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Badlittlekitten's top 52 indie/alternative tracks of this century so far.
I've wanted to speak about a particular time in music for a while, and seeing as I was in my late teens/early twenties throughout the last decade, I feel this time period is my safest (easiest) bet. Obviously I haven't heard every indie track ever (god, I've tried) but i'm sure I've sampled everything I would be interested in. My only rule is that I'm not including more than one track per artist - I didn't want it this way, but I soon realised my top 5 would comprise of the same few artists. The list is totally subjective, with some of the choices reflecting personal impact and others for being bloody great tunes. My posting is likely to be sporadic at best. Discussion/dismissal of my submissions and omissions is welcome and encouraged.
52 Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To Album: Vivian Girls 2008 As soon as those guitar chords come in, surfing on the Motown beat, my face is already grinning like a simpleton. The all female Brooklyn trio are part of the whole, lazy, back to basics DIY 60s'/80s indie pop thing. This slice of surf pop is the best thing to come from the scene. The harmonies on the chorus are somehow full of sunshine and darkness at the same time, and the way the notes ascend during "do you run to babyyyyy" is joyous. The lyrics could be about a lover that shoots his load and promptly disappears. But I'm probably completely wrong. |
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M83 - Graveyard Girl Saturdays=Youth 2008 French 80's revivalists make a darkly blissed out gem. The gorgeous church synths that are covered in echo are perfect and are the reason this track is hear in the first place. That's not to undermine writer Anthony Gonzalez's though. This song is the tale of a goth girl with a heart “made of bubblegum” on the run, and in search for something (love. Duhh). The Moment in this song, for me, is when we hear from the perspective of the female protagonist; the beat stops and she whispers, “I’m gonna jump the walls and run, I wonder if they’ll miss me? I wont miss them. The cemetery is my home. I want to be part of it, invisible even to the night”. Her words freeze in time, she wants to disappear completely, but those beautiful synths refill the night time air, and a distant cry of “yeah yeah yeah!” pulls hope from the shadows as the beat comes back in for the fade. The atmosphere is so evocative that it makes me want to run to the local cemetery at an ungodly hour, with earphones and a few cans for company, and lay back gazing at stars “wise and silent”, waiting for my graveyard girl to come. She's probably the lovely red head in the video. I'm quite a nostalgic kind of fella, so the Molly Ringwald reference and the whimsical John Hughes style teenage melodrama of the track gets me all moist and unnecessary. 50 The View – Wasted Little DJ’s Hats Off To Buskers 2006 http://www.iconic-culture.com/catalo...20djs%207a.jpg If you’ve heard anything by the View you probably think their the worst kind of retro retard fookwits, incapable of an original thought between them, sucking up scum from the darkest pits of indie’s bowls. I agree. Horrible band. But, with one moment of dumb luck they made a glorious racket. This, their first single, perfectly captures the night club (E) thrill. The chorus is one of those anthemic things that make you want to hug your best mate and finally get round to dancing with that girl you’ve been making eyes at all night. The Moment is after the bridge, were there’s been some debauchery - “You see we're all out of our little ****ing heads!” - the beat drops dead and the Scottish bloke that sings it goes “doo doo doo doo”. It’s a wonderful little moment as it gives us a breather and a chance to survey the beer stained dance floors and get a sense of what’s so good about being young, intoxicated and full of sex juice. Sure, it’s a complete rip off of The Libertines’s ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’. But that was great too, and it rips it off well. |
'Graveyard Girl' by M83 is an amazing song. The whole Saturdays=Youth album is incredible, one of the best albums of 2008. This thread should be interesting.
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Eagle eyed readers may have noticed this thread has gone from top 50 to the unlikely number of 52. This is because I'm making this up as I go along and all the information is too much for my narcotic stained memory. Expect the number to rise again if I remember more stuff I've missed but I'm digressing now . . .
