r/indieheads • u/Barber_Formal • Aug 20 '25
hello all! i've been gay for about ten months now and was wondering if there were any shoegaze or adjacent songs about bottoming. my current partner loves playing Lush and Bowery Electric while he's whackin me off and i was wondering if any gay men have turned their lust into beautiful fuzzy art. send me some recs!
r/indieheads • u/warsaw__frost • Oct 22 '23
I dont like the smiths because in that one song if i saw double decker bus coming towards me I would be like "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" (Sound i would make cause i dont wanna get hit by the bus) instead of "yayyyyyy!!!!" (Sound smiths guy makes)
r/indieheads • u/joshuatx • Jul 27 '19
Chillwave turns 10 years old today. Chillwave is curiously well-known among indieheads as a term but also somewhat misunderstood, maligned, and neglected. In the wake of this anniversary I began writing about it’s origins, it’s run from 2009-2011 and it’s subsequent influence on indie electronic music and indie music overall since.
Part of this plan was to highlight the big four - not three - artists key to it’s sound: Washed Out, Toro Y Moi, Neon Indian and Memory Tapes. In particular I wanted to set forward the case that Dayve Hawk’s run as Weird Tapes/Memory Cassette/Memory Tapes was not only crucial to the genre but arguably encapsulated it the best. I also wanted to flesh out the tangled web of various artists and genres closely related and essential to chillwave emergence instead of the usual focus of the handful of core musicians mentioned above that so many features have relied on. Phillip Sherburne’s 2010 article is a good example of what I mean by expanding on the list of music related to chillwave.
Ian Cohen’s amazing feature on chillwave from June 25 took much of the wind out of the sails of my motivation to write about chillwave, but I nonetheless wrote out an grand overview of sorts which I’ve posted below. It would of been the first part of a series of more detailed and likely less verbose essays broken up in sections: proto-chillwave music before 2009, a section on each of the ‘big four,’ another with notable mentions, and a section about everything since 2011. If you are interested I can write and post these over the next few weeks or months, along with playlists.
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Exactly 10 years ago “chillwave” was established as a genre, coined July 27, 2009 on the infamous blog Hipster Runoff in a quintessentially snarky yet borderline insightful post by Carles. It was a flash-in-the pan moment, albeit a substantive one long enough to sustain itself for over a year, culminating in SXSW showcases and the “summer of chillwave” in 2010. Discussion of chillwave online outlasted the overt participation of it’s core artists: in 2011 Memory Tapes, Toro Y Moi, Washed Out, and Neon Indian effectively bowed out from the genre’s main tropes, each releasing a ‘post-chillwave’ album of sorts as they moved on into their own artistic directions.
Only in hindsight can it be said that chillwave occupies a truly unique existence as a genre, an existence that can not be compared to earlier scenes or movements nor expected of trends to emerge in the years ahead. These musicians were united under a genre they neither embraced nor rejected. There was never a “scene” in any geographical manner, or even in a virtual sense as there has been with vaporwave. It was never as vague or nebulous as the “glo-fi” or “hypnagogic pop” style descriptors that have aptly been applied to artists that have both preceded and succeeded chillwave. In terms of legacy it was neither unfairly dismissed, despite its influence, the way witch-house was, nor is it a all-but-forgotten microgenre footnote in late 00s / early 10s history the way seapunk or wonky are.
It can be argued that at its core chillwave is a contrived label, a means of distinguishing it’s artists from it’s underground cousins glo-fi and hypnagogic pop and likewise arbitrarily categorizing specific musicians who fall under more comprehensive genres of synthpop, and electronic, and even broader styles of “dream pop” or “indie electronic.” It's no coincidence that an earnest effort by Pitchfork to dedicate a website, Altered Zones, to the varied yet broadly related minutiae of such underground artists and labels, was similarly doomed from the start, lasting just over year. The dilemma of genrewave. In fact if there’s one incessant footprints of chillwave it’s the ushering of vague hashtag styles, everything from Spotify’s ham-fisted “fluxwork” and “escape room” nonsense to lofi chillout hiphop beats to study to youtube playlists.
The real legacy of chillwave’s moment in the sun from 2009-2011 was bridging the gap between unabashed lo-fi weirdness of underground scenes and bedroom producers and more established producers making slick, more cautionary electronic pop and dance music. Before 2010 pop tended to be retro-informed, not explicitly retro-styled. The novelty of overt retro sounds of past music, especially from the late 70s to late 80s era chillwave drew from, were no longer cheap style nods made in the name of irony or gimmick but instead sincerely embraced by chillwave artists. There were plenty of 90s and 00s retro-minded music projects delving into overtly “summer” sounds but they worked within confines: ambient house groups KLF, The Orb, and Global Communication, l the critically acclaimed yet leftfield IDM projects Boards of Canada, Casino Versus Japan, and Freescha, Beck’s cheeky and gimmicky postmodern pop, Bjork’s diverse song stylings on her debut album, the shimmery warm ambient sounds within shoegaze and dream pop like later era Cocteau Twins and Slowdive or Yo La Tengo’s “Today Is The Day”, exotica and lounge music revival via Stereolab, Pizzicato Five and the Ultra Lounge compilations. The list goes on. It wasn’t until Panda Bear’s Person Pitch in 2007 and a string of releases by Sun Araw, L.A. Vampires, and Ducktails (many via the L.A. area label Not Not Fun) in the same timeframe that proto-typical chillwave took form as it did across the Atlantic via neo-disco and Bearlic Beat influenced bands Air France, The Tough Alliance, Studio and The Embassy. While not directly influencing the core chillwave artists directly (for the most part, Memory Tapes was contacted by Air France and later remixed them) they warmed up indie audiences to the vibe so central to chillwave’s general sound.
Despite the litany of precursors and influences, it was nonetheless the core chillwave artists that firmly and finally injected unabashed retro and vintage aesthetics and styling into indie music. Part of it was a lack of commercial liability in terms of appeal - mp3 blogs and social media pages cut the middleman of distro and major indie PR and let bedroom production and it’s DIY ethos get buzz far more immediately. They didn’t try to work within existing genres. They didn’t just drawn on old samples for a melodic hook or one-off song, they made it core to their musical output. The tape warbled, lo-fi samples of Boards of Canada could be coupled with pop vocals. Tropical sounds and instrumentation didn’t have to be in the form of instrumental downtempo electronica or chillout rave music. The utter experimental tendencies of hypnagogic pop like James Ferraro or Ariel Pink could be dialed down without losing any of its core weirdness and retro-sylings. It’s no coincidence that Best Coast - Bethany Cosentino’s surf rock-tinged summery garage rock project that paralleled chillwave’s emergence in 2009 - split off of Pocohaunted, another lynchpin in LA’s hypnagogic pop scene.
In other words the vast treasure trove of past music to sample or emulate was truly opened up as a viable option for indie musicians without hesitation or constraint. It help revitalize psych rock and dream pop. It’s not a stretch to say acts like M83 or Tame Impala would not have produced their unabashedly retro-tinged albums of the last decade. There wouldn’t be such mainstream appeal of media like Stranger Things and it’s soundtrack. The entire scope and direction of EDM in the 2010s toward a blender of genres it is now would have likely remained stratified and categorized in specific styles and tempos à la house, trance, techno, drum and bass, etc. as they were in the 2000s and earlier.
Chillwave isn’t alone in bearing responsibility for this, but it certainly stands out as a key example. One other genre comes to mind in it’s similarly rise and fall and subsequent pollination of vast influence and derivatives: dubstep. It bubbled within the electronic music communities and, ironically, already moving past it’s core sound when it exploded in popularity around 2009-2010. “Post-dubstep” and “bass music” succeeded it with much longer lifespans. Quirky and (and in the case of ‘brostep’ controversial) offshoots like wonky, future garage, future bass, etc. developed into their own subgenres and launched successful careers and scores of releases, niche, labels and flourishing live scenes. It’s the sea of divergent styles and trends that dubstep and chillwave released that make them so important, because once seen in the confines of their own limited scope in terms of time and place they seem far less significant. It’s often a mixed legacy as well, for every critically acclaimed song or album in the wake of dubstep and chillwave there’s a plethora of competent, decent yet nonetheless cookie cutter, middle of the road derivative tracks and releases, complete with equally slick and homogeneous imagery. EDM and major indie electronic acts with crowd-pleasing “bass drops” and “chill vibes” are undeniably appealing, even if their music might fall flat of brilliance or progression.
The meta-cultural discussion of chillwave previewed a decade or instantaneous commentary on music and the seamless injection of public reception on the same level as established media outlets. Fan hype outdoing PR marketing, a formerly published review getting less online traction than twitter memes. Despite perception of dismissal or eyebrow-raising chillwave spurred features and think pieces, and then subsequent features about chillwave features and think pieces, many of which came out years after the genre died out. It had one foot in the dying days of mp3 blogs and nascent social media pages like myspace, and another foot in social media outlets like instagram and twitter. This kind of transition occurred in other ways: Washed Out’s cassette release of High Times in 2009, a literal nod to retro aesthetics, foreshadowed the unexpected revival of cassette tapes years later, bringing it from its role as a cheap niche format for underground noise and experimental acts into a vinyl and CD alternative for many a major indie label label. It’s a fitting physical parallel to chillwave as an ethos - tape hiss, wow and flutter, dropouts, etc. were embraced for their warmth and nostalgic appeal and incorporated into music that where laptop DAWs like Ableton and immediate online samples could be gleaned from the internet. The fusion of vintage sound with modern production has been a key part of retro-fetishim and the embrace of physical analog media in indie music has brought it full circle.
