From my iPod 2/28/2015: Indie

·         The Airborne Toxic Event – Los Angeles based indie-emo rock with great lyrics and musicianship of college-educated Gen Xers [The Airborne Toxic Event (2007), All I Ever Wanted: Live from Walt Disney Concert Hall (2010), All At Once (2011), Such Hot Blood (2013), Dope Machines (2015), Songs of God and Whiskey (2015)]

·         Alvvays – female vocal indie watching the pedestrians pass the sidewalk [Alvvays (2014)]

         Amanda Palmer – female cabaret raw sexual candid ukulele piano dynamo [Who Killed Amanda Palmer (2008), Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele (2010), Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under (2011), Theatre is Evil (2012)]

·         Angel Olsen – darker female vocal indie haunt with plugged in bass [Burn Your Fire For No Witness (2014)]

·         Antony And the Johnsons – heavenly chamber indie songs from an almost alien realm of angels, changed me, pierced me, cut me and blended with feelings I had but did not know the music that fit with, simple beautiful, Like nothing else, one of the angels  Icon [Antony and the Johnsons (2004), The Lake –single (2004), I am a Bird Now (2005), Hope There’s Someone-single (2005), You Are My Sister-single (2005), Another World-single (2008), The Crying Light (2009), Epilepsy is Dancing-single (2009), Swanlights (2010), Cut the World (2012)]

·         A Fine Frenzy – female voiced emotional slow music [One Cell In the Sea (2007)]

·         Aphex Twin – electronica beat matrix [Syro (2014)]

·         Arcade Fire – An orchestra in a band of indie Canadian fury and layered musicianship with dance beats on occasion [Funeral (2004), Neon Bible (2007), The Suburbs (2010), Reflektor (2013)]

·         Beach House – low-key haunting sparkle music [Teen Dream (2010), Bloom (2012)]

·         Bjork – a cracking other worldly embryo of sound [Greatest Hits (2008), Bastards (2012), Biophilia Remix Series 1 (2012)]

·        Blondie – blueprint female vocal indie taking no prisoners [Blondie (), Autoamerican (1980), The Curse of Blondie (2003), Panic of Girls (2011), Blondie 4(0)-Ever: Greatest Hits Deluxe Redux / Ghosts of Download (2014)]

·         Blur – indie quiet modern commentary, ok nothing great [Modern Life is Rubbish (1993), The Best of Blur (2000)]

·         Bon Iver – solo passionate shattered and rebuilding voice in an indie folk feel [For Emma, Forever Ago (2007), Bon Iver (2011)]

·         Bright Eyes – indie rock of singing of adult stories [The People’s Key (2011)]

·         Cage the Elephant – wandering caravan of indie with a dance flux [Melophobia (2013)]

·         Carla Bruni – French guitar and solo vocals wandering tongue [Quelqu’un M’a Dit (2003), Little French Songs (2013)]

·         The Cure – haunting madness love indie of bipolar highs and lows in a Pagliacci overcoat [Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me: Rarities 1986-1987 (1986), Disintegration (2010)]

·         Daft Punk – electronic probably over-hyped but some dancing goodness [Muique Vol. I 1993-2005 (), Discovery (2001), Random Access Memories (2013)]

·         David Bowie – the original indie pansexual alien icon [Space Oddity (1969), The Man Who Sold the World (1970), Hunky Dory (1971), The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars (1972), Diamond Dogs (1974), Heroes (1977), Scary Monsters (1980), The Next Day (2013), Nothing Has Changed (2014) ]

·         Dawes – indie quiet voice and disaffected drift [Stories Don’t End (2013)]

·         Death Cab for Cutie – indie relationship songs that sometimes bleed into one another [Something About Airplanes (1998), We Have The Facts and We’re Voting Yes (2000), The Photo Album (2001), Transatlanticism (2013), Plans (2005), Narrow Stairs (2008), Codes and Keyes (2011)]

