acoustic indie

[Mikendher]

i'm looking for some good acoustic indie tracks. got any suggestions?

they can be either originally acoustic, or just acoustic remakes

[ASturge]

try

the album leaf- Streamside

[jeph]

Anything by American Analog Set.

[a pack of wolves]

I'd go for Wolf Colonel, I think most of his stuff is on K records although if you can get hold of the XFM session 7" on Jonson Family it's well worth checking out.

[Inlander]

Are you only looking for new stuff?  'Cause call me old-fashioned but acoustic indie has really never been done better than on the Violent Femmes' debut (though I'd hope you own that already!).

[TheoristB]

I'd go for Wolf Colonel, I think most of his stuff is on K records although if you can get hold of the XFM session 7" on Jonson Family it's well worth checking out.

I will second that.  He goes by Jason Anderson most of the time now.  Go see him live.  I opened for him once and seriously he was amazing.  It will leave you feeling happier than you have been in a long time.  I have never seen one guy with just an acoustic guitar really take hold of the audience like he does.  One of the best shows I have seen

Also check out Neutral Milk Hotel, Mountain Goats, The City on Film, Owen, and Heligoats.  All are favorites of mine.

[a pack of wolves]

Totally, he played my friend's living room a few years ago and he left everyone with massive smiles on their faces. Me and the guitarist from a fantastic blues duo who played too completely owned him at Simpsons trivia afterwards. Thoroughly nice bloke.

[StrikeThePostman]

Neutral Milk Hotel and The Mountain Goats, definitely.  Try Devendra Banhart, too.

[Psiogen]

The Animal Collective fall intermittently into that category.
"Who Could Win a Rabbit?", "Leaf House", and "Winter's Love" off the new one, and "Chocolate Girl" from the debut are all awesome thingies in that vein.

[nickyandthefuture]

Try A Good Kind of Nervous by the Lucksmiths

[Mikendher]

thank you for the suggestions

i quite like owen, good stuff

[Spencer]

anything by Tristan Prettyman. She's a little indie-folk-singer/songwriter girl from the san diego area, and I'm predicting that she's gonna be huge. You can find a number of her live sets on archive.org. Keep an ear out for "Evaporated" and "Smoke".

[TheoristB]

Keep an ear out for "Evaporated" and "Smoke".

Are those Ben Folds Five covers?

[lofin]

Elliot Smith

[Mikendher]

yeah elliott smith is one of my favorites, i already have everything by him

[I Am Not Amused]

Sufjan Stevens, occassionally.

[HMS Odell]

i second the sufjan stevens. also iron and wine. the new woman king EP is excellent. i like the good life (tim kasher of cursive's side project) too.

[Freelance Physicist]

Justin King

Watch this

Now this

Be amazed.


I'm not sure if he would be considered indie, but he's not well known (I just saw him live last night at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.  The first 50 people to show up got free CDs; there were about a dozen left over).  His CDs aren't available anywhere outside his own website (not even amazon).  He seems to have gone more pop with his latest songs but everything off of his instrumental "Le Bleu" is amazing.

[WonkoTehSane]

Justin King

Watch this

Now this

Be amazed.


I'm not sure if he would be considered indie, but he's not well known (I just saw him live last night at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood.  The first 50 people to show up got free CDs; there were about a dozen left over).  His CDs aren't available anywhere outside his own website (not even amazon).  He seems to have gone more pop with his latest songs but everything off of his instrumental "Le Bleu" is amazing.

Along that same line, he could check out Kaki King, who's equally awesome, and who I've seen live.

[Freelance Physicist]

You're right, Kaki King is great and now you've got me on an expedition finding similar players: Preston King, Michael Hedges, and Leo Kottke seem to be mentioned everywhere.  Time to dig deeper...

[Banana_Hammock]

yeah elliott smith is one of my favorites, i already have everything by him

If Elliot Smith is one of your favorites you must listen to Nick Drake if you don't allready...

[StrikeThePostman]

Nick Drake's "Pink Moon" is so perfect.

[Banana_Hammock]

That it is... Unfortunantely a bit short.

[StrikeThePostman]

True.  But I think that's part of its character.  If it was any longer, I'd probably fall asleep around 40 minutes because it's so relaxing.  

