Death Cab For Cutie. Live, in a Black Cab. One Song ("No Sunlight"). One Take. One Cab.
Also: Daniel Johnston, Bill Callahan, The New Pornographers, The Raveonettes, Okkervil River, Spoon, & The Futureheads.
posted on May 16, 2008 - View this thread

If you don't know who Jason Molina is, get to know his music.
posted on Apr 17, 2008 - View this thread

The Mountain Goats' newest video is a dizzying, typographical romp. (SLYT)
posted on Apr 16, 2008 - View this thread

Hands Behind Your Back. Do the Indie Kid (SLYT).
posted on Apr 11, 2008 - View this thread

No Depression magazine will soon leave this world of toil and trouble. NPR reports that, due to falling ad revenues, the May/June issue of the revered alt-country zine will be the last. The magazine's Web site will remain active, but to what extent remains unsettled.
posted on Mar 4, 2008 - View this thread

Rhino Releases The Brit Box It's hard to explain in 2007 what it feels like for music to be both uniting and important. Having spent nearly three years of the '90s living in London, it's with honest nostalgia and wonder that we examine Rhino's The Brit Box. The set's mission is rather broad: it attempts to examine the whole of UK indie rock from 1985-1999 and devotes a disc each to '80s indie, shoegaze, Britpop, and the late '90s.
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

Lucky Soul's 'Lips Are Unhappy' isn't the likliest of contenders for the UK's coveted Christmas number one, but this is the track (from a shortlist) selected by listeners of Last.fm to receive Last.fm's backing. Profits go to charity, as is the norm for Xmas No. 1 entries.
posted on Nov 26, 2007 - View this thread

Indiana's Sardina. The New Pornographers of the '90s, the Sardinas released two fantastic albums full of mixtape fodder. Now everything they've got, including some live gems, is up online.
posted on Sep 25, 2007 - View this thread

"When youth culture becomes monopolized by big business, what are the youth to do? I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process that is destroying youth culture...the first step to do is destroy the record companies." 1991: The Year Punk Broke
posted on Sep 15, 2007 - View this thread

The Superfantastics, a catchy, pop indie music band from Halifax, Nova Scotia, recently completed work on a music video, Tonight, Tonight. Innovative and cute!
posted on Sep 11, 2007 - View this thread

Iran: This musician is revolutionizng the music scene (Video) Mohsen Namjoo and her superstar
posted on Jun 13, 2007 - View this thread

Yo La Tengo Request-a-Thon! Yo La Tengo is once again playing your requests right now (until 11 PM EST), in exchange for your pledges, live on WFMU (currently playing: Sonic Reducer, by the Dead Boys!) As an added treat, the band has reunited with Dave Schramm for this performance! Live webcam stream links here, and here. Ogg, 128k MP3, AAC and RealAudio audio-only streams are also available .
posted on Mar 16, 2007 - View this thread

The Indie Band Survival Guide: A fantastic, free, 101 pages collection of useful information for musicians - covers topics such as recording, copyright, major label contracts, commercial radio, promoting your music, band websites, distribution, filesharing and live shows.
posted on Feb 25, 2007 - View this thread

Sasquatch!, the indie music festival, returns to The Gorge with an impressive line-up headlined by Bjork and the Beastie Boys. As usual, KEXP has a veritable cornucopia of live performances from the artists. If you're wondering what might be in store, check out select songs from The Arcade Fire, M.I.A., Citizen Cope, Neko Case, The Thermals, Viva Voce, Interpol, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Spoon, Ozomatli, Bad Brains, The Dandy Warhols, Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter, Common Market, Smoosh, and Minus The Bear. Bring sunscreen and an umbrella on your short drive from Seattle to George, Washington
posted on Feb 25, 2007 - View this thread

The 120 Minute Archive -- an attempt to gather all of the playlists of MTV's now-defunct late-night alternative rock program which ran from 1986 to 2003. Along with the videos were loads of live performances. Sure, it went down in quality in its second half. But where else in the pre-Internet days of 1992 could small-town kids discover Tom Waits, Morrissey and Sonic Youth in a single sitting?
posted on Feb 3, 2007 - View this thread