    The Dresden Dolls  – punk cabaret duo featuring Amanda Palmer emotional, sexual, deep, at times funny  [The Dresden Dolls (2002), A Is for Accident (2003), Yes, Virginia (2006), No, Virginia (2008)]

·         Explosions in The Sky – indie instrumental quiet night cosmos accompaniment [Take Care, Take Care, Take Care (2011)]

·         FKA twigs – haunting electronic angelic painting heart female voice artist [LP1 (2014)]

·         The Flaming Lips – bizarre psychedelic indie consortium tripping experiments [Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002), The Terror (2013)]

·         Fleet Foxes – distant haunt folk luring you into the woods to sit [Fleet Foxes (2008)]

·         Florence + The Machine – power-voice of angels rising from gothic darkness and also a playfulness to howl shake god in you [Lungs (2009), Ceremonials (2011)]

·         Flying Lotus – electronica mind warp calling from Saturn [You’re Dead! (2014)]

·         Foster The People – indie burning man gathering with some dance beats [Torches (2011)]

·         Franz Ferdinand – indie pop with arranged musicianship [Right Thoughts Right Words Right Action (2013)]

·         Fun. – clear and playful use of auto tune vocals for a guy who can actually sing with indie pop hooks [Some Nights (2012)]

·         Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ten to twenty minute song instrumental indie symphony [Yanqui U.X.O. (2002)]

·        Grimes – electronica sex sirens of the night playing on the dance floor.  Makes me want to dance and get physical. [Geidi Primes (2010), Halfaxa (2010), Visions (2012)]

·         Haerts – indie pop with an 80’s feel wanting you to be quiet and sexual [Hemiplegia (2013)]

·        Hozier – Irish artist blaring at God mixing folk, soul, punk middle finger and coming out indie paint brush of multi-color challenging humanity to spend some time in the soul  [Hozier (2014)]

·         Iggy Pop – toned down from Stooges days with emaciated punk roots [Blah-Blah-Blah (1986)]

·         Iron & Wine – sit in the grass together indie-folk and see love in the horizon’s haze [Around The Well (2009), Kiss Each other Clean (2011)]

·         James Blake – electronica male voice with piano, intimate and haunting [James Blake (2011)]

·         Joanna Newsom – hummingbird female vocal indie solo strumming with a unicorn [The Milk-Eyed Mender (2004)]

·         Julian Casablancas – solo project of singer from the Strokes with tingling electronic melodies [Phrazes For the Young (2009)]

·         Lana Del Rey – indie pop wants to play bad and tease you until you break no matter how bad she treats the good boys or how badly the bad boys treat her, sex and drugs are a coating [Born To Die (2012), Paradise (2012), Ultraviolence (2014)]

·         Lou Reed – Velvet Underground statesman of the blurred mascara male toking junkie streets and smiling alley scars [Transformer (1972), Berlin (1973), Rock And Roll Heart (1976), Walk On the Wild Side – The Best of Lou Reed ()]

·         Magnetic Fields – mostly indie, but a solid album for what the title says [69 Love Songs Volume 1 (1999)]

·         Mike Doughty – former Soul Coughing lead singer who did something totally different after escaping drug addiction, great lyrics, sort of indie, guitar solo style on most of it, has that hip-hop poet rhythm piece in the back of a lot of songs [Skittish / Rockity Roll (2004), Haughty Melodic (2005), Golden Delicious (2008), Sad Man Happy Man (2009), Dubious Luxury (2011), Yes and Also Yes (2011), The Question Jar Show (2012), The Flip Is Another Honey (2012), Circles (2013), Stellar Motel (2014)]

·         Matt and Kim – energetic poppy drum and keyboard duo vibrant fun lyrics in electronic indie pop [S/T (2006), Sidewalks (2010), Lightning (2012)]

·         Metric – synth pop female fairy electric indie light show [Fantasies (2009)]