49 High Places - From Stardust To Sentience High Places 2008 High Places are a dream pop duo from Brooklyn whose self titled debut is one of those rare indie Lps that barely touches a guitar. Instead they employ found sounds, house hold objects and electronic snatches and samples. Vocalist Mary Pearson sings with a child like innocence, like she's eternally lost in the school playground getting high on e numbers. Their playful and trippy lyrics are like playground philosophies which involve talk of oceans, trees and space travel. This song seems to be about the smallness of all of us in contrast to time and gravity. Pearson sings, "Out in the desert your thoughts are as clear as the stars. You feel golden. You're billion year old carbon", in a dreamy half asleep slumber, and you get a sense of being at one with the universe. Well I do anyway. I don't know where the boing boing noises on the track, that bounce between your speakers, come into to all these deep revelations, but it works for me. 48 The Young Knives - Part Timer Voices Of Animals and Men 2006 From the intro, where the band sound as though their having a fit, to the end, where Henry Dartnall screams "Part Time Part Time!" in hysterical falsetto, this is gloriously daft post - punk in the Futureheads vein. This ditty from the Oxford nerds is about procrastination and writers block, and it hits close to home. The bit at 1:28 (or 5:26 in the brilliant video) where the track stops and we hear a snippet of the band trying to piece together a song ("that bit we can fit in and then take out . . we do it again it'll sound stupid") always makes me laugh. And the line "Part time forever, under the weather" I admire and begrudgingly relate to. |
Not The View!
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Ha, like I said horrible band. But that songs a guilty pleasure.
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Peter, Bjorn and John (and Victoria) - Young Folks Writers Block 2006 The most iconic bit of whistling of the century? A master class in Swedish pop, and we'll see more of guest vocalist Victoria Bergsman later on. Writers Block seemed like a great LP at the time, but for me it hasn’t held up with exception to this song. As soon as them drums kick in I'm thumped back into the summer of 2007, strolling hand in hand with an ex lover through Oxford street, sunshine glaring down on us, this track booming from all the shops, whistling, giggling and lost in our world and our love. “All we care about is talking, talking only me and you” is a simple and beautiful line, especially when sung in duet, and it’s the heart of this song. The chorus of the track soars, with its Technicolor harmonies, thrashings of echoed guitar and its flourishing bongos. But I have to come back to that whistling; the notes are breezy, somehow full of hope and dizzy romance, yet they linger by in a strangely mournful and melancholic way. It hits me in the gut every time. Maybe I just need to get over it. |
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The Ruby Suns - Remember Sea Lion 2008 A total dirge now then and technically there's better tracks on the Sea Lion album, but its this that cuts the deepest on a personal level. This is a dreamy song about reminiscing on times gone. You see I'm one of those fools that always puts off contacting old friends and feels regretful about it all the same, so lines like "Imagine yourself in a dream, seeing all of your old friends" are like a warm blanket, with the melancholy in Ryan McPhun's voice giving me the most wistful and nostalgic of dreams. The next line, "Imagine yourself far away looking back on what used to be. Life before things had changed into what they are now", is especially poignant, as my parents were in the process of divorce at the time and new living arrangements were coming into effect. This track is made up of two verses with a instrumental passage in between. The "aaahhhh aaahhh" harmonies are lovely, and the lack of a chorus/peak only adds to the feeling of being forlorn. |
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The Blow - Pile Of Gold Paper Television 2006 The Blow is Oregon based Khaela Maricich who was once in The Microphones and is a veteran of the great K record label. For the album Paper Television she doubled up with electro artist Jona Bechtolt, aka YACHT. This is the first and best track from that album. 'Pile Of Gold' features a strong and catchy hook ("all the girls are sitting on a pile of gold, and the boys you know they want it they want it") and shuffles along on a restless, glitchy beat. I've no doubt that the pile of gold in question is sex, and that Maricich is fully aware of the animal desire for sex in men, and that it is women who are in complete control of this treasure they rest upon. She taunts us, "You should treat us good, you do that and you know we're gunna-uh-uh huh, share more of our goods with you" while things go squeak and squelch, and some robotic handclaps clap. Ooo I love some handclaps me. |
Awesome thread.
