Wilco- Wilco has never ceased to amaze me, it is why it is one of my favorite bands. Jeff Tweedy (Let it be known Tweedy is an amazing last name, and I am jealous of him) formed the band in the '90s, after the band Uncle Tupelo disbanded.
Wilco is the perfect band to start with when you first start to explore the Indie scene. Their soft, mellow music is very relaxing, I often find myself reading to it, and falling asleep to it later at night. In my opinion, their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is my favorite. It is a prime example of Wilco's potential and experimental ability (Listen to Poor Places, with the woman eerily repeating Yankee Hotel Foxtrot towards the end.), Yankee Hotel Foxtrot brings you to very poppy songs, like I'm The Man Who Loves You, and songs that bring a very mellow vibe to you, such as Jesus Etc.
Arcade Fire- Arcade Fire is my favorite band. I plan to see them in Philly this August. They are a seven member band (10 in concert), with Win Butler, Régine Chassagne, Will Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Richard Parry, Jeremy Gara and Sarah Neufeld, all very talented. Their songs are indescribable. They were the first band I listened to when entering the Indie scene, and I loved them. I started listening to them in early 2010 after learning about them through the webcomic Questionable Content (here I'll give you that very excerpt). The vocals in Arcade Fire are awesome, especially in the album Funeral. "Butler sings like Radioheads's Johnny Greenwood used to play, like a lion-tamer whose whip grows shorter with each and every lash. He can barely contain himself, and when he lets loose it's both melodic and primal". (Quote From Pandora Radio's James Christopher Monger.)
A fun fact about Arcade Fire? For the album Neon Bible, they retreated to an old decamped church to practice and record.
Modest Mouse- Modest fucking Mouse. They are probably one of the only bands that I listen to that compare to the musical audacity Arcade Fire possesses. The aren't even close to the same type of music Arcade Fire is though. In my opinion they're much more raw, and aren't afraid to swear. Their albums are very diverse, and some of them are a required taste. When first diving into Modest Mouse, I suggest listening to the album We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank (which includes the Smiths' guitarist Johnny Mar, which makes it one of my favorite albums).
Though We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is a fun album, it is not my favorite album. I am still actually listening to Modest Mouse and learning about them, and I am actually enjoying their older stuff over the new stuff, but I still have much more to listen to (I am tapped out on cash, and I don't like using programs like Limewire with bands I respect immensely) . We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is a more recent album. But albums like The Lonesome Crowded West are just... amazing. Talk about original, songs like Cowboy Dan is such a dark and pounding song, and then they do songs like Jesus Christ Was an Only Child (which I love to sing along to in car rides. Repeatedly.) which is really funky emo stuff. The Lonesome Crowded West isn't even that old though. It is a real white-trashy sounding album, which is a pretty good at not being stupid with their analysis of the world's current state.
1996's This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About is my favorite album. But DO NOT buy this album when first diving into Modest Mouse, stick with something Like We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank or Good News For People Who Love Bad News. "Bipolar would be the best way to describe it because half of the time it makes you want to go sit in a rainy cafe and contemplate infinty while the other half is comprised of you wanting to smash fax machines and run cars into walls." I love that person's description of this album, because it is perfectly accurate. This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About is so chaotic and mellow, and really shows how deep Isaac Brock (which by the way sounds like a superhero name) can be, showing his true potential and most obscure thoughts with lyrics like "I changed my mind so much, I cant even trust it".
It's funny cause, even though We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank is something I love listening to, when I went backwards chronologically, I realized their older stuff is better, and I truly hope with their next album they go back to the older-less mainstream type music.
I like a lot more Indie bands, like the Shins and Spoon and The New Pornographers, but I am still fairly a noobie in the Indie scene, and I still need to listen to these bands older, less mainstream stuff. Do expect more posts like this one, on different bands.
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