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[music]
Indie 500: One Thousand Great Independent Bands
D.M. Holler, Music Editor
* originally published in comfusion Summer 2002
Nope, we’re not talking about the creepy annual testosterone-fueled morbid spectacle involving steroided cars circling a track—we’re talking about independent bands. And despite the perennial complaints of misanthropic cynics and atavistic snobs, there are literally hundreds of good bands out there. This roundup (with 1,000 artists, not 500) offers but a taste of what the nonmainstream music world has to offer. Ladies and gentlemen, start your search engines.
Define indie—I dare you. To some it is a sound, to others it has more to do with remaining aloof from corporate influence. The sad truth is that the line between those who actually create the sound and those record company mavens who actually pull the strings has irrevocably eroded. There are literally hundreds of artists whose output should not be pharisaically dismissed just because some mega-label threw cash at them to make good records and rescue them from sleeping in a van (Modest Mouse, for instance, once on K Records, is now in the Sony stable—and who can blame them?; their records are still challenging and sincere). So, with this détente in mind, we have put together several clusters that loosely categorize good (but not necessarily great) bands: some extinct, some in their twilight, some in their prime. But before we get to the list, here are some groupings that some will find useful and others—indie snobs—will find arguments with. There has been so much crossover in the dubiously titled realm of “indie” that many of the artists could easily fit simultaneously into five categories.
Indie Hall of Fame
If, for some reason, we had to rank these bands (and how dumb would that be?) and we were forced to choose a top slot, a pedestal for the one great indie band of all time, few would argue that such an honor would belong to Fugazi. Relentlessly do-it-yourself, with a sound that has mutated more than you might realize, the band that began from the dust of Minor Threat and Rites of Spring has become an almost apotheosized bastion of independence: both musically challenging and tirelessly resistant to corporate influence. One thing is for sure, the band that created 13 Songs in 1988 is not the band that made The Argument in 2001. Though everyone has their favorites, virtually the entire Fugazi discography has indisputable merit. We recommend seeing the independently produced documentary Instrument, whether you’re a fan or just investigating these venerable 30-somethings who have managed to retain integrity and intensity.
Alt Country
Alt country ain’t so “alt” anymore. Even mainstreamers have incorporated a steady diet of twang into their rotations. Here are some of the best tried and true artists in a genre that resists easy categorization. Really, how does an artist as dark as Palace Brothers freak Will Oldham fit into the same box as the Old 97s?
Arguably, Uncle Tupelo, by combining distortion and a punk ethos with its countryish stomps, started the alt-country revolution (though music geeks will be quick to point out that Rank and File, an SST band in the ’80s truly invented the genre). Regardless of who gets credit after Tupelo’s demise, its feuding singers went on to create Sonvolt (Jay Farrar’s band, though now he’s gone solo) and Wilco, which had mutated into a quirky pop outfit.
Richard Buckner certainly deserves special mention in this section as well: The Hill, his adaptation of Edgar Lee Masters’ Spoon River Anthology is perhaps as important a contribution to Americana as Carl Sandburg’s rescuing of endangered 1800s ballads.
And what about Will Oldham (whose many aliases include Prince Bonny, Palace, the Palace Brothers, etc.)? Certainly his spare songs about alcoholism, violence, and utter fucking despair earn him a category of his own. (His label Drag City is responsible for a number of brilliant alt-country acts such as: Edith Frost, Silver Jews, and tons of noisier fare.)
Other favorites include Freakwater, Bad Livers, Gillian Welch, Kelly Willits, and scads more listed later on.
Old School Punk: That ’70s/’80s Show (That Never Got Aired)
As varied as anything out there today, certain bands from the Carter/Reagan years remain highly listenable and influential. Here are some of our favorites from the “other” ’70s and ’80s: Bad Brains, Black Flag, Crass, Dead Kennedys, Descendents, DOA, DRI, Effigies, Fear, Germs, Minor Threat, Stiff Little Fingers, X . . . oh I could go on, but maybe a friendly record store clerk will have to take over now. . . .
