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[Wysiwyg]

So, what are the bands that any " indie boy/girl" must have in his/hers background because they are obvious? I mean, the bands that nobody cames saying "Dude! I just found this band called Jesus & Mary Chain, do you know it?" without hearing "Doh" as answer.

Some i want to list: My Bloody Valentine, Pavement, Suede, Sonic Youth, Flaming Lips

Go from there.

[jdn]

Modest Mouse, The Mars Volta, Cursive, Ugly Casanova, The Postal Serive to list a few..

[Korlin]

Despite not having actually listenes to them myselves yet, I'd probably add Slint.

Are you looking at just old, 'classic' stuff? Or also including the BIG bands of todays that are getting promoted up the wazoo, like Franz Ferdinand and Death Cab for Cutie?

[Wysiwyg]

I listed old ones because most of my music is 'old school', but i´d love to see some relatively new bands. I don´t like to see very recent bands, thought, because i´m looking exactly for the "classics": bands that had some influence in what we see today (like MBV) or recent ones that aren´t very know in mainstream but known by hipsters like us (like Placebo).

[church]

Indie kids know about Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine?!

Since when?! I mean, sure, maybe they've heard of them but I find it highly unlikely that most indie kids would own any of these bands records. Most of them are too concerned with the bleeding edge of music to care too much about stuff from the shoegazing scene.

[Wysiwyg]

Indie kids know about Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine?!

They don´t, that´s my point. Those are the ones who cames with PsychoCandy saying "look what i found!" like it was the newest thing in the world. And we´re (supposed to be) the hipsters, the ones saying "Doh" to these poor little souls and who´ll teach them about is Velvet Underground.

[church]

Well either you're asking for obscure bands everyone should know but only people who devote way too much time to music know or you're asking for bands that the typical indie kid should know to remain scene but might not. You can't have it both ways.

[Wysiwyg]

I´ll go with the earlier, the latter for me are just posers...  I mean, it´s kind of a shock to me that someone who titles him/herself as "indie" doesn´t know a single album from MBV, JMC or even Placebo!

[Mercurial]

Though I'm no longer sure what the topic is, I firmly believe that every indie kid needs to listen to the Pixies, at least a little, in order to have any perspective on what followed.  Ditto for MBV, but that was in the original post.

[church]

Wysiwyg - I'm assuming you're somewhere from S.America. The thing you have to understand is that people in S.America have a very different concept of indie music than people in N.America do.

[Wysiwyg]

Which is?

[church]

S.American indie kids know a lot more about the british scene than N.American kids do. For instance, if I asked the average S.American indie kid if they've heard of say James, Catherines Wheel or Black Box Recorder odds are they have at least heard of them. N.Ameican indie kids, much less likely to have heard of them.  And I also find that S.American indie kids know a little less about N.American indie music. Though they're not as much in the dark as N.Americans are about british stuff.

[3Z3VH]

Wait, I thought the whole point of being indie is that you listen to what you enjoy listening to... not "what every other indie kid listens to"... Am I wrong ?

How can there be Essential Indie Albums if the Essence of indie is to listen to whatever tickles your willy.

Seriously.  If someone was truly indie, their recommendations in this thread could be diametric to another, equally indie, person's.

If anyone laughs at what you listen to, they are not indie, or at least don't understand indie.

[church]

I'm not indie so I laugh at will.

[3Z3VH]

I also thought the topic of this thread was funny... "Name the popular obscure music" (?!)

[betteroffdead]

um i think the shins are a more well known indie-type band...

and yes this subject is pretty funny... ahhh oxymorons

[captainawesome]

You could always, y'know, just listen to music you like.  It doesn't have to be "indie" or something that no one else listens to.

[Johnny C]

Judging from the top-lists this year, my answer is The Arcade Fire.

[c1utch]

I dont consider myself indie and I have a few (2) pixies albums and a placebo album.

Pixies i bought after watching fight club (yea, i red the book the same night, so i'm not ALL bad)

Placebo i got after hearing Every Me, Every You.

I listen to what i like, reccomended or no.

[synecdoche]

I'm not exactly a full-out Indie kid, but I have heard of MBV and Jesus and Mary Chain (as well as Catherine Wheel and Black Box Recorder), as have most of the indie-ish types I know.  I don't think it is so odd.

