Does anybody here follow indie bands nowadays? I used to only listen to music from the past because I thought all music from this decade was dismal until I found that underground music should be what people are hearing. For example these bands Arctic Monkeys, Arcade Fire, The Shins, Of Montreal, Elliott Smith, and Brian Jonestown Massacre are a favorites of mine. If you know some also I would love to hear them and what you think of them.

Arctic monkeys are alright, can't say I've ever heard of the others maybe I'm missing a trip. Indie is watered down Rock 'N' Roll. I am not a fan of the genre. If you want real music nowadays listen to more underground hip-hop, but some people seem a bit blickered on that.

I'm not sure what you mean by watered down. If you mean production-wise I guess I would agree that most indie bands release albums that aren't nearly as cleanly produced as mainstream music, but if you mean that the music lacks power and meaning you have to check out more indie bands.

I've been into Indie for many years (since the early Eighties) and it's so good to see it making yet another comeback!

I think "Of Montreal" are part of the Elephant 6 group of bands aren't they - these also include Apples In Stereo, Neutral Milk Hotel, Dressy Bessy and Oilvia Tremor Control (amongst others) and are definitely worth checking out.

Yeah they are a part of the Elephant 6, I've always heard about the Elephant 6, but never really knew who or what it was. I've still heard of those bands around especially Neutral Milk Hotel. I was thinking of checking them out sometime soon.

Don't see much in Indie Bands today to be honest. I mean, some of these
these bands sound good & ok but after a while it all sounds the same to me. one
band is no different from another. bands i like at the moment that stick out for me
are Kaser Cheifs, Cherry Ghost, Field Music, Lavinder Diamond & Blonde Readhead.
can't stand these bands like Artic Monkeys, Killers or Bloc Party ! I find that there's just
no great songs in there or anything that appeals to me. It's slightly sad.
I'm more into the singer-songwriter today than bands. and i find there's a lot of
good female singer-songwriter's out there today like Thea Gilmore, Sonya Kitchell, Basia Bulat
or KT Tunstall.

Quoted from Leopard Skin Pill Box Man

I'm not sure what you mean by watered down. If you mean production-wise I guess I would agree that most indie bands release albums that aren't nearly as cleanly produced as mainstream music, but if you mean that the music lacks power and meaning you have to check out more indie bands.

I mean it sounds like a weak generic mash-up of riffs and lyrics from Rock 'N' Roll, watered down... There is nothing new in it.

The arctic monkeys first album is fantastic, with every song top notch. I still listen to it even though I've had it for ages!

The arcade fire are great as well as brianjonestown massacre, and well, me and 'the end' both love Elliott Smith!

Legthi gets it! Hey Legthi what other indie bands are you into?

Hey Andy Smith, have you ever heard of Elliott Smith? He's a fantastic singer songwriter, though I'm not for sure whether you like him or not, you might give him a chance. Also I'm not sure if she counts as indie, but have you ever heard of Regina Spektor? She's also pretty good.

Here's all the info you'd ever need on the Elephant 6 bands - I would seriously recommend Dressy Bessy and Apples In Stereo.

http://www.elephant6.com/bands.html

I've loved the Arctic Monkeys for ages - ever since I downloaded some of their tracks back in 2005, these are different versions to the album too (different titles as well). I think they are a great band but like all bands that NME* wigs out over, they are now over hyped and they know it - hence the title of their EP "Who The f*** Are The Arctic Monkeys", I believe.

* The NME is a British music magazine which is notorious for raving about a band and then quickly losing interest in them - it carries far too much weight in the music industry but is probably a necessary evil otherwise we'd all be reading Simon Cowell publications or something!

Thanks I'll check them out. Are they musically at all similar to Of Montreal?

Seawolf's pretty good...

http://www.myspace.com/seawolf

check out "You're A Wolf" it's my favorite song by them

Quoted from Leopard Skin Pill Box Man

Legthi gets it! Hey Legthi what other indie bands are you into?

Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Apples In Stereo, Kaiser Chiefs, Badly Drawn Boy, elliott smith, the kooks, kings of leon, sean lennon, flaming lips, the magic numbers, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, nirvana, queens of stone age, chilli's - that sort of thing

Quoted from legthi

Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Apples In Stereo, Kaiser Chiefs, Badly Drawn Boy, elliott smith, the kooks, kings of leon, sean lennon, flaming lips, the magic numbers, NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL, nirvana, queens of stone age, chilli's - that sort of thing

Nice list - but isn't Mr Lennon signed to Parlaphone? And Kings of Leon to RCA. The RHC Peppers are with Warner Bros. Hardly indepandant record labels.

Interesting list, I'll check some of them out.

Quoted from Kevin

Nice list - but isn't Mr Lennon signed to Parlaphone? And Kings of Leon to RCA. The RHC Peppers are with Warner Bros. Hardly indepandant record labels.

I guess your right. I think elliott smith might have even been signed to Sony, but I'm not sure. TBH, I just went through my itunes list of artists and picked out the one's I listen to with an 'indie' sound. Indie music nowadays isn't neccesserly which label the band/artist is signed too. It is also about their style of music, if they are commercial, and how they 'sound'. E.g., you would call franz ferdinand indie, even though they are signed to SONY! Thats why I listed all those artists.

Sean Lennon is signed to Capitol.

When I was a little mite Indie music was just that - Independant music. But I guess Nirvanna and Oasis changed that - now it stands more for a type of music. We used to call it  Alternative Rock. Damn labels.

Quoted from Kevin

When I was a little mite Indie music was just that - Independant music. But I guess Nirvanna and Oasis changed that - now it stands more for a type of music. We used to call it  Alternative Rock. Damn labels.

You're right Kevin!

I remember Smash Hits even publishing the Indie chart back when I was a kid!! The likes of The Silicon Teens topped it for a while - they were one of the first
"artists" on Mute Records and were one of the innovators of Electro-pop a while before of Depeche Mode tweaked their low frequency oscillators!