When I first got into the genre I used movie soundtracks as my main source for finding new indie bands. Often mainstream movie directors will use independent artists to enhance their films.

Sidenote: I’m currently reading Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity, which was made into a movie starring John Cusak, and it did have a good soundtrack and introduced me to The Beta Band… but I digress. In honour of protagonist Rob Flemming, here are my top 5 soundtracks within the last 10 years:

1. Garden State
2. Almost Famous
3. Once
4. Into The Wild
5. O Brother Where Art Thou?

After movie soundtracks I moved to the Internet to try and broaden my indie pallete. I came across a few good sources. The Internet I should mention is cluttered with SO much information that sometimes it’s hard to sift through it all to find the real gems. Sticking with the list theme, I have come up with a top 5 list of the best indie music sources on the net.

1. INSOUND.com This is hands down the best music store on the net.  They have superior customer service often giving away free CD’s and posters, and a phenominal staff who actually really care about the music! They will send you a free seasonal catalogue featuring the more popular indie bands releasing albums this coming year. They also feature independent lable ads who advertise their soon t0 be released artists. It has truly been an amazing experience and source.

2.PANDORA.com (if outside the US click here)

You type in the band you are interested in and Pandora will search it’s databases matching up styles, sounds, techniques, etc. to find you a bunch of similar artists. You can create as many free radio stations as you want and sample tons of good bands. The only downside is that the American Music Industry sucks and anyone outside of Canada can’t enjoy this service anymore. They can however view Pandora’s Backstage which essentially gives you the same info but you can’t listen to the music.

3. LAST.fm

Perhaps the replacement to Pandora, Last.fm lets you log on and add favourite artists. It will also make recommendations on similar sounding bands. You can also sample the music and Last.fm will create radio stations with your inputs that you can stream over the Internet. Pandora.com offered a more eclectic selection but Last.fm is still very good.

4. Google “INDIE MUSIC BLOGS”

Self-explanatory, downside is that you have to sift through the results. I have posted some of my favourite blogs on the blogroll on the right.

5. iTUNES STORE

Not only is the iTunes Store a good place to buy digital music, it’s a great source in finding new bands. There are a couple of good features that Apple has implemented that are great for discovering new bands. The first is if you click on an artist or an album you like the iTunes Store will show other songs, artists, and albums that other people have purchased or artists that they have flagged as being similar. The store also has a variety of iMix’s from it’s customers, celebrities, as well as, genre based lists. The best part of it all… is that you can sample 30 seconds of EVERY song hassel free!

RUNNER UP: AMAZON.com

Very similar to the iTunes music store, but I find it harder to sample individual songs. The plus is that they have better reviews.

Lastly, you should hit up local University/College newspaper publications and radio stations. They often review and play indie music, while showcasing good local talent. Often I will check local concert venues and music festivals for bands as well. Diving into your local scene will definately help your music exploration. Often the best finds and advice can be found in your local hole-in-the-wall record shop.

Happy exploring,
~TJK

This article was published in The Manitoban. You can check out this article and other good articles by clicking here. 

My name is Tyler Kurz, and I am a chronic indie music addict. I am not the only one out there. In fact, there are lots of us.  

Being an indie addict is hard work. We actually still buy CDs, just so that we can read the liner notes and admire the album artwork. We think we are always right, and get upset if you don’t like a band that we suggest. We hate everything about Nickleback, and throw up every time we hear Sisqo’s “Thong Song.” Yes, we are stubborn, opinionated, passionate, and smug. It’s a tough role, but a remarkably gratifying one. We often get to be one of a select few who get to experience a band’s first album. We feel like we are a part of a passionate community. We have the ability to sort through thousands of bands to find the perfect match just for us. Most importantly, we are our own critics.    

It all started a few years ago, when a friend dragged me to an indie-like movie, Garden State. I didn’t get what the term “indie” meant at the time, and was expecting to see a black and white foreign film. Two hours and a tub of overpriced popcorn later, a new world opened up to me. The very next day I went to the U of M’s music store and purchased the soundtrack. It was love at first listen. I got into my car and loaded the disc into my new Alpine CD Player that I had just installed in my 1992 Nissan rust bucket. I drove around in the rain for an hour and listened to every track on album. At that moment, I was catapulted into a seemingly endless journey, exploring the outer limits of musical experimentation. What I’ve discovered since that first encounter is that this genre has acted as a catalyst, allowing me to be more open to new experiences. 