·         MGMT – acid/punk/dance with infectious hooks [Time To Pretend (2009), Congratulations (2010), MGMT (2013)]

·         Modest Mouse – indie caravan of traveling indie oddness working as a staple in the genre [This is a long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About (1996), The Lonesome Crowded West (1997), Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004), We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (2007), The Moon & Antarctica (), No One’s First, And You’re Next EP (2009)]

·         Muse – the universe surging through the human form in an indie pulse [Black Holes and Revelations (2006), The Resistance (2009), The 2^nd Law (2012)]

·         My Morning Jacket – haunting space needle older indie [Circuital (2011)]

·         The National – indie college fair wanting, bored, and dead from love [The National (2001), Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers (2009), Cherry Tree (2009), High Violet (2010), Trouble Will Find Me (2013)]

·         The New Pornographers – three headed sing veteran indie squad of keys, guitar, and bass with the occasional dance rhythm but always smart [Mass Romantic (2000), Electric Version (2003), Brill Bruisers (2014)]

·         Nine Inch Nails –Trent Reznor pulls at the darkness of human hatred, sex, religion, god, hate, love, and isolation and makes you look at it in an industrial piano/guitar/drum assault master composer confrontation, Icon [Pretty Hate Machine (1989) Broken (2004), The Downward Spiral (1994), The Fragile (1999), Live: And All That Could Have Been (2002), With Teeth (2005), Year Zero (2007), Still (2007), The Slip (2008),  Hesitation Marks (2013) [I had a bunch of singles and others and they were all stolen from my car once.]]

·         OK Go – indie pop guitar driven fun [Of The Blue Colour of the Sky (2010), 180/365 (2011), Hungry Ghosts (2014)]

·         Pete Yorn & Scarlett Johansson – serviceable indie folk effort [Break Up (2009)]

·         Phoenix – French indie pop festival dance bomb [Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (), Bankrupt! ()]

·         Pink Floyd – I see why people are addicted, I assume if I did drugs this would open something else, not my favorite band but size of music can be mind-blowing at times [The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967), Ummagumma – Live album (1969),. Ummagumma – Studio Album (1969), Atom Heart Mother (1970), Meddle (1971), Animals (1977), Obscured By Clouds (1972), The Dark Side of the Moon (1973), Wish You Were Here (1975), The Wall (1979), The Final Cut (1983), A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987), The Division Bell (1994), The Best of Pink Floyd – A Foot in the Door (2011),Music From the Film More (),A Saucerful of Secrets (),]

·         The Postal Service – indie rock document [Give Up (2005)]

·         Pulp – indie sex lipstick with a late night bar tab haunting humans colliding and combusting [His ‘N Hers (1994), Different Class (1995), This is Hardcore (1998)]

·         Radiohead – foundational indie band, still digesting their catalog, not my go to, but there are moments of greatness in distant indie adult pain and presence [OK Computer (2003), Me & This Army: Radiohead Remixes (2005), Radiohead (2007), The Best of (2008), Towering Above the Rest Boxset Discs 1 to 10 (2007)]

·         Regina Spektor – quirky endearing singer/piano with Russian influence that makes you fall in love [Begin To Hope (2006), Far (2009), Live In London (2010), What We Saw From the Cheap Seats (2012)]

·         R.E.M. – indie rock godfathers, blazing mental acumen and spiritual longing with revolutionist stances [Reckoning (1984), Live at the Aargon Ballroom 7/7/1984, Document (1987), Green (1988), Automatic for the People (1992), Monster (1994)]

·         Rilo Kiley – indie female singer Jenny Lewis emotional portrait with the band [The Execution of All Things (2002), rkives (2013)]

·         San Fermin – indie orchestral unit of sound haunting from male and female vocals [San Fermin (2013), Sonsick –single (2013)]

·         Sharon Von Etten – brave indie raw female voice love and shadows [Tramp (2012), Are We There (2013)]