The New York Times on Being Black and Indie You're an African American, but you prefer Bloc Party to 50 Cent. Fear not, young "blipster," you're no longer the only black guy at the indie rock show! [via]
posted on Jan 28, 2007 - View this thread

Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler in real life), author of the 13 books in "A Series of Unfortunate Events" [Flash], has now released the album A Tragic Treasury [Sound] in which he plays the acordian. The CD also features Stephin Merritt, with whom Handler was in the band called The Magnetic Fields. Handler is touring the country to plug the album and latest book. [via NPR]
posted on Dec 3, 2006 - View this thread

Stephen Colbert has a “Green Screen Challenge”. The Decemberists have their own green screen challenge. Colbert calls them idea stealing jerks and issues a "Second Green Screen Challenge": "to edit me into the Decemberists' green screen challenge... Let's see how well they perform their trademark brand of hyper-literate prog rock when I'm slicing off their legs at the knee." Now the Decemberists are saying that awesomely wielding lightsabers was their idea, and that Colbert must have copied them, and they have the "Decemberists vs Stephen Colbert Guitar Solo Challenge".
posted on Dec 1, 2006 - View this thread

Amie Street: "[A] recently launched music Web site that carries independent -- and mostly little-known -- artists, is trying an unusual model for selling music. Instead of selling songs at one fixed price, the site determines prices for songs based on how frequently they're downloaded." [WSJ link].
posted on Oct 20, 2006 - View this thread

Massive gallery of concert photos. Some bands, you may not have heard of; others, well there's a few of those too.
posted on Oct 1, 2006 - View this thread

C86: Side A and Side B.
posted on Aug 24, 2006 - View this thread

Clell Tickle: Indie Marketing Guru (YouTube)
posted on Aug 13, 2006 - View this thread

Steven Thomas Erlewine prosecutes Sufjan Stevens A solid indictment of both Stevens and Indie Pop, from AMG's Whole Note series. Hopefully, the Arcade Fire get theirs next.
posted on Jul 12, 2006 - View this thread

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah are a band that, less than a year ago, were making music without the help of a record label, pressing CDs themselves and selling them at concerts and on the Internet. Then the following happened: June 9: Dan Bierne writes about the band on his MP3 blog, June 14: Pitchfork Media posts a review of the song "In This Home On Ice", June 15: Blogger Gothamist posts an interview with the band, June 20: Blogger Stereogum announces the band's show at the Knitting Factory, June 21: Gothamist reports that David Bowie was in the audience at the Knitting Factory show, and June 22: Pitchfork posts one of a slew of reviews of Clap's first album. Now, they've been named to dozens of critics 'best of' lists, they're playing Conan and Letterman, and are about to embark on a new tour. Why choose today to post an article about a band blowing up written in November you ask? Because their tour kicks off tonight at the 9:30 club in DC, and you can listen to it live.
posted on Mar 8, 2006 - View this thread

Neutral Milk Hotel demos, videos, and bootlegs. Brainchild of enigmatic, now-reclusive singer/songwriter Jeff Mangum (not Magnum!), the "fuzz-folk" project known as Neutral Milk Hotel began and ended in the 90s and only released two LPs, but is still held as a touchstone by many indie rock critics. More live recordings can be found at the site for Elephant 6, the collective which included NMH and other bands like Beulah, Circulatory System, Elf Power, and Apples in Stereo. The complete discography and more MP3s. Some lyrics. (Previously)
posted on Feb 22, 2006 - View this thread

"The iPod’s a great product. However our experience in dealing with them, as regards licensing music for iTunes, has been quite depressing." Coldcut member and indie label Ninja Tune co-founder Matt Black in a pixelsurgeon interview about the new album, the relative relaxation on sample licensing, and iTunes. For another independent perspective on iTunes see The 99c Question - addressing the pressures on iTunes from major labels to raise prices.
posted on Feb 2, 2006 - View this thread