Defining indie music is a difficult task, especially with the advent of the Internet. Recording technology is becoming more accessible and affordable. One would think that an indie band should belong to an independent label. That is not necessarily the case anymore. For one, artists can record and promote their albums over the Internet on their own. Larger labels are also starting to pick up more and more indie acts. To define indie music, we have to look at the common characteristics of indie artists. The “Blah Blah Blog” came up with a good list of common indie characteristics: a do-it-yourself attitude, lo-fi recordings, appreciating your past, crossing musical boundaries, social awareness and activism, and most important, it’s all about the music[1].  

The majority of indie bands are focused on the development of the art of music, whereas, the major record labels are more concerned with improving the bottom line. The major labels have taken the soul out of the music they are producing. To a major music label it’s more important to make sure that when a band releases a single, it is within a two to three minute length which means more radio play time which translates into sales. Indie bands often create longer songs with captivating arrangements of musical harmonies and instrumental experimentation. Think Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” This was a song that defined a generation and is still the most requested[2] and played song on American FM Stations[3]. It is also seven minutes and 55 seconds long. If a band tried getting a seven minute song on the airwaves, it would be next to impossible. Before the song was released, Jimmy Page stated, “It’s an idea for a really long track. . . You know how “Dazed and Confused” and songs like that were broken into sections? Well, we want to try something new with the organ and acoustic guitar building up and building up, and then the electric part starts. . . It might be a fifteen-minute track” [4] This experimentation is what made this song an institution in the history of classic rock music. 

You’re probably thinking, “well Led Zeppelin belonged to a big label. . . and Tyler, you just proved that it was a commercial track”. Yes it was a commercial track, but the “commercial” in the ‘70s is a lot different than the “commercial” of the twenty-first century. That’s why the proliferation of indie music is crucial to the development of music as a whole.  

Over the years we have lost that innovative spirit that Page was alluding to. There is nothing wrong with the three minute songs played on the top 40 radio stations, but if that’s all you listen to, you loose diversity and soul from the music. Songs were meant to elicit emotions. Plato once said that “music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul.” Since there are no commercial limitations with indie music, there is a better chance that the artist can draw out these emotions with their melodies, instrumentals, and lyrics.  

I am hopeful that things are turning around. The Internet has created a music “free trade zone,” and I can access any song or band that has the ability to use a computer. My challenge to you is to find five new artists that you have never heard on the radio. Not just any artists, but five artists whose organized expressive sounds are transcendent. Indie music gives insights into the human condition[5], and as an indie addict, it is this attribute that satisfies my fix. 

Before I sat down tonight I psyched myself up about writing a post about “The History of Indie Music”. I brewed up some Tazo green tea, threw on my dated Sony headphones, and proceeded to spend 30 minutes making a playlist for my writing session. At almost exactly 7 minutes into my research, and in the middle of Caribou’s “After Hours”, I took a wrong turn and stumbled upon a website called The Blah Blah blog. The author decided to create a 10 part series on an Intro to Indie Music. (Article Here)

As I started reading, “Part One: The Listening”, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to how I happened to stumble into the indie music scene. Like the Blah Blah, it was actually independent movies that got me addicted to the genre. The author and I even had the same movie act as the catalyst. That movie was Garden State, which ended up winning the Grammy for best soundtrack of the year. The Blah Blah states “From there, every time my wife and I watched another independent film with a great soundtrack, I noted more artists I liked and found them on-line.”This was also the path that I took and I imagine a lot of you took. Independent movies are a great source of indie music. Side note: My favorite independent movie soundtracks are Garden State, High Fidelity, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and The Life Aquatic. Check them out.

Before I go on, The Blah Blah blog is an MP3 blog that focuses on Christian indie music, and I for one am not the most religious person out there, and loved the drug induced premarital sex scene in Garden State… What I did learn is that it doesn’t matter what genre of indie music you’re into. What sets indie music apart from all other mainstream genres, is that once you enter the indie realm you are catapulted into a seemingly endless journey. Discovering a good new indie band is great feeling. I love the idea that I’m one of a select few who get to hear a particular band put out their first record, a record that has not been tainted by the big corporate labels. It is quite simply one of rawest forms of music.

The Blah Blah blog lists the following characteristics of indie music: 

Although I agree with most characteristics on this list, I would like to add the following thoughts:

1. Everyone who listens to indie music is an expert… and that’s OK

 I remember I used to hate it when people would try to force this new “awesome” band that they discovered on the Internet. I would nod politely and ignore the suggestion, not wanting to break away from my top 40 radio station. I know that I’ve become somewhat of a music snob. I think that’s all right though because that’s what drives indie music… people. Word of mouth is what continues to drive the indie music industry. The Internet has definitely helped, but it is everyday people who really promote the music. I feel great when I get a friend hooked on a certain indie band. I often find that same person will come back a month later with a bunch of new bands that I haven’t heard of. In order to enjoy indie music you need to filter out the sounds you don’t like. There are so many genres and bands on independent labels that are experimenting with sounds, that it’s important for you to be a judicious critic. Since indie music is made up of unrefined sounds that push musical boundaries, it sometimes seems like a daunting task sorting through the clutter. It’s also what makes indie music so enjoyable. You get to know the music and bands inside and out. You start to read through the liner notes. You search for the bands history on the Internet. You become a critic.