I've also heard Placebo.  I just don't like them.

But yeah, mostly I listen to what I like, wherever it is from.  if you like the Pixies after hearing them in Fight Club, that's great.  If you like a band after hearing Jeph or anyone else recommend them, that's cool, too.  It doesn't matter.  Listen to what you like.

[Wysiwyg]

Wait, I thought the whole point of being indie is that you listen to what you enjoy listening to... not "what every other indie kid listens to"... Am I wrong ?(...)

So the ultimate indie person is the one who makes bands up, since it´s the only way so nobody knows it! C´mon, is not that contradictory because there are some bands considered obscure by most people but that are well known by people who search for them - like Spoon and Arcade Fire. Hm, maybe if i change "indie" to "alternative"...

And church...

S.American indie kids know a lot more about the british scene than N.American kids do.(...)

That´s very interesting, because i do know more about british than the american scene. Did you had many contacts with people from South America?

Anyway... what was this thread all about?

[BrittanyMarie]

This thread amuses me and I LIKE IT!

Elbow
Guided by Voices
Spoon
Clinic
Lambchop
Elliott Smith
Beat Happening
Camper Van Beethoven
Jeff Buckley
Fugazi
Neutral Milk Hotel
Wilco
You guys sho have hit a lot though, VU, J&MC, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Pixies, Pavement, Modest Mouse

Though most hipsters I know are big into labels... so the major indie labels like Matador, K, and Subpop are all really well-known.

[church]

Wysiwyg - Yes. Mainly from my brit pop days.


I'm going to have to add Hanson as a popular indie band.

[MetaPop]

Zak is teh buff!

[Disko]

Just from an English point of view:


Radiohead
Oasis
Pixies
Grandaddy
Flaming Lips
Eels
Blur
Supergrass
Elastica
Mercury Rev
Super Furry Animals

By the way... someone put Elbow before, they are godlike(I'm just being all pro-manchester) put I wouldn't expect everyone to know about them.

There's probably a few bands I've missed too, I'd list Pavement, but it's more of a US thing than from "round these parts."

[Hostile]

To be honest, I kinda draw the line between emo and indie based on nationality. It seems to me that all the good indie acts are British, and all the American "indie" acts are actually emo.

Then again, I suck at genre's, so ignore me.

[astrowench]

I'll throw in Belle and Sebastien and the Wrens.

[jeph]

Just from an English point of view:
Mercury Rev

It's weird how much more popular Mercury Rev are over there. They're still pretty unknown here, mainly because Deserter's Songs had the misfortune to come out the same year as the Flaming Lips' The Soft Bulletin.

[Spike]

It's funny because I listen to a lot of the bands that are recommended here simply because I find that most of them tend to be good bands. I can't say I could recommend any because well I don't know any others.

[upupdowndown]

all the boys over at ilm are into Annie and LCD Soundsystem. go figure.

[krug]

I always thought "Indie" meant that the music was independently produced, rather than obscure.  Perhaps that's just me being old fashioned, though.

And by that definition, one can eliminate half of Disko's list as being Britpop/rock/*, but not Indie.

How big does a record label have to be before you're no longer considered Indie?  What happens to an Indie band that switches to a bigger label, like the Flaming Lips did?  Do they stop being Indie?

[aekastar]

A friend told me the one bad thing about me concerning my good taste in music is that I don't go back to its roots.  I don't listen to many old bands.  this is mostly due to only realllly getting into music around '98.  before that, I had weird phases like 'the country phase' and 'the rap phase' which were both unfortunate and amusing all at once.

Of course, I can say with confidence that I've heard of most of the bands mentioned here.  it could be due to trading mix cds with quite enough people over the years including the friend mentioned.

Well, in '98, I traded mixtapes (oh! the stone age!) with this English guy and discovered Mercury Rev, Belle & Sebastian, Elliott Smith.  it just took me awhile to see it as worth looking into further.

