Name some of the best indie artists and bands you know of!

[Ramon Hiponia]

Who are some of the best indie artists and bands you know of?:biggrin1:

[SteveO]

Ramon...what actually does INDIE mean to you? I have asked this question on MD more than once and I have not received a logical answer. If it means that the artist/band has gone the independent route and avoided the major record labels then that's great but that wouldn't make Indie a music genre in my estimation! Then some say Indie music is composed of plain sounding instruments without technological flair or sound effects but that's not a sensible definition either. It's just a pet peeve I have Ramon and I am not knocking you in any way as the term Indie is a popular music connotation!

Some of the notable bands or artists that I like and enjoy are I think some may be classified as Indie ???..lol)

Whitehorse

Johnny Flynn

Avett Brothers

Of Montreal

Fun

Pavement

The Eels

New Model Army

I know someone will say that such and such an artist/band isn't indie ,,,then so be it..I gave it a shot ...lol

[CRAZY-HORSE]

i read somewhere recently that UK band the smiths are regarded as the first so-called "indie" band, because they went to a small label(rough trade records) but had to finance their own sessions,promo's etc...ie"totally indipendant.
i think the term indi is used too much to describe 'alternative', and what is alternative anyway?, to my way of thinking it should mean 'away from the mainstream', yet so many of these artists are huge...so that is not alternative to me, and BTW, most of the artists out there now call themselves alternative, how can they be alternative if that is 'the norm' in music, that makes them mainstream IMO, and alternative bands are really those who were on the 'inner' but now on the 'outer', so that would make people like McCartney 'alternative' nowadays???
just a perception on my part....

a true indi band over the last decade would be Arctic Monkeys originally, but they would now be classed as 'mainstream'

i dont know its all too confusing, like the 'genre' term...a lot of artists cant be tied down to a genre but their songs can(Neil Young,classic example)

[SteveO]

Great response Crazy mate! Exactly my point...forgot about the "alternative" genre....I just consider them as "rock"...lol...perhaps this was a music phenomena twenty years ago but now it's so common place that I can't really distinguish the difference between alt/indie and rock!

i read somewhere recently that UK band the smiths are regarded as the first so-called "indie" band, because they went to a small label(rough trade records) but had to finance their own sessions,promo's etc...ie"totally indipendant.
i think the term indi is used too much to describe 'alternative', and what is alternative anyway?, to my way of thinking it should mean 'away from the mainstream', yet so many of these artists are huge...so that is not alternative to me, and BTW, most of the artists out there now call themselves alternative, how can they be alternative if that is 'the norm' in music, that makes them mainstream IMO, and alternative bands are really those who were on the 'inner' but now on the 'outer', so that would make people like McCartney 'alternative' nowadays???
just a perception on my part....

a true indi band over the last decade would be Arctic Monkeys originally, but they would now be classed as 'mainstream'

i dont know its all too confusing, like the 'genre' term...a lot of artists cant be tied down to a genre but their songs can(Neil Young,classic example)