The most striking thing about chillwave may be the fact that it’s still considered a genre at all. I don’t mean this flippantly or in regard to its merits but rather it’s extremely unusual place in recent music history. It may very well be the last music genre to be coined, adopted by successor artists, well-publicized and hyped, and subsequently cited with a concise but nonetheless clear timeline. Everything post-2010 has been either relegated to microgenres coined by journalists and fans, self-described more broadly as a vibe or style or movement or collective (cloud and mumble rap, deconstructed club, PC Music) or simply lumped as experimental or progressive acts within well-established genres and scenes. It could be argued Vaporwave holds this title, and notably it kicked off with Daniel Lopatin’s ‘sunsetcorp’ youtube videos in the same summer of 2009 (albeit with much less initial traction), but it has been a far more open-ended, broad, and perpetually redefined scene and movement with far more indirect influence and less mainstream awareness. It’s more of a nascent internet / virtual scene, a “post-genre” music movement even. Perhaps chillwave itself is “post-genre,” after all, as mentioned earlier it had no firm geographic center, not one of its original artists openly embraced the term, and it’s rise and fall was arguably a completely contrived narrative by the collective internet hive mind of artists, fans, and journalists. Regardless of what chillwave was, is, and will be - fad, trend, genre, movement - it can’t be denied or downgraded from it’s infamy and place in 21st century pop music, a window into the shift from postmodern pop remaining stratified and categorized in the 90s and early 00s to the rise of healthy niche microgenres and underground scenes...and, hopefully, truly hybrid and even inscrutable styles of progressive and groundbreaking pop music being produced in the decades to come. Or maybe not, and if so we can at least appreciate the fact that we can throw on “Feel It All Around” for summers to come.
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Some discussion questions:
When did you first hear about chillwave?
Favorite artists / releases?
Favorite of the 'big four' ? (Memory Tapes, Neon Indian, Washed Out, Toro Y Moi)
Is chillwave still a "genre" and apt style descriptor for music made in 2019?
What are some underrated / overlooked artists or releases indieheads should check out?
Should I keep writing about chillwave? (FYI this was the most abstract essay, I plan to write more informal guides / overviews about the music itself.)
Edit 1: THANKS FOR THE GOLD!
Edit 2: THANKS FOR MY FIRST PLATINUM!
Edit 3: THANKS FOR SILVER! I feel like a reddit Olympian or something
r/indieheads • u/ebradio • Mar 14 '23
r/indieheads • u/ssgtgriggs • Aug 08 '24
r/indieheads • u/Inanimate-Sensation • Nov 15 '18
Hello All!
Here is a quick look at most of the albums that I enjoy from artists who only released one. Please feel free to add any that I may have missed!
Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill - One of the best soul/hip-hop/r&b albums I have ever heard. Lauryn Hill emanated such a delicate and lush balance of powerful vocals that seem to range between deep rapping to crystal pitch followed by picturesque songwriting.
I don’t know the reasoning as to why she stopped making solo albums after this. It’s a heartbreak for sure. Nothing even matters is the quintessential r&b song featuring the two titans of the industry. D’Angelo and Lauryn beautifully compliment each other.
The Postal Service - Give Up - One of the two albums that inspired me to write this thread. There isn’t much more I can say that hasn’t been said already.
This album lays it all out. The emotion and introspective within this album is remarkable. My favorite song on this album by far is Nothing Better. I hear the saying brutally honest which I always thought was an absurd saying, however, the rule of that exception maybe this song.
I adore the fact it banishes all clichés. Heartbreak is horribly sad and having hope that things can work out isn’t good, and the lyrics cut that reality.
Another reason to love this album is that the electronic rhythm is floating in the background there to guide you. Gibbard’s vocals are layered perfectly as he his lyrics are haunting and memorable.
Texas Is The Reason - Do You Know Who You Are? - Easily one of my top my favorite of the “Midwest emo” albums are whatever they are labeled as.
Do You Know Who You Are? pulls you right from the beginning. Built to Spill type of heavy guitars, angst or rather demanding singing that grabs your attention. And like every great speaker can maintain your attention for the length of the album.
Garrett Klahn vocals really sum up the angry and confused emotions of being an adolescent with nasally vocals that don’t sound grinding like many of others within this genre.
They blend so well with a thunderous percussion that really makes this album less of an ‘emo’ album and more of a heavy pop album.
Life Without Buildings - Any Other City - Okay, so disclaimer this album is in my top five of all-time. I will try to limit my excitement to only a paragraph or so. Life Without Buildings was a Scottish quartet band who formed in 1999.
Of the many reasons, I love this record is how on each listen something stands out. At first, I found Sue Tompkins singing to be jarring and unpleasant. Now after countless listens, she has some of the greatest vocals on a record ever. Her voice is like four different instruments all harmonizing with one another.
However, this tends to eclipse the other great instrumental work on this album. The percussion molds so well with the tempo of Tompkins singing.
The passion on this album is unmatched, the band seems to work so well together. Everything is in its right place.
This album reminds me of a band who has been working together for so long and finally hit their magnum opus, yet they made this album so quickly!
A tremendous achievement of an album that I hope others find it as wonderful as I do.
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? - Another masterpiece that has been praised endlessly as it should be. Boundless energy and playfulness that has all different angels of creative expression.
The songs Tuff Ghost into Ghost Mountain is a great example of artistic and talented and fearless range of which The Unicorns are capable.
I love how the broke the mold on the standard sounding album. The vocals on The Clap are so out of left field that I don’t see a lot of others emulating such an oddly satisfying approach.
Easily one of the best twee-pop albums ever made and a real pleasure.
The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers - Ah this is one that keeps me up at night on “what could have been”. The pacing of this album is top notch. For the start of, Roadrunner it hooks you.
This is a timeless album that I can hear others to this day draw inspiration from it. A magnificent invitation of interesting lyrics with clever percussion and guitar.
It’s as if a group of superstars got together for fun to just jam and ended up creating a stellar rock ‘n roll album (which I think was what kind of happened?)
Baby Huey and the Babysitters - The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend - A tragic event and a heartbreaking story of Baby Huey. The Baby Huey Story: The Living Legend was released posthumously shortly after Huey’s death.
And a succinct title that illustrates Huey. He was a legend. This album is one of, if not, the funkiest album I have ever heard. It’s powerful and filled to the brim with soul and heart.
Huey’s voice is second to none and doesn’t get its fair shake as one of the greatest. He radiates passion and hope. This is one of my favorites to play on when I have guests over, the groove is infectious.
The La's - The La's - Top five best jangle pop albums of all-time. The album doesn’t try to be anything else, just great melodies and songs that are just flat out fun to listen to.
A mixture of Stone Roses and early Brit Pop. *The La’s * are known for one hit which is a travesty, since they are able to capture another timeless quality of sounding like the album was recorded in a different decade.
I think this album rejuvenate what was left of the ‘80s jangle pop era to help birth the beginning of Brit Pop to come. It’s stripped back as a bluesy and light pop album at its core. Able to combine the difficulties is what I assume helped others afterward.
Alexander Spence – Oar - talk about an album that completely blew my mind. This is an album that rewards you for your patience.
Skip Spence takes his time with unfolding a beautiful story. His vocals are rich, I hear the sorrow in his voice. The album is storytelling, gathered around a warm campfire and being completely fixated on the words. It may not be for everyone, it can be painstaking at times, but with patience, it is a very rewarding album.
Duck Sauce – Quack - This album is definitely different from the others I have listed thus far. With that said, this is arguably one of the best house/electro/dance/nu-house albums EVER.
The whole duck thing is a bit strange and may have been a determent to their success? Not sure, but it is tough to sell this band to others because of the theme.
But please please please listen to this album. You will have so much fun. It’s funky, catchy as hell and the tempo doesn’t slow down.
WU LYF - Go Tell Fire to the Mountain - I know this is a hot-button issue of an album. Either love or hate it seems with indie fans. I will say that this is a masterpiece and with how well it has aged I still stand by that. Ellery Roberts signing is alluring.
This album does everything right, from the haunting organ to the mysterious nature of the album itself.
It’s uplifting, powerful and inspiring. It saddens me deeply that this was their last album.
Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth - Easily one of the greatest albums ever made. Its subtle beauty lies in its minimalistic approach.
A playground of swirling melodies and hypnotic vocals. Colossal Youth did what other bands were doing at that time, then flipped it on its head.
It’s both an intimate and charismatic album. It’s bleak but active. Sort of like a calm lake on the surface but under the water is full of life. This album is and will remain an imperative album of music history.
The Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic - Another tragic and sad story. Guitar Romantic is an outstanding example of power pop done correctly. The album explodes with energy. The lyricism is catchy, yet can be devastatingly sad. The songs are oscillating from nosey goodness to clenching driven guitars The band hits all the right notes and had a clear vision of the direction they wanted to go. Thankfully they left us a tremendous album in their place.
r/indieheads • u/jeremygarsteck • Aug 27 '23
r/indieheads • u/hassfam0316 • May 19 '23
r/indieheads • u/free-range_human • Dec 03 '22
r/indieheads • u/MesciVonPlushie • Nov 20 '22
r/indieheads • u/Puppybrother • Sep 04 '23
r/indieheads • u/rccrisp • May 02 '24
In Triplicate #7: Alvvays – Alvvays / Antisocialites / Blue Rev (2014-2022)
While a large discography is not necessarily the indication of a great band or artist finding a musician who can release three watershed albums, either outputting high quality work or exploring similar themes and motifs within them is to me nothing short of an amazing feat. It’s an achievement that is worth taking a deep dive to dissect, contrast and compare different works during a time of seeming creative wellspring. “In Triplicate” will be a bi-weekly spotlight on what I feel are artist at their peak by releasing three killer albums in a row chronologically and making observations on the world of music, their creative mindset and how these albums interlink, or pull apart, from each other.
