Category: Indie
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The Long Winters ‘Putting The Days To Bed’ (2006)
The Long Winters never fail to remind me of my college years for a handful of reasons. Putting The Days To Bed was released during my senior year of high school and was a mainstay during that summer as well as my freshman year in the Francisco Torres dorm rooms (6th floor represent!) at UC…
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Teenage Halloween ‘Till You Return’ (2023)
Teenage Halloween has exploded onto the underground pop punk scene in recent years backed by their earnest and fervent take on growing up as a young person in America who doesn’t quite fit in. Till You Return is an explosion of energy, encapsulating thematic subject matter that ranges from self-identity (the vast majority of the…
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Peach Pit ‘Being So Normal’ (2018)
As a guitar player I sort of hate listening to Being So Normal by Peach Pit because it’s such a goddamn perfect guitar record. Neil Smith and Christopher Vanderkooy absolutely shred their way through the entirety of the album with dynamic and unique lead and rhythm parts– it’s in their phrasing, note selection, rhythm, and…
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Death Cab For Cutie ‘Plans’ (2005)
Death Cab For Cutie’s lead singer and songwriter Ben Gibbard has been such a fixture in the Indie Rock scene for so long now that it’s easy to forget in 2005 Death Cab was just beginning to reach their star power. Following 2003’s excellent Transatlanticism that was released independently and saw the band achieve cult-like…
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Cigarettes After Sex ‘Self-Titled’ (2017)
We’ve talked previously about how some albums are an aesthetic as much as they are a collection of songs (The XX’s self-titled 2009 debut and Bon Iver’s 2008 album For Emma, Forever Ago being two great examples), and Cigarettes After Sex is undoubtedly a band that fits that mold perfectly. Featuring reverb-soaked guitar arpeggios, soft…
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Phoenix ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ (2009)
If you went to college in the late 2000’s there was no escaping Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. This was one of those glittery boppy Indie rock albums that was custom-made for the coming-of-age college demographic, fun and carefree and subtly sophisticated in the sort of way that made you feel like a child and adult all…
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Petey ‘USA’ (2023)
Petey’s USA is a self-reflective romp through Indie rock and post-punk, combining avant-garde musical elements alongside lyrics that evoke a Virginia Woolf-esque stream of consciousness delivered with earnestness. Petey’s voice reminds me significantly of Andy Hull’s from Manchester Orchestra in the way he enunciates specific words and sort of cascades through his higher notes. It’s…
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La Bouquet ‘Sad People Dancing’ (2019)
80’s music has had a significant resurgence over the past decade or so, rolling back in full force over a range of genres. You don’t need to look further than pop heavyweight The Weeknd’s 2020 album After Hours, Lady Gaga’s Chromatica, the success of films like Guardians of the Galaxy and Top Gun II in…
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Feist ‘Let It Die’ (2004)
My first exposure to Feist was through the excellent Broken Social Scene, effectively an art collective doubling as a massive musical experiment. The group has boasted nearly 25 members over the past two decades (at one point having 16 at a single point during the early 2000’s). Feist was one of the throng, played a…
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Del Water Gap ‘Del Water Gap’ (2021)
Del Water Gap is the solo project of Brooklyn based musician Samuel Jaffe. His self-titled debut is a nostalgia-soaked collection of 12 songs that delights in surprising you at every turn in a charming way that Indie Pop is known for. There’s a slight 90’s alternative hum buzzing underneath the surface that finds its way…
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Maggie Rogers ‘Heard It In A Past Life’ (2019)
Just about everybody and their mother has seen the video of Maggie Rogers sitting down with Pharrell Williams and listening to her song “Alaska”. Rogers was a college music student at the time, Pharrell was invited to the class to critique and offer feedback, and after listening to the track he simply says “Wow” and…
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Fievel Is Glauque ‘God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess’ (2021)
Fievel Is Glaque’s 2021 album God’s Trashmen Sent to Right the Mess is a collection of live mono cassette recordings that were cut in Brussels during the COVID-19 pandemic that rocked the world in 2020. The ensemble includes American keyboardist Zach Philips and French singer Ma Clément as well as a collection of nearly 30…
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The Shins ‘Oh, Inverted World’ (2001)
During the indie pop folk craze that dominated the early 2000’s, The Shins were gigantic. It’s pretty much impossible for anyone in my generation to not at least be vaguely familiar with the two singles “Caring Is Creepy” and “New Slang” based off their prominence in the Garden State film featuring Zach Braff, Natalie Portman,…
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Augustana ‘All The Stars and Boulevards’ (2005)
It’s only fitting we kick off the month of August with a band that bears the month’s namesake. Just putting that out there. Augustana’s 2006 All The Stars and Boulevards was released during my junior year of high school, a period of time in which college selection really ramps up and prospective college students like…
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Minus the Bear ‘Omni’ (2010)
Minus the Bear’s alternative prog rock bonafides had been well established by the time 2010’s Omni was released. As a high schooler I burned up their debut album Highly Refined Pirates, which featured math rock staples such as “Monkey!!!Knife!!!Fight!!!” and “Absinthe Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse”. These were the days when alternative indie bands…
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Bon Iver ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ (2008)
