I put real in brackets because there are too many wannabe indie bands of 2004 to present. When Coldplay released their debut in 2000, I loved it. And Them. Now EVERYONE loves them. They've got kinda commercial. Maybe that's good. But not if they've got it playing on the pop/dance music channels. It's the same with the Kaiser Chiefs, Artic Monkeys, The Streets, The Ordinary Boys ... and so on. The NME has turned into this crappy, stoopid magazine; they lick the Artic Monkeys' arses and call them the best band since ... I don't know when.

bring back the melody maker :D

:) My favourite indie bands ...         

. The Cure . The Smiths . Joy Division . Stone Roses . Happy Mondays . New Order . Manic Street Preachers .

I know a lot of people don't like Indie though, cus it's too soft for them .. then I know some people who only like Indie because Prog is boring and Metal is too heavy.

Hm ..

Some of my favourite Indie groups:

Arcade Fire
The Decembrists
The Flaming Lips
Joy Division
My Bloody Valentine
Neutral Milk Hotel
Sonic Youth
Xiu Xiu

I like the albums I have by them but need to listen to them all more often.

 -- Ivan

Don't even get me started on NME...being a mere 18 I'm possibly expected to like the sort of music they cover in their paper, but their hack journalism and blind following of flash in the pan bands just turns me right off. It's arguable in some respects that they are amongst those most responsible for the backlash against prog since the late 70s. NME recently disgusted me with their 'best British albums' poll which had The Arctic Monkeys at Number 5 (!), about a week after the album was released!! To be fair, some of my fave albums that are usually ignored, like the fantastic 'Oddesey and Oracle' by The Zombies, 'Bryter Layter' by Nick Drake and 'SF Sorrow' by The Pretty Things, were in there, but featuring an album that was technically hours old in a best ever poll was quite ridiculous.

I must admit I do find most indie rather 'soft' myself- bands like Keane, Snow Patrol, The Killers, The Bravery and of course, Coldplay, are amongst the wettest bands ever to masquerade under the term 'rock' and all do technically belong to the indie genre.

One band that has a degree of promise, though their singles seem to have been as uninspired as most indie fare, is The Mystery Jets; I heard a 10 minute epic by them lately that reminded me a little of King Crimson meets Caravan, though some Spinal Tap esque 'Listen To The Flower People' silliness creeped in at times. Yet, this shows some promise that at last indie acts may start experimenting beyond the usual territory...

what does indie mean?? how can a band could be considered indie, really i dont know that genre...

seeing the posts, most of the bands are english, i have heard a lot of times talk about brit-pop genre, coldplay, keane, travis, flaming lips, i dont know if brit pop and indie are the same...

sorry for my ignorance

salmacis wrote: Don't even get me started on NME...being a mere 18 I'm possibly expected to like the sort of music they cover in their paper, but their hack journalism and blind following of flash in the pan bands just turns me right off. It's arguable in some respects that they are amongst those most responsible for the backlash against prog since the late 70s. NME recently disgusted me with their 'best British albums' poll which had The Arctic Monkeys at Number 5 (!), about a week after the album was released!! To be fair, some of my fave albums that are usually ignored, like the fantastic 'Oddesey and Oracle' by The Zombies, 'Bryter Layter' by Nick Drake and 'SF Sorrow' by The Pretty Things, were in there, but featuring an album that was technically hours old in a best ever poll was quite ridiculous. I must admit I do find most indie rather 'soft' myself- bands like Keane, Snow Patrol, The Killers, The Bravery and of course, Coldplay, are amongst the wettest bands ever to masquerade under the term 'rock' and all do technically belong to the indie genre. One band that has a degree of promise, though their singles seem to have been as uninspired as most indie fare, is The Mystery Jets; I heard a 10 minute epic by them lately that reminded me a little of King Crimson meets Caravan, though some Spinal Tap esque 'Listen To The Flower People' silliness creeped in at times. Yet, this shows some promise that at last indie acts may start experimenting beyond the usual territory...

Yeah, The NME has gone from bad to WORSE in the last five years, since bands like Blur, Pulp and Oasis (well, the DECENT Oasis) dissapeared off the scene ..

I also like Soundgarden :) :x But I suposse they're not Indie ..

I always thought 'Indie' was a dog's name .. :>

x

Vompatti wrote: ^Brit pop and indie aren't the same thing, but I'm not sure about the definition of indie either. Anyway, The Smiths , Joy Division and early R.E.M. are some of my favourites. And if Echo & The Bunnymen can be considered indie, they're great too.

Oooh, yes, REM :) Document is a bloody good album :D

Yeah, Echo is cool :)

And The Ramones ..

Hey ho! Let's Go!

I guess they're not indie though ...  

:S

x

Here is a list of my favorites:

The Smiths, The Decemberists, The Dismemberment Plan, Iron & Wine, Broken Social Scene (borderline post-rock), Ted Leo & the Pharmacists, Sufjan Stevens, Death Cab for Cutie, Cursive, Andrew Bird, Pedro the Lion, Neutral Milk Hotel, The Flaming Lips, The New Amsterdams, The Get Up Kids, Murder by Death, Modest Mouse, Karate, Knapsack, The Jealous Sound, Interpol, The Gloria Record, Bear vs. Shark, Animal Collective, The Arcade Fire, and The Anniversary

Those are all the ones I could think of; some I like more than others.