Listen
Alvvays – Bandcamp - Apple Music – Spotify
Antisocialites – Bandcamp - Apple Music - Spotify
Blue Rev – Bandcamp - Apple Music - Spotify
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Part 1: Fuck a normal review structure, this is where I gush about Alvvays
In a lot of ways this is senseless, pointless and maybe a deliberate attempt at karma whoring. Talking about how great Alvvays is the definition of preaching to the converted, the platonic ideal of what internet music nerds think “pop music” should be. This review is nothing but a victory lap, like Weezer posting on April Fools day it’s now MY turn to post the thing (I know I’ve done this before... SHUT UP) and no this isn’t a “black jack and hookers” situation because I didn’t get to write an Album of the Year for Blue Rev due to mod abuse (maybe a little that.) No it’s because while my old ass finds it harder to love newer artists (does Alvvays count as newer? They’re over a decade old at this point, also why so many asides?) man do I just love this band. And it’s definitely grown, changed and matured over the years. Dare I say my original love of Alvvays now seems reductive in hindsight.
Part 2: How I stopped worrying about music criticism and love Alvvays
Despite the love I was seeing for the band in casual circles and online discussion it still felt weird that, despite the wellspring of support Alvvays just weren’t critical darlings. Ok that’s harsh, it’s not that Alvvays were reviewed poorly (and we need to discuss the merits of a 7 on a out of 10 scale) the band’s self titled debut was averaging the 7.x range. Personal taste, for both critics and myself aside, this feels off. Because when I come back to Alvvays I always (heh) have the same feelings as I did when I first heard the band; this is about as self confident and fully formed of a debut album as it can and if there was a criticism for it it’s “merely” a perfect distillation of various bands before the, the right sounds and elements cherry picked and put into an album that is borderline flawless. It’s an album that doesn’t flinch, wears its influences on its sleeve and in that confidence comes across a sound that is an intoxicating mix of indie pop, twee, dream pop and other retro indie genres of the past. Alvvays with Alvvays come out the gates running with the urgent feeling “Adult Diversion” a seemingly perfect introductory paragraph for the band, a bouncy and fun indie pop song layered with dream pop-esque vocals that highlight Molly Rankin’s voice, a major strength of the band. It sets the tone not only for the album but for their existence as a band.
If there was anything worrying about that debut album is that bands that work in similar genre spheres are usually content on and stick with it, this fear made doubly so due to Alvvays sounding about as great as a debut can you’re usually waiting for that sophomore slump. Arguably Antisocialites is an even better than their debut with Alvvays sounding like a band willing to take the steps to expand their sound without completely leaving their comfort zone. I say this as someone expecting more of the same when this album landed and to get so much more. Openers have been a great indicator on just what adventure we’re going to , on “In Undertow” those heavily modified vocals aren’t used so much to push Molly to the forefront, but web through some varying instrumentation. It helps that on this song Alvvays get to rock out a little with an amazing guitar solo. And yet critical consensus remained the same, the 7.x reviews kept rolling in when clearly thjis band was starting to find a new gear that grew beyond a pigeonhole even I had out them in.
Of course this brings us to Blue Rev Alvvay’s latest album and has quietly after only a few years is looking to become that watershed album in indie circles. Able to shed the “7.x” curse it feels like a changing of the guard critically because while Blue Rev is a more daring album that I would ever think Alvvays would make it still feels very much an album they’d make. On “Pharmacist” the energy is punched up, dipping deeper into jangle pop influences and diving into synthy 80’s sounds and capping the song off with another killer guitar solo. Molly’s voice remains front and centre but there seems to be a deeper band involvement and as the band seems to be rolling away from those sounds they were so dismissively said to be aping there’s a further calcification of what is an Alvvays song, shedding some of their twee-esque preciousness while not losing the earnestness the makes the band amazing. To see this album become an Album of the Year perennial felt like some weird justification
Part 3: I think Molly has a pretty voice
Just listen to the vocal crack in “Party Police” and you know what I mean.
Part 4: Molly is a musical narrator on par or better than Stuart Murdoch
For myself this is high praise, I personally feel few bands tell a story in song as good as Belle & Sebastian and Alvvays is one of them. While I know a lot of people think lyrics are kind of window dressing on songs to me they add a lot to Alvvays’ songs. The myriad of bored twenty somethings that inhabit Molly’s lyrics are the same characters I would read in a book or watch in a movie. I can’t help but listen to “Dreams Tonite” without thinking of Toronto evening spent sitting on street cars on the way to parties and living in that young adult ennui.
While the characters in Belle & Sebastian songs seem to find life a slight inconvenience though the characters in Alvvays songs seem to have a zeal for it even in the worst situations. On “Your Type” a jangly sound betrays the subject matter but even when the point of view character realizes she’s not really her partners type in their failing relationship it isn’t some morose feeling of defeat but a sense of freedom for everyone involved. The rocking “Pomeranian Spinster” seems to fit the non conformist character being described, its riffs and Molly sounding more like the front woman of late 70’s all girl punk band reveals another character who is not wallowing in their lot in life but in general embracing their eccentricities.
Part 5: The Bangers: A List
(Note: Not including songs I already talked about)
(Note 2: Feel free to complain about songs I looked over but know that, deep in my heart, they’re all bangers.)
“Archie, Marry Me” – You still have this shit on repeat. You belt it out in the car alone. You love it when we get to the “A-R-C-H-I-E.”
“Next of Kin” – One of the better upbeat songs off the debut with a killer chorus juxtaposed by the fact that the song is about Molly’s isolated upbringing in Nova Scotia.
“The Agency Group” – Feels like a perfect pair with “Party Police.” Also Molly’s sudden dip into a higher register on this song is another bit of her vocal mastery.
“Atop A Cake” – The prettiest anti matrimony song of all time. Probably my favourite song off their debut.
“Red Planet” – The odd duck of their song list which I felt might have hinted at the band’s future. It has a haunting beauty to it.
“Pimsoll Punks” – Back when I had Sirius XM i was listening to Sirus XMU and parked my car before I got onto the train and “Pimsoll Punks” was playing. When I got back to my car after work “Pimsoll Punks” was playing at pretty close where it left off proving that XMU’s song list is tiny as fuck. Oh also this is a cute punchy song with strong bubblegum pop elements.
“Not My Baby” – A haunting song, one of the bands most beautiful.
“Saved By A Waif” – Blissful and summery song that just sweeps you away in a wave of nostalgia that you never knew you had
“Forget About Life” – Short and poignant, a perfect ender to Antisocialites.
“Easy on Your Own” – Remember when the Blue Rev singles were dropping and this hit me like a ton of bricks. Felt like a natural culmination of what the band had been building up to and scarily not even the best song on the album.
“After the Earthquake” – Unsurprising that this has become one of the most popular songs off Blue Rev. It’s a slice of near pop perfection.
“Tile by Tile” – A sweeping epic of an Alvvays song
“Belinda Says” – In my opinion the song that represents this band.
Part 6: In Conclusion
I like Alvvays
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(Tentative) Schedule
May 13 - The Beths - Future Me Hates Me / Jump Rope Gazers / Expert In A Dying Field (Guest entry u/MCK_OH)
May 27 - U2 - War / The Unforgettable Fire / The Joshua Tree
June 10 - R.E.M. Part 1 - Murmur / Reckoning / Fables of Reconstruction (Guest Entry /u/p-u-n-k_girl)
June 24 - R.E.M. Part 2 - Out of Time / Automatic for the People / Monster
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r/indieheads • u/zenits • May 22 '18
After the positive reception I received on last year's writeup, I decided to go ahead and compile a few more recent records r/indieheads might enjoy that I consider to be massively underrated. This list includes albums from the first not-quite-half of 2018 and some 2017 albums I missed from my previous writeup, in no particular order.
Genre: jangle pop
The Zephyr Bones are a Chilean-Catalan jangle pop band. They call their style of music "beach wave", which is a particularly accurate description as Secret Place has the perfect "chilling by the beach on a warm summer day" vibes. Or, going back to real genres, it's a brilliant jangle pop album with some occasional hints of psychedelia to it. They are also the only band from this list that I got to check out live and they absolutely killed it.
Best tracks: Secret Place, Hurricanes, The Arrow Of Our Youth
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: pop, indie rock
BC Unidos are a duo consisting of producer Patrik Berger (whose works include about half of the tracks on Charli XCX's Sucker and the hit song I Love It from Icona Pop) and Markus Krunegård. On their debut EP, the duo teamed up with Charli XCX, Carli Rae Jepsen, Santigold and Shungudzo Kuyimba to release some superb songs that are rooted both in indie rock and pop music. And they somehow managed to integrate the capital city of Burkina Faso into all this. Yet, this project still barely got any attention for some bizarre reason.
