Indie Rock Songs
Thursday, January 1, 2009
  best of 2008
check out the best indie rock songs of 2008
 
Saturday, April 26, 2008
  Music Videos from Coachella 2008 Performances
Jack Johnson "Waiting For You" performed Friday night at Coachella 2008. The video is only about a minute long, but if your a JJ fan, it's something :D



The Verve performing Friday night at Coachella



Vampire Weekend performing "A Punk" at Coachella 2008



Quick Clips

The Raconteurs



The National performing a short clip at Coachella



Pendulum - Voodoo People - raving at Coachella - short clip, but good sneak preview



Serj Tankian live at Coachella 2008


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  Coachella 2008 Videos and Weekend Line-up
Coachellians poured in to the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California today in the hot sun to see artists like Portishead, Prince, DCFC, Hot Chip, Rilo Kiley and others. Check out the lineup for Saturday and Sunday below.

The YouTube videos from Friday's Coachella performances are already being posted. Sifting through them, here are some of the best, including The Black Kids, The Raconteurs, Aphex Twins and Fatboy Slim.

The Black Kids performing "I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend" at Coachella on Friday, April 25:



The Raconteurs - "Consolers of the Lonely" - Friday Coachella show



The Raconteurs - "Attention" - from AT&T BlueRoom Broadcast (FYI: This may be deleted by YouTube)



Aphex Twins - Live set at Coachella, Friday, April 25, 2008 (song title anyone?)




Fatboy Slim - "Green Supernova" - Friday night, Coachella 2008


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The following is the line-up for artists and bands playing Coachella Saturday and Sunday. Check out the stage and set times for more information.

Portishead, Prince, Kraftwerk, Death Cab for Cutie, Cafe Tacvba, Sasha & John Digweed, Rilo Kiley, Dwight Yoakam, M.I.A., Hot Chip, Cold War Kids, Animal Collective, Kate Nash, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, DeVotchKa, Flogging Molly, Mark Ronson, Turbonegro, Scars on Broadway, Islands, Does it Offend You, Yeah?, Above & Beyond, Enter Shikari, Calvin Harris, Boys Noize, Junkie XL, Cinematic Orchestra, The Teenagers, VHS or Beta, CarbonSilicon, Erol Alkan, Man Man, Yo! Majesty, Little Brother, Bonde Do Role, St. Vincent, AkronFamily, MGMT, Surkin, Curses!, Para One, Orgasmic, James Zabiela, SebAstian, Kavinsky, Minus the Bear, Dredg, The Bird and the Bee, 120 Days, Yoav, Electric Touch, Yelle, Uffie featuring DJ Mehdi

Sunday

Roger Waters, Love and Rockets, My Morning Jacket, Spiritualized, Justice, Gogol Bordello, Chromeo, Metric, Danny Tenaglia, Simian Mobile Disco, Booka Shade, Murs, Dimitri from Paris, Autolux, Stars, The Field, Linton Kwesi Johnson, The Cool Kids, Sons & Daughters, Sia, Holy F*ck, Black Mountain, Annuals, Kid Sister with A-Trak, Modeselektor, Duffy, I'm from Barcelona, Manchester Orchestra, Deadmau5, AUSTIN TV, Grand Ole Party, Shout Out Louds, Plasticines, Brett Dennen

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Wednesday, April 9, 2008
  New Indie and Alternative MP3 Releases

This is the first installment of New Indie and Alternative MP3 Releases, highlighting musicians and bands that hardly ever get the cred they deserve.

The Garlands debut single is available for free, legal download thanks to Cosy Recordings and

MP3: David - The Garlands

Play or download a bonus track You Never Notice Me - The Garlands

The EP, which features a cover version of George Michael's Freedom, is limited to 300 copies, so if you like the band, go to Cloudberry Records.

Cleveland's psychedelic indie pop band The Dreadful Yawns have released a new single:

MP3: I Thought One Kiss -The Dreadful Yawns

MP3: Creeper from Island's new album Arm's Way due out on ANTI May 20, 2008.

