The Three Best Current Styles Of Indie Music

Folk Rock: Usually relegated to the 99¢ bin at local album stores, Folk Rock has become an entirely new beast, taking on all naysayers with the same lighthearted ease used in their delicately crafted music. Some of these people, the naysayers, might even go as far as to say Folk Rock died when Bob Dylan plugged his guitar into an amp. Over the past year or so a reemergence of Folk music has painted a new face on the long overlooked genre of music. Bands like The Fleet Foxes, M. Ward, Deer Tick and more, less notable artists, have reset the bar for folk music, delivering amazing albums which are eclectic and rich. Every time you listen to M. Ward’s Hold Time or the Feet Foxes self-titled LP you literally feel like you are unlocking a new world making them worth multiple listens. And the same is true for Deer Tick’s Born On Flag Day. This sub-genre of indie rock has become a leader for all the right reasons.

Psychedelic/New Wave Rock: Psychedelic/New Wave Rock can best be described as a melding of the old, think Zeppelin, Hendrix, Dylan, and new, think any band with a synthesizer. If any type of sub-genre gaining strength in the indie scene should take flight and become the leader of radio play, it should be this one. This genre of music is both rewarding, in the way the music affects you and is true to the popular standards put in place by the music industry. We can see it making its way into the popular throughways of music, in the Kings of Leon, a band that could, at one album or another, fall within this class of music. And now they have possibly paved the way for other bands whose incorporation of the best parts of the old school rock feel along with an unquestionable sense of timeliness, confirming them as some of the most talented bands out there. Bands like Dr. Dog, Sunset Rubdown, and others not only make music today exciting but also are on the cusp of what is to come, either by them or from them this style of music will have its day soon.

Electronic Pop: Electric Pop, pop and indie don’t mix, right? It depends, the term indie and the term pop are so relative they could mean anything at this point, since indie artists can be popular and pop artists can be unpopular. That being said… the movement of indie bands towards experimentation with electronic sounds, more than just synth sounds that is, can be heard in the Discovery LP whose members are made up of Vampire Weekend and Ra Ra Riot alum. Other bands have emerged from the indie ether purely on the up beat power of there electronic concoctions like Passion Pit or Yacht, bands whose vigor is their greatest asset. The overall popularity of this style of music has definitely risen over the course of the year and why not this type of music is happy, it exudes pleasantness. If it were a person most of us would find it annoying but luckily unlike a person you can turn it off… without any serious repercussions. Wait, Moby who has just released a new album, Wait For Me, with his own record label and this one is his best album since Play. Out of all of the sub-pop genres motioned here, Electronic Pop is by far the weakest, though it is the most popular.

To finish up, there is one last genre that has been peaking its head over the past 12 months. It can’t fall into the category of best current styles of music because we don’t know if it should be encouraged or crushed. It’s not so much a genre as it is more of an era, that era being the 80’s. 80’s style of music has been creeping about the indie music scene in full force, with bands like, White Lies, The XX and The Big Pink creating a stir. It’s hard to say that it is not good, because it kind of is.

The Antlers | Hospice | A Review of One of The Most Stirring Albums of The Year

The city of Brooklyn and surrounding area have given the music world a number of memorable bands. Of late they have been of the electronic persuasion like Passion Pit and Discovery; both are based in and around New York. But what of the heart? These bands are fun for the club and they make up in spirited gusto what they are lacking in heart. The Antlers may not be as accessible as the other bands mentioned, instead they offer something else. As an album The Antlers’ Hospice from beginning to end walks you through a journey consisting of the basest of human desires and fears in a journey of Love lost. Delivered through ocean size waves of ambient synth, The Antlers do not hold back, experimenting with folk vocal style and eerily moving carousel keyboard creations.
The imagery of the lyrics is more dream like than anything else created from the mind of lead vocalist/guitarist Peter Silberman. Making what is captured perfectly in Hospice so ironic, the heart-wrenching reality of losing someone close to you, unguarded and utterly exposed, Hospice is a musical epitaph that should be heard around the world. Where does this album reside in terms of genre though? The rebirth of the popular genre psychedelic ambient rock but as said before the lyrical style used by The Antlers is more folk in origin, leading us to categorize their style of music as an ambient psychedelic/ folk rock… what a mouth full. Key tracks off of this album are, Kettering, Sylvia, Bear, and Two.

The XX | Self Titled Album | The Substance of the 80’s

Hailing from London this 80’s inspired band possess what the 80’s itself lacked all together, substance over style. As with most people of a certain generation, when it comes to 80’s music there is both a love and embarrassment. It doesn’t matter, the 80’s for all intents and purposes was an era of larger than life music, hair, clothes, and all of it was done without any thoughts of being “too much”. That was the beauty of that time, there was never “too much” of anything. And the music of that time was not an exception, especially the pop music, Cindy Lopper, Flock Of Seagulls, Lover Boy. 80’s pop music did not age well, and it was because it was all big hair and bandanas. As a decade most often remembered negatively, we forget that it also saw the rise and height of some truly amazing bands, The Cure, The Ramones, U2. The legacy of the 80’s and the quality sounds that came out of it can be heard all over the airwaves now more than ever. From The Killers and their Cure like melodies to more direct descendants who have taken it upon themselves to revive the genre. 2009 has seen a few outstanding examples of such a revival, in The White Lies, Let’s Wrestle and now XX.

Kings Of Leon | Notion EP | An Indie Blog Shot Review

The Kings of Leon, for what seemed like an eternity, went mostly unnoticed by music listeners. It was only in late 2008 and onward that the band gained its recognition and mass popularity, to cheers of some and the jeers of long time followers. That being said, 2009 has been a big year for the band, but as the band rides the wave of fame a la Only By The Night the idea of a new full length album on the horizon seems like a distant dream. Perhaps this is the reason behind the bands recent release of the Notion EP, a four song collection of live performances of Sex On Fire and Notion and a remix of The Bucket by Css. It’s not surprising that the Notion EP would have both an album and live version of the Notion song, but what does come as a pleasant surprise is Beneath the Surface a new addition to the Kings of Leon catalog. Beneath the Surface comes off as a B-Side from the Only By The Night album, but unlike the rest of that album Beneath the Surface incorporates a more jarring, less commercial guitar progression and Bass line. Nonetheless, this EP is a must have for any Kings of Leon Aficionados out there, though it does not exactly measure up against some of their other EPs, such as the Holy Roller Novocain EP and the What I Saw EP.

The Big Pink | A Brief History Of Love | An Indie Blog Shot Review

At first listen to this emerging band out of East London, you get a sense of erratic stimulus. The entire album seems to be dedicated to the expression of noise as the distorted angst of the heart. It’s all in the title of the album, A Brief History Of Love seem to capture something through its Feedback riddled melodies. The two members that make up this band, Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze have an extensive musical background one in music production the other as an accomplished guitarist. With all this experience the duo has created an album with the touch of the undefined and admittedly at some points the inspired. Possibly in spite of it, as some seasoned musicians seem to go a bit far when let loose to combine and create new hybrid genres such as this one, which is a kind of darkly ethereal version of Placebo. As an album A Brief History Of Love has legs and grows in its definition the more times you listen to it. At first it’s noisy and feedback filled, then after that it becomes more resounding and you can hear the simple yet provocatively driven pop like choruses. After a while The Big Pink’s album has found its way into your introspective lonely heart club portion of your music library, and it will be there to stay. Key track off of this album are, To Young To Love, Dominos, and Count Backwards From Ten.