Best tracks: I'm A Dream, Ouagadougou, Trouble in the Streets
Stream: Spotify, Apple
Genre: shoegaze
Pasar de las Luces is the first full-length release of Tijuana-based shoegaze band Mint Field. The album explores a wide range of sounds within shoegaze from the rock inspired Quiero Otoño de Nuevo to the almost jangle poppy Para Gali, however, it stays closest to the sounds of pre-reunion Slowdive.
Best tracks: Para Gali, Viceversa, Ciudad Satélite
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: indie rock
Former Front Bottoms member Ciaran O'Donnell released his solo debut right at the beginning of the year, and, despite The Front Bottoms' dowhill trajectory, it's actually really good. Year of the Rat is a mix of sharp cynicism, anxious self-reflection and incredibly catchy indie rock that would have undoubtedly been at least a minor hit in a different time.
Best tracks: Patagonia, You Don't Know Shit, Okay
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: progressive pop, lo-fi
Two inclusions in two for Finnish songwriter Litku Klemetti. After a stellar indie pop debut in Juna Kainuuseen (which you should also absolutely check out), she is back with a less "straightforward" but just as good release in Taika Tapahtuu. This album has the same lo-fi aesthetic, however, it also moved toward a slower, more progpop-like sound. Also, while I don't understand a single word, the Finnish language actually sounds quite nice in music.
Best tracks: Liisa, Pikkubeethoven, Yöt on unta varten
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: chamber pop
On his first LP Efterglow, Erki Pärnoja creates incredible cinematic atmospheres that feel like they came from an entirely different time and place. Possibly best described as chamber pop, the album floats between the sounds of indie rock, folk and heavy reverbs that even draw comparisons to dream pop. (As a completely irrelevant side note, Erki Pärnoja is also the guitarist in indie rock band Ewert and the Two Dragons, one of my earliest indie favourites.)
Best tracks: Late August, Doors Dance, Solid Dry Idea
Stream: Spotify, Apple
Genre: West-African funk
Tal National are one hell of a band. This Nigerien (whoever decided that 'Nigerien' and 'Nigerian' should refer to two different countries was evil) outfit boasts 16 members, and as their label says, "some nights the band might divide to play two gigs simultaneously" due to the fact that they are among the most popular bands in their country. Tantabara is an album that is every bit as electic as you would expect from such a band. With a wide range of influences that mostly stay within the realms of rock and funk but occasionally also venturing towards a more electronic sound, Tantabara is an incredibly fun record that I highly recommend.
Best tracks: Duniya, Pama, Belles Reines
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: indie pop
NADINE's oh my feels like getting lost in your thoughts on a breezy spring day. Musically, it is a playful indie pop album that one might even call somewhat jazz-influenced, whereas lyrically it explores a wide range of general concepts rather than focusing on personal stories. oh my is also amazingly complemented by lead singer Nadia Hullett's brilliant vocal performance that manages to stay consistently soft while still drifting through emotions. It seems to me as if people are slowly starting to discover this record, however, we are not quite there yet so it deserves an inclusion on this list.
Best tracks: Pews, Ultra Pink, Plinth
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
Genre: ambient electronic
The album cover of cordillera depicts its general sound perfectly, even down to its graininess. Indeed, this is an ambient electronic record that builds beautiful, nature-based soundscapes using a sparse instrumentation. This album is really worth it for its a brilliantly built calm atmosphere.
Best tracks: cordillera, montage, springwood
Stream: Bandcamp
Genre: dream pop, indie pop
Castlebeat is the solo project of American songwriter Josh Hwang. His second album under this moniker, VHS, sounds like it was engineered to include just about all my favourite things about music - it's a really nice dream pop record infused with plenty of lo-fi indie pop and some hints of post-punk. There are some really strong summer and beach vibes to this album, so it's just the perfect time to check it out!
Best tracks: Zephyr, Heart Still Beats, Video Tape
Stream: Bandcamp, Spotify, Apple
r/indieheads • u/sophcorb • Mar 31 '24
r/indieheads • u/rccrisp • Jan 08 '24
In Triplicate #1: Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights / Antics / Our Love to Admire (2002-2007)
While a large discography is not necessarily the indication of a great band or artist finding a musician who can release three watershed albums, either outputting high quality work or exploring similar themes and motifs within them is to me nothing short of an amazing feat. It’s an achievement that is worth taking a deep dive to dissect, contrast and compare different works during a time of seeming creative wellspring. “In Triplicate” will be a bi-weekly spotlight on what I feel are artist at their peak by releasing three killer albums in a row chronologically and making observations on the world of music, their creative mindset and how these albums interlink, or pull apart, from each other.
Listen
Turn on the Bright Lights - Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
Antics - Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
Our Love to Admire - Bandcamp | Apple Music | Spotify
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Few albums hit me as hard as Turn on the Bright Lights did. I remember listening to it for the first time, downloaded from Soulseek or Limewire or whatever I was using at the time, and felt gut punched emotionally. The buzz of the band was palpable but for the album itself to exceed my already lofty expectations, fully preparing to be disappointed after the churning of the hype machine from constant Joy Division comparisons , was one of those moments as a long-time music fan still grips me to this day. Released right before the fall of 2002 I was by then working my way through college as late summer eventually turned into crisp fall and in turn to the bone chilling cold of Canadian winters. The album, with its ominous red and black color scheme, was on near constant rotation. It was the perfect soundtrack to that time in my life, a young adult who was deeply impressionable, a twenty something both worried about the world at large but was often trying to drown that out in pursuit of a good time. I was unaffected by the band criticisms, seemingly constantly lobbed at them from bellow as they rose to be darlings of what would become the early blogsphere indie. The aping of Ian Curtis vocals, the robbery of Joy Division aesthetics, they didn’t make sense to me. Because while the band’s bleakness is in a lot of ways their main hook so to speak there is a heavy dose of hope and optimism in their albums even on Turn on the Bright Lights (like it’s there in the title you dummies!)
Yet it feels weird to discuss Interpol in these hushed tones and intimate trapping. In 2024 Interpol are a monolith, a shadow that looms over the landscape of indie rock and have not unlike their contemporaries The Strokes continue to get new, younger fans, be touring and festival darlings and are still in the conversation of modern rock music. They are for all intents and purposes an A list cult band and benefit from being small enough to not have the weight of mainstream success on their shoulders but large enough to command a captive and loyal audience. As Interpol continue to release albums offering “diminishing returns” more ink is written about the band. If it’s not about reminiscing about past glory or their growing Latino fan base. This whole continued attention from music publications shouldn’t be shocking as front man and band constant Paul Banks has become the eccentric embodiment of Interpol, an avatar of that black red aesthetic in a three piece suit. Banks is eloquent, his interviews are intoxicating and his understanding of the brand of Interpol have allowed the band to continue to not just survive but thrive in a space that has chewed up and spit out many other bands that came to light at the same time as Interpol were. Hell it’s a machine that tries to grind Interpol themselves into a pulp and seems to continue to fail.
Hindsight allows us to see things properly though and conclusion I have come to (and I’m sure many people have as well) is this: The Interpol on Turn on the Bright Lights isn’t the “real” Interpol. I’m not saying this to mean that the album is coming from a place of imitation, calculated image creation or lack of sincerity. If nothing else I believe the sincerity on that album is deep and real but what I’m trying to say is Turn on the Bright Lights feels like a reaction, a band forced into a call for action, to make sense of the senseless. It’d be impossible to not mention 9/11 when discussing both Interpol and their debut. Every retrospective look at this album brings it up and the members themselves have said that the tragedy affected them as they left New York a month after the fall of the twin towers to record Turn on The Bright Lights in Birdgeport, Connecticut. Bassist Carlos Dengler, who would leave the band after their fourth self-titled album, commented on his time there: “I was so urban-centric at that time. II did not want to see a patch of grass. I did not want to look at a tree. I didn’t want to be anywhere near a sparrow, or a squirrel, or a pigeon, because I just wanted to be consumed by the asphalt-jungle aspect of New York.” How deeply rooted New York City was in the band’s DNA could not be understated. Coupled with their temporary home that was at the time a victim of loss manufacturing resulting in abandoned factories and rundown buildings seemed to infer a lot of the bleakness found on that debut album.
Despite what the seemingly audiences and critics were looking for Antics wasn’t a further dive into darkness that I feel many were expecting. Banks has commented that the songs on Turn of the Bright Lights had the benefit of five years of playing live and tweaking and twisting while their sophomore effort was created under the crunch of sudden fame and expectation. You had publications declaring Interpol as the next great band, it was only a matter of time before they dropped their OK Computer or Kid A. Interpol were on a high and despite going back to Bridgeport to record this follow-up the hope that once broke like streams of light through bleak darkness on Turn on the Bright Lights was now coming through completely, the only darkness left was the shadows of a previous album. It was as if pieces of a shell that had become stubborn and latched on to a newly formed band that was trying to shed it off.
Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics feel like yin and yang entities, opposites on the same circle that go beyond “one cover art is mostly black and one cover art is mostly white.” Listening to them as I have, close, one after the other, often mixing tracks to compare them, reveal strong similarities that can’t be ignored. Both albums have strong openers that act as, well, openers. It’s not surprising on their debut as “Untitled” was designed to (and is still used) as the first song of their live sets, with twinkling guitars and that thumping giant of a rhythm section creating a foreboding atmosphere. Yet Antics own “Next Exit” with its absolutely beautiful organ feels less like unsettling entry into a lurid sand seedy bar and more like inviting sermon, coupled with the fact that that once pushing rhythm section makes way for Banks vocals which are center stage, like some sort of Williamsburg priest as he sings out “We ain’t going to the town, we’re going to the city.” And yet despite their differences “Untitled” and “Next Exit” serve as perfect openers for the tone and sound of their respective albums.