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Thanks:)
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Regina Spektor - Samson Songs 2002 http://robbrink.com/content/old/Regi...20portrait.jpg I'm sure us music fans have heard of those supposed songs that, when we hear it for the first time, regardless of age, race, gender, length of nose - it stops you dead in your tracks and you drop what you're doing and just listen, and then become consumed within the magic that is unravelling before your ears. Those songs are just myths aren't they? Well for arguments against, I present Exhibit A, 'Samson'. New York via Russia's Spektor struck gold with this mournful gem. This is the original version, just her, a piano and a single take, and it packs much more powerful mojo than the version on Begin To Hope, which added orchestral sheen but lost the intimacy. The song obviously references the Bible's Samson and Delilah story, but around this Regina writes about ageing and the disappointment of falling out of love, and its devastating. The key line in this song is "You are my sweetest downfall" which express with regret, that all our addictions, even love, can turn you into a weeping mess. In fact Regina is such a weeping mess she no longer sees the point in the romantic tradition of gazing at the stars, as after all, "They're just old light". But it's not the lyrics that are the most gut wrenching thing here, 'Samson' contains some of the most heartbreaking piano melodies I've ever heard. The way the notes stalk around the words "your hair was long when we first met", before the rhythm slows down slightly and Reg hits a gorgeous minor seventh chord that seems to stop time. The whole song is built around a chord sequence that is so beautific and spot on it should be illegal. Then of course we have Reggie's vocals. The reason this is by far and away her best track is because it lacks the self consciously kooky vocal warbling of much of her other early music, and isn't as . . . well, dull as her recent stuff. Unless you're made up of old car mechanic tools, the way she sings "I loved you first" will make you crumble like polystyrene. People I've played this to have often mistaken it for a lost Bjork song, and the biggest compliment I can give it is that its up there with 'Venus As A Boy' in terms of vocal chord magic. There was a time when this song would have been much higher up this list, and maybe it deserves to be. Unfortunately it hasn't held up to repeated listens over the years. So I'm sorry my sweet Reggie, you'll have to make do with 44, but it was good while it lasted and I hope you've been able to move on. |
Maybe it's just that picture, but she's UGLY
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Still, different strokes for different folks and all that. |
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Stephen Malkmus - Church On White Stephen Malkmus 2001 Everybody make way please. Legend coming through. In 2001 Malkmus had split from scruffy, influential, lo-fi mavericks Pavement, and released his overlooked solo album. Stephen Malkmus is a warm and cosy ride, full of 70's tinged folk rock loveliness, melded with a soul that was lacking in Pavement's restless rumble. This just about edged out a few other tracks from the album and is here partly because it's a lovely breezy thing which I can imagine myself listening to when I'm old and withered, rocking back and forth on my garden chair, reflecting in the sun, and dusting off my favourite beer as Malkmus whispers through the trees, "Carry on, it’s a marathon, take me off the list. I don’t want to be missed" and his band, the Jicks, stroll along in 3/4 time while the timid air cuts through the blades of grass around me. But this song is mostly here because of the guitar, which is just dam exquisite throughout. And it gets even better from about two minutes in, where Malkmus overdubs himself and we get gorgeous twin guitar flourishes that are up there with anything on Television's Marquee Moon. Just listen to it. And save me from spewing any more pretentious babel. |
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42
Feist - 1234 The Reminder 2007 Yet another romance number. Boring I know, but Feist's take on the 'Can't Buy Me Love' theme is still lovely, despite it's appearance in certain commercials. The vocals are cute without being saccharine and Feist tackles the lyrics with more than enough conviction to make me forget about portable jukeboxes. The moment of the track is almost blink and you'll miss it, as at 2:06, the piano plays some jaunty lines that act as the catalyst of making the track into something more uplifting as it draws to a close. 41 The Futureheads - Meantime The Futureheads 2004 "I wasn't laughing properly, when you were talking to me. I didn't find it funny Your story didn't do it for me. And you thought that I was joking. I said you were a moron. When I said it I was smiling, so you'd think that I was joking" Amidst all this romance, The Futurehead's questions about the mundane and pointless aspects of everyday conversation are refreshing. The Sunderland quartet yodel on by with their candy caned take on Gang of Four style sharp edges, and it's luminescent and makes me grin. I'd like this song more if it had one more 'false conversations' verse before the end, but in the meantime (see what I did there?) this hits all the right pop punk buttons. h |
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The Breeders - Off You Title TK 2002 Everybody make way again please. And take your finger out of your nostril. Legend coming through . . . Well it only took them about a decade to follow up Last Splash, and when Title Tk was finally released it looked like the band had thrown it together in a couple of hours. From the cheap and nasty artwork to the dusty lo-fi production, and even the albums title itself - Title Tk seemed half-arsed to say the least. But over the years it has slowly revealed itself to be a bit of a gem; all the songs flow organically while Steve Albini's production is stark and intimate and the band sound like they're playing in your bedroom, enjoying every note as they're lapping up all your booze. I actually prefer this to the patchy and overrated Last Splash (Obviously Pod is their masterpiece). 'Off You' is like a quieter and less chaotic 'Gigantic', which Kim Deal recorded with alt-rock heroes the Pixies. It represents the LPs softer side, ditching the muddy fuzzbox din for a Velvet Underground style ballad. By now Deal's voice was not what it used to be and the mic picks her up at close range, all ragged and breathy (apparently she lost her voice completely for a short period due to smoking, heroin and being a bit of a loud mouth) but to me she never has sounded so beautiful. When she purrs "I am the autumn in the scarlet, I am the make-up on your eyes" I can feel hairs begin to prickle down the back of my neck. The songs seems to be about landing to sail and casting yourself adrift, presumably what Kim had been doing for the last nine years, but it's hard to make sense of Deal's lyrics which come across like half remembered dreams. Musically it sounds naked, with three VU chords, no percussion, a weird squelchy synth noise that appears at fifty seconds in only to be never heard from again and a fruity upright bass that just about holds everything together. Like so much on Title TK it somehow works, even though it shouldn't. |
top 50 of the decade-first 10
I Want to Sing That Rock And Roll-Gillian Welch Caring Is Creepy-The Shins Lost Cause-Beck From Blown Speakers-New Pornographers 16 Military Wives-The Decemberists Lou-ee, Lou-ee--Fastball Fading Into Obscurity-Sloan Energy-The Apples in Stereo In My Arms-Teddy Thompson Festival-Sigur Ros |
Na, not in this thread mate.