Best Buy to offer CDs by indie artists for $7.99. "Choose from 20 impress-your-friends selections" at below wholesale price. What does this mean to you and me? Responses from Carrot Top Distribution and Merge Records.
posted on Jan 27, 2006 - View this thread

NPR’s Live Concert Series site offers recordings of recent live performances by James Brown, Sinead O’Connor, Iron & Wine and Calexico, Son Volt, My Morning Jacket, The White Stripes, M. Ward, Sigur Ros, Bloc Party, The Decemberists, and live tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET, Colin Meloy.
posted on Jan 27, 2006 - View this thread

"I bet you look good on the dancefloor" is the new single by a hitherto unknown Sheffield band called the Arctic Monkeys. [warning direct QT link] Media hype has meant demand for their London gig is so high they have moved from playing a pub to playing the London Astoria. Their observations on northern culture have drawn comparisons with Oasis and Kaiser Chiefs - or will they go the way of other bands picked up then dumped by the media? (anyone remember Gay Dad?) Whether or not they last, you will probably be hearing them quite a lot in the next few months.
posted on Oct 1, 2005 - View this thread

Illin'-Noise! is the new remix of Sufjan Stevens' album Illinois by mc DJ; a torrent is available, as is cover art. It's not quite like Hippocamp Ruins Pet Sounds (previously on Mefi) -- it's not nearly as noisy, and not quite as good, although it's still worth checking out, particularly "Chi-Town" (from "Chicago"), "Zombies" (from "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhh!") and "Jacksontown" (from "Jacksonville"). [prev.]
posted on Sep 12, 2005 - View this thread

Music to our ears... ...or at least, music from a bunch of people who give a damn. A boatload of musical artists at CDBaby.com decided to give 100% of their profits to the Red Cross to help victims of Katrina.
posted on Sep 3, 2005 - View this thread

The A.V. Club posts about the upcoming Death Cab for Cutie CD titled Plans : It takes a measure of bravery—and a bucketload of self-assuredness—to dive headfirst into the big(ger) time with an album full of mid-tempo, mostly gentle songs about death and longing, even if your band is called Death Cab For Cutie
posted on Sep 2, 2005 - View this thread

The Confabulators. They Are Confabulators!! They Write About Music!! They Have Come From The Decemberists Board!! Ahhhh! It began on a message board (reg. required). All the latest news about The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, and now, more! Their latest entry: A review of Pitchfork's review of Sufjan's Illinois. That'll teach 'em.
posted on Aug 8, 2005 - View this thread

Meet Jakob Lodwick of Blumpy.org. You may be familiar with him because of sites like this or this.
Blumpy.org i s a bit of a step up, however, featuring some pretty nifty skits and a great video-journal.

He has also made a video for Cex, Baltimore's soon-to-be legendary (any day now) basement rock god, whose site also has a huge stash of excellent b-side material and another video.
not the biggest sites, so go easy on'em and be patient.
posted on Mar 22, 2005 - View this thread

Everybody At the Beach! (.mov, slightly NSFW) - Need New Body's music has been described as psychedelic, unnerving, and all-out spastic. But really, what's not to love about a band with lyrics like "Pen pen pen! Where's my pen?!"
posted on Jan 30, 2005 - View this thread

New Canadian music is infiltrating your culture with its neo-retro ways, and you may not even know it! Hot Hot Heat is too dance-rocky for it's own good, Joy Division-loving the Stills are constantly mistaken for New Yorkers (thanks to touring with Interpol), and certainly Stirling are too epic to be anything but Cure-loving Brits! Watch out for the seditiously warm synth-pop of Stars and the society-destroying rock-folk of lesbian siblings Tegan and Sara. While you're at it, keep tabs on Toronto super-supergroup Broken Social Scene and the quirky, danceable girl-rawk of Metric. This is the cell of the retro rock revolution you really need to pay attention to. The Strokes and their ilk have nothing on the Canucks.
posted on Nov 25, 2004 - View this thread

Something ear-y for Halloween: Oddio Overplay gives you Ghouls With Attitude 2-CD compilation by Otisfodder, plus (from Martinibomb and Coconut Monkeyrocket), the Munster Beat mp3 (click below the image to listen).
posted on Oct 31, 2004 - View this thread

