favourite alt-indie songs
 

as far as im concerned there hasnt been a thread like this yet, and we have an abundance of greatest songs threads on every other forum. so, citizens of musicbanter, what are your favourite indie/alternative songs. i will alow traces of folk and blues etc as well....

1. willy mason- oxygen
2. manic street preachers- a design for life
3. brmc- suddenly
4. The stone roses- ten storey love song
5. portishead- sour times
6. pavement- shady lane
7. oasis- whatever
8. hot hot heat- bandages
9. jeff buckley- last goodbye
10. the doves- there goes the fear.

I'm here because of http://www.musicbanter.com/games-lis...litz-game.html , and I'm wondering why Sneer got zero response to his invitation to post favourites.

I'm hoping this thread might help to clarify what Indie/Alt music sounds like, because afaik it's a genre that defines itself by what it's not, i.e. not mainstream. But if that is the case, why does Sneer have an Oasis song in his list? Surely they're about as mainstream as you can get? :confused:

EDIT: Here's a sad factoid: as of right now, this thread has had 2,462 views and yet this post, 12 years after the OP is the first reply ever. Little wonder that Sneer is no longer around.

Alt/ Indie is a pretty wide net and some of it is commercial. Most of it isn't though. Anyway, this is a rough estimate of my favorite indie songs, at least from the nineties on...

1) Flaming Lips- Do You Realize
2) Radiohead- Karma Police
3) Wilco- Ashes of American Flags
4) Girls- Hellhole Ratrace
5) The Shins- Saint Simon
6) Elliott Smith- Waltz No. 2
7) Sufjan Stevens- John Wayne Gacy
8) Sparklehorse- Babies on the Sun
9) Yo La Tengo- My Little Corner of the World
10) Sam Phillips- Strawberry Road

Honorable Mentions include: PJ Harvey, Suede, Aimee Mann, Gomez, Magnetic Fields, Of Montreal (and the Elephant Six group in general), and, of course, the White Stripes. There are certainly others but I can’ think of them off the top of my head at the moment.


If we're also including the eighties, then the Pixies, Camper Van Beethoven, REM, Depeche Mode, Midnight Oil, and Spacemen 3, among others, have to be mentioned. The last one is certainly the most indie of that group.

^ Thanks for such a bunch of recommendations, rubber soul :thumb:

I've chosen this one as a kind of "whatare you listening to now" clip because Wilco have been on my To Do list for some time, mainly because of their connection to Uncle Tupelo:-


And right at the end of your lists, yes! I really like (most of) Spacemen 3, who caught my attention when I heard those two "walking with Jesus" songs.

The Walking With Jesus songs is what got me into Spacemen 3 too. They have at least two great albums but they did tail off in the end. Still, for Sound of Confusion and the Perfect Prescription, I'd highly recommend them if you're into retro psychedelia.

And in the 'you learn something everyday' department, I just discovered, via wiki, that Spacemen 3 evolved into Spiritualized. Now those are two totally different sounding bands when you think about it :laughing: .

^ Yes, I guess they are, but I downloaded them together at the same time, so I feel there's a similarity - but thanks for reminding me: Cop Shoot Cop is going on my list of fave Indie songs!

Alt-J sucks

The name Alternative Rock came about to avoid the irony of calling underground music "underground" when it became mainstream, or calling something College Rock when it's played on high-wattage mainstream FM stations. I think it came about around the time when Nirvana became household names and Grunge was no longer contained in Seattle area. They had to look for a new name and at some point started using the name Alternative or Alt-Rock.

Indie is from independent major record labels. The big three being Universal, Sony, and Warner. The confusion enters because some treat "indie" as a music genre, while others see it as the way the music is produced independently from a major label.

An impossible task to think of just ten, and then order them accordingly which I like more.

1. Wire - Outdoor Miner (1978)
2. The Only Ones - Another Girl, Another Planet (1978)
3. Actual Tigers - Testimony (2001)
4. Hum - Stars (1995)
5. Jump Little Children - Cathedrals (1998)
6. The Church - Flied of Mars (1982)
7. Urusei Yatsura - First Day on a New Planet (1996)
8. The Muffs - Outer Space (1997)
9. The Cardigans - Carnival (1995)
10. Sixpence None The Richer - Kiss Me (1997)

Please tell me you're a fan of the show that they're named after.

I only know of the Glaswegian band "Urusei Yatsura." I think Plastic Little is another group with an anime reference. I don't know how many are out there. Evangeline is a song inspired by a graphic novel heroine.

11. Mathew Sweet - Evangeline