New School Punk: That ’90s Show (That Never Got Aired)
Drive Like Jehu’s energy single-handedly create a punk renaissance (though its self-titled debut is far superior to Yank Crime). Other good bands followed their cue: Garden Variety, Tanner, Trumans Water, hundreds more, injecting some much-needed moxie into what seemed a dead horse. Valuing energy over precision, this new breed of punk is still very much alive and flailing in basements everywhere.
What Is Noise Pop?
Jawbreaker, Lefty’s Deceiver, Idlewild play these in a shuffle and you will go insane. Individually these bands are all good, dominantly sincere, reluctant in many cases to branch out. Still, there are so many bands that might belong to this category (despite what the bookers of the Noise Pop festival might say) that are truly taking pop to a place of great sincerity (even if the songs themselves are not groundbreaking). Death Cab for Cutie, Modest Mouse, Yo La Tengo, Superchunk, and Boyracer deserve special mention here. . . . And Pavement certainly earns a place in the Pantheon of Noise Pop as well—though many are quick to point out they echo the aesthetic of The Fall very closely. We could have literally filled this list with 500 such bands. Page through the encyclopedic vaults of Epitonic.com for more.
The New Math
Perhaps the most exciting development in recent years has been the advent of “math rock.” From the Fripp/Eno/early King Crimson axis that unfortunately also spawned bands like Yes comes something completely fucking different: bands that eschew typical time signatures (and most other pop trappings like choruses, repeated parts, even lyrics). Many math-rock bands owe more allegiance to jazz than to punk. But narrow definitions do not apply to any of these artists who offer surprising, off-kilter, and occasionally disturbingly beautiful compositions. As for how it all began, you could point either to NYC’s scroungy faves Sonic Youth for their weird tunings or to the many disciples of Robert Fripp. Don Caballero is undoubtedly the king of the math hill, especially on American Don, arguably math’s greatest statement. The Fucking Champs are taking the genre in a very heavy direction these days (though they prefer the term “total music”—whatever). San Francisco, for all its faults of late, has at least given the world some good mathy stuff recently (Deerhoof, Rumah Sakit, Fighting Mutts, Touched by a Janitor, and oh so many more).
Riot Grrrls (and Quiet Riot Grrls, too)
I feel like a sexist pig by even categorizing based on gender (really, we don’t want to be part of the whole fucked-up paradigm) . . . but there’s something unique about female artists that shun, subvert, or totally eschew the testosterone-drenched paradigms of big dumb rawk. Some female bands like L7, The Skirts, and Hole consciously mock machismo by out-macho-ing the boys, but for the most part, female-dominated rock is mercifully different than so much of what makes mopey boy music so tedious. Here then, some essential female artists: PJ Harvey, Patti Smith, Phranc, Kim Deal’s many projects (especially the Breeders and the Amps), Liz Phair, Spinanes, Sugarcubes, Lois, Hazel, Heavenly, Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre, Michelle Shocked, Tiger Trap, Salt, Throwing Muses, Belly, Lisa Germano. (Scores more can be found in the list at the end of this article.)
Cult of Personality
Certain chameleon-like artists can redefine themselves (in a way that’s far less calculated than, say, Bowie, or Madonna) and often resist labels of any kind: Lou Barlow, for instance, whose work with indie giant Sebadoh is radically different than his work with consciously catchier Folk Implosion (or Sentridoh). Mike Watt, who began as bassist for the unrepentantly minimal Minutemen, had certainly developed a different sound with Firehose, and his later solo work. And what about Tom Waits, John Vanderslice, et al.—don’t they deserve some credit here for moving on, resisting the temptation to follow the safety of a Ramones-like career?
That ’60s Show
Yes, the sound is still seductive. And whether it’s atavism, sarcasm, or genuine infatuation, the fact that so many bands continue on in this fashion must mean something.
Some bands from the so-called Paisley Underground include Rain Parade, The 3 O’Clock, and Opal. These days, of the bands with an overtly ’60s-like sound, I would recommend The Aislers Set and The Starlight Mints. Others in high rotation include Fugu, The High Llamas, Cardinal.
