Any Recommends for Indie Rock?

[Suet Seung]

Any listeners have some recommends for Indie Rock?

[Ken Cheng]

It's a huge realm of music that spans about three decades now. From the 1990s onward, the line between indie and mainstream has blurred to the point that it's almost meaningless.

So it's really hard to say...

[xJadedx]

It also depends on what kind of rock you want.

Anyway, not all indie rock is good though. It may be better to check out less well-known mainstream or major artists.

The most recent indie band I liked is The XX, Dillinger Escape Plan, Gogol Bordello, though the last two aren't that unknown.

A lot of people I know like Ladytron, Tegan and Sara, CocoRosie.

[Canuck21]

It's hard to define indie rock nowadays. Do you mean it as a "genre" which to me is no different than alternative rock/music or do you mean music from artists signed to an independent label? According to me, it's a mix of both.

I like old school indie music mostly from the '80s. I never waste an opportunity to sell my favourite band(s) and I will do so now even if some here will probably "not again!" but I cannot help myself, I love them too much.

So my first recommendation is Joy Division, THE definitive post-punk band that was signed to the famous independent record label Factory Records. Then we have New Order, THE alternative dance band (a mix of post-punk and electronic music) that stayed with Factory until its demise in 1992.

Another well known Manchester band of the era were The Smiths, probably the most influential alternative band ever. The band was signed with Rough Trade Records, the other famous independent record label.

Yet another Manchester band that influenced later alternative bands, namely Oasis, were The Stone Roses.

Good music were produced outside of Manchester too . Among the indie bands, The Cure was one of the most successful of the '80s by topping the charts and pretty much becoming mainstream.

There were so many good real indie bands in the '80s, it's a shame I cannot list them all. I say "real" because in those days, those indie bands were indeed signed to independent record labels.

The 1990s saw the popularity of grunge, which I despise, and what were "underground" became mainstream and like Ken Cheng said, the line between indie and mainstream has blurred ever since. That decade also saw many independent record labels either go bankrupt or were bought by major labels. Most of the successful alternative bands are now under former indie labels.

Nowadays, indie rock is more a music genre but there are still independent record labels and one band that is signed to one and which I am pretty proud of is Montreal's own Arcade Fire.

Another Montreal band that is very good is Wolf Parade.

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem even has his own label under the name DFA Records.

The band that everyone says sounds like Joy Division, Interpol, is under Matador Records which is also the US label of Belle & Sebastian.

And finally, you have Radiohead that became truly indie in 2007 by releasing their album In Rainbows by themselves and letting people decide on the price! You cannot go more independent than that.

It also depends on what kind of rock you want.

Anyway, not all indie rock is good though. It may be better to check out less well-known mainstream or major artists.

The most recent indie band I liked is The XX, Dillinger Escape Plan, Gogol Bordello, though the last two aren't that unknown.

A lot of people I know like Ladytron, Tegan and Sara, CocoRosie.

Those are pretty unknown bands you have there. Really, you like Dillinger Escape Plan? Mathcore eh? I personally have a hard time with anything core. I like more or less non-mainstream music but there's one thing that I find primordial in music is melody. If there's not a catchy melody, I don't like and to me anything core is just yelling or noise. That's the reason I tend to like the middle ground. Not too mainstream but not too experimental or hardcore either.

[pannonian]

The 1990s saw the popularity of grunge, which I despise, and what were "underground" became mainstream and like Ken Cheng said, the line between indie and mainstream has blurred ever since. That decade also saw many independent record labels either go bankrupt or were bought by major labels. Most of the successful alternative bands are now under former indie labels.

Those are pretty unknown bands you have there. Really, you like Dillinger Escape Plan? Mathcore eh? I personally have a hard time with anything core. I like more or less non-mainstream music but there's one thing that I find primordial in music is melody. If there's not a catchy melody, I don't like and to me anything core is just yelling or noise. That's the reason I tend to like the middle ground. Not too mainstream but not too experimental or hardcore either.

Every other youtube video seems to be set to some archetypal grunge with some fast guitars and someone screaming. This is the One has every bit as much energy, and is much more tuneful.

[xJadedx]

Those are pretty unknown bands you have there. Really, you like Dillinger Escape Plan? Mathcore eh? I personally have a hard time with anything core. I like more or less non-mainstream music but there's one thing that I find primordial in music is melody. If there's not a catchy melody, I don't like and to me anything core is just yelling or noise. That's the reason I tend to like the middle ground. Not too mainstream but not too experimental or hardcore either.

A bunch of my friends like those bands, so I started checking them out and ended up liking some of them.
Dillinger Escape Plan is one of the few bands that I recently discovered and that I like. I'm not entirely sure what mathcore is, but I know I like DEP. They have very interesting ways of setting up their songs, good breakdowns, decent bass lines, and a great vocalist. They also seem great live (too bad I missed them when they came to my city). Plus the fact that Mike Patton worked with them adds to their credit in my opinion.

[Canuck21]

A bunch of my friends like those bands, so I started checking them out and ended up liking some of them.
Dillinger Escape Plan is one of the few bands that I recently discovered and that I like. I'm not entirely sure what mathcore is, but I know I like DEP. They have very interesting ways of setting up their songs, good breakdowns, decent bass lines, and a great vocalist. They also seem great live (too bad I missed them when they came to my city). Plus the fact that Mike Patton worked with them adds to their credit in my opinion.

Really?!? You can tell that by his yelling?

[xJadedx]

Really?!? You can tell that by his yelling?

They have plenty of songs in which he sings as well. Pure singing, does he have the best voice in terms of quality (e.g., matching that of a tenor opera singer or the boys from Il Divo)? Not necessarily, as his singing voice then is just slightly above average of the other rock bands out there. But Greg has an incredible vocal range, allowing him to go from singing to screaming to high pitch falsettos and switching back and forth between them. That is something not many could do (or at least, could do well).

[Canuck21]

They have plenty of songs in which he sings as well. Pure singing, does he have the best voice in terms of quality (e.g., matching that of a tenor opera singer or the boys from Il Divo)? Not necessarily, as his singing voice then is just slightly above average of the other rock bands out there. But Greg has an incredible vocal range, allowing him to go from singing to screaming to high pitch falsettos and switching back and forth between them. That is something not many could do (or at least, could do well).

I like bands with punk backgrounds so having a great vocal range is not a priority of mine.

[xJadedx]

I like bands with punk backgrounds so having a great vocal range is not a priority of mine.

That's cool. I like punk too.