There is this wonderful Seattle group, Uncle Bonsai, who perform, among other songs, Cheerleaders on Drugs. Now, another Seattle group, the University of Washington Women's Softball team, has their own take on the subject.
posted on Apr 28, 2004 - View this thread

Trouserpress.com is back! After a hiatus of over two-and-a-half years, Trouserpress.com was re-launched today. The site contains just about all of the band profiles and album reviews from editor Ira Robbins' comprehensive and informative Trouser Press Record Guide book series from the 80s/90s. Since all but the most recent "90s rock" book are out-of-print, it's great to have this amazing indie/new wave/punk/alt rock music reference available once more.
posted on Aug 14, 2002 - View this thread

Independent Music Owners in Favor of Internet Radio "This is a list of artists and small record labels who own the rights to some independent music, who have signed up to be counted. This list is to indicate that there are many music owners who view internet radio as desirable, and that they would like to enter into discussions with internet radio to allow their music to be played, and to circumvent the CARP fee . This is not an agreement or release-- it is just a list of interested parties."
posted on Jul 24, 2002 - View this thread

Will the Swedes save Rock 'n' Roll? This New Yorker article takes a look at the recent popularity of rock acts like the Strokes (boo!) and the White Stripes (yay!), and ponders whether the return of true rock is at hand. The author seems ultimately to decide that rock's redeemers will be the Hives, a fun bunch from Sweden. (Link remorselessly lifted from Overstated.net)
posted on Apr 17, 2002 - View this thread

I’m probably really late to the boat for Epitonic, but goodness, if you’re looking to sample mp3s, videos, sometimes entire albums, for indie or otherwise unknown bands this here is it. Genres from punk to folk to various electronica-delectica all the way back out to hip hop, jazz and contemporary composers. They’re all here: Styles of Beyond, Solex, Blue Six, Sporto Kantes, Couch (Alle Auf Pause), Gonzales, on and on. They must eat bandwidth like Jim Morrison and mescaline caps.
posted on Mar 31, 2002 - View this thread

The new Belle and Sebastian single is out. If you have it, what do you think of it? Is it a return to pristine form, a limpid mess, or a bold move in an innovative new direction? (This link brought to you by MeFites for Introducing Other Mefites to Good Music they Might not Have Heard Otherwise.)
posted on Jun 12, 2001 - View this thread

Remember Dart Pigeon? Check out this guy's beef on music funding. Please note the authors of both pages. Coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
posted on Apr 6, 2001 - View this thread

MTV Video Awards nominees have been announced ...and there's no "best alternative video" category anymore. What the hell! Granted, MTV has never been noted as a supporter of good music (remember 120 minutes? that got the boot a while ago), but seeing those early "alternative" bands rock out on screen was what initially got me into music as a kid - I cringe at the thought that there's a whole new batch of 11 year olds out there who see the guitar as nothing more than a prop in a choreography routine.

At least I can take solace in the fact that Weezer is finally touring the East Coast - all is not wrong with the world.
posted on Jul 25, 2000 - View this thread

The Brunching Shuttlecocks are planning to follow Metallica's lead in seeking out pirates of their MP3 music on Napster. They have different ideas about how to deal with said pirates, though.
posted on Jun 2, 2000 - View this thread

KNAC was the heavy metal station in southern california from 1986 to 1995. Their stickers graced the back of many a 4x4 and street sign. While driving around today, I noticed a KNAC PURE ROCK sticker for the first time in ages, but there was a .COM where "105.5" used to be. Going to KNAC.COM reveals that they are in fact back with their same format, now solely internet based. After firing up their broadband stream, I heard some good old Ozzy and it was like being in high school again. This begs the question though, since they went under from a lack of advertising before, is there enough money in internet radio to keep them afloat today?
posted on Feb 22, 2000 - View this thread

Ever since I finished college and turned 25, I was no longer cool. I just can't keep up with new music anymore. But thanks to places like http://reify.org/, I'll still know what's cool in the indie music scene.
posted on Aug 26, 1999 - View this thread