People Who Need Prozac (More than I Do)
Well, let’s start with Joy Division, shall we? And while we’re at it, you get serious trivia points if you knew about Fra Lippo Lippi, a Finnish band operating at roughly the same time as those Manchester mopesters, which had an eerily similar aesthetic. (Yes, shoegazing goes back a long way, my friends.) And Bauhaus deserves more credit than most will grant them for their incredible eclecticism. Nowadays, I dare you to listen to, say, Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai without proper pharmaceutical corrections. Or maybe I don’t dare you. (See our entry on slowcore for more of this stuff.)
Emo
A non-Buddhist part of me wants to inflict mild bodily harm on the person who misnamed a genre that needed no name: Jawbox, Soulside, The Hated, and many other great bands really exist independently of “emo” (which is short for “emotional”—apparently the abbreviation is for those who have trouble saying that word). Whatever you call it, many bands in this confining box are very worth your investigations. Aside from the artists mentioned above, (of which Jawbox is the only absolute essential), check out: The Promise Ring, Texas is the Reason, Cap’n Jazz, Joan d’Arc, Evergreen, Sensefield, Mineral, Chamberlain, Amber Inn, Still Life.
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Some Bands (and Records) That Changed Everything
Not surprisingly, there are very few bands that changed the world, and uptight self-appointed indie music genealogists (not I!) might dispute who actually had the breakthrough first. Regardless, all of these bands in some way left the landscape permanently altered for their presence.
The Sex Pistols, despite their affiliation with Malcom McLaren, brought venom and six-chord snarls together more meaningfully than their noisier contemporaries. Nevermind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols, the band's only official release is the classic you must have.
Joy Division brought undiluted despair into the fray -- for better or worse. Unknown Pleasures and Closer (as well as the infamous single "Love Will Tear Us Apart") are indispensible.
Sonic Youth's fucked-up tunings and aggressively anti-pop compositions brought gritty experimentation into play. Daydream Nation stands out as the band's indisputable masterpiece. One of my favorite pieces of all time is "Providence," a scratchy distant piano layered with an angry phone message to the band from Mike Watt.
And speaking of Watt (one of the masterminds behind unrepentantly minimal Minutemen), Double Nickels on the Dime is a double disc with more surprises and range than many bands collect in an entire career.
And so what if Nirvana still smells like late 20s spirit -- Nevermind opened a thousand doors for the genre we now ironically call "indie."
Some Indie Classics
OK so these bands may not have changed everything, but listed below are some truly great, and in some cases, seamless records. (That's rarer than you think.) These range from quiet to assaultingly loud, from simple to absurdly complex, so look before you leap.
aMiniature, Depth Five, Rate Six
Archers of Loaf, All the Nations Airports
Richard Buckner, The Hill
Built to Spill, Keep It Like a Secret
Chavez, Ride the Fader
Don Caballero, American Don
Dream Syndicate, The Days Of Wine And Roses
Drive Like Jehu, s/t
Fugazi, Repeater
Liz Phair, Exile in Guyville
Meat Puppets, Up On the Sun
Modest Mouse, The Lonesome Crowded West
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Pavement, Slanted and Enchanted
P.E.E., Now, More Charm and More Tender
Pinback, s/t
Pixies, Surfer Rosa
PJ Harvey, Dry
Rocket from the Crypt, Circa: Now!
