The Go! Team’s “Doing it Right” video off their album Proof of Youth.~TJK 

A very sexy music video by Simian Mobile Disco. The song is “Hustler” off of Attack Decay Sustain Release. Check out the album it was one of my favorites from 2007.
~TJK

Montreal Trio Tantalize In Full Length Debut 

Guitarists-vocalists Warren Spicer and Nic Basque, along with drummer-vocalist Matthew Woodley released what will be one of the best indie albums of 2008. Montreal is producing some of the best music in the indie scene and this album definitely showcases Montreal’s talent pool (the album even features Arcade Fire’s Sarah Neufeld on the strings). Parc Avenue is hard to define in terms of musical style. When listening to “New Kind of Love” I get a folk rock vibe. “Faerie Dance” is combination of melodic harmony, gutsy guitar, and ends with a classic rock anthem. It’s hard to pinpoint genres and similar sounding bands. The band-mates have masterfully draped their melodies over a plethora of unique sounds, arrangements, and tempos.

Some classic rock artists that popped out at me while listening to the album for the first time were Neil Young (think entire Greendale album), David Bowie (think It Ain’t Easy), Nick Drake (think Paper Moon), Led Zeppelin (think Page’s guitar work in Going to California), too just name a few. To clarify, Plants and Animals in no way sound old; they are totally unique and use a variety of modern techniques. They just stick to their roots in Parc Avenue. The rustic analog sounds are reminiscent of the recordings from the 60’s and early 70’s. In an interview with montrealmirror.com, Spicer reflects on why they are in fact Plants and Animals, ”We’re Plants and Animals ’cause we make music that’s honest like a dog drinking water or a tree falling on a car and we do it with nothing but two guitars and a drum kit so we’re not trying to fool anyone.”  This is an honest album, with honest sounds. “Good Friend”, “Early in The Morning”, and “À L’orée Des Bois” are a few gems that stood out to me as genuine examples of great folk-rock music that stays true to it’s roots.  

 ~TJK

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Neil Young, Arcade Fire, and Super Furry Animals

Preppie Columbia Grads Make Indie Splash

Simple, clean, and fresh are the first three words that jump out at me as I listen to Vampire Weekends debut album Vampire Weekend. With a name with ‘vampire’ in it, the sound and band members are not what you would expect. Not only is the music fun and jaunty, the band-mates all hail from Columbia University. Not to shabby. It’s also hard to pinpoint a certain genre while listening to their laidback sound. I’ve seen ‘afro pop’ thrown around a lot, but to me it’s still a indie-pop album with a dash of reggae and a hint of clean afro guitar.  ”Oxford Comma”, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, and “Campus” are the catchiest tunes on the album, and if I had to vote for my favorites on the album, they would have to be “A-Punk” and “Boston”, the two edgiest songs. 

 Vampire Weekend is receiving great reviews for a debut album. Although the album definitely has a refreshing quality about it, my biggest critique would be that it lacks substance. The songs don’t really get me emotionally involved. I think it’s the clear cut simplicity and innocence in the songs that make them different from a lot of the indie acts out there. Vampire Weekend is not trying to change the world with this album, they just want to play good music. This album is just that. Good music for chillin’ at the beach on a relaxing summer weekend.  

~TJK

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Bedouin Soundclash , The Kinks , and The Strokes

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