MP3: Tears Run Rings - Mind The Wires from the band's debut release Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never on ClairRecords

MP3: The Sun Ain't the Same - Afternoon Naps from the group's forthcoming EP (title not known). If you liked that tune also check out this bonus track: Clean Bill of Health - Afternoon Naps

MP3: Leviathan, Bound from new album Rook slated for release on Matador Records on June 3


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Friday, April 4, 2008
  Vampire Weekend Streams, MP3s, Videos and Sessions
Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut album, appearance on Saturday Night Live and performances at South by Southwest, an extensive touring schedule, not to mention praise and love from the media, bloggers and indie music fans (although the predictable backlash has begun), have propelled the preppy New York City band to near instant international recognition.

- Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa [mp3]

- Listen to tracks from the band's official website

- See rare clips of Vampire Weekend performing live in SF and on KCRW (a phenomenal 40-minute studio session of the band performing almost every song on their debut album)

The literary Columbia University grad students gained warp-speed popularity in and around the campus with their catchy mix of indie rock and Afro-fused beats, and soon began playing at high-society social gatherings and NYC venues in 2006.

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Wednesday, March 19, 2008
  Spoon Releases Music Video for "You Got Ya Cherry Bomb" Hit Single

At first, it was hard to believe that for nearly a year there was no official music video for Spoon's smoking hot hit single "You Got Ya Cherry Bomb" [mp3] until this month.

Nonetheless, some fact-checking confirmed that there was no official music video what was clearly one of the top indie rock hits of 2007, even grabbing a number of awards for best song of the year.




Of course there are the usual YouTube videos of the song featuring live performances and people creating their own videos to the song, but this is the first time the official version has been released(finally).

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Monday, March 17, 2008
  The Half Dozen: Six New Free, Legal MP3s
This week's half dozen free and legal MP3s include songs from AM Syndicate, Black Mountain, HIJK, Grand Ole Party, The Big Sleep and The Two Man Gentlemen Band. Enjoy.

AM Syndicate: "The Neighbor and His Wife" [mp3] from Liberation

The Big Sleep: "Pinkies" [mp3] from Sleep Forever

Black Mountain: "Tyrants" [mp3] from In The Future

Grand Ole Party: "Nasty Habits" [mp3] from Humanimals

HIJK: "Alibi" [mp3] from The Pen and The Letter

The Two Man Gentlemen Band: "William Howard Taft" [mp3] from Heavy Petting


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Thursday, March 6, 2008
  The 'Other' HP "Picture Book" TV Spot by The Kinks
Almost everyone who watched television in 2006 and 2007 remembers the 2006 award-winning HP commercial that used classic, but long forgotten (as most great Kinks' songs were until they started showing up in movies, cable TV shows and commercials during the past decade) song from The Kinks, "Picture Book" (lyrics and MP3 below).

Yet an alternative version of the commercial has surfaced on YouTube that was either never shown, only aired in certain markets or was pulled for the version (see that here) most people are familiar with. My guess is that it is the version played in the U.K.

This spot is interesting, especially for folks who liked the HP campaign and/or are fans of The Kinks - the greatest rock/pop band ever!



Lyrics for "Picture Book"
Written by Ray Davies, 1967, performed by The Kinks
Published by Noma Music, Inc./Hi-Count Music, Inc. BMI

Picture yourself when you're getting old,
Sat by the fireside a-pondering on.
Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Picture book, of people with each other, to prove they love each other a long ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.

A picture of you in your birthday suit,
You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon.
Picture book, your mama and your papa, and fat old Uncle Charlie out boozing with their friends.
Picture book, a holiday in August, outside a bed and breakfast in sunny Southend.
Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Na, na, na, na, na na.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.
Picture book.

Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.
Picture book,
Na, na, na, na na,
Na, na, na, na na,
A-scooby-dooby-doo.

Picture book, pictures of your mama, taken by your papa a long time ago.
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Long time ago,
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Here are some remakes made by other folks from around the world. Now we know - and which I think was part of the message of the HP campaign - that there are other 'video magicians' out there who can duplicate HP's famous 'freeze-frame' concept that helped make the campaign so popular and memorable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reW363ud_fE - This remake, more than anything else, demonstrates that others can do the 'HP magic'
If you view the clip above, you'll find there are other remakes of this famous commercial.

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Wednesday, March 5, 2008
  Online Video Production: MuveeMix - Product Doesn't Match Hype

There are dozens of websites on the Internet nowadays that let you not only upload your videos, but make it as easy as butter to add eye-candy effects, song tracks, video titles and so on.

However, as with all experimentation, things don't always go as planned.

