Henry’s Music Blog

Welcome to Pt. 2 of the Indie Rock article. Last time we were here, we ended with the 90s, and how Indie Rock wasn’t the draw it used to be. But something happened, and it was in reverse notion. Indie bands stopped trying to be modern, and went back to the sounds of Led Zeppelin for some, and the Cars for others. And all these bands, for a brief time, got insanely popular. We had The Hives, The Vines, and The White Stripes, who proved to have the most staying power of all of them, until their recent breakup in 2011. But there was one album that came out in this time that proved to tower above all us. And it was Is This It by The Strokes.

Is This It immediately became one of the most critically acclaimed albums ever released.  Songs like “Last Night” and “The Modern Age” are some of the best of the 2000s.  Without this album, the music of the 2000s might have completely changed. At #367 on Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Albums of All Time” and at #2 of their best albums of the 2000s, the album truly is a masterpiece , a stinging testament to Indie Rock, and one of the few albums where I have never heard a single complaint directed at it. If you want a score for now, I give it an A.

But there were two other very important albums that came out right near the same time; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Turn On the Bright Lights, by Wilco and Interpol. While both albums are important, they are for very different reasons. Wilco’s was important because it allowed publishers to have faith in the product they were selling, after denying Wilco a release previously. Interpol is important because, at its heart, it is what Indie Rock became down to its smallest aspect. Turn on the Bright Lights influenced many Indie bands, and its sound can be heard everywhere in any coffee shop near you.

Now, the funny thing about these albums is, while all influential, had very differing sounds from each other. And this caused the second big Indie split. However, unlike in the 80s and 90s, the different sub-genres were much more tightly controlled. Mostly, there are 5, which are:

Guitar Based Indie Rock, mostly influenced by Punk and the Pixies:

• Cage The Elephant
• Interpol
• Arctic Monkeys
• Early Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Sad Indie Rock, defined by acoustic guitar and heroin:

• Band of Horses
• Bon Iver
• The National
• Bright Eyes

Indie Synth-Pop, Beach Boys done with Electronics:

• Of Montreal
• Grizzly Bear
• It’s Blitz! Yeah Yeah Yeahs
• MGMT

Cute, Safe Indie Rock, What you hear in Indie movie trailers:

• Death Cab for Cutie
• Peter, Bjorn, and John
• The Shins

The Decemberists

And then we had Indie Rock’s crowning moment. In 2011, Arcade Fire, one of the most popular Indie bands working now, were nominated for Best Album at the Grammys, for their third album, The Suburbs. And they won! Marking a huge point in Grammy history, it’s a feat that will most likely never happen again. But it was good to have that feeling, and with artists like Foster the People becoming radio hits, who knows. Indie might take over again.

Essential Listening

• Turn On the Bright Lights-Interpol
• Slanted and Enchanted-Pavement
• High Violet-The National
• Funeral-Arcade Fire
• Transatlanticism-Death Cab for Cutie
• Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-Wilco
• Is This It-Strokes
• Elephant-White Stripes