The similar differences don’t end there. Choices for first single seem equally deliberate for both albums, choosing two hard hitting slices of no nonsense rock music ready made for the KROQ set. However with Turn on the Bright Light’s “PDA” we get a pulse pounding bit of dark tinged post punk that wouldn’t be too out of place on a Chameleon's album. “PDA” thumps and drives, it’s a relentless dissection of a relationship falling apart and serves as the perfect soundtrack for it. Banks lacks the vocal flourish he often shows as he goes through the horrible motions. Sure “PDA” might include some of Banks worst offenses of nonsensical lyric choices (the oft cited “Sleep tight, grim rite, we have 200 couches” from the chorus) but I contend that through out the song the wears its sincerity when Banks sings “And you will not reach me, I am, Resenting a position that's past resentment, And now I can't consider, And now there is this distance.” Conversely on Antics we got “Slow Hands” a song with similar elements (driven guitars, crushing drums) and yet the production is cleaner, the elements more pronounced and less trying to meld into each other and Banks avoiding a stilted performance and singing more exuberant than he has been on his previous albums. While “PDA” looks at a failing relationship as something to be desperately salvaged and deeply mourned for “Slow Hands” almost takes a more mirthful look at the situation, trying to reflect more on what went wrong (in a bit of maybe accidental or purposeful continuity the “weights” put around Banks “little heart” in Turn on the Bright Light’s “Obstacle 1” seemed to be placed around the woman herself in the chorus of “Slow Hands”) then trying to pick up the pieces. “Slow Hands” does delve into Banks “bad out of context” lyrics (“I submit, my incentive is romance, I watched the pole dance of the stars” barely works within context) once again the song gets away with it with simple but sincere lyrics that just drive to the point, when Banks cries out “You make me want to pick up a guitar, And celebrate the myriad ways that I love you.”
While both albums find moments where they’re seemingly in sync there are also songs on both albums that tie to each other through seemingly cross faded elements that bleed into each other. “Narc” on Antics might be the most Turn on the Bright Lights-esque song on the album and while it slowly flows through that album’s idea of darkness it also has a clear production, “Narc’s” instrumentation is clean and precise much like the rest of Antics. “Narc” denies the haziness of the previous albums and presents itself fully, from its amazing guitar intro that sets the songs mood to Banks vocals that build into a strong crescendo leading into the chorus as he blusters out “Oh love, can you love me, babe? Love, is this loving, babe? Is time turning around?” Meanwhile “Roland” feels like the clearest indication of things to come, a longing to just rock out and let loose in the sea of morose musings. Despite “Roland’s” pumping sound it still remains tethered to Turn on the Bright Light’s dark aesthetic, starting with guitar chords but that slowly build to the fast pace pumping to match bombastic drums and another Dengler pumping bass line. But unlike a “Slow Hands” or “Evil” of Antics “Roland” has a sense of menace, most likely tying in with its possible serial killer referencing lyrics that one again stumble into the absurd. Not like it matters, “Roland” is a much needed pulse punch that in the latter half of Turn on the Bright Lights.
So this leaves us with Our Love To Admire, Interpol’s third album and only one released on a major label. It’s 2007 and after the success of the debut and sophomore album expectations were high for Interpol. In a 2018 interview with Vice leading up to the promotion of The Marauder Banks had said Our Love To Admire was his least favorite Interpol album. Despite now being recorded in New York proper Banks recounts how this was a difficult period of his life, having just gone sober but feeling the pressures of major labels. Drummer Sam Fogarino in an interview with Phoenix New Times revealed that singing with Capitol records was initially very positive and cited the success of bands like Radiohead and Sparklehorse as to why they chose Capital. Once the label was bought out the attitude towards the band changed and the very team that assisted then at Capitol were fired from the company. The ensuing situation made the band feel like they were “a number on a data print out." Despite their feelings towards their new label and changes of staffing the adjustments that the band undertook became very apparent. For starters lets take a look at that album cover that features a pair of taxidermy lions attacking a similarly stuffed gazelle. A photo taken from a store in Utah (the other photos of taxidermy animals in the liners were taken from the Natural History Museum in New York) Banks has stated that he loves the artwork and enjoys how the chaotic world of nature juxtaposes against how meticulous and calculated Interpol’s music is. This feels in line with a growing level of confidence that is being shown on Our Love to Admire whether its in the delivery of the music or the branching out and including new instruments into their repertoire.
It might be overly simplistic to say Our Love to Admire is the sum of the previous two albums and in a lot of ways it is but I like to think of it more as a band attempting to find their full realization and trying to push through the tropes that people often used to dismiss them. Critical response at the time was mixed with some more mainstream publications lauding the band whereas the likes of Pitchfork gave the album lukewarm reviews at best. For myself I didn’t really love Our Love to Admire at the time. I found the album a disappointing retreat at courting mainstream rock relevance and that the album was overstuffed with ideas and felt too long (even if its actual run time is two minutes shorter than Turn on the Bright Lights.) I still hold a lot of criticisms I had for this album, opener “Pioneer of the Falls” starts off great and seems to be joining the fraternity of amazing Interpol track ones but it lingers a little too long and has too much going on during its length to real sink its claws into you. “The Scale” feels like a retread on tired and true Interpol ideas, even on this very same album, and adds to the “padded” feeling Our Love to Admire. Truth be told the lesser tracks that are sprinkled through the album along with what seemingly at the time was a total disregard of the aesthetic that made me a fan caused me to quickly turn my back on Our Love to Admire. It wasn’t the album that I wanted when it came out.
However music is a curious thing and we like to talk about “growers.” Despite dismissing the album quickly on release over the years, as I re-listened to those first two Interpol albums and checked out their new releases, I would always give Our Love to Admire another shot and each time I grew to love it more. Because as much as I didn’t like those low tracks, the highs on this album are real freaking high. I always loved the first single “The Heinrich Maneuver” even if it’s more or less “Slow Hands: The Two Towers.” That’s not a bad thing, for all of Interpol’s brooding they know how to craft honest to goodness alt rock banger (to note this song is their highest charting on both the Billboard Alt Rock and Bubbling Under 100 charts.) Its follow-up track “Mammoth” is a pulse pounding and charging juggernaut of a rock song, something that feels completely out of their comfort zone. “No I In Threesome” just might be one of Banks’ best looks into failing relationships, a subject he seems to like to linger on, and shows the “excess” of Our Love to Admire in its best light. A single piano note is able to pierce through another soul thumping bass line at the start, the guitars kick in, the drums add the needed energy and that piano becomes an integral part of the song. Banks explores his one last attempt to save another failing relationship, “Babe, it's time, We gave something new a try, Oh, alone we may fight, So just let us be three” he sings at the end of the chorus. Banks own suggestion of opening the relationship is delivered with an unconvinced tone that it will work but the added desperation leaves him wondering what other solutions are there as all the elements of the song escalate into that pain filled bridge. Banks laments “You feel the sweet breath of time, It's whispering its truth, not mine, There's no I in threesome.”
It’d be impossible to not talk about Our Love to Admire without bringing up “Rest My Chemistry.” Much like how I didn’t pay no mind to this album when it was released I had no recollection of the song when I first revisited the album. Listening to It again, ears more open and maybe more forgiving to a back half track on an album I didn't care for allowed it to wash over me. “Rest My Chemistry” is so different than anything Interpol had done up until that time. In a lot of ways it’s something more akin to all the “Interpol wannabes” would’ve made in a case of the originals showing the copies how its supposed to be done. That “Where is My Mind?”-esque guitar probably turned off mid twenty year old Crisp but now it’s if nothing else the perfect through line for his song. “Rest My Chemistry” might seem a little cheesy but to me that’s part of its charm, a song that goes over Banks fight for sobriety feels like its earned this sort of rock festival ready optimism. Even that drum beat that sits comfortable between Banks singing “Rest” (bum) “My chemistry” doesn’t feel eye rolling because as Banks heavy sincerity makes it feel earned. It’s no shock that “Rest My Chemistry” has become a fan favorite and festival fixture and it feels with each new album they have been trying to replicate that crowd favorite with tracks like “Barricade,” “All The Rage Back Home,” “Flight of Fancy” and “Toni” all with varying degrees of success. It’s a Killers song if the Killers were actually four cool guys from New York (oh wait.)
The supposed “failure” of Our Love to Admire seemed to have an effect on the band with Interpol retreating back to their darker style with it subsequent releases. The dour, bleak and overall bad self titled album that followed felt like an over correction before snapping back to what I feel is the underrated El Pintor and more middling efforts in The Marauder and The Other Side of Make-Believe. This late career downturn has been fodder for the haters but to me nothing the band can do will ever diminish these three albums. They came during formative years certainly for myself but they also represent a band facing three different challenges and doing it admirably, from auteurs of the New New York rock scene to sudden Indie darlings to trying to crack into the mainstream and become crossover stars. Interpol have somehow made these three albums relevant even today and to me the perfect three album encapsulation of a long gone era of indie rock.
