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Best Music of 2011: Best Indie Rock

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Best Indie Rock of 2011 PART I

So begins at last my list of the finest songs of 2011. Last year I was all upset about the whole idea that one could even begin to honestly determine the very best songs put out in a year. Not because tastes differ too greatly, but because there’s just too much good music.

This year I realized I could have thrown together a list in late December, which is what everyone wants. No one gives a damn about 2011 in February, right? But for some reason I couldn’t stop myself from pouring through everything I’d played on my radio stream, in search of something I’d missed. Some time in January, I realized that I don’t do this for you (sorry, readers). I do it for me, so I can be sure nothing gets lost in the music world’s relentless drive toward newer-better-bolder. So these songs of 2011 may be five minutes ago, but they’re worth looking over twice.

 

The Best Indie Rock of 2011 PART I

There’s just too much goodness to fit in one post. In no particular order… tumblr lyzfffljqH1qc30t7o1 500 Best Music of 2011: Best Indie Rockhttp://ginamyte.tumblr.com” />

Image thanks to http://ginamyte.tumblr.com

 

Anna Calvi – I’ll Be Your Man (3:10)

 Dark, dirty, husky, sexy. “I’ll Be Your Man” is a song that would fit in on the True Blood soundtrack. Ann Calvi’s voice purrs against a guitar that croons like a desperately pleading lover. This song is so hot that at the 1:30 mark it actually sizzles.

Beastie Boys – Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win (ft. Santigold) (4:11)

I wonder if the “game” that Santigold and the Boys sing about is the corrupt system. It’s fitting that Beastie Boys should work with Santigold: both are vaguely socially conscious and both are pushing the boundaries of hip-hop into new directions, directions that seem particularly popular with indie rockers. While I don’t know if your local rock station would play this bopping reggae beat, I know smooth melodies and Bob Dylan references will win you fans beyond the pop music set.

Black Light Dinner Party – Older Together (4:27)

 A catchy, upbeat piano look and subdued vocals make this 2011′s song-to-dedicate-to-your-crush. With only three songs and no label representation, this is one of the bands-to-watch.

Capital Cities – Safe and Sound (3:12)

 “Safe and Sound” is my current obsession. Every time I hear it I like it even more. Its not often that horns make a pop-rock song, but the trumpets make this single soar. Let this one get in your head and you’ll be wanting it all the time…pretty sure there’s a yo’ momma joke in their somewhere, but we have other songs to get to.

Childish Gambino – Freaks and Geeks (3:37)

Childish Gambino – Let Me Dope You (Travis Wide Remix) (4:12)

You may wonder what this hippity-hopper is doing on my Best Indie Rock list. Well, the lilly-white faces and asses behind YourNewFavoriteBand lack the chutzpah to even pretend to know what the best hip-hop of the year is. But I do know that this fast-rapping, clever gent had to go on my list somewhere. He tends to have lyrics that court the hipsters (like, “girls from Williamsburgh, that’s my fucking kryptonite” or “I got the tortoiseshell frames and the argyle” making a reference to Ariel Pink), and he tends to rap over indie rock favorites like Sleigh Bells, Neon Indian and Grizzley Bear. So maybe Donald Glover isn’t so out of place on this list after all.

Bottom line is this: the puns and pop culture references will go breezing by faster than you can keep track. If you’re one of those who doesn’t like when rappers hype themselves up, Gambino may irritate you at first. But know that bragging is a long-respected tradition in both poetry and hip-hop, and Glover’s comedy pedigree does it better than most.

Cults – Oh My God (3:20)

I put one of their songs here, and another one on the “Best Chillout Music of 2011” list. Cults are so light and airy that you could pogo to it or just bliss-out smiling. Childlike vocals, bells and lyrics like “I could leave you here to stay inside dreaming” make this the happy-go-lucky album of the year.

Dan Sartain – Atheist Funeral (2:27)

If you need a walloping dose of medicine to go with the sugar on that Cults track, “Atheist Funeral” is for you. It’s a droll rockabilly tribute to the atheists. The guitar croons like a hound and the lyrics are anthemic without getting preachy.

