^ I admit I no longer fully understand what indie music is. In the 90's - it seemed very clear cut, indie rock was what "alternative" wasn't, independent of mainstream music media. Indie Rock is what 80's Underground morphed into, rather than being the descendant of REM & various other college rock bands of the 80's, most of early 90's indie rock had either been in 80's hardcore bands or were fans of hardcore.
By the late 90's, just as many 80's underground & college rock bands had signed major label deals & became 'alternative', numerous indie rock bands had done the same except for some flag bearers like Superchunk (flagship band of Merge Records). Many of the early 90's indie rock bands were in decline or had broken up: Sebadoh, Guided By Voices, Archers of Loaf, Pavement & Liz Phair. Essentially, just as American Hardcore declined after the mid 80's, American Indie Rock declined after the late 90's.
My point - not dismissing bands that are punk or indie rock today, what these current bands represent is a different era for the music they are associated with today. I truly think a new term needs to be created to categorize bands that are indie rock (like the excellent Tapes 'n Tapes) of this decade apart from the Indie Rock of the early 90's.
While early 90's American Indie Rock clearly had a musical style that was reminiscent of 80's American Hardcore / Underground - today's Indie Rock is a combination of New Wave (which was not an influence on early Indie Rock), 70's UK Punk & 80's American Hardcore, 90's Indie Rock & Alternative as well as general Rock music from the 70's on.
Perhaps current Indie Rock is really just 'Rock', there isn't a clear distinction between relatively mainstream alternative bands like Bloc Party or Interpol with today's Indie Rock & considering how fragmented Rock is today - there are very few musicians that play any simplistic form of rock today.
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