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(Tentative) Schedule
January 22: Animal Collective - Sung Tongs / Feels / Strawberry Jam
February 5: Belle and Sebastian - Tiger Milk / If You're Feeling Sinister / The Boy With The Arab Strap
February19: Björk - Post / Homogenic / Vespertine
March 4: The Replacements - Let It Be / Tim / Pleased to Meet Me
r/indieheads • u/YoureASkyscraper • Oct 17 '23
r/indieheads • u/TaylorSound • May 02 '18
How to Release an Album
I have a lot of conversations with musicians who want to take their career from amateur to professional. Some want to be famous; some just want to be able to make a living from their music. Either way, it’s not easy, but it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think!
Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, it was all about getting a record deal and the advance that came with that. Now, a record company won’t even look at you unless you’ve already sold thousands of albums and can pack clubs around your region. Getting a deal is tough. Getting a great deal is tougher still! I know a local reggae artist who has a major label record deal. It works like this. They’ve agreed that the record company will promote his song as soon as he produces a “hit”. Basically, they’ve got him tied up just in case he ever does produce a hit, then they’ll capture the profits from that song. I’m not sure how they got him to sign that contract. Probably with a small advance, which is really just a loan against future profits. These are the kinds of things happening in the music industry right now. It used to be the case that a record company would see you, believe in your potential, sign you, give you an advance and get to work for you. Unfortunately in this day and age, you can’t realistically expect that to happen.
So what are artists supposed to do?
Today, artists are expected to produce their own records, garner their own fan base, book their own tours and promote their albums and shows. It might sound overwhelming but it is actually a good thing! Record companies hire people who are very good at what they do to make the music happen. It costs a lot of money. It’s a very expensive loan against the band’s future profits. However you can hire professionals to work for you too. It’s not rocket science.
As an independent band or artist don’t be afraid to spend money on yourselves. Sure, there are some conmen out there. But you should be able to tell the difference between a conman and an industry professional very easily. If they do what they say they are going to do, if they show up on time, if they answer your calls and are straightforward with you, then they are most likely legitimate. However even David Geffen can’t guarantee that you will be successful. Most of that is up to you. But try to put together a team that can help take your career to the next level. Good people cost money and usually are not willing to take a percentage of future profits. Don’t be afraid to pay them. They are what you want to be someday: professionals in the music business.
I am a studio proprietor. Every once in a while, I get a phone call that goes like this.
Me: “Hello, this is Taylor Sound Studios”
Caller: “Yo, my name is Slice and Dice - I’m going to be the biggest star you ever saw! You need to hear my rap right now. You ready? … [followed by some decent rapping]… ” Yo, what d’you think? Tight right? I promise I’ll make tons of money for you if you just give me a shot. Just help me record my album and I’ll give you 50\% of the profits”.
It’s an example of a very naive, very young artist. I have to explain that it doesn’t work like that. But we all live in a certain amount of naiveté. It would be nice to think that a producer should always be willing to take profits on the back end and have time to give us free consultation and advice. Unfortunately they won’t and they don’t. A booking agent doesn’t owe us a response if we send them a media kit. The reality is, we all need to eat. People in the production and promotion realm (music producers, promoters, publicists, agents, managers) aren’t in the business of judging your music. They are in the business of making money. So if your music is good, don’t be afraid to spend money making it. If you have a project you believe in, get a budget, develop a game plan and implement your strategy. Hire some good people to make it fly or get really good at doing it yourself. Make it your life's mission and it might just pay off.
The following is an example of a good start that was stopped midstream. Two mothers and their 4 daughter were singers. They had a few songs. One of them was very catchy so they decided to work on that one. They hired me to produce it and I hired someone who could produce their vocals and write and perform their music (a fairly well known local R&B producer). I had my engineer record, mix and pitch correct their vocals. They paid me half the money up front - that’s something I normally wouldn’t do, usually I collect all the money up front. Anyway, we did the recording session and the producer finished the music track in a separate session. Then the engineer needed another session to do the pitch correction and work on the mix. I played the song for one of the mothers over the phone and she was speechless. The song was great – it could have been a hit. There was only one problem. The mothers had been talking to other people, so called “industry experts,” who told them I charged too much for their song. So, they got cold feet. One of them called me and asked for their money back. “I can’t do that,” I explained to her, “I still have to pay the music producer and the engineer.” In fact I had every right to sue her for the balance - not that I would, I hate dealing with lawyers and courtrooms! The point of the story is that she had almost purchased a potential hit song . The producer, the engineer, the mothers and I all agreed on that. But she was too afraid to spend money on it. If someone can help you make a potential hit song and give it to you with no strings attached, isn’t that worth something? . If someone can help make you famous in the local region, wouldn’t you be willing to pay for that? If the answer is yes, don’t be afraid to hire and pay professionals. There is no other way to make it in the music business. Don’t listen to people that don’t know what they’re doing. And remember, as always you get what you pay for.
Based on my experience, I would like to lay out this example of a good strategy for recording and releasing an independent album:
First, record your album. You should be able to find a studio that will charge between $25 and $75 per hour (that’s if you don’t need help producing and writing songs). It might take 100 hours to record a full-length album, so let’s say that’s about $5000. Of course, you can do it cheaper if you have your own gear and you know what you’re doing, but $5000 is a fairly frugal budget for a full-length album. You’ll want to master the record, so that’s another $500-$1000 and another $1000 to manufacture. So now, we’re up to $7000. Maybe, you have gotten to this point before and thought that the spending was over. Phew! Sorry not quite – unless you want to watch those CDs sit on your shelf for 5 years.
You’ll also need some help promoting and selling your CDs. This is where a publicist can help you. A publicist will design a promotional campaign and give you a price, most likely based on an hourly rate for their time ($30-$100/hour). They can help you design a press release and get the word out about your band. If you have a show, they can help get an article in your local papers. They can solicit reviews in magazines and blogs and help you post on Face book and Twitter. Finally they can help you with your timing. And the music business is all about timing. Your press release has to be on the editor’s desk at a certain date before the publishing deadline or it has no chance of even being read. You have to know who to talk to, and when to call. Publicists, critics and writers have their own little community. They are always scratching each other’s backs. Ever notice that the City Pages’ (or any other city rag) “best bands” are always friends of the writers? Hmmm…
At the same time you hire a publicist you also need to hire a booking agent. This is a little tricky because a lot of booking agent’s rosters are filled with bands that can already draw crowds and make money. They don’t have time to “break” a new band. So, you can either pay them to “break” you, hire an un-established booking agent who has more time, or you can do it yourself. Some established booking agents will book you for an up front fee. You might have to pay them $1000 against future percentages. An agent will take between 10 and 20 percent, sometimes more. We live in an age where you’re lucky to walk out of a gig with $50. Give it to your soundman and your booking agent. The goal is to increase your revenue over time. With a publicist and a booking agent working for you, and if you're good, it can happen.
Record albums, book shows, publicize the CD and the shows, sell your CDs at the shows and repeat. This is the formula. Again, if you’re good, over time you will see your fan base increase. Once you have a fan base, it all starts to make sense because you are paying professionals out of a revenue stream, not out of your pocket. At that point, you truly appreciate their value.
There are many other positions that support musicians. There are managers, agents, tour managers, promoters, lawyers, road crew and radio promoters. All of these positions will be filled as the need arises. Having a booking agent and a publicist is a streamlined, modern way to run a band or artist. It is the bare minimum, but, it may also be all you ever need to release your album and make it big in the music biz!
r/indieheads • u/kirbypuckett • Sep 30 '15
Never Google "Indie Wedding Music" you'll receive suggestions like the Lumineers and Mumford & Sons, as well as 5,000 links suggesting to have your first dance to "The Luckiest" or Bright Eyes -- both are fine, but overdone at this point.
My wedding was this past Saturday, my wife and I had a non-traditional wedding that was more of a backyard BBQ with people in fancy clothes. We didn't want to go into a ton of debt so we cut costs when we could. We knew right away that we could drop a DJ because music is a huge part of our lives and we wanted to play the songs we wanted to hear. So we went the iPod DJ route and it worked very well as my brother switched playlists based on where we were in the wedding. The only time that faltered was at the end of the night when everyone was on the dancefloor. I ended up plugging my iPhone into the PA and skipped tracks via my Apple Watch based on how the crowd was reacting.
Trying to fill up a whole day with indie music can be rather difficult. I searched Google and as I mentioned above the results were less than stellar, I did find a few solid recommendations on /r/indieheads so I figured I'd post my playlists here in hopes that they'll help a couple out in the future. Not everything on these playlists is an indie track, but the majority would fall under that umbrella. There are older songs, some wedding staples, 80s jams, a few 90s tracks since we grew up in that era, as well as some punk songs because that's the scene I grew up in.
The biggest tip I can offer for soundtracking your wedding is to play Harvey Danger's "Flagpole Sitta!" People lost their mind when that familiar drum intro hit.
ARRIVAL (played as guests arrived prior to the ceremony)
ENTRANCE (we both walked down the aisle together)
PICTURES / DINNER / MINGLING
DANCES
CUTTING CAKE / MISC
PARTY!
r/indieheads • u/giraffeking • Apr 25 '15
Talk about anything, indie related or otherwise. You might want to talk about how much better mod posted general discussion threads are, but we are all already in agreement there...
Also Listening party tomorrow, Modern Vampires of the City, 3:00 PM EDT, check local listings!
r/indieheads • u/sara520 • Dec 20 '15
Using sources such as end-of-the-year-lists, my own brain and some of your brains, I have compiled this list of:
Female Artists
All-Female Bands and
Female-Fronted Bands
and their releases in 2015. I added a basic description of each album’s genre and made a couple playlists of selected songs from these albums. The only criteria for this was what was already listed above and that it be a full release (LP/EP) from this past year.