Dance And Forget – Can I Still Dance (3:56)

Sweden has been producing some fantastic electro, but that’s not all the little country is good for. “Can I Still Dance” is an indie pop song with enough energy to make the “Hep! Hep! Hep!”s not sound out of place, despite the distinct lack of ska. I love a song that tackles a new theme in a world of cliches, and this one gets bonus points for that: everyone has a song that their ex got in the breakup. Dance and Forget wants to know, “Can I still dance to this song, even though you took it with you?” How they manage to be the first band to sing about this when we’ve all been there is pretty remarkable. The lead vocalist shows off her range while the bass and guitar do such a delightful Tango.

Dum Dum Girls – He Gets Me High (3:00)

 “He Gets Me High” is Heart’s “Magic Man” for 2011. I was a little hesitant to get behind this album because it treads on ground the Raveonettes have already covered, but again and again I found myself coming back to several songs from their two releases this year. If you like shoegaze or if you like the California beach sound but wish it were a little darker, this is the 2011 album for you.

The Eclectic Moniker – Easter Island (4:17)

Whatever your expectations are for a band from Copenhagen, Denmark, they probably don’t sound like The Eclectic Moniker. Unless your grasp of geography is truly weak, you probably aren’t expecting the bongo-banging delight that is “Easter Island.” Between the steel drums and a melody that could have been carved from a calypso CD from the Sharper Image, the only signs that they are the Nordic-brothers of Kings of Convenience are the beautiful harmonies and the swelling synth that sneaks up at the end.

Everything Everything – MY KZ, UR BF (3:33)

There’s a story going on in this song that makes you want to listen a little closer. But until then, you won’t be able to resist singing, “He was looking at me like, ‘Whoaaah,’” because how fun is that for a refrain?

Eyes Lips Eyes – Tickle (3:49)

The lyrics are cute and the singing is lovely but the greatness of this song comes from that fast-strumming guitar that licks the side of your face like a friendly pup.

Foster the People – Helena Beat (4:35)

Foster The People – Houdini (3:19)

I know you are just sick of hearing Foster the People. At least where I live, corporate radio has ruined “Pumped Up Kicks” by force-feeding it us, until the phrase “Better run, better run, faster than our bullet” inspires me to bug out my eyes like head bratty Alex in a Clockwork Orange. Because isn’t a bit like that baddiwad veck who’s tied down and forced to take in the same media hour after hour? So I sense that many are feeling some resentment towards the object of this overplay, which is a shame because Foster the People has put out a really fun album. Here are two other songs I enjoy as much as I did “Pumped Up Kicks” (before radio ruined it). Pretend it’s the latest from Passion Pit to clear your mind of prejudice. Check back at the end of the week to get all these batched up as a torrent file.

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Great Indie Lyricists #3: Emily Haines of Metric

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This is song #3 of a playlist for my LYLAS Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists. Each week I’m focusing on the lyrics of one band and why those lyrics are worth delving into.

Hi Kat,

Since you’ve been obsessed with the Mountain Goats lately, we’ve been talking about who some of our favorite modern lyricists are. This playlist was made specifically to answer that question. Today’s band is Metric.

 

It’s no secret that Metric is one of my favorite bands of the decade. One may compare them to chick-fronted rock bands like Blondie or the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But Metric wins bonus points in having captivating, socially relevant lyrics. I first got hooked on the mysterious “The Police and the Private” and became fanatic with “Patriarch on A Vespa.” I say it’s socially relevant but it’s more poetry than preaching. She’s writing about the world she sees, and as a socially aware person, this is reflected in her writing.

