Best new indie rock songs, indie news, best bands, reviews
Author: Max Hammer
Discovering and sharing the best DIY/alt/indie/underground music you've never heard. I've been writing about music and other topics since the mid-1990s. We are also music industry professionals - PR; promotion; management; branding; etc.
I’ve travelled by land across the continential United States at least five times now and have passed many trailer-park communities along the way. Sometimes in life, stereotypes have a tinge of truth in them, huh?
But this next video takes it to a new level by featuring two amateur actors (who do a fairly good job ‘acting’) participating in their own little twisted Trailer Park Fashion Show. It’s not as trashy as you would expect a home-made video to be, but it’s enjoyable nonetheless.
To kick-off the playlist series for ‘best’, or favorite, songs of 2007, I have posted the first list below.
While there are some mainstream artists included in this series, the focus is mainly on independent, or indie, and alternative songs by some of rock, pop and electronica music’s most talent, and in some cases, vastly under-rated artists and music groups.
You can subscribe to get these songs and playlists through any medium you prefer whether it be via your iTunes, email or favorite feed reader.
Here’s the first playlist of songs from 2007:
Brainstorm – Arctic Monkeys from Favourite Worst Nightmare The Night Starts Here – Stars from In Our Bedroom After The War
Sleeping Lessons (RAC Mix) – The Shins from Wincing The Night Away
Your English is Good – Tokyo Police Club from Your English is Good
My Sword Hand’s Anger – Apostle of Hustle from National Anthem of Nowhere
Hollywood Bass Player – Jose Rouse from Country Mouse City House
For Agent 13 – The Besnard Lakes from The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse
Keep The Car Running – Arcade Fire from Neon Bible
Imaginary Man – Ray Davies from Working Man’s Cafe
Fucked Up Kid -Broken Social Scene from Spirit If…
Bank Holiday Monday – Stereophonics from Pull The Pin
Heretics – Andrew Bird from Armchair Apocrypha
Lake Michigan – Rouge Wave from Asleep at Heaven’s Gate
If I Could Cry – Jens Lekman from Night Falls Over Kortedala
If I Saw The Bright Shines – The Octopus Project from Hello Avalanche
Various installment of this series will include “lists of lists” for the best music of 2007, including songs, albums, music videos, concerts, artists, festivals, album artwork, MySpace pages and more gathered from dozens of mainstream music websites and established music bloggers.
The Best Indie Rock Christmas Songs playlist mix series was originally compiled back in 2007 to provide music lovers with a diverse collection of more than 200 indie and alternative Christmas songs that also include many cover versions of traditional Christmas and holiday songs by some of the best musicians and bands ever. Recently we checked to make sure all of the MP3 links in the dozen mixes are working.
There is now one page for all of the Christmas and holiday music mixes to make it easier to listen and download tracks to make your own playlist mixes. Enjoy.
Almost there! The 12 playlists of alternative-indie Christmas songs are riding through the snow on the way to gramma’s house. (She better have lots of egg nog!) Here is Mix Nine. Mix Ten will be delivered soon, and later tonight – when I actually have a few minutes away from festivities – Mix Eleven will be posted.
Some people just can’t get enough of indie and alternative rock Christmas songs. Many of the songs from these playlists are just as much of a discovery for me as I hope they are for you.
You’re not going to find any of the old AM radio Christmas songs from decades ago (not that there’s anything wrong with that) on these 12 playlists. There are many cover versions of traditional Christmas songs. The vast majority of these covers are from artists that most people have never heard of, including many music enthusiasts.
The third installment of IRC’s special Christmas music series of The 12 Plays of Alternative-Indie Christmas Songs includes some more mainstream rock artists such as My Chemical Romance, Slade and Belle and Sebastian, as well as popular indie artists like Low, Sufjan Stevens, Jens Lekman and many more.
Today’s alternative and indie rock Christmas playlist mix includes songs from artists such as Bright Eyes, The Weepies, Vince Guaraldi, Green Day, Manic Street Preachers, Thick Pigeon, Monster Bobby, Squirrel Nut Zippers, Rilo Kiley and dozens of others.