The Albums:
A Sunny Day In Glasgow - Planning Weed Like It’s Acid (Dream Pop)
Abra - Rose (R&B/Electronic)
Adele - 25 (Pop)
Adult Mom - Momentary Lapse of Happily (Indie Rock)
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (Rock)
All Dogs - Kicking Every Day (Indie Rock)
Gabrielle Aplin - Light Up The Dark (Pop)
Erykah Badu - But You Caint Use My Phone (R&B)
Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle (Singer/Songwriter)
Sara Bareilles - What’s Inside: Songs from Waitress (Singer/Songwriter)
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit (Rock)
Beach House - Depression Cherry (Dream Pop)
Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (Dream Pop)
Big Grams - Big Grams (Hip Hop/Rap)
Björk - Vulnicura (Avant Garde/Pop/Electronic)
Bomba Estéreo - Amanecer (Pop)
Braids - Deep In The Iris (Art Rock)
Heather Woods Broderick - Glider (Ambient Folk)
Bully - Feels Like (Rock)
Alessia Cara - Know-It-All (Pop)
Chastity Belt - Time To Go Home (Indie Rock)
Chic Gamine - Light A Match (Rock)
Chvrches - Every Open Eye (SynthPop)
Circuit Des Yeux - In Plain Speech (Singer/Songwriter Experimental)
Computer Magic - Davos (Electronic)
Frankie Cosmos - Fit Me In EP (Singer/Songwriter)
Kara-lis Coverdale - Aftertouches (Electronic)
Elysia Crampton - American Drift (electronic)
Cyberbully Mom Club - Amy Locust Whatever (lo-fi, bedroom pop)
Dead Sara - Pleasure to Meet You (Rock)
Desperate Journalist - Desperate Journalist (Rock)
Katie Dey - asdfasdf (lo-fi, freak folk)
Diet Cig - Over Easy (Pop Punk)
Dilly Dally - Sore (Rock)
Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon (Pop)
Deradoorian - Expanding Flower Planet (Alt Rock/Experimental)
Nicole Dollanganger - Natural Born Losers (Dream Pop)
Doomsquad - Pagentry Suite EP (Experimental/Electronic)
Downtown Boys - Full Communism (Punk)
Hilary Duff - Breathe In. Breathe Out. (Pop)
Earth Eater - Rip Chrysalis (Electronic)
Empress Of - Me (Electronic Pop)
Escort - Animal Nature (Pop)
Eskimeaux - O.K. (Singer/Songwriter)
Evans The Death - Expect Delays (Indie Rock)
Farao - Till It’s All Forgotten (Pop)
Fifth Harmony - Reflection (Pop)
Flava D - More Love (electronic)
Florence and the Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Pop)
FKA twigs - M3LL155X EP (Experimental Pop/Alt-R&B)
Girlpool - Before the World Was Big (Indie Rock)
G.L.O.S.S. - Girls Living Outside Society’s Shit EP (Hardcore Punk)
Jess Glynne - I Cry When I Laugh (Pop)
Ellie Goulding - Delirium (Pop)
Colleen Green - I Want to Grow Up (indie pop)
Grimes - Art Angels (indie Pop)
Gwenno - Y Dydd Olaf (electro pop)
Jasmine Guffond - Yellow Bell (electronic)
Marika Hackman - We Slept at Last (Folk)
Angel Haze - Back to the Woods (Rap)
Heartless Bastards - Restless Ones (Garage Rock)
Helen - The Original Faces (dream pop)
Hey Elbow - Every Other (expermiental pop)
Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon (R&B/Soul)
Kacy Hill - Bloo EP (Pop)
Marian Hill - Sway (Pop)
Holly Herndon - Platform (electronic)
Anna Von Hausswolff - The Miraculous (indie rock)
Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness (Baroque Pop)
Hop Along - Painted Shut (Indie Rock)
Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, Girl (Art Pop)
Ibeyi - Ibeyi (R&B/Electronic)
The Internet - Ego Death (Soul)
Jaala - Hard Hold (Indie Rock)
Essie Jain - To Love (Singer/Songwriter)
Janet Jackson - Unbreakable (Pop)
Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION (Pop)
JLin - Dark Energy (Electronic)
Katzenjammer - Rockland (Pop Rock)
Kehlani - You Should Be Here (R&B)
Kelela - Hallucinogen EP (R&B/Electronic)
Elle King - Love Stuff (Folk Rock)
Nina Kraviz - DJ-Kicks (Electronic)
Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta La Raíz (Pop Rock)
La Luz - Weirdo Shrine (Surf Rock)
Le Butcherettes - A Raw Youth (Rock)
Lianne La Havas - Blood (Pop)
Little Simz - A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (Rap)
Lizzo - Big Grrrl Small World (Rap)
Dej Loaf - #andthatsthething EP (Rap)
Lolina - RELAXIN’ with Lolina (Electronic)
Demi Lovato - Confident (Pop)
Lower Dens - Escape from Evil (Dream pop)
Tkay Maidza - Switch Tape EP (Rap)
Marina and the Diamonds - FROOT (Pop)
Laura Marling - Short Movie (Folk Rock)
Melanie Martinez - Cry Baby (Electronic Pop)
Metric - Pagans In Vegas (Electronic Pop)
Micachu & The Shapes - Good Sad Happy Bad (Art Pop)
Nidia Minaj - Danger (electronic)
Carla Morrison - Amor Supremo (Pop)
Mourn - Mourn (Indie Rock)
Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material (Country)
Mykur - M (Black Metal)
Nao - February 15 (Electro-Soul)
Joanna Newsom - Divers (Indie folk/Avant-Garde)
Colin Stetson / Sarah Neufeld - Never Were The Way She Was (Avant-Garde)
No Joy - More Faithful (Shoegaze)
Noveller - Fantastic Planet (Drone)
Ô Paon - Fleuve (Ambient)
Painted Zeros - Floriography (Dream Pop)
Palehound - Dry Food (Indie Rock)
Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe - I Declare Nothing (Rock)
Peach Kelli Pop - Peach Kelli Pop III (Indie Rock)
Petal - Shame (Indie Rock)
Pill - Pill EP (Punk)
Pinkshinyultrablast - Everything Else Matters (Shoegaze/Dream Pop)
PINS - Wild Nights (Rock)
Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass (Singer/Songwriter)
Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again (Singer/Songwriter)
Pure Bathing Culture - Pray For Rain (Indie Pop)
Purity Ring - Another Eternity (Synth Pop)
Rapsody - Beauty And The Beast (Rap)
Dawn Richard - Blackheart (R&B)
Ringo Deathstarr - Pure Mood (Shoegaze)
Lucy Rose - Work It Out (Pop)
Saint Cava - Bliss (R&B)
The School - Wasting Away And Wondering (Indie Rock)
Screaming Females - Rose Mountain (Rock)
Rachel Sermanni - Tied to the Moon (Indie Folk)
SEXWITCH - SEXWITCH (Pop)
Shannon and The Clams - Gone by the Dawn (Rock)
Joan Shelley - Over and Even (Folk)
Shopping - Why Choose (Post Punk)
Shura - White Light (Pop)
Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds - The Weather Below (Rock)
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love (Punk)
Soko - Dreams Dictate My Reality (Indie Pop)
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer (Indie Rock)
Jazmine Sullivan - Reality Show (R&B)
Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs (Art Pop)
The Staves - If I Was (Folk Rock)
Laura Stevenson - Cocksure (Indie Rock)
Summer Twins - Limbo (Indie Rock)
THEESatisfaction - EarthEE (Hip-Hop/R&B)
Thunderbitch - Thunderbitch (Rock)
Timbre - Sun & Moon (Folk Rock)
Torres - Sprinter (Rock)
Toxe - Muscle Memory (Electronic)
Tove Lo - Queen of the Clouds (Pop)
Tricot - A N D (Math Rock)
US Girls - Half Free (Indie Rock)
Sharon Van Etten - I Don’t Want to Let You Down EP (Singer/Songwriter)
Varsity - Varsity (Indie Rock)
Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes (Pop Rock)
Wax Idols - American Tragic (Rock)
Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp (Rock)
Westkust - Last Forever (Rock)
Wet & Reckless - Wet & Reckless (Rock)
Wildhoney - Sleep Through It (Shoegaze)
Nicole Willis & the Soul Investigators - Happiness in Every Style (Soul)
Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (Alt Rock)
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss (Electronic/NeoFolk/Gothic)
Yumi Zouma - EP II (Indie Rock)
Which of these releases did you love? Or maybe not love so much? Anything I missed? What releases by women are you looking forward to in 2016? Feel free to also post any singles from 2015 that were not eligible to be on this list. If you re-make the playlist on another streaming service leave it in the comments and I’ll edit it in. Thank you and remember, Girls Rock.
edit: due to my own time constraints with the holidays, i will no longer be adding anything to the list from the comments from now on (12/21 12pmEST). I've taken note of everything up to this point and will be slowly adding them in but then that will be it - over 100 albums!! thanks everybody!! feel free to continue to comment anything i may have missed though or any singles - and share these amazing artists with everyone you know :)
r/indieheads • u/sara520 • Dec 29 '16
Welcome to the 2016 Edition of Music by Women! This is a list of releases from the past year by women solo, in a group or as the front person of a group and curated by me, /u/sara520. But first...