Take the aforementioned “Police and the Private”. She sings:

Didn’t make this up I learned, I learned it from a friend
My friend is coming clean, she told me
Keep one eye on the door, keep one eye on the bed
Never expect to be sure who you’re working for

It’s clear she’s talking about some black market world. Is it drugs? Prostitution? Does it matter which, or does it matter more that the larger point is that “the whole world wants what we’re on…the police and the private, the doctor, the lawyer, the garbage collector“? The tone is desperate and dangerous. Never once does she ask why something the whole world wants is outlawed, as that would be preaching. I liken it to the Talking Heads song “Life During Wartime,” in that capturing the dangers of the lifestyle is more telling and more interesting than a sermon about the morality of those who choose to live in the underworld. The clincher in “Police and the Private” is the last line, Got to get to you the orphanage is closing in an hour. Such a haunting line. Does the character in the song live this dangerous lifestyle in the hopes of making enough money to get her child back? It’s unclear, merely suggestive that criminals lead desperate lives because there are other more innocent lives at stake.

 

Another example is “Gold, Guns, Girls.” The lyrics All the guns, all the gold, in the world…couldn’t get you off seem to be directed at a certain president and his cabinet that were in power when she released the song in 2009. Did she sit down to write a song about a particular politician, or does her pen naturally gravitate to such subjects because they interest her? Would the song be better if she namechecked Bush or Cheney? No, the song is better because it is about a certain type of person that Cheney happens to be an example of.

Download/Listen to Metric – Gold, Guns, Girls

Full Lyrics to Gold, Guns, Girls

 

The lyrics to Patriarch On A Vespa wouldn’t be out of place in the latest urban literary magazine. I’ll print them in full so you can imagine them not in a rock song but within your favorite poetry anthology.

 

Patriarch On A Vespa

Promiscuous makes an entrance
Her mouth is full of questions
Are we all brides to be?
Are we all designed to be confined?
Buy ourselves chastity belts and lock them
Organize our lives and lose the key
Our faces all resemble dying roses
From trying to fix it
When instead we should break it
We’ve got to break it before it breaks us

Fear of pretty houses and their porches
Fear of biological wristwatches
Fear of comparison shopping
Dogs on leashes behind fences barking
Pretty little pillows on floral couches
Until our faces all resemble dying roses
Stop trying to fix it

Patriarch on a Vespa
Runs a red and ends up
Crushed under the wheel

 

I can imagine this getting high marks at the next Berkeley poetry slam, can’t you? But on the contrary, she sings this while playing the keyboard solo and kicking her legs in the air in total bad-ass fashion. The “it” she refers to I presume to be bullshit suburbia and when she shouts “Stop trying to fix it…we should break it” she has created a couplet not matched in the history of rocking out since The Who first shouted  “Meet the new boss! Same as the old boss!” If this song had been popular enough to hit heavy rotation on corporate radio, surely it would have inspired some chair throwing and bra burning.

 

Download/Listen to Patriarch On A Vespa

 

If you want to see some chill-inspiring rockage, check out the thrills she throws down at 1:40. It will give you a sense of why Emily Haines is one of the goddesses of indie rock:

 

Bonus: If this rocks a little hard for you, check out Emily Haines solo career with her backing band The Soft Skeleton. Or if you just can’t get enough, she’s also a sometimes-singer for Broken Social Scene.

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Great indie lyricists #2: Los Campesinos!

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This is song #2 of a playlist for Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists.

Hi Kat,

Since you've been obsessed with the Mountain Goats lately, we've been talking about who some of our favorite modern lyricists are. This playlist was made specifically to answer that question.

Los Campesinos! We Are All Accelerated Readers

There were conversations about what Breakfast Club character you'd be

"I'd be the one that dies" (no one dies)
"Well then what's the point?"
You should have built have a statue, and so I did of you
And you were ungrateful, and slightly offended at the dimensions of it
You said you looked less like the Venus de Milo, 

and more like your mother in a straightjacket.