Swirlies, They Spent Their Wild Youthful Days In the Glittering World of the Salons
Tsunami, Brilliant Mistake
Uncle Tupelo, No Depression
Unwound, Leaves Turn Inside You
Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One
Indie's Dysfunctional Family Tree
* compiled by Lawrence Cain
The Enablers
Bob Dylan; The Beatles; The Rolling Stones
The Basic Progenitors
The Mothers of Invention; The Sonics; The Velvet Underground
The Modern Fathers and Mothers
Iggy Pop; The Ramones; The New York Dolls; Roxy Music; Devo; Sex Pistols; Patti Smith
Favorite Uncles
Brian Eno; David Bowie; Elvis Costello; The Clash; Talking Heads; Tom Waits; XTC; Gang of Four; Wire
Favorite Great Uncles and Aunts
Buddy Holly; Jerry Lee Lewis; Patsy Cline; Johnny Cash; Gene Vincent; Hank Williams Woody Guthrie
Favorite Second Cousins
The Who; Sly Stone; Jefferson Airplane; Jimi Hendrix; George Clinton; Leonard Cohen; Kraftwerk; Bob Marley; Plastic Ono Band; Kinks; John Cage
Archdukes of Navigation
Alice Cooper; Throbbing Gristle; Killing Joke; King Crimson
The Subversive Garage
The Sonics; Electric Prunes; The Ultimate Spinach; MC5; Dream Syndicate; The 3 O'Clock
Thanks for the Angst
Television; Buzzcocks; Wipers; Magazine; Swell Maps; Pere Ubu
Thanks for the Unapologetic Urban Posturing
Stranglers; Blondie; Damned; Dead Boys; Ultravox; Fleshtones; Generation X; Ian Dury
Thanks for the New Blank Slate
Can; The Residents; Meredith Monk; Hendry Cow/Fred Frith; Massacre/Material; Cabaret Voltaire; DNA; Red Crayola; Laurie Anderson; Glenn Branca
Thanks for the Angry Quarter-Inch (Riot Grrls - Early Version)
Slits; Lydia Lunch; Kleenex; Au Pairs; The Flowers; Raincoats; Bush Tetras; Delta 5; The Roaches
Thanks for the Self-conscious Self-effacement
Jonathon Richman; dBs; X; Mission of Burma; Half Japanese; Green on Red; Nick Cave; REM
Thanks for the Self-conscious British Swagger
The Jam; The Fall; Robyn Hitchcock; Monochrome Set; Jazz Butcher
Thanks for the Smell of Wet Paint
Polyrock; Japan; Rupert Hine; Scritti Politti; Romeo Void; Slow Children
Thanks for the Angst (Part Two)
Pell Mell; The Blackouts; B Team; Translator; The Gleaming Spires; Wall of Voodoo; NRC
Thanks for the New Blank Slate (Part Two)
Sonic Youth; John Zorn; Diamanda Galas
Thanks for the Creepy Raincoat Vibe
Violent Femmes; Soft Cell; Cramps; Human Sexual Response
Thanks for the Self-conscious, etc. (Part Two)
Husker Du; Minutemen, Replacements; Meat Puppets
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Brit Pop
Badly Drawn Boy is one of the few good examples out there of something worthy. (We’re not patriotic here, kids, it’s just that we hope the British don’t invade again—at least not with the crap they’re mostly churning out now.) Most is drivel, but some of course is incredible. Radiohead, for lack of a better label, might fit here, as would Arco. Investigate at your peril.
Lo-Fi
Guided by Voices single-handedly privileged the sloppy brilliant fragment, raising it back to the art status it once enjoyed before “production value” took over. The intimacy of tape hiss and imperfect renderings can be tracked down from Empress, The Bingo Trappers, and The Grifters.
Boy/Girl Bands
There’s something sexual about it of course: the blend of female and male voices that adds a lower layer to bands of this ilk. Dealership is currently one of my favorites, as is Mates of State. But that’s just the beginning: P.E.E. was groundbreaking in this way, as was X. Some bands in this category: Selby Tigers, Quasi, Swirlies.
Ska
Ska, itself a hybrid, is best these days when spiced up with other genres. Like reggae (or orthodox indie), it can be tedious, but in the hands of clever bands such as Mighty Mighty Bosstones (who add metal in the mix) and Fishbone (who add everything into the mix), the end result is something angtsy teens can still “skank” to.
Twee
Such a pejorative name for such an appealing genre. These bands are often counted as guilty pleasures, a relief from the static and feedback that some of us can’t live without. These bands (which can usually aid you through a Sunday morning hangover) are as varied as their names. Some to check out: Aberdeen, The Apples in Stereo, The Beat Happening, Belle And Sebastian, Beulah, East River Pipe Felt, Heavenly, The Jazz Butcher, Kingsbury Manx, Lois, Look Blue Go Purple, The Magnetic Fields, My Bloody Valentine (who for some reason get pegged as shoegazer), The Pastels, The Sea and Cake, The Smiths, The Trash Can Sinatras, Trembling Blue Stars, Wheat, oh and a thousand more... (Try out Twee.net for a decent listing.)