The story behind the recording of For Emma Forever Ago is almost mythological in nature. Bon Iver (who at that point was simply known as Justin Vernon) had just gone through two particularly nasty breakups– the first with his band of childhood friends that had been together for over a decade, and the second to…
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Brian Fallon ‘Local Honey’ (2020)
Brian Fallon’s rise as a Jersey-born songwriter has drawn a lot of comparisons to the legendary Bruce Springsteen, and it’s clear at points during Fallon’s career with The Gaslight Anthem he was trying to fill those shoes a little too earnestly. Fallon’s solo career has been equally nostalgia-infused and songwriting driven, but in 2020’s Local…
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Matt Corby ‘Rainbow Valley’ (2018)
Matt Corby’s Rainbow Valley is loaded with atmospheric sheen that’s smoother than a can of peanut butter. Recorded in Corby’s home studio on a five-acre plot in Byron Bay, Australia, Rainbow Valley is a wide-ranging musical journey into the spacey world of Indie R&B. The backing tracks feature an impressively set of instruments all played…
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Wye Oak ‘Civilian’ (2011)
There’s something desperately lonely about Wye Oak’s 2011 effoort Civilian, from the pensive guitars, moody vocal melodies, and aggressively driven percussion. Lead vocalist Jenn Wasner never lets a good minor key vocal melody go to waste, and her dark indie folk brand of songwriting is as immediately recognizable as it is visceral. The whole thing…
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The Flaming Lips ‘Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots’ (2002)
The Flaming Lips 2002 album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was somewhat of a watershed moment in Indie pop history. Featuring a bevy of electronic instruments, dreamy delays, and wispy vocals from frontman Wayne Coyne, the album played a sizable role in taking traditional pop music song structures and blending them with the avant-garde to…
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Broken Social Scene ‘You Forgot It In People’ (2002)
Broken Social Scene were Indie darlings in the early aughts, known for their ambient instrumentals and song structures that featured an eclectic collection of musicians. What I’ve always appreciated about the group is how freely their members floated in and out of the group. Over the course of their 25-year history as a band, Broken…
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Manchester Orchestra ‘A Black Mile To The Surface’ (2017)
Initially a part of the mainstream emo/alternative rock wave in the early 2000’s with bands like Brand New and Taking Back Sunday, Manchester Orchestra has hung around long enough (and been bold enough) to take on more evolved sonic stylings as their career has progressed. A Black Mile To The Surface effectively sounds like the…
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49th & Main ‘Must Be Nice’ (2022)
If you’re looking for hooks, 49th & Main’s Must Be Nice is a convenient one-stop shop. Blending indie, disco, house, and 80’s soft rock has been done once over but there’s something especially catchy about the Irish duo’s approach. It’s been a week since I first went through this album and I don’t think there…
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alt-J ‘An Awesome Wave’ (2012)
I was fresh out of college and into the working world when An Awesome Wave came out in 2012 and can still vividly remember this album encapsulating my feelings at the time– wistful nostalgia for friends left behind and the hope of what life had in store. Listening ten years later, there’s still something about…
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The xx ‘xx’ (2009)
The xx are almost as much as an aesthetic as they are a music group. Featuring guitars drenched in reverby delay, light electronic drum machines, subtle ambient synths, and thick bass lines that pulsate underneath it all, their minimalism is just as important as their message. Frankly it’s safe to say it’s more so. Softly…
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The Honorary Title ‘Anything Else but the Truth’ (2006)
Once upon a time The Honorary Title served as a transformational musical intersection for me, blending teenage love for emo music and burgeoning adulthood love for indie/folk into one clean experience. At one point in my life they may have been my favorite band, and at the same point in my life I’m confident one…
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Rilo Kiley ‘More Adventurous’ (2004)
One thing I love most about Rilo Kiley is the witty lyrical wordplay that frontwoman Jenny Lewis is known for. From the opening lines of “It’s A Hit” it’s hard to tell if Lewis is singing a song or doing a tight ten at the Laugh Factory, waxing poetic about all the idiosyncrasies of human…
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Cocteau Twins ‘Heaven or Las Vegas’ (1990)
Soaring synths. Pulsing bass. Lucious landscapes. Tom’s and snares pitched for maximum reverb. This is dreampop at its finest, delivered in a way only true pioneers of the genre Cocteau Twins could deliver. Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals in particular stand out on this record, her mysterious Scottish-tinged soprano floating above dense arrangements like a ray of…
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Volcano Choir ‘Repave’ (2013)
If there’s one thing Bon Iver has mastered throughout his career, it is his innate ability to take a basic human emotion and somehow translate that into an auditory experience that feels tangible. There’s simply no one better at conveying emotion, in all of its assorted colors, over a 3-5 minute timespan. He is our…
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Penny and Sparrow ‘Olly Olly’ (2022)
Lo-fi acoustic guitar draped under synths that drip down the walls like honey. Vocal melodies heard from a church service taking place in space. This is a portrait of a Nashville bedroom in the rain. Incorporating country and R&B musical elements has been done once over, but this feels fresh, new, and inspired. Layers of…
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Gang of Youths ‘Go Farther In Lightness’ (2017)
Heartfelt and sincere, big and epic, soft and intimate. This 2017 sophomore release from Australian rockers Gang of Youths captures the vast complexities of the human experience in a way not many albums have. A crooning baritone and introspective lyrics from vocalist David Le’aupepe place themselves perfectly in between an exemplary musical performance from the…
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