·         She & Him – quirk song project with romantic daydreams [Volume 3 (2013)]

·         Skrillex – indie electronica dance bomb made for a crowd I probably will never wish to be devoured by, but has its place [Recess (2014)]

·         Sleater-Kinney – indie female punk power [The Woods (2005)]

·         Smashing Pumpkins – indie vets that I was never that big on because I find their songs too long, but went to some good places when they got loud, staple of being in high school in the mid 90’s [Siamese Dream (1993), Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)]

·         The Smiths – Morrissey’s wail morn melancholy before he went insane [The Smiths (1984), Hatful of Hollow (1984), Meat is Murder (1985), The Queen is Dead (1986), Louder Than Bombs (1987)]

·         Sonic Youth – indie rock vets snarling secrets [EVOL (1986), Dirty (1992)]

·         Soul Coughing – drug/jazz/upright bass New York poetic groove rock [Ruby Vroom (1994), Irresistible Bliss (1996), El Oso (1998)]

·     St. Vincent – indie queen rattling cages in beats and guitar like a lovely indie-pop dark witch [Strange Mercy (2011), St. Vincent (2014)]

·         The Strokes – indie hard rock synth punks [Is This It (2001), First Impressions Of Earth (2006)]

·         Talking Heads – David Byrne is an indie god, big sounds, boundary breaking, best live concert movie ever, there is an artistic unapologetic outsider quality to Talking Heads as a band that mixes isolated human want for interconnection in absence with the playful celebration of a giant party so well. Icons [Remain in Light (1980) Speaking in Tongues (1983), Fear of Music (1984), Stop Making Sense (1984), Little Creatures (1985),The Best of the Talking Heads (2004)]

·         They Might Be Giants – more cute than adult in my experience. But I saw them and got this album a while back [Flood (1990)]

·         The Ting Tings – indie pop dance hook driven party, a bit too basic for me though [We Started Nothing (2008)]

·         The Undertones – indie Irish vet pop-punk cricket twang kick [The Best of the Undertones (2010)] Music from late 1970’s early 1980’s

·         Vampire Weekend – English major, juxtaposition of images indie/rock infectious candy symphony [Vampire Weekend (2008), Conra (2010), Modern Vampires of the City (2013)]

·         Velvet Underground – I use to big a bigger Lou Reed fan than I am now, his LuLu Metallica project really made me question everything, but this is the roots of Lou Reed [The Velvet Underground (1967)]

·         The War on Drugs – indie detox contemplative burn in a room surge wash while riding alone in a car at night thinking if you should just turn into a telephone pole [Lost In The Dream (2014)]

·         Washed Out – indie pop beat staring into a lover’s eyes and haunt electronica [Within and Without (2011)]

·         Waxahatchee – indie solo acoustic female about to slit wrists guitar bare naked heart, one of my recent favorite discoveries [American Weekend (2012), Cerulean Sault (2013)]

·         Weezer– indie nerd rock gods, seeing girls break their hearts and intelligent minds that ruin their lives [Weezer (Blue Album ) (1994), Make Believe (2005), Weezer (Red Album (2008), Raditude (2009), Hurley (2010), Everything Will Be Allright In the End (2014)]

·         Weston – cute highschool indie rock band [Got Beat Up (1996), Matinee (1997)]

·         Yeah Yeah Yeahs – indie rock female vocals cooing sideways from an industrial shadow of occasional rap [Mosquito (2013)]

·         311 – fun and sometimes childish rock/rap that can put down hooks 311, a little too much like a frat party at times, but I had an ex who had them as her favorite band so I have seen them several times and have respect for what they brought to the table after an ocean of inferior imitators [(1995), Greatest Hits ’93 – ’03 (2004), The Very Best of 311 (2010), 8/16/2011 Morrison CO (2011)]  

Compilations

·         (500) Days of Summer Soundtrack – The Smiths, Regina Spektor
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