2. Not every band that goes big is a sell-out!

Often if a new experimental sound by an indie band is adopted by a wide audience, that band might sell a lot of records, or may get signed by a big label. Think Nirvana and Pearl Jam, institutions of the garage rock music movement of the 90’s. An article on Indie Update has some great arguments for this point. Some snippets from Indie Update’s article: 

So, if someone is trying to tell you that an artist is not indie because they sold a certain amount of records, you might want to look into how those records were sold and who produced the album. Perhaps now more than ever before, music has the opportunity to truly be judged (for the first time by both sides) by the quality instead of by the amount of sales…. Stripped of creativity and forced to work on someone else’s schedule, many of the alternative bands began to try and buck the system. Pearl Jam sued their touring company and refused to bow to the demand for videos; Nirvana made a record so under produced it was mocked. Nevertheless, the major label’s money power would triumph and they were able to still the voices in opposition, one way or another… Towards the end of the 1980s, the “major” indie artists were actually acting almost like recruiters for the big labels. Again, this should give many indie fans pause before judging one band or another as sell outs due to their “commercialization”. The term is better applied to imitators of the original sound for the purpose of money rather than to the sound developers. There is not a lot of credibility in the sell out argument when one realizes that it was Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth who set up Nirvana’s flight to fame, or that Breeder’s singer Kin Deal was an integral part of the incredibly ground-breaking and highly influential Pixies…” 

Indie music is now more accessible then ever. The line is starting to blur on what defines an indie act. Is it the sound? Is it the sales? As the character Rob stated in High Fidelity “I get by because of the people who make a special effort to shop here - mostly young men - who spend all their time looking for deleted Smith singles and original, not rereleased - underlined - Frank Zappa albums. Fetish properties are not unlike porn. I’d feel guilty taking their money, if I wasn’t… well… kinda one of them.” Perhaps, it’s the devoted and passionate community and culture that define indie music. One thing is for sure, as long as bands keep on pushing musical boundaries, the genre will never die.

~TJK

A great resource of the Top 100 Indie Rock Albums of All Time from Blender… Blender’s Top 100 Indie Albums Pavement’s Slanted and Enchanted takes the #1, just beating out Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. Check it out!~ TJK

In the music world, the term indie is defined as music that is written and produced independently from the big commercial record labels. Indie music usually does not conform to the mainstream sound of any given time period. Often characterized by a do-it-yourself mentality, the indie subculture uses music as a form of self-expression (this does not mean that commercialized artists don’t). Indie Pop and Indie Rock are two categories of independent music that are the most commonly used, but Indie Dance is also starting to blossom.

What makes an “Indie Sound”? Well that is not as clear cut. Some argue that the indie sound is simply Low-Fi recordings and distorted guitars, but as technology becomes more advanced and accessible, this line gets blurry.  There is not one clear cut sound to indie music. Independent artists and labels depend on technology as a means to distribute their music. And with the popularity of the Internet, we have seen a huge spike in independent artists making it “big”. Think about it… Anyone with access to a computer, a microphone, and a MySpace page can promote their music to millions of people. If the artists are good, people will start talking about them and spreading the word. Tapes ‘n Tapes has recently had success with help from the blogosphere. Lilly Allen and Gnarls Barkley have also reaped the rewards of the Internet.

Perhaps the major record labels shouldn’t fear illegal downloading, but fear the easy access to their markets from the competition. The barriers to entry are becoming very thin, and indie artists have a great opportunity to get their voices heard. I’m not saying that indie labels are on the same playing field as the major record labels, because they too face the threats from illegal downloading and piracy. Major labels also still have the clout and connections when it comes to touring and merchandising, but what the Internet brings, is an entirely new market at the finger tips of anyone with a modem. Artists can post concert video footage on YouTube, they can create a customized website for free on MySpace, and if they’re lucky, they can get online critics (you and me) talking about their music. This large viral medium is a marketers dream!

I propose that you and I become our own critics. Start finding the sounds that YOU like and not limiting yourself to what you hear on the radio. Go to Pandora… type in your favorite song of all time… and start exploring!

~TJK