EDIT: There may be a Shins appearance soon though. |
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The Beta Band - Gone Hot Shots II 2001 http://www.betaband.com/images/press...-guest/002.jpg Edinburgh Scotland's much missed Beta Band were a eccentric hippy folk collective of scruffy beards. Like many other groups brimming with invention, their record sales suffered, mainly because they were always ten steps ahead of everyone else, and, well, maybe because they were to to happy in their stinky clouds of super skunk to care. Their music is an effortless mash of stoner folk, Krautrock, hip hop, trip hop, funk, acid house and electronica. Yet, despite all this delicious diversity, I chose the song that sounds like bloody Pink Floyd. 'Gone' is a dark brooding thing, made up of just a Roger Waters bass line, dread inducing guitar chords and some subtly haunting backing vocals . Frontman Steve Mason sounds like he's been struck with swine flu rather than his usual cold, and he mourns, "Won't you think of me, when I'm gone" as a simple piano figure that's full of hopelessness washes him astray. It's bleak, depressing and is more suspicious of fun then any other Beta Band track, and it could have been the best track that was never on Floyd's Meddle, thanks to its intensity and emotional conviction. A few years later The Beta's would split, frustrated that their critical adulation didn't translate into commercial success. They inspired many inferior bands like Gomez, Oasis, The Mystery Jets and Arcade Fire, who inevitably were hugely successful. Such is the renegade rock cliché. |
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Menomena - Muscle N' Flo Friend And Foe 2007 Portland's multi instrumentalist trio Menomena used a unique method to record Friend And Foe - with a home made computer program they each recorded individual improvised takes that are looped, copied, pasted, regarded and then disregarded, seemingly at random. Yet some how, it all fits together like a jigsaw and makes a great art rock LP. It's a rare beast, in that there isn't a skippaple track on it, yet I struggle to find a stand-out track. I went with 'Muscle N' Flo', the opening song and a fine example of what the album is all about. It opens with some stumbling drums which instantly crash to a halt as the vocals come in with the memorable line, 'Oh in the morning I stumble my way towards the mirror and my makeup' (sung by a male. Stumble is an apt word here) over a bass rumble. After the drums have come and gone again, a twangy guitar slides into a lovely piano riff which briefly settles things (writing this list has made me realise how many twinkles of piano I adore, and how many are important to a song.) before the vocal harmonies of the chorus come in and guitars itch and scratch all about the place. The Moment is at 1:45 when, as the percussion drops out again, that piano returns with a riff that seems to defy gravity while some organs discreetly moan and drone, all accompanied by the lyric, 'Now here I stand a broken man'. Some of the most bewitching songs peak with the quietest, most intimate of moments, and this is one of them. The line 'There's so much more left to do, when I'm not young but I'm not through', is one of the many examples of what I like about this album; beyond the trickery and experimentalism lies a cutting reminder of them old fashioned human attributes, like hope. |
epic thread :) eagerly awaiting more numbers!