Also, of things not mentioned yet perhaps:
Boards of Canada
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Talk Talk
Tortoise
Cocteau Twins
Afghan Whigs
The Sea and Cake
Manic Street Preachers

Well, maybe some of those are still a bit obscure.... plus, I don't see as indie and obscure going hand in hand.. I do admit to sometimes saying I'm into indie music, but really I'm just into obscure music.  I swear, most my mainstream friends have no idea what I'm talking about... even with The Pixies!!  I practically ripped my hair out when people I spoke to said they had never heard of them.  ah well.. not everyone is that well versed including me as previously stated.  I was in the dark for a lot of things till people knocked me over the head with it.

[honest_that_way]

Whether you are into indie or not you should know about J&MC and My Bloody Valentine just because they were so important at their time. The Holocaust section by Shields just shook people at gigs and completey changed what many people thought could be done at a live show whilst J&MC had this intense, distorted drone which so many bands ahve been influenced by, certainly the fact neither of the Reeds could play guitar to any decent level. Then of course you've gotta include Teenage Fanclub.

[jeph]

all the boys over at ilm are into Annie and LCD Soundsystem. go figure.

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of Anniemal for WEEKS now. Stupid local record stores.

[Mercurial]

I'd like to get that Annie disc as well.  I've heard that song she did with Royksopp, and it's a nice bit of Norwegian pop music (see other Royksopp, Erlend Oye, Kings of Convenience...), so I'm curious.

[aekastar]

all the boys over at ilm are into Annie and LCD Soundsystem. go figure.

I've been trying to get my hands on a copy of Anniemal for WEEKS now. Stupid local record stores.

Well, it says it's coming out March '05 on Amazon UK.  oh yes, I've checked for it, too.

Instead, I ended up being all illegal and evil thus downloading the whole thing and burning a copy for now.  if anyone wants, I can upload the whole thing to my site.  I uploaded the chewing gum song thus far :D

[upupdowndown]

i think the annie album is still up at oink's, that's where i got it.

[BrittanyMarie]

By the way... someone put Elbow before, they are godlike(I'm just being all pro-manchester) put I wouldn't expect everyone to know about them.

F'real? All my hipster friends are in love with Asleep in the Back. But the bands I posted earlier are basic knowledge I thought... at least among indie kids anyway.

[Disko]

Well they aren't really essential indie, more like a nice indie delicacy.

I keep forgetting they're well known in the states now, how did it happen? I think a couple of magazines got their hands on Cast of Thousands....

Even having said that, they're fairly new to the whole being famous malarky, I was more listing indie bands that have been around for a while, and hold a big influence, i.e. Pixies, Radiohead, Oasis, the Flaming Lips (and everything else Dave Fridmann.)

[honest_that_way]

and phoenix - i think i better run, run, run. Okay, maybe not, but I can't get enough of it at the moment. Hail Paris.

[Schmung]

The whole American indie scene confuses shit out of me becuase you're naming bands that I always thought were something else, like say Sonic Youth, who I'd always thought of as more the grunge side of things. Mind you, I can't even agree with people in my own country about what Indie is, since it would appear that I've pretty much gone and made up my own defenitions of whats what. To me, Indie hovers around the Blur, Elbow, Interpol, Doves area of things. Once you start talking abour Radiohead you're somewhere else entirely and bands like, say, the Manic, have always seemed a bit more rock oriented to me.

[captainawesome]

Indie is short for independent, which usually means a band that either is on an independent record label (one not owned by the RIAA), or not on a label at all. I'm fairly sure this is the only requirement to be an indie band.  Other than that, it's free to interpretation.

Which is funny, because half the bands listed here aren't actually independent, they're either on one of the 5 major record labels, or on a subset of them.

Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, Suede, The Mars Volta, Placebo, The Pixies, Belle and Sebastian (as of 2003), all are on major record labels, therefore fail the first requirement to be "indie." Granted, yes, they are all excellent bands, but classifying them under indie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, as they aren't independent.

But then, I believe classifications are part of the problem with the modern music scene.  Classifications do nothing but limit.

[honest_that_way]

Indie has taken on a different slant, bands were orignally indie if they were independant but the style of music they created influenced bands who did sign to major labels, or indeed they did themselves, but it became a musical definition rather than a ideal.  Categories change over time, R'n' B once meant Rhythm and Blues now it means Rhythm and Bass. Or Shit. Either's equal.