And I love Coldplay.

Is Embrace an indie band??

help me!!

cool :) horray for the flaming lips. man their videos are random.

memowakeman wrote: Is Embrace an indie band?? help me!!

Indie is a very vast term. It's hard to know for certain in some cases. I don't know who Embrace is though, so I'm of no help.

I do! :D lol.

I don't know if they are. They're definately not rock, nor are they crappy pop. Nor are they prog.

So yeah, I suposse :>

:)

x

Yeah, the Futureheads rule :) when they did Kate Bush's version of Hounds of Love, I thought it was going to be rubbish, but it was so good :)

Horray for the television personalities :D

x

I like indie, but I must say it has got to be one of the most terrible genre names ever (being it is hardly descriptive).

Anyway, Modest Mouse is deffinitely my favorite when it comes to indie, but I also like My Bloody Valentine, The Pixies, The Smiths, The Shins, Secret Machines, The Flaming Lip and a bunch of other stuff too. I also absolutely love Coldplay and Death Cab for Cutie, but I guess their status as indie bands is fairly ambiguous? maybe? I don't know, they're at the top of the list with Modest Mouse, The Smiths and My Bloody Valentine for me.

Yeah, weird name for it ..

I suposse Coldplay are awrite :)

I loved Parachutes.

Horray the smiths :]

x

I'm another who likes this type of music. I thought Indie was a term for any band on an independent label.

I always love The Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil. Joy Division (ironic name, huh?). Well, there are many more, I'd just be relisting many that have already been mentioned.

Not sure if she qualifies but Danielle Dax music always blew me away. I classify her as prog but I'm in a minority, I know.

The problem as I see it:  A lot of Indie artists are Indie because they can't get a record deal or don't want a record deal (Artistic Control, etc.).

Several Indie bands have achieved a fair amount of success & ultimately gotten that deal - bringing fame & (sometimes) fortune. Also the record company will put up the money for a decent studio, marketing & touring (which the band must pay back out of record sales & touring).

With fame (fortune) & the Deal comes pressure to make Radio-Friendly music that can be shoved down the throats of a gullible public who, not coincidentally, has money to burn & tends to consume anything the media tells them is hot/good/fresh/etc.

This success turns the Indie band/artist into a commercial artist, no longer interested (seemingly) in making music. Now they are interested in making money. Sometimes the interest in making money is due to the fact that the deal they got from the record company had put them into debt - despite the fame & success.

It's a Catch-22.

The Fall are a great band and so are Mission Of Burma i guess there indie rock

I've listened to a lot of 'Indie' music over the years, but it's definition appears to have changed. In the 80's the term 'Indie' merely reffered to any artist who recorded independantly of a major label. There were loads of indie labels in the UK; Rough Trade, Situation 2, 4AD, Factory etc. Now the term seems to be used for any band that isn't pop, RnB, Soul or Rock. The 'Indie' scene seems to have changed too. It's a huge money market now, aimed at the masses. I believe you can sell anything to anyone if you have the right marketting tools.

Indie music went through a creative renaissance in the 90's IMO. Bands like Curve, The Boo Radleys, Fields of the Nephilim, Lush, Chapter House, Ride and The Cocteau Twins made very original and imaginiative music.

I feel like that 'genre' has`lost it's creativity and it's soul, but I accpet that I may just be getting old.

Blacksword wrote: I've listened to a lot of 'Indie' music over the years, but it's definition appears to have changed. In the 80's the term 'Indie' merely reffered to any artist who recorded independantly of a major label. There were loads of indie labels in the UK; Rough Trade, Situation 2, 4AD, Factory etc. Now the term seems to be used for any band that isn't pop, RnB, Soul or Rock. The 'Indie' scene seems to have changed too. It's a huge money market now, aimed at the masses. I believe you can sell anything to anyone if you have the right marketting tools. Indie music went through a creative renaissance in the 90's IMO. Bands like Curve, The Boo Radleys, Fields of the Nephilim, Lush, Chapter House, Ride and The Cocteau Twins made very original and imaginiative music. I feel like that 'genre' has`lost it's creativity and it's soul, but I accpet that I may just be getting old.

agreed, "indie" as it was used in the 80s, was more of a cultural economic position on where a band came from while releasing music, never was really an indie "sound" back then, as the 80s waned "Alternative" became an all purpose catch term to describe this music, as the major record labels coopted Alternative in the mainstream in the early 90s...Alternative wasn't really alternative anymore thus becoming the norm, during this time a lot of bands/labels/zines/clubs etc, choose to lean more towards the "indie" label while promoting a band as not to seem part of the Alt-Rock-Trend-rock establishment, as we see now as the turn of the century came about, Indie became the new Alternative as well as a fall back genre label to tag bands with that certain "indie sound", therefor becoming a bonafide genre where people hear the word "indie" they automatically assume a specific style, sound and group of bands, as seen by the bands listen in this thread,