Speaking of Frontier Psychiatrist, you should check out the Avalanches. I believe they only came out with one album....one of the best albums I own. Hmm...wonder if that website got the name from them.
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Indie = Old bands who didnt make it big before, now with 2nd breath on the "underground" scene who can claim they "kept it real" all along. Though they were going for those mainstream U2 type dollars. In a sense they lucked out by not making it big Nada Surf is NOT indie.
there is only a handful of 'indie' bands that I care for... Crippled Black Phoenix Autolux Candy Claws We Were Promised Jetpacks Grouper Menomena of course, all these bands should be properly classified into other sub-genres(shoegaze, ambient, drone, down-tempo blah blah blah) but whatever.
I really meant SOME bands. Not the ENTIRE scene, sorry to generalize. And for sure I didnt mean any of the bands YOU mentioned. Should have just quoted your first sentence. (I was just trying to make fun of the particular cheater bands out there trying to slip in. Partial fail.)
See, if you are talking indie rock, there are many subgenre's out there and you don't want to be looking like a fool when you begin a conversation with a trust fund kid while randomly walking around Williamsburg in order to find the best hummus joint. We have things like mainstream indie, indie pop, indie synth, indie electro, lo fi, shoegaze, post punk, new wave, folk, freak folk, math rock, and chillwave amongst others. Then if we are feeling extra special or extra cool at the moment we will specify the band by their geographical domain. In the USA, we have about 4 epi centers for indie rock. They include Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Grizzly Bear, Dirty Projectors, The National), Portland, Oregon/NW (Menomena, Blitzen Trapper, Band of Horses, Fleet Foxes), Austin, Texas (Voxtrot, Neon Indian) and Baltimore, Maryland (Yeasayer, Dan Deacon, Animal Collective, Beach House, PonyTail). If you aren't living in one of these four places, you are missing out and life is passing you by. I feel sorry for you. If you can't get a visa to come and live or work or go to school in the USA there are also indie rock scenes worldwide. There is a British indie rock scene, which is the weakest in my opinion, because they focus alot on melodies and smooth sounding music. The epicenter of the English scene is in Brighton and London. Bands from that scene include Bat for Lashes, Cajun Dance Party, Bombay Bicycle Club, Fryars, Mystery Jets, and Lo Fi Culture Scene. We also have bigger acts like Hot Chip, Arctic Monkeys, Editors and Bloc Party. One thing of interest, is that the British audience tends to embrace younger acts more so than in the States. Most of the bands listed above here from this scene have the average age of the acts of 20 and below. Also alot of these British indie rock bands have been heavily influenced by The Strokes. If you travel further east you will come across the Scandinavian indie rock scene. This is by far my most favourite of them all. Sweden: The Tough Alliance Peter Bjorn and John Jose Gonzalez The Sounds Shout Out Louds Lykke Li Jens Lekman Mary Onnettes Kleerup Tallest Man on Earth Air France CasioKids Denmark: Mew Moi Caprice Norway: Royksopp Kings of Convenience Erland Oye Whitest Boy Alive Wow, talk about amazing. For such a small place these people are indie-tastic. Oh so, you still can't get a visa to the USA, but want to live somewhat like an American? Then travel to Canada, home to one of the best indie rock scenes anywhere. Canada embraces the jangly, jerky sounds of guitar riff indie rock. Most of the Canadian acts are either from Toronto or Montreal. Very few from Vancouver. We have: Wolf Parade Tokyo Police Club Arcade Fire Handsome Furs Sunset Rubdown Caribou Born Ruffians Great Lakes Swimmers No Kids Junior Boys Finally Australia has a scene. They are bigger into the electro-indie scene. They feature acts like Cut Copy, Presets, Pnau and Empire of the Sun. Good music to dance to or while you are on acid. Australians like to party and are in general are real ****tards. What is really in right now in the indie community is the chillwave genre. We are talking about acts like Neon Indian, Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, and Memory Tapes. There is this new chillwave artist, Twin Shadow, coming out with his album pretty soon. It hasn't leaked yet, but they will be talking about it at all over priced coffee shops and bodegas pretty soon. This is all present day indie rock. Tell that homeboy. (I wrote most of this for an radio piece I did overseas a couple of months ago. I made some time relevant additions here though)
If you want indie cred +9000... Check out My Next Door Neighbor. It's the alter ego for a talented young singer/songwriter who combines modal jazz scales and unique time signatures, contrasted with experimental guitar sounds that hearken back to earlier noise rock like the Boredoms or Sonic Youth. He's seriously underground and only the hippest of hungry, hungry hipsters know of him. By the way, I have the honor and privilege to say he's quite literally...my next door neighbor. Also, he's 15, he just started playing a few weeks ago, and told me he's never had lessons and 'still trying to figure out what a chord is.' I told him he's hilarious and he deadpans, 'no seriously, what's a chord?'. The kid is not only a genius but a sarcastic son of a gun. Keep an eye out for this guy. I'd also like to recommend Bon Iverson, although I may have gotten the spelling wrong, google them. They specialize in quirky, ironic Bon Jovi covers and happen to be big fans of Allen Iverson, thus the name. Kind of like what Pearl Jam wanted to do with Mookie Blaylock. Spoiler Still can't believe people didn't get my last joke about them.
also indie cred +2 when I went to SXSW this year I attended The Mylene Sheath showcase, mainly to see Caspian and Gifts From Enola, but luckily I ran into a band called Junius. I was really blown away by them, but after 3 days of scotch and weed, I completely forgot about them. A few weeks ago, I ordered some **** from the Mylene Sheath, mostly just to support my friends Actors and Actresses. But, as a bonus I received a maxi-single of Junius. My gawd, I cannot stop listening to them. These guys are seriously crawling into my top 5 of all time. think of a cross between Tears For Fears, Mono, sprinkle in a lil There Will Be Fireworks and add a hint of The Cure/Duran Duran and you seriously have one of the greatest eclectic sounds eva. enjoy......... <object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6p4gf1ZQ2xQ&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6p4gf1ZQ2xQ&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object> <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/byh1SCi89IM&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/byh1SCi89IM&hl=en_US&fs=1?rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