[BetterCompany]

i seriously dont think i know how to contribute to this list.

to me, i consider indie as like local or somewhat local to me (portland/pacific NW). but thats just my own definition. see but we have like the shins, the decemberists, modest mouse, built to spill, DEATH CAB (which i thought should be on top of the list, but then i started hearing crazy people calling them emo), and like every other band ever. so i dunno..maybe im not indie...maybe im not anything...maybe i dont want to be anything, i just want to listen to music. ok. sounds like a deal.

[Disko]

Indie is short for independent, which usually means a band that either is on an independent record label (one not owned by the RIAA), or not on a label at all. I'm fairly sure this is the only requirement to be an indie band.  Other than that, it's free to interpretation.

Which is funny, because half the bands listed here aren't actually independent, they're either on one of the 5 major record labels, or on a subset of them.

Modest Mouse, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, The Flaming Lips, Suede, The Mars Volta, Placebo, The Pixies, Belle and Sebastian (as of 2003), all are on major record labels, therefore fail the first requirement to be "indie." Granted, yes, they are all excellent bands, but classifying them under indie doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, as they aren't independent.

But then, I believe classifications are part of the problem with the modern music scene.  Classifications do nothing but limit.

If you said indie was just people on independent record labels:

1. You'd be cutting off a lot of good music
2. You'd be missing the point

It's about the attitude and style more than the label i''s on. Although originally the "indie" labelling did mean that, it doesn't anymore, you can't argue about Radiohead and The Pixies having centralised indie stylings.

[captainawesome]

I'm sorry it came off that way.  I do agree that there is tons of great music on major record labels, i just find it silly how indie means absolutely nothing.  It's completely relative.  The only real thing that's constant between "indie" bands is that they're good bands that not that many people know.  But then, what's your definition of not that many people?  How many people can know about a band before it's no longer indie?

So I just listen to music that I find interesting, and has variety and a unique sound.

I understand the point, I was just attempting to make one myself.  I obviously just didn't do such a great job of it.

[Icarus]

It seems like "indie" refers to bands that aren't mass marketed - ones that have arisen to greatness only by their own merits, rather than because of the fact that some ClearChannel station has been blasting their song out over the airwaves over and over (Creed, Nickelback, The Ataris, etc.).

[rigmus]

so i know that this it's technically off topic, but it seems the topic has switched to the classification of bands into quasi-specific genres, therefore i'd like for someone to tell me which genre the band cake belongs to.  and if you havn't heard of cake, i will be surprised that i have heard of a band before someone else on this site... really really surprised...

[OzzyKP]

Wait, I thought the whole point of being indie is that you listen to what you enjoy listening to... not "what every other indie kid listens to"... Am I wrong ?

How can there be Essential Indie Albums if the Essence of indie is to listen to whatever tickles your willy.

Seriously.  If someone was truly indie, their recommendations in this thread could be diametric to another, equally indie, person's.

If anyone laughs at what you listen to, they are not indie, or at least don't understand indie.

Sweet!  Then I can count as "indie" too.  

My willy tickling partial list of essential me albums in no particular order:
AC/DC - Back in Black
Metallica - Ride the Lightning
Metallica - Master of Puppets
Led Zeppelin - Zozo
Snoop Dogg - Doggystyle
System 0f a Down - Toxcitiy
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chronicle
Elvis Presley - The Number One Hits
Weezer - Self Titled
Eagles - Greatest Hits
The Who - Greatest Hits
The Postal Service - Give Up
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Pearl Jam - Vs.
Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
The Temptations - Greatest Hits

I'm so indie I don't even like indie music.  I like Postal Service though.

[leave_me_icarus]

Devendra Banhart
The Good Life
Bright Eyes
The Faint
At The Drive-In
Rachel's
Tristeza
Godspeed, you black emporer
Sigur Ros
Explosions in the sky
The Sugargliders
Heavenly
Blonde Redhead
Pedro the Lion
The Sounds
The Walkmen
The Microphones

...i can think of a million more, i don't know if i got the point of this thread, but if you don't care [like i don't] any of those bands are wonderful and i'm willing to send music to anyone.


anyways, whoever said Cocteau Twins, will you PLEASE im me on aim: aquixoticleap

i've been searching for an album or at least songs for like a year and a half.
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