Indie rock!!
 

Recently I've been turned on to such bands as Built to Spill, Superchunk and Modest Mouse and I simply love 'em. They have been described to me as "indie rock." Now, one of the problems with indie rock is that its near impossible to find a decent band before they break up or sell out (sell out meaning changing the style and message of their songs usually after being signed to a major label in order to sell more cds. I'm not one of those pricks that will not like something just because its popular. If its good, I like it)
Anyway, I was thinking that you people could share your favorite indie rock bands here. Who knows, maybe we'll find something original;)

The Exies.

Though, they _are_ in the process of doing what most of the too-hip-for-school indie kids would call "selling out." I still like 'em, though. ;)

No kill no beep beep by Q and not U is one of the best albums in the world. Very special, like nothing I've ever heard before and yet perfectly realised

Postal Service. Check them the fuck out. They simply just fuckin rule. Seriously

I like The Velvet Teen, The Ghost, The Exit and Faraquet. I dunno though, Modest Mouse is kinda out there for me. Then again, it all depends on what your definition of Indie is.

I recommend:
Rainer Maria - Long Knives Drawn
Prefuse 73 - One Word Extinguisher
Sigur Ros - any
Trans Am - Futureworld
Talib Kweli & Mos Def - any
Red Monkey - any
!!! (pronounced chk chk chk) - Me and Guiliani...
Sonic Youth - Murray Street (not strictly an Indie band, but inseperable from the "indie sound")
Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
etc.

Guided by Voices, Sebadoh, and any of the others already mentioned.

Seam
Texas is the Reason
Into Another
Small Brown Bike
Shiner (Lula Divinia era)
Mineral
The Gloria Record
Knapsack
Braid
Elliott
Falling Forward

Bones - you must like Rodan too, right?

sleater-kinney. sparta. pretty girls make graves. at the drive in. poison the well. blood brothers.

rilo kiley, cursive, denali, desaparecidos, engine down, onelinedrawing, cardia, detachment kit, mars volta, etc. are a few.
and azure ray! I forgot to mention them. yay for indie.
It is the most dynamic style of rock you can have. That's why I love it. Yaaaaaaaaay.

Theres also My Bloody Valentine, although theyre pretty old school. Thursday and My Chemical Romance are some pretty hard indie... and they both have albums on the same label. Thursday's album on the label is an old one, but MCR is current.

I haveta second the Slint recommendation. To bad they ended before they should have and robbed us of what could of been. The guys are still around in bands like The For Carnation, Tortoise, the Sea and Cake etc. But nothing they have done since has compared to the Slint. It's just raw emotion on record.

I got a cool track by Rodan on this ep.. I should go find it. They announce them by saying something like "and next is a new band called ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooDAAAAAAAAAAN"

It's great.

Damn.. don't live out Silver Mt. Zion, Don Caberllero or Guided by Voices. One of my favorite bands of all time The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, best seen live.

Archers of loaf....excellent...saw one of those guys' last shows...

I am really into Built to Spill as well...Modest Mouse has a similar style, I think...

Some bands that I am into recently:
The Libertines
Kings of Leon
Flaming Lips (new album is excellent)
sigur ros
Folk Implosion

good s*it!

:)

Good shit, I like it.

built to spill
flaming lips
velvet teen
sigur ros
postal service
thievery corporation
the libertines

there are a lot of good "indie" bands out there

Check out http://radio.freenode.net/. That's an online station I do some volunteer work, where only independent music is played. There's some 50+ hours of music, and most of the artists have their stuff available for download (good stuff, too).

And on the subject, Emily Richards (http://www.emilyrichards.com/) is great :)

Sorry, wasn't trying to plug a site. I was trying to show a resource for more indie rock and other types of indie music, since it also links to other record labels that offer free music and such. I thought it was on topic enough, but I won't mention such things again.

engine down owns hard.

chill bones. If you see a problem use the report post button. As for the links, they appear to be very on topic to me and I see no problem with them.

Yeah. They're gonna be huge. But indie rock? They're signed to RCA, so I don't think so.

The Dames
Houston
Gunfighter
Season To Risk
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum

Really good music.

Ozma is rock-out fun music, and they're awsome live.

The ultimate indie rock band is Fugazi. The've been going for 20 years and never gave in to a major label.

i recomend you listen up on these.

Euphone
Mogwai
Yo La Tengo
Modest Mouse
Sigur Ros

I generally don't judge bands by what labels they're on, but yeah, I accept there's more going on off the majors than on.

As for bands...I just got the reissue of Pavement's debut. Still a classic. But I don't really keep up with indie rock.

Chin Up Chin Up. Excellent sound. Simply amazing

pinback

&

m e l l o w d r o n e

Interpol

Anyone remember Polvo?

And Bones - I have to say I am incredibly jealous of you. Spiderland is still my favorite album of all time. In fact I became slightly obsessed with Louisville bands & became fans of King Kong, Palace Bros. & Rodan.

But could I ask for a response - what period do you think was the 'golden era' of indie rock? I would say the early 90's, but mainly because that was when I was in college & really was the peak in my interest in new rock. My favorite bands of that period were Slint, Sebadoh, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Guided by Voices, Ween, Seam, & Fugazi.

Pedro The Lion

THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN = The best indie rock band ever.
Other good ones include; Neutral Milk Hotel, Tortoise, Q and not U, etc.

This must sound dumb but what is Indie rock? What I mean is what is the sound that makes indie unique?

Indie Rock is essentially what 'Alternative Rock' of the 80's evolved into in the 90's. What makes 'Indie Rock' different from 'Alternative Rock' during the 90's is a tricky subject. Bands like Smashing Pumpkins & The Breeders could be considered in the same soup as Indie Rock - they aren't.

A simplistic definition would be Alternative Rock bands that were on a Independant label - like Merge, SubPop, Kill Rock Stars, & Thrill Jockey just to name a few. These bands also tended to have a rougher around the edge sound than the more popular & commercially produced Alternative Rock bands that were played on mainstream commercial Alternative or Modern Rock stations.

Really this is all bullshit. But the tag stayed just like the dumb 'Alternative' tag continues - I've actually seen the band Creed mentioned as an Alternative band. So how can a band as succesfull & original be considered an alternative to anything?

Posting very late entry (happened upon this in a search, so forgive me)...

Creeper Lagoon had a very good album calle Take Back the Universe and Give Me Yesterday. Highly recommended.

Then they broke up, sort of..... long story apparently

The Dismemberment Plan
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
The Shins (do they qualify?)

Those would be my favorites.

Well anyone in Queensland, Australia should check out ThisCollision. They rock hard and are an upcoming indie band that i doubt will ever sell out

Anything by Modest Mouse is great.
Pavement, especially Slanted and Enchanted
Neutral Milk Hotel
FUGAZI!!!!!
The Decemberists

Although, I dunno if it's indie rock, more post-punk, prog, art rock freakout, The Mars Volta

Probably one of the best, underheard Indie bands is Murder by Death, if you can get your hands on it check out the album "Who will survive and what will be left of them":

Bright Eyes and Elliott Smith ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mars Volta.
I think they're on the edge of taking off and really getting some publicity, like it or not.

Can I still say Sense Field? I know they sorta got famous in the last couple years...but they've got good stuff