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Robyn Hitchcock - Star Of Venus Propeller Time 2010 Maybe I'm just over excited having just discovered this. And I fear that what sounds so scarred and profound will end up sounding like a boring folk dirge down the line. But screw it. This just sounds so scarred and profound. Hitchcock was a member of influential jangle pop geeks The Soft Boys. In the 80s he went solo and made a number of irreverent oddball gems. In recent years he's ditched some of the surrealism and gone back to his folk roots. 'Star Of Venus' is unspectacular musically (despite Peter Bucks presence on mandolin) and it doesn't really have a chorus, but I adore it for one reason:the voice. Too old now to get away with forced/false quirkiness, Hitchcock plays it straight and sounds better then ever as a result. He exerts wisdom with every line with a fag damaged (fag as in cigarette you saucy Americans!) rasp reminiscent of John Lennon. The way his voice almost cracks at the end of the opening line ("You must have seen it coming a long time ago. The ship of all your feelings, shipwrecked in one goooo.") is especially devastating. You can almost picture a swooning Robyn, dewy eyed at a misty harbour, watching his life sail on by. And with the line when he asks, "Does it make you cry?", I answer "Well yes it does sir. You sound so scarred and erm . . . . profound." Not on youtube but found: Star Of venus |
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Charlotte Hatherley - Summer Grey Will Fade 2004 That bird who played guitar in Ash does a sun kissed scruffy pop curiosity. This hope-post-break-up song will be far to cheesy and saccharine for most, but I'm listening to it now, looking out the window at the rain pissing down. I've a feeling that if this was early June then this would sound like the greatest thing that's ever happened. "Open the windows. Serotonin and the vitamins C D and E. Oh let it all sink in to your skin, close your eyes. And you can feel the release.", she sings gleefully, and I call my calender a lazy slob bastard for only being at February. What brings me back to this song is its slight oddness, from the complex and quirky vocal melodies in the verses and Charlotte's impatience with the typical four-beats-a-bar structure, to the lyrics of the great chorus (with handclaps!): I confused myself with somebody else I didn’t know what to do, cos I was somebody new Oh now I know that I confused myself with somebody else I didn’t know what to do, know what to do. It's the sound of someone coming back from mental collapse, rediscovering their identity and hoping that the temperamental English summer will make things better so that she can "leave my room, my cocoon, find the door and walk out to the sun." The song almost ruins itself by going on over a minute longer than it should do (on the album version), but at least it leaves us on an emotional cliff hanger as your left unsure as to whether Hatherly's really recovered or not, with her final line, "Took my time to come around. Breathing in and breathing out, won’t you see what I can do. When I leave my room" |
This is a fantastic thread. Really enjoying your analysis and insight. Thanks for posting this.
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The Shins - Gone For Good Chutes To Narrow 2003 I'm not a big Shins fan but this lovely country rock number has a place in my heart. A soundtrack to the Bad Times of wondering drunk around London "floating around", going nowhere. Like me, front man John Mercer is a lousy lover, but it doesn't stop him from passing the blame elsewhere as he sings, "I find a fatal flaw in the logic of love and go out of my head". The chorus descends into A minor with heart melting effect and the words, "Girl, you must atone some. Don't leave me no phone number thereeeeeeee la di la", is sung in lovelorn harmony and reaches a sense of melancholy inside me that only a handful of artists have reached. But the next chorus is the knockout blow as Mercer sings, "You want to jump and dance, but you sat on your hands and lost your only chance", a simple but effective line, and my mind is istantly filled with chances I missed and lips I should have kissed. |
I will confess that most of the songs in this thread do nothing for me at all but I do appreciate well written posts from members who are passionate and knowledgeable about the music they like and there has been a dearth of threads like this on MB recently.
Keep it up! |
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Out of interest what would top your list? |
Glad to see this post active again!