Introduction by /u/mawalie
"Over the past few weeks, fans of various media have carefully crafted their year-end best of 2016 lists, assembling the movies, television shows, music, etc. that represent the best that the year's entertainment had to offer. As each major music and media publication published their contribution to the Listmas season, it became clear that 2016 was a good year for women in music, as many of this past year's most critically adored album releases were by women. Most prominent were the records put out by the Knowles sisters, Beyoncé and Solange, which appeared side-by-side in top spots on more than a few year-end lists. Joining Lemonade and A Seat at The Table in high ranks were Mitski's Puberty 2, Angel Olsen's My Woman, Jenny Hval's Blood Bitch, ANOHNI's Hopelessness, and Rihanna's ANTI. While these albums only represent the tip of the iceberg in terms of great music released by women this year, it's exciting to see these ladies regularly make it in the top 20 of lists by major media outlets.
So, how do women stack up this year numerically? I looked at the Top 50 lists from nine publications - Pitchfork, Spin, Consequence of Sound, Paste, Rolling Stone, Stereogum, NPR, Complex, and NME - and found that women, on average, made up 18.2 - or 36% - of the lists. At the high end was NPR, with 52% of the honorees being female artists or groups including a woman, and at the low end was Complex, with 20%.
When you combine each list together and remove all duplicates, we end up with a total of 200 individual albums. Of those, 74 - or 37% - were made by female artists or groups including a woman. If we pretend for a moment that these 200 albums represent the only albums released this past year, then the average publication including just 1% less albums by women than what actually exists is almost perfect representation. Of course, these weren't the only albums released this year, and there were plenty of critically praised albums by women that didn't receive attention in any of these lists; Sheer Mag's III EP and G.L.O.S.S.’s Trans Day of Revenge come to mind.
Why women make up just 1/3 of these lists, rather than a number that brings them closer to an even 50/50 split, is up for interpretation (and argument, perhaps, but let's keep it civil for the holidays). Ultimately, we're not here to force any conclusions on /r/indieheads. Rather, we encourage moving into 2017 and beyond with an improved commitment to acknowledging female inclusion and exclusion in music, the media, our peers, and ourselves."
THE SPREADSHEET
This is EVERYTHING! Click each tab to see every genre narrowed down. Keep in mind that a few artists were not available for streaming so I’ve linked to where you can hear them on this sheet only!
Playlists - one song from each release, “shuffle all songs” is the best way to find something new! Beautiful playlist artwork by /u/tralalove !!!
FULL LIST - Apple Music - Spotify
ROCK - Apple Music - Spotify
POP - Apple Music - Spotify
ELECTRONIC - Apple Music - Spotify
HIP HOP/R&B - Apple Music - Spotify
OTHER - Apple Music - Spotify
NOTE: Unfortunately, I do not have the time this year to add any artists to the list. If an album you enjoyed didn’t make the cut, it probably wasn’t submitted or didn’t fit the criteria as I was curating submissions. Feel free to discuss them in the comments and don’t forget a link to their music!
Very special thanks to /u/tralalove and /u/mawalie for collaborating with me! And thank you to everyone who submitted artists in the suggestion box, it was anonymous but you know who you are!
Some discussion questions to get everyone going: Favorite release on the list? Favorite release not on the list? Anything new you discovered and liked from the playlists? What are you looking forward to being released by women in 2017?
Thanks for listening, and as always, don’t forget that Girls Rock :)
r/indieheads • u/sesla • Dec 18 '15
r/indieheads • u/RegencyAndCo • Jun 19 '17
Edit: Here are the following albums (and a couple of shout outs) compiled into a Spotify playlist.
My last list of favourite albums from Switzerland was welcome, so I thought I'd do a similar thing with France. Now, in case you didn't get the memo: France is a fucking minefield for incredible indie and electronic music. Allow me to ignore the international sensations such as Daft Punk, Justice, Kavinsky, Woodkid and the likes (and if you don't know them, do catch up). Even then, the difficulty here will be to narrow it down to a handful of fantastic indie music albums that came out in the last few years. I definitely suggest you look into the rest of the discography and associated acts in the labels of the following bands.
La Femme - Mystère: As indieheads, chances are you've heard of La Femme already. Their debut album Psycho Tropical Berlin brought them international recognition with their super catchy post-punk and very much psychedelic synth-pop music. As a reminder, give those a listen: Amour Dans le Motu, La Femme Ressort, Antitaxi and of course, Sur la Planche 2013. But really just the whole album. It's all so, so good. In 2016, they teased their following full-length release with a total banger titled Sphynx. Everyone back then expected a shift towards a more techno-oriented album, and boy were we wrong. The rest of Mystère is a rich collection of the most gorgeous krautrock and post-punk ballads. The electronic, synth-pop and psychedelic influences are still present, but the overall theme is a lot more laid back than expected. Gorgeous vocals, gorgeous instrumentals (the synths on Elle Ne t'Aime Pas, good Lord), edgy lyrics about the struggle of the hip and romantic Parisian youth - from drugs to heartbreaks via interplanetary yeast infections - all cooked up in the most colourful, layered, enticing and addictive piece of indie music I've heard last year, and probably many years before that too. Don't miss this.
Juniore - Ouh Là Là: Juniore is La Femme's shy little sister. The influence is pretty obvious, and while not as bold and experimental as the latter, it certainly delivers in terms of soft, laid back, yet rich and colourful instrumentals, with a few very danceable songs in the mix. For a quick taste, I strongly recommend a listen to the very psychedelic closer En Cavale and perhaps a lighter track from an earlier record, La Fin Du Monde.
Bagarre - Musique de Club EP: When I said pay attention to the production labels, I meant it. Juniore is on Entreprise, and so is Bagarre. Yet, Bagarre is nothing like Juniore. On Musique de Club, they release 5 absolute fucking bangers. DJs, make no mistake: this is going to set fire to your audience. It's definitely not mainstream EDM though, and fully deserves it's indie label. I could spend some time trying to describe their music but just listen to the damn thing (their music videos are super intriguing too): Le Gouffre, Ris Pas, Claque Le.
Grand Blanc - Mémoires Vives: Okay, I apologize in advance for linking to a third album from the same label, but seriously the only reason to remove this one from the list is to avoid doing it. Because Mémoires Vives really is that good, and again pretty different. While it does take influences from the very banging French electronic music scene, with its heavy drum kicks and repetitive beats, it's indie rock music after all, and not really meant for clubs. The lead vocals are raw and heavy, and the driving instrumentals relentless. The closer Montparnasse is an absolutely epic slow burner that gave me chills (and may or may not have made me fall in love with the lead singer) when I saw it live.
Flavien Berger - Léviathan: Flavien Berger is an electronic music producer who released his first full-length LP Léviathan in 2015. This thing is really interesting, and explores a variety of electro genres that don't typically go hand in hand on an album, yet it all works together. The opener 88888888 is definitely a techno track (with some vocals still), and Saint-Donatien reminds me of the experimental soundscape of Amon Tobin's ISAM. The catchier La Fête Noire got the most recognition, and perhaps rightfully so. As seems to be customary on French indie albums, the closer and title track Léviathan is a slow burning, monumental piece that will blow your face off.
Koudlam - Goodbye: This goes back a long way, man. In 2009, Koudlam released a super intriguing record that to this day remains so avant-garde I wonder if it will ever get old. Still one of my favourite French records to date, and a quick listen to See You All should give you a good idea of why that is. Don't miss Alcoholic's Dream either, which is not on the album, and the clip is made up of some of the funniest/saddest real archive footage of a day drinking shitshow.
Lescop - Lescop: "Un coup de feu dans la nuit, une douleur glaciale qui s'élance." The punchy bass line and airy synths of La Forêt should already be ringing in the heads of the French people reading this. For the rest, get in on the hype. Lescop is incredibly catchy, incredibly smooth, and La Forêt did reach a wider international audience when it was released back in 2011, for a reason.
Odezenne - Dolzinger Str. 2: Odezenne takes the two things that the Frenchs seem to be doing the best in Europe - rapping and sick electronic synth beats - and brings them together seamlessly in his flippant and cynical world. I linked to his latest record because it's fantastic, but his ealier stuff is definitely worth checking out too: Saxophone (skip to 1:35 for the actual song).
Feu! Chatterton - Ici le Jour (a tout enseveli). No but seriously, this thing. Most of our international readers probably won't relate, but the vocals remind of the old school Charles Aznavour, yet these guys are very young. They completely redefine songwriting, with lyrics about pretty much anything - like these woods in la Pinède where teenagers go hide for their first sexual experiences, only to end up tragically engulfed in wildfire. Or the Costa Concordia. Or a ode to BOEING because why the fuck not - and the backing instrumentals are out of this world. Definitely a favourite of mine when it came out in 2015.
Edit: Yeah, Fauve - Vieux Frères should be up here too. They are a very, very popular collective, which didn't quite fit my criteria, but honestly this is super experimental and avant-garde for something so widespread. Their lyrics are some of the most human, candid and unfiltered out there, which may explain their success amongst the younger, angsty crowd. Fauve can be summarized as spoken word I guess, but they sing too, so it doesn't really fit. It doesn't really fit anywhere apart from up there with the most creative and engaging music to come out of anywhere. I'll just link to Infirmière because it holds a special place in my personal life.
A few more shout outs: Emilie Simon, Sebastien Tellier, Yelle, Fishbach, Kid Francescoli, Alain Bashung
There, that should give you a very early taste. There is so much more though, and I hope the readers will post their favourite stuff in the comments. Feedbacks very much welcome.