I've already shared a few Los Campesinos! songs with you. I really want you to fall in love with this band. For a great lyric I picked "We Are All Accelerated Readers" because I think you'll appreciate the humor in these opening lines. Los Campesinos!'s front man mostly writes about his dismal love life. But like any good writer, those conversations are peppered with his obsessions: twee and the musical culture which surrounds it. There's also frequent pessimistic asides about the future of politics, humanity and, well, everything. It's surprising in such upbeat songs. You hear the high voices, shouting, and hand-clapping over lines like "We kid ourselves there's future in the fucking / but there is no fucking future" or, say, "And your very existence is a monument / To how I taught myself to scream" and realize these aren't exactly pop songs. They're punk for tweeny-boppers. Or twee for punks. Whatever, they're fun. Which makes it easy to dismiss the lyrics. But the lyrics are what make this band so great.

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Great indie lyricists #1: Cloud Cult

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This is a playlist for Kat. The subject is great indie lyricists.

Hi Kat,

Since you've been obsessed with the Mountain Goats lately, we've been talking about who some of our favorite modern lyricists are. This playlist was made specifically to answer that question.

You mentioned that you have trouble remembering or getting to know the bands in the CD. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to email you a post about a different artist every week. All of the posts will be compiled here and on Dropbox.

<h1>Cloud Cult – Ghost Inside our House lyrics </h1>

The couple that fronts Cloud Cult released a ton of albums while working through the grief of the death of their young son. But the songs aren't a diary of torment. There is real pain here, but just as often there is an appreciation for the beauty of life. Cloud Cult's songs are drowning in duende. There's so much love in this music. So many beautiful images and ideas.

We'll start a little family
And call it our religion
Hunt for ghosts inside our house
'Cause we'll never give up wishing

Their lyrics give you the sense that life is tender and precious.

It helps that the music is interesting and every song is unique. This one is a slow guitar number but many of their songs feature strange interludes or booming orchestrations or meandering violin. It also helps that they're amazing live. They're one of those bands that make it impossible to pick a favorite. I believe you'll especially like this one, but there are so many other Cloud Cult songs to fall in love with. Do it.

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Stop the Genrefication!

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I have a long-standing debate with my sweetie (one of thousands) about the word, “indie rock.” We all know bands that are clearly indie rock, I’m not even going to bother to list them. The question is, does it refer to a genre, or does it refer to the way the music is produced? If it is a genre, then bands like the Killers and Interpol, both on major labels, are indie. If it simply separates small-label stars from the bigguns’, then bands like the White Stripes, or before that R.E.M. or even before that, Lou Reed, are former Indie rockers, though musically dissimilar. Really, I’m not so sure what the electropop sounds of I Am the World Trade Center have in common with the rough vocals of Modest Mouse, other than independent label status.
Before you answer, let me take you back ten years, to 1996. Blockbuster Music (this is where you shopped in the suburbs if you were 16, because your mom didn’t know about Sound Exchange) has a new section of music called, “Alternative.” For about ten minutes I was excited about this exciting new genre that included all of the cool new bands: Nirvana, Bush, Radiohead, the Eels, Cake, Poe, Bjork.
Wait– Bjork?
Yes, Bjork.
That’s when it became clear that the only difference between “Alternative,” and “rock,” was that it was the music that appealed to people in my age group (make that, market segment). The actual musical styles had little in common. Perhaps there is nothing sinister in this. Blockbuster wanted my shopping experience to be as convenient as possible.
But it is a little bit like naming art movements, “Modernism,” or “Contemporary,” suggesting all that they have in common is that this is what people like right now. Well, (as I would have said at sixteen) duh. Is that the best description you can give?
I understand that many want to identify themselves as “indie-rockers.” That is the best music out there and anyone who listens to anything else is inferior (What? That is exactly what the indie-rocker is thinking). And an indie-rocker listens to what? Indie-rock music, of course.
But the way I see it, this can only go two ways:
1. Indie-rock is a genre consisting of any music that is on the verge of breaking big circa turn of the millineum (like “alternative” before it, which means jack shit now).
2. A band on an independent label is fantastic and mind-blowing until they get a record contract at which point they are not indie-cool anymore and they are sell-out snot-munchers.
Both of these are to be avoided! Please! I love indie-rock music! But let us not genrify.