International Indie Music
 

I'm always looking to discover new music trends in communities and cultures OTHER than in North America. I don't only do this to compare American underground to that being made in other parts of the world, but unfortunately, since I'm a broke college student, I obviously can't afford to go to these places to actually submerge myself in their local music scenes so this is the closest I get. It's always interesting to hear what indie musicians are producing in Asia, South America and beyond because it really makes me realize that a lot of the bands I listen to from N. America draw a lot of their inspiration and creativity not just from other N. American bands but from other parts of the world. My recent find let me to uncover an amazing music scene in Beijing where a photographer (Matt Niederhauser) has been photo-documenting the Chinese indie music scene for the past few years. I found some pretty amazing bands through him so I'm posting the link below to some of his photography and an article :)


EDIT: I posted 2 recommendations below, if any one else has any international indie bands that they'd like to share, I'd love to take a listen!

any recommendations on what bands to check out?

From China, my favorite so far is a band called Carsick Cars: Carsick Cars Myspace
I especially like the track "Dear Friends"

I also like a band called Hedgehog: Hedgehog Myspace
Specifically the track "Tell Them I Love You"

These bands, at least in my opinion are amazing, I wish they would tour here. Let me know what you think of them!

I'm listening to Carsick Cars right now and my first impression is that it's a pretty damn good album.

The only negative for me is that I don't know Chinese so I can't understand the lyrics and I have no idea what the song titles are, but that'll hardly stop me from listening to them.

I couldn't find Hedgehog's album (Their names to popular) any chance of an upload?

I've been searching for their music for a few weeks now. Unfortunately, I've encountered the same problem you have. I can't find it anywhere so I've just been enjoying them on Myspace. Apparently you can order one of their albums here: MOD in MOD but I haven't been able to find the one I want.

I just found a site that I think you'll love. Over 500 chinese albums and yes Blue Day Dreaming is there.

Check your PM's.

I have an album of Chinese pop from 07, I'm pretty sure theres a Carsick Cars track that's in English.. can't check at the moment but I'm fairly certain. It's called Look Directly Into The Sun: China Pop 2007.. if you like them you might be interested in hearing it.

Thanks, I'd love to hear it. Any chance of an upload though because so far my search has been fruitless.

Yeah not a problem, I'll get it up'ed as soon as I get home tonight. It's much better than I had anticipated honestly, sure there's a few throw away tracks but from the most part it's golden.

Thanks. I really appreciate it. If you'd like the link to the site I pm'd to chrissgerraty let me know. There are a ton of albums so hopefully this album will give me a good starting spot to start working my way through them.

I'd post it in the thread but I've already recieved a warning for posting links to full albums and I'm not really clear if that includes a link to a site that has full albums.

Thank you very much! I appreciate it. I'll make sure to post/ share any links I find that you might be interested in. I just really wish I could get my hands on a Hedgehog album...

They have one on that link I sent you. Scroll down to the H section. I downloaded it yesterday so it should still be working.

I can do my bit here. I've already mentioned some indie bands at the Spanish-language music thread, but there are also Spanish indie bands singing in English. So I think they could fit well here.

Many Spanish indie bands, basically from the early 90's on, have chosen to sing in English (although sometimes their pronunciation could be "considerably improved" :)). This is some of what I've been recently listening to:


* Sexy Sadie (after the famous Beatles' song), from Mallorca (1992-2006):


Also, among other songs: Stay Behind Me, You Know That's the Way I Like it, I Won't Hurt You, Satellites, I don't know and A Scratch in My Skin.


* Delorean, from Zarautz (Basque Country). Indie-electronica:


And Nycgaps, Moonson, Seasun, As Time Breaks Off...


* You Don't Know Me, from Madrid. And indeed I didn't know them :) until two days ago. They haven't released any CD yet, but their songs can be listened to on the Internet:

* Australian Blonde, from Asturias, is not an outstanding band now, but two or three of their songs were quite known in the 90's: Chup Chup, Cool Dive.

* The Sunday Drivers, from Toledo (Castile, not Ohio :)). Indie-pop, from 2003 to this month (they broke up two weeks ago). They've had a notable International success (France, Netherlands, Greece...).

This is from New Zealand, theyre called The Naked and Famous. This songs actually really good, its called Young Blood :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdO85Qf4Poc

I really liked Lourdes Hernández or Russian Red. I didn't enjoy the others quite as much as I did her. I'll be looking into the artist in the near future.

This would be a fantastic thread if other "foreign" people would contribute.

That's kinda cool, I hadn't heard it before.

Here's some more modern NZ indie from the Phoenix Foundation. This is the only studio version I could find of this pretty song.

I dont know much of the Phoenix Foundation, but theyre really cultish here. Try this, its by an NZ artist named Ladyhawke. You may like it:

Paris Is Burning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqWzfH71Bww&feature=fvst
Back of the Van: YouTube - Ladyhawke - Back Of The Van
My Delirium: YouTube - Ladyhawke - My Delirium

:)

Four more:

* Christina Rosenvinge, born in Madrid to Danish father and English mother. She usually sings in Spanish, but she lived in New York City for seven years and published three albums in English on independent labels.

ATHENA official site on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

One of the Turkish bands I've really gotten into. They've got a really wide variety in their albums, lots of ska influences but in some of their stuff you can hear more traditional turkish influences which is a really cool mix. Some of the older songs to check out are Parlavra, Beyoglu, Yarsamak var ya and their one english song, for real.

Cycle (2003-), an Anglo-Spanish indie group based in Madrid. A mix of several styles (rock, pop, electronica...). Since the two main members (Luke Donovan and David Kano) left, it's not the same band. But they were popular thanks to songs like these:

Virvel are one of my favorites from this new Serbian 'indie' scene. I first heard them on the radio in 2000. when they released the first album. And they were really indie, they had their own label. I'm not sure what's the situation now. Sadly they're rather overlooked in Serbia because of some more popular 'indie' bands. Personally they remind me a bit of Yo La Tengo (especially on the first song I posted), but with a post-rock influence (sparse singing, minimum of words, repetition etc.)