Indie is a shortform of “independence”. Someway, independence means to be yourself as well.
Music of any genre can be labeled “indie” considering that is independent of major producers and record labels. Indie rock – for instance – is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, grunge, riot grrl, emo,shoegaze, etc, being a sub-genre of alternative rock. Looking back to the bands originally labeled alternative rock we find artist such as R.E.M., The Cure, Jane’s Addiction, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Muse, etc, bands with their own style, sound and character. Even if we’re looking back to the dawn of the grunge era, the first bands of breakthrough – Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden – were totally different. Nowadays, unfortunately, indie became synonym with faceless, tasteless, undefined, radio-friendly music. Music? Well, I don’t think so… On the other hand I strongly believe: everybody singing, nobody listening (care and buy). The major labels try to exploit every cash-in possibilities, and while the market visibly restraining, they still over bidding with dumping politics. A Dead Kennedys lyrics from 1985 still haunting me: “The joy and hope of an alternative / Have become its own cliche / A hairstyle’s not a lifestyle / Imagine Sid Vicious at 35 / Who needs a scene / Scared to love and to feel / Judging everything / By loud fast rules appeal / Who played last night? / “I don’t know, I forgot. / But diving off the stage Was a lot of fun.” – and the conclusion is obvious: :”Harder core than thou for a year or two / Then it’s time to get a real job”… Read more Splinn – Becoming Ourselves (2011)
rock
OneLegMan – The Crack (2011)
OneLegMan works almost surgically clean with pounding drums, pumping basses, cutting edge riffs and powerful vocals delivering straight, striking at first, extremely groovy rock/metal. “The Crack” reminds me of Helmet back in 1992 when they released “Meantime”, while OneLegMan sounds fresh and powerful, precise and catchy. Their nine songs juggling smoothly between approaches and genres, from Southern Rock to Groove Metal and from classy Heavy Metal to Post Hardcore and Grunge, but staying focused always to being hard as rock and groovy. It’s almost like a costume ball, which every song they dressed up differently, but there’s all along something very OneLegMan, they managed to leave their own trademark all over.
The band was formed in 2003 in Reggio, Italy, by four talented musicians using alias: CHUPACABRA – vocals, CHICKEN BREAST – guitars, LOW PRESSURE – bass and DR. MASTERMIND – drums. They released a highly acclaimed self-produced demo album in 2007 and they was the opening act for Deep Purple in Italy. Read more OneLegMan – The Crack (2011)
Black Jet Radio – Sex Sex Riot (2011)
It might sounds “dusty”, but this is absolutely straight, dirty, garage rock and raw as it is, no polish needed, this is only (“ugly”) rock’n’roll with roots both back to glam and punk rock.
Formed at Fort Wayne, Indiana, by guitarist and bass player Brian Jenkins of The Sacred Broncos and singer Danisha Jenkins. They recruited Shelby Siefring of Thunderhawk to work on drums and Danielle Teagarden on bass and guitar. Some of their first tracks, “Dead Wine” and “Ugly” brought to mind a Blondie meets The New York Dolls kind of approach mixed with Cabaret inspired vocals.
Singed to Riot House Records, their debut full-length album, “Sex Sex Riot” hits the stores in May 2011. Read more Black Jet Radio – Sex Sex Riot (2011)
Kinky Yukky Yuppy – Escape (2010)
Kinky Yukky Yuppy after releasing several EPs, signed with M&O Music and released their debut album in October last year. Labeled simply “indie”, these guys from Evreux, France delivering a quite colourful blending of classic and indie rock flavored with alternative rock/metal heaviness and pop-like melodies. Quite breathing and very refreshing mixture, they have a nice vibe and excellent groove, have a few extremely powerful riffs, just as they have some catchy melodies. The band name there own influences: Biffy Clyro, A Perfect Circle, Rage Against the Machine, Foo Fighters, Incubus, Silverchair, Alien Ant Farm, Manchester Orchestra, and actually this colourful is their music.
Lead singer and guitarist Jérémi reminds me of Steve Hogarth of Marillion and KYY share some similarities with the post-Fish era (1989–present) Marillion, although KYY mainly bring to the surface some much heavier, metal-like sounds. Read more Kinky Yukky Yuppy – Escape (2010)
Hidden Number – Human_Error (2011)
I’m an idiot and well, I’m the first to admit it, but do you ever think of yourself as a Pavlov’s dog? Work from 9 to 6 – quite a slavery -, been attracted by a particular type of man or woman, eat the same type of shit and drink the same kind of beer – or whatever, watch the same TV channels and listen the same kind of music… If this is not the case of conditioning, I don’t know what it is. And our world getting grayer and grayer each and every day by eliminate the alternatives and everything comes down to be black or white. Or zeros and ones. Fucking spooky. But we’re tired and bored because we don’t see the third option. And well, talking bout numbers, there’s always a third option. And a forth, and so on. Hidden numbers…
And human errors.
