmmm....see what you mean - in my mind there's a line - I see alternative as more rock/punk/weird than the bands above but I probably would also think of bands like Razorlight and Athlete as more pop then indie (and also not very good).

[trbc08]

I don't even understand what indie is, unless Wikipedia or Last FM tags it as such. I always thought The Smiths were the first British indie band (considering they had their own label, if I remember correctly) and that the Libertines are continuing in that tradition. As far as indie rock goes... I'll have to go through my list of stuff and see if it's indie enough to post.

[CMB1888]

I've had a discussion with a few people I know about what indie is -with pitifully inconsistent results. I think a label which started out referring to the method of record release rather than the type of music played is going to be a 'catch-all' phrase which is so broad as to be nearly pointless.

For what it's worth - I always think of indie as bands (mostly from Manchester) who play lots of jangly guitars - and 95% of any of the bands featured in NME (I exclude primarily their strange flirtation with My Chemical Romance some months ago). Of course this would currently include Jay-Z's 'Wonderwall' preformance at Glastonbury......mmmm.

However as I'm Irish, I guess 'indie' outside Europe could mean something entirely different.

Much easier to define 'indie' fashion than the music - skinny scarves and cardigans anyone?

[JonG]

I've had a discussion with a few people I know about what indie is -with pitifully inconsistent results. I think a label which started out referring to the method of record release rather than the type of music played is going to be a 'catch-all' phrase which is so broad as to be nearly pointless.

Please go read my post on page 1: post #7.

As an American I don't associate indie rock with the UK much. At least, not at its beginnings. As usual allmusic.com comes to the rescue:

...indie rock is free to explore sounds, emotions, and lyrical subjects that don't appeal to large, mainstream audiences...It's very much rooted in the sound and sensibility of American underground and alternative rock of the '80s...indie rock truly separated itself from alternative rock around the time that Nirvana hit the mainstream. ...the general assumption is that it's virtually impossible to make indie rock's varying musical approaches compatible with mainstream tastes... the music may be too whimsical and innocent; too weird; too sensitive and melancholy; too soft and delicate; too dreamy and hypnotic; too personal and intimately revealing in its lyrics; too low-fidelity and low-budget in its production; too angular in its melodies and riffs; too raw, skronky and abrasive; wrapped in too many sheets of Sonic Youth/Dinosaur Jr./Pixies/Jesus & Mary Chain-style guitar noise; too oblique and fractured in its song structures; too influenced by experimental or otherwise unpopular musical styles...

[idiotequeesque]

The Dresden Dolls?
Also, try The Redwalls. I've recently gotten into them and they are sick. Think Beatles meets The Who meets The Strokes.

[CMB1888]

[quote=JonG]Please go read my post on page 1: post #7.

Actually that's a much more useful definition of indie to define current music but your post confirms for me that UK 'Indie' and US 'Indie' generally must have come from different sources and influences.

The UK version very definitely came from bands who used independent labels to release their music - most obviously the Smiths. I can't think of any of these bands that were in any way 'rock' and I do think of 'indie' in this way as only really existing in the 1980s.

US 'Indie' seems more rock-based and 'alternative' and so don't fit into my narrower 'British' definition.

Current UK use of the word is probably more in accordance with your more generic 'indie' definition but still retains I think the 'less rock' sensibilities.

I think I have now completed my quota of squashing music into categories for the day!