[Mikendher]

Lemme list some songs I really like. I'm looking for stuff like this:

Elliott Smith - Twilight
Elliott Smith - St. Ides Heaven
Sufjan Stevens - To Be Alone With You
Iron & Wine - Each Coming Night
Iron & Wine - Such Great Heights
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hello Tomorrow (this is really just Karen O and someone else with a guitar, so it's not like the other stuff by the band)

[Spencer]

Keep an ear out for "Evaporated" and "Smoke".

Are those Ben Folds Five covers?

What an amazing coincidence. I had to look up the Ben Folds stuff to make sure. The answer, alas, is No, they are not BF5 covers.

As an aside, Ben Folds is incredible live. I should listen to his stuff more actively.

[tuo2]

As an aside, Ben Folds is incredible live. I should listen to his stuff more actively.

So true. I just went and saw his last gig in Sydney about a week ago now, and he still puts on the funnest live show of anyone I've ever seen, excluding perhaps TMBG. The bootlegs I have of the show just go to show exactly how wonderful a live artist he is, and on the latest tour he has gone back to the Bass and Drums combo backing him up. The musos he has playing them are excellent (no Darren or Rob, but still..), and it's so much fun singing along.

Ben Folds live. Makes me smile.

:)

[victor_smithe]

I've been all about Lou Barlow's new album, Emoh, recently which is mostly acoustic sounding.

[Marslo]

Godspeed You! Black emprore ? or is post-rock not considered acoustic ?

[Vertical Stripes]

Anything by Travis.  My favourite album of theirs is The Invisible Band.

[El Opium]

If you want something instrumental try Jack Rose.

[lofin]

Jim O'Rourke is good

[muffy]

M Ward.
Understated genius.

[Spencer]

I don't know if Jack Johnson is indie, but he does some pretty good acoustic stuff.

If you like Jack Johnson, I definitly suggest checking out some of Tristan Prettymans stuff on Archive.org. She is one of his protoges. And while distinctly different from him, you can definitly hear the influence in her work.

[steve-king]

The Levellers do play acoustic for some tours, but I don't know if they have released any specific acoustic material.

I saw them at the Bluebell Railway Folk Festival (I'm so hardcore....) and they had replaced the bass drum with a cardboard box with a brick in it and the guitarist was playing something he must have found in a skip.

Somehow they still made an amazing sound...

[Me And The Moon Car]

Check out some Picnic, Lightning. They have some songs to download here:

http://hxcmp3.com/bands/18034/

It's very folky, but really rather nice. I think the band-members are all punkers, too, so it'll win you scene-points (you can say, "Oh yah it has the dood from Jets to Brazil in the line-up," or something maybe).

[dannyboy]

...I definitly suggest checking out some of Tristan Prettymans stuff on Archive.org.

I went over to check it out and... wow.  It's beautiful.  I just felt I had to thank you for introducing this to me.

[Spencer]

...I definitly suggest checking out some of Tristan Prettymans stuff on Archive.org.

I went over to check it out and... wow.  It's beautiful.  I just felt I had to thank you for introducing this to me.

I'm glad you like her! I don't even remember how I first heard her. I think I may have caught "Evaporated" on a Local Music radio show. I know Jenn Grinnells used to mention her from time to time at The Blarney Stone. I checked out her website, which linked some of the shows on Archive, and fell in love from there.

I've yet to see her live though I really need to change that.

[Jeridus]

Iron And Wine - Jezebel... for sure... my favourite song off the Woman King EP... actually, all Iron And Wine is sreally awesome

[La Creme]

EELS
Why does nobody ever mention the Eels? Daisies of the Galaxy is an almost solely acoustic album. Here's a list...

Daisies of the Galaxy - The Eels
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning - The Eels (great live CD)
Blinking Lights And Other Revelations - The Eels
Shootenanny - The Eels
The Ditty Bops - The Ditty Bops (while it's not indy, it's acoustic, and it's incredible)
Girls Can Tell - Spoon (beware, the rest is not acoustic. but it still rocks ass.)
Bryter Layter - Nick Drake

Also, the Sugarplastic have some great acoustic songs, but they're all scattered throughout their albums. "Resin" is their most acoustic album, but here are just some assorted Sugarplastic songs that are primarilly acoustic:

Folk
Little Teeth
Say Katie
Ohio
Please Mr. B
Novelty Man
Mercurochrome
Will

The Sugarplastic are worth a checkout from all fans of indy music everywhere. Best indy band ever.