Dean Swanson and his Hidden Number is a good opportunity to break the chain and listening something else which will do not fit in the boxes, you can stick labels to it. Well, only if there’s something human still left in you and you didn’t become completely a Pavlov’s dog… Read more Hidden Number – Human_Error (2011)
Seed From The Geisha – Talk peace to the wolf (2011)
“It all began with a seed… and the seed had become flesh…” Quite American rock, balanced between post-grunge and alternative metal, a mixture of emotions and youthful rage. Seed From The Geisha are made by the gathering of five Parisian musicians after they left their own projects to join together and at the crossroad of different influences they find their own flavored blending of rock and metal. “Talk peace to the wolf” was recorded at Sainte Marthe Studios during May 2009 and the album was released by M & O Music on March 28, 2011. Read more Seed From The Geisha – Talk peace to the wolf (2011)
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving – Deaden The Fields (2011)
This one comes from Australia and it’s a creative, breathing mixture of rock/post-rock elements with progressive and space-rock music and avant-garde jazz experiments while the space between is filled up with noises, intelligently built in electronica and cinematic soundscapes. Very fresh, unpredictable, colourful, flowing and ever changing.
“TToL emerged from the shadows of the Australian live scene with the release of their 2008 EP,Tiny Fragments and 2009 split EP with Sydney’s sleepmakeswaves. While their EPs attracted attention from
reviewers and punters alike, it’s as an intense and fiercely engaging live act that TToL have built their reputation in Australia. Through dozens of local headline shows,and supporting touring acts such as Australian prog heavywieghts Karnivool and Canadian doom lords Nadja in 2010, TToL have demanded attention and amassed a loyal following. Read more Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving – Deaden The Fields (2011)
3 Doors Down – Time Of My Life (2011)
In store on July 19, the fifth studio album by 3 Doors Down, reserves no surprises. Designed for the Billboard, it probably will reach the Top Ten as all their four previous albums did. Up to date the band sold over 16 million albums worldwide.
Their debut album, “The Better Life”, in 2000 was the 11th-best-selling album of the year and was certified 6x platinum in the United States. Their second album, “Away from the Sun”, in 2002 continued the band’s success; it debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 chart and went multi-platinum in the United States like its predecessor. The band followed it up by extensive touring for two years before releasing their third album, “Seventeen Days”, in 2005. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified platinum within its first month of release. Their fourth, self-titled album, “3 Doors Down”, also debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart. Some may say their selling is in decline lately, but we have to consider that the whole world economy is in a huge recessions.
On the other hand, all this so called post-grunge generation delivering mainly the same kind of cliches and pretty boring music record after record, but still they sell enough to staying on the top, so, I really don’t get it: what is wrong with this picture? Read more 3 Doors Down – Time Of My Life (2011)
John Zorn – Enigmata (2011)
Pour les connaisseurs. Strictly. Madness in pure essence, in small, but deadly doses. Under the moniker of John Zorn, Trevor Dunn – Electric 5-string bass (Mr. Bungle, Fantomas, Trevor Dunn’s Trio-Convulsant, Secret Chiefs 3, The Rob Price Quartet, Shelley Burgon, Zorn, etc) and Marc Ribot – electric guitar (impossible to enumerate… Tom Waits, John Zorn, David Sylvian, Jack McDuff, Wilson Pickett, The Lounge Lizards, Arto Lindsay, T-Bone Burnett, Medeski, Martin and Wood, Cibo Matto, Elysian Fields, Sam Phillips, Elvis Costello, David Poe, Allen Ginsberg, Foetus, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Susana Baca, The Black Keys, Stan Ridgway, Vinicio Capossela, Alain Bashung, Lyenn, Hector Zazou, McCoy Tyner, Elton John, Madeline Peyroux, Marianne Faithfull, Leonid Fedorov, Tonio K, Andres Calamaro and many others, but also involved in a couple of projects as well) take us down on the path of compositions versus improvisations, in a tenebrous and tumultuous world of avant-garde (jazz) music. Read more John Zorn – Enigmata (2011)
Eight of Spades – Driven by Hate
If somebody have no clue what Eight of Spades might be, please, just leave and forget about rock’n’roll.
I was ten years old when my mom bought “Ace Of Spades” – along Judas Priest’s “British Steel” – and Lemmy soon became my favorite and if a few years later it just happened to end up at the microphone in a rock band, well, it was mainly Lemmy’s fault. At the end of the 90s I managed to drink a beer with Mr. Kilmister after a Motörhead concert, but this is one of the cases when journalists have sometimes some privileges…
Eight Of Spades was formed in March 2004 by the meeting of 4 musicians playing for over ten years in various Parisian bands and from the beginning, the essence of 8oS was “speed-rock” music at the crossroads of punk, hardcore, metal and at least but not last rock’n’roll. Read more Eight of Spades – Driven by Hate