In this video, I took video tape I recorded from an Arctic Monkeys concert in San Francisco and spliced it together using MuveeMix. For the song, I used "Flourescent Adolescent", but realized after "Brainstorm" was the more appropriate choice.

Next, I added the 'old fashion' theme to the video to give it a gritty look. The results of this experiment were mixed.

Half way through the video, the song track added skips and keeps on skipping. So, for all intent and purposes, enjoy the first half of this video and ignore the rest until I can figure out what went wrong.

But worst of all is that once I embedded the video I created into this page, the video itself would simply never load on the page, causing the web browser to crash. Meanwhile, the YouTube videos load up and play without a hitch.

Therefore, based on this experience, I would not recommend MuveeMix, but I'd love to hear some other opinions of folks who have used it successfully and how they overcame these issues, most especially the bandwidth issue. If the video doesn't load on the webpage, then what's the point?

Therefore, in the meantime you can see my ill-fated attempt to create a cool video using MuveeMix. It looked promising, but didn't deliver. One way is to look at it is something like this:
Dang that Chinese food smelt and looked great, but I was up all night with stomach cramps and vomiting.

That's a summation - alas - of my experience with MuveeMix. Let me know when you get it really working to meet the demands of 2008 expectations.

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Thursday, February 28, 2008
  Vicious Vicious' Strange Band Name vs. Persona Overshadows Good Music
Minneapolis indie pop rock band Vicious Vicious do not live up to their name - a music fan would expect them to be a punk or hard rock or some other extreme rock subgenre band.

Listen to their non-stop stream of songs below.

So it is a bit annoying that a group with such marvelously crafted pop, rock and funkadelic sounds would chose a name that does not reflect their music or stage presence. Part of me wants to call it pretentious, but it's just plain puzzling, and I haven't been able to find an interview were the band members are challenged on the name.

In today's Internet-dominated music world, a band needs to be extra savvy about what it takes to be credible and how to optimize name-branding on the Internet with the goal of attracting fans to their official websites, MySpace pages, Facebook profiles and so on. Picking the right name for a band nowadays requires careful thinking and a good level of online marketing and promotion.

Notwithstanding, to be more 'indie' about this matter, let's say we just forget that they are going to have problems promoting themselves based on their name.

At the end of the day it's just plain disingenuous to choose such a name as Vicious Vicious for a band who's online promotional photos show them holding yellow balloons and whose music is more candy than cane. Sorry metal heads - and even rock fans - Vicious Vicious are not vicious by any stretch of the imagination.

The proof is in the pudding (but I still must say there music is awesome). The best way to get to know the band's music is to go to their official site where their music plays at a non-stop stream (unless you kill it of course).

Editor's note: Personally, I found myself listening to the stream at least twice over during an hour and a half period - and this is coming from someone who still has loads of great music to review, not to mention all of the submissions by postal mail (artists and labels: please do not send me emails with audio attachments; they will be stripped by my email program, please send music you'd like me to review to Box #722, RE, CA 95044.
Since the release of their latest album Parade in September 2007, songs like "Rain Parade", "Ho Baby" and other well-produced indie pop songs have increased the band's popularity.

According to Vicious Vicious' official website, Applewick and the others are working on new material for yet another album to possibly be released in 2008. Let's hope so, because these guys are on a serious roll.



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Friday, February 8, 2008
  Rare and Intimate Video of Arcade Fire Playing in a Lift
They are one of the few indie rock bands in the history of the genre that can say they made the cover of The Rolling Stone and Time magazine, the latter being an honor usually bestowed on world leaders, Nobel prize winners and at the most aging rockers, but not for a quirky, barely known (at that time at least) band from Canada.

Arcade Fire - No Car Go - Arcade Fire [mp3]

Fans of Arcade Fire are partly attracted to the band's blend of orchestra pop raised up by soaring chorus. But even more AF fans love the band for their uncanny ability to entertain wherever, whenever and with whatever they can find.

If you are not an AF fan, maybe you will be after you see and hear them play the title track from their 2007 hit album, Neon Bible in a Parisian elevator.






- Arcade Fire biography
- Arcade Fire's official homepage (one of my favorite band websites)
- Arcade Fire's Neon Bible Leaked
- ArcadeFire.net Fan Site
- Arcade Fire's MySpace page
- Arcade Fire on YouTube


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