Here is Mix Six in the 12 Plays series. This playlist includes a diverse collection of Christmas and wintry songs, just in case you are somewhere in the world where it is not going to be a white Christmas. Indie giants like Yo La Tengo, Comet Gain, Chris Letcher and Belle and Sebastian, plus relatively new bands like Band of Horses, Great Lake Swimmers and Phantom Planet contribute to this newest Christmas songs playlist.
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(Above: The note Santa is reading in the cartoon reads: “Dear Santa, If you leave a new bike under the tree, I will give you the antidote to the poison I put in the milk – Tommy.”)
A Change of Pace offers up the introspective “Christmas on the Coast” and the Parenthetical Girls present indie cheer with “I Love Christmas”, plus holiday season songs by Dave Melilo, The Halo Brothers, The Reindeer Section, Phofo and Jason Gleason.
This Christmas playlist features a great mix of indie and alt Christmas songs from Reliant K, The Fine Lines, The National Splits, Milton DeLugg & The Little Eskimos and The Used. There are also xmas tunes from Alien Sex Friend, Sandry Mooy, Gatsby’s America, Arcade Fire, Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues.
Do you have egg nog-tummy, Christmas-time fatigue, coffee-infused insomnia or instant vertigo every time you hear Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas”? We’ve got an antidote: Our collection of the Best Indie Alternative Rock Christmas Songs – the largest, longest-running, regularly updated collection of indie/alt rock Christmas songs on the web since 2007.
This the original Mix IV from 2007. All MP3s work. You can click the little player below and it will stream all of the tracks in the playlist uninterrupted and with no commercials!!!
This Christmas playlist kicks off with the first-ever original and popular true punk rock (now more commonly referred to as alternative) Christmas song by who else but The Kinks.
Simply titled “Father Christmas” (1977), the song lashes out at the commercialism of Christmas and yet ironically encourages disenfranchised youth to beat up Santa Claus if he doesn’t give them “some money,” and declares: “give all the toys to the little rich boys.”
On a lighter note, Beulah, Michigan indie pop musician Andrew Dost delivers an original and cynical view of the season in “Yeah, I Know, It’s Christmas Time.” The Matches serve up their own brand of bitter cynicism about Christmas, “December is For Cynics”.
Have you heard enough of the old Christmas songs that make you want to pull your hair out yet? Well, hopefully the playlist below will help alleviate the stress. We hope to alleviate some of that by offering you the best and largest collection (in more than a dozen Christmas playlists) of indie and alternative rock Christmas tunes available anywhere on the Internet.
Over the years, our listeners have made it as clear as fresh fallen snow – they want a complete collection of alternative Christmas and holiday songs. This is Mix One of 12 Xmas playlists featuring many of the best original and cover-version alternative Christmas and holiday songs available anywhere.
Mix Two – Featuring Sugarcult, MXPX, DCFC, Fuel, Bright Eyes, Snow Patrol, The Raveonettes and Sufjan Stevens.
Mix Three – Ron Sexsmith, Daphne Loves Derby, Low, My Chemical Romance, Jens Lekman, Sciflyer, Slade, Balasana and Ten Thousand Dollar Tattoo.
Mix Four – The Kinks, The Fray, In Memory, Belle and Sebastian, Celestial, Ex-Otago, The Knife, A Band Called Quinn, The Format and Matchbook Romance.
Mix Five – Reliant K, The Fine Lines, The National Splits, Milton DeLugg & The Little Eskimos and The Used, Alien Sex Friend, Sandry Mooy, Gatsby’s America, Arcade Fire, Kirsty MacColl and The Pogues.
Mix Six – Band of Horses, Great Lake Swimmers, Phantom Planet, Yo La Tengo, Comet Gain, The Reindeer Section, Phofo, Jason Gleason, Chris Letcher and Belle and Sebastian.
Mix Seven – The Weepies, Yo La Tengo, Manic Street Preachers, Green Day, Le Man Avec Les Lunettes, Monster Bobby, Bright Eyes, Ladybug Transistor, The Flaming Lips, From First To Last, Acceptance, Crawling with Kings, Thick Pigeon and Rilo Kiley.
Today’s alternative and indie rock 
Do you have egg nog-tummy, Christmas-time fatigue, coffee-infused insomnia or instant vertigo every time you hear 