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Of Montreal - A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? 2007 In which the Athens oddballs prove they're not completely smart arse and glib. The bubbly bass and slapstick synths should give me further tooth decay. Yet this track is a joy, grounded by the very real pain of frontman Kevin Barnes, recently separated from his wife and in a deep depression. The patheticness of self loathing is neatly summed up in the first verse: I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown, while living in Norway. I felt the darkness of the black metal bands, but being such a fawn of a man I didn't burn down any churches. Just slept too much, just slept. This track is like a warm blanket full of snuggly Beatles harmonies. I wouldn't wish pain on anyone but it inspires the best art, no? |
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Twin Sister - Lady Daydream Colour Your Life (EP) 2010 Nice but standard dream pop type fair until about a minute in when a guitar twangs itself from the mists, and an effected slap bass transports you back to the 80s. For the moment vocalist Andrea Estella does her best Bjork/Newsom impression and purrs "Just because I lose, don't make me a loser . . ." And the punchline, ". . . yet". The 'yet' said as late possible, for cruel comic effect. |
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Wolfman Feat. Peter Doherty For Lovers 2004 'For Lovers' was released around the time that Doherty went A.W.O.L after his release from prison, for robbing his ex Libertine band mates house for crack money. Wolfman is someone I know almost nothing about, except that he was one of Doherty’s dodgy drug buddies. The sense of doomed romance that made the Libertines great is nicely distilled into these wistful three minutes and I suspect that Doherty played a part in writing this. Pete, for once, doesn’t sound like a drunken baby, and sings his crying heart out over gorgeous descending piano chords and misty strings. The moment is the entire second verse where Pete ruminates, I’m running away with you, from yesterday’s news. Leave it all behind, help me back to my mind. I paid the penalty, hear the jailor rattling the key. But the key was mine, I keep a spare one every time. It’s sung with heart rending sincerity, the voice of a breaking man that wants to play his get out of jail card. ‘For Lovers’ doesn’t reach the heights of true greatness for its chorus is too plain and uninventive. The promise of something magic squandered, just like the Libertines themselves. |
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Man Man - Van Helsing Boom Box Six Demon Bag 2006 Man Man are a quirky Philly quartet I know little about. Six Demon Bag was an album I dismissed as an irrelevant and tiresome comedy album. Thankfully I played it again the other day and have gained a new appreciation of its rich acoustic tones. The mishmash of woodwind, barrel house piano, choppy woodblock percussion, sea shanties, the brothers Grim and the singers weary, weather torn Tom Waits style vocals all conjure up a feeling of a mystical past of camp fires and old pubs full of bearded pipe puffing fishermen. This is the one track that I’ve liked from the beginning and it’s still my favourite. The lamenting “Aahhh, Aaahhh”’s at the start of the track hint at something much different from Man Man’s usual kookiness. The lines “I want to sleep for weeks like a dog at her feet, though I know it wont work out in the long run” confirm it. And when frontman Honus Honus sings, "I learn how to speak a forgotten language. I fall in the sea but forget how to swim", you sense a man that's returning to a lonely life, searching for them elusive, supposedly plentiful fish, and drowning. And then we get one of the best choruses on this entire list: When anything that's anything becomes nothing that's everything and nothing is the only thing you ever seem to have. That there is is pure poetry as far s I'm concerned, a man throwing in the towel, content with misery. The words are backed with a twangy, spidery guitar figure and rag and bone tip-a-tap percussion, and I could listen to it forever, though I know it won't work out in the long run. |
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Gang Gang Dance - Vacuum Saint Dymphna 2008 The only instrumental track in this list, and if you want to get picky you can argue that Gang Gang Dance are not indie at all. And you’d have a solid point with your furious mass debating. But this soaring, swooning, untangling beauty of a thing, with its drifting synths and crumbling rhythm, would have been a nice fit for My Bloddy Valentines Loveless album or even one of the more ambient works of Eno. This track is like audio nourishment of the mind for me, medicinal and meditative. Here’s saying hello from the highest of peaks, before the fluffiest of clouds. |
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29 Broadcast - Before We Begin Haha Sound 2003 Although I’ve used this list to try and defy this fact; creativity in rock has reached its lowest point in the 21st Century. Far too much late 60s/late 70s revivalism, as well as a loss of maverick ideas and forward thinking in favour of career safety and conformity. Some of the century's best bands – Animal Collective, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti and Broadcast – have brought a freshness in sound and influence, and created their own distinct worlds with their music, inviting us to traverse and sample these strange waves. Broadcast’s world is a paradoxical one; a world of retroism and futurism, the coming technological age as sounded through a old transistor radio. Their restless analog syths and grainy cinematic soundscapes recall Joe Meek and 60s psych legends The United State Of America. 'Before We Begin' is perhaps their best pop moment. Trish Keenan’s vocals, as ever, are the embodiment of foggy psychedelia and whimsy, rolling the words from her tongue like candy cotton balls. Her intonation on the chorus (“wait you may wiiin. . . .before we begin . . . again”) is especially exquisite and it’s all backed with a tough, crisp offbeat rhythm. Keenan’s death at the beginning of the year was truly a sad loss in a world of chancers and false idols. But you can hear her here in 'Before We Begin', shimmering through the thunderclaps of percussion like a ray of sunshine from that strange, better world. The lines “here again, at the end, before the beginning” and “here they hide, on one side. And me on the other” now contain a gravitas that can make me weep. |
this is a great thred, can not wait to go through all of these.
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Most of these tracks overall I think lean towards an emo sound, or indie that is about the mood/feel/sound of the music rather than that with much happening on the surface of the music. |
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