Joke Bands
Gwar, for instance. What can you say about a band that pretends to be from Antarctica, dresses in cave-thug-meets-Rodan costumes, and spews more fake blood than a hemophiliac director’s warped interpretation of Titus Andronicus? Actually, dammit, they’re just funny. Many of these bands are very un-PC (that doesn’t bother you does it?). . . . And would Gwar ever have donned those costumes were it not for The Mentors— the most offensive band of all time? (Wait, I forgot about the Meatmen.)
Others offer a kinder gentler approach: such as The Dead Milkmen, The Potato Men, Camper van Beethoven, whom many would hesitate to categorize this way.
Industrial/Noise
What began in England with Throbbing Gristle (or arguably in Germany with SPK) led ultimately to an odd détente of punk, dance music, and pure noise. Bands like Ministry (phase two) and Skinny Puppy would have been unthinkable without some earlier trailblazers. Bands such as Crash Worship and Savage Republic also owe a debt to some earlier (s)avant-garde beat-driven insanity. For pure noise enthusiasts, however, Japan is your paradise, home of Hijo Kaidan, whose Rothko-like maximalist beatless feedback earned him the indisputable title of The King of Noise.
Instrumentalists/Slowcore
Leaving out the mathy projects for a moment, a renaissance of instrumentalism has taken place. Some bands in this genre (with wildly different results): Tortoise, Tarentel, and Tristeza. Overpass and Pell Mell certainly blazed trails of their own here as well. The most lugubrious of them these days—Mogwai and Godspeed You Black Emperor—might better fit the slowcore moniker, of which Low is regarded by many as king. Slowcore was certainly the logical pendulum swing away from the louder/faster/harder ethos that dominated angsty underground music—but angst comes in many flavors, and bands such as Barzin and Hood can get to places that thrash never will.
Folksy (This Machine Still Kills Fascists)
Woody Guthrie once wrote on his acoustic guitar, “This Machine Kills Fascists.” Fortunately, in the right hands, this is still true. Ever since Dylan blew open a universe-sized hole in the singer/songwriter realm, the genre has given us a thousand worthy contributors that don’t fit into the mainstream box. Let’s start with my present favorites The Mountain Goats, though I love the Ever Glenns’s new disc as well. Others in this ilk are Songs: Ohia, Royal City, and Papa M (featuring ex-Slint founder David Pajo).
Bluesy
R. L. Burnside and The White Stripes are high on my list right now. Others prefer something closer to rock à la The Delta 72, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, or US Maple.
You Don’t Have to Be Weird to Be Weird
Fred Frith, Brian Eno, Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, Gastr del Sol, Tom Nunn—such artists truly defy categorization. Recently I heard the first brilliant record by the Golden Palominos (and I do mean record)—made in the early ’80s—and it completely reaffirmed my faith that there has always been, and there is now, incredible boundary-bending art. (Whitman said it better, and so we’ll let Uncle Walt have the last word: “There was never any more inception than there is now/ Not any more youth or age than there is now;/ And will never be any more perfection than there is now/ Nor any more heaven or hell than there is now.”)
You would think a list of 500 indie bands from past and present would be sufficient to cover the gamut stretching from crafted post-everything pop to nihilistic noise, but—believe it or not—there are at least a thousand artists worthy of your time (and indeed your download time). Here then, we offer a four-figure list of decent stuff to check out. We highly recommend the resources made available by the knowledgeable folks at Epitonic.com for much of this stuff.
Click here for "One Thousand Great Indie Bands"
Resources
So your interest is piqued. Now where the hell do you find this stuff? Below are a few of our recommendations.
Magazines:
Magnet; Devil in the Woods
Websites:
epitonic.com; insound.com
San Francisco-Bay Area Record Stores:
Amoeba; Aquarius
Contributors
The compilation of the bands for this article was the work of many writers and friends. Incalculable thanks goes to: Lawrence Cain, Alex Green, Mark Dowdy, David Beauchamp, Adam Kendall, Craig Escalante, Brandon Battaglia, Mike Winstanley, and many other who sent in their candidates.
"The Indie 500: Great Independent Bands" is Copyrighted by David Holler
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