Harping on about genre names is pretty annoying, I know... but ... When I was at uni I got into early Tortoise, Directions, Rome, To Rococo Rot, Kreidler and Ui. Others called this post-rock and I thought it was good stuff. It was generally quite lively and/or psychedelic music that reached well beyond a rock pallette towards jazz, dub, house ... it felt very open to me, like any of these acts could reach out in numerous directions.
Somewhere around 97 (?) things like Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor came along and people were saying this was post-rock too. I bought 'Young Team' and listened to a friend's copy of that first GYBE one too, but was pretty bored by it all. It seemed very "dramatic" - somber, rock building to huge, crashing climaxes and then settling down again. Repeatedly. It fitted in with stuff on labels like Kranky, and people were calling this post-rock too.
So now it seems like if I talk to anyone about "post-rock" they're thinking of the latter, moody business. Which is stink for me cos I have no terms for the kind of music that I do like that can help me find new things in a similar vein. Some people called things like To Rococo Rot and Kreidler "neu Kraut", but that seems to only refer to a very small group of artists.