IRC’s Top 10 Indie Songs September 2021 was delayed due to a glitch – it was 90% done and somehow, an hour or two later, it appears to have been over-written in some weird computer/server fluke.
Restarting something that was almost completed is frustrating but I’ve been working on mindfulness, consciousness, self-awareness, and getting over things. It helps a lot. And so does music.
Almost all of the Top 10s for this playlist are submissions from DIY and small label artists and bands spanning the genres of the indie/DIY spectrum, including the following line-up:
1. CASTLEBEAT (NYC) – “We Can Make This Right”
2. Cypress (NYC) – “Running in the Wind”
3. Walk In Wardrobe (Vancouver) – “Apology”
4. Dream of a Man in a Top Hat (Boston) – “Bill and Lulu”
5. GrandEvolution (Worcester, MA) – “Shattered”
6. House of Light (LA) – “New York”
7. Andrew Chris (Pittsburgh) – “Floatin'”
8. Confirmation & GRAU (Berlin) – “Girl Vs Boy”
9. Band Called Lovejoy (Portland) – “High Lonesome”
10. Andrew Thomases (San Francisco) – “Cure Me”
Stream all 2021 Top 10 Songs playlists
CASTLEBEAT is the indie rock project of New York City bedroom musician Josh Hwang.
He is not new to the indie scene, but CASTLEBEAT’s latest release, We Can Make This Right, is some of the best indie dream pop tuneage we’ve heard this year.
#1.
Hwang’s new album has spawned a number of singles throughout 2021, including our favorite, “Into.”
It has a circa-2009 psych-dream pop bedroom artist feel and sound that has become rarer over the years as the trends move towards more studio work and often over-refining what often would have been better kept simple.
Next up, the emotive, melodic, and wonderfully-produced folk-rock track, “Running in the Wind,” from NYC vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Ben Higginbotham, and his band Cypress.
“It’s about being there for someone when you physically aren’t there,” Higginbotham says. “As a musician, I travel quite a bit, which can be hard for the people I leave behind sometimes. The song is just saying that ‘no matter where I am when you need me I’ll come to you.'”
He adds that the production was “born of my recently discovered love for Bruce Springsteen.”
#2.
A Berklee music grad, he founded Cypress as a “soulful, emotional solo project reflective of personal and professional growth.” Cypress’ indie folk/folk rock sound is rich and textured yet melodic and straightforward.”
He has opened for artists like Jaws of Love; Donovan Woods; and Toledo with major musical influences including Ray LaMontagne, The Staves, and Bon Iver.
The Dallas-born musician is joined by drummer Eli Fowler and guitarist Taylor Tatsch.
instagram.com/musicbycypress/
The melancholic single, “Apology,” came to us from Vancouver indie acoustic/folk musician Frankie Haubrich, who uses the recording moniker of Walk In Wardrobe.
Originally drooped in the summer, we’ve played the song quite a bit and it’s sort of a grower. The Bon Iver influences on Haubrich’s writing and recording are not just subjective – he is a huge Bon Iver fan. In fact, other than Wilco, Bon Iver is Haubrich’s only submitted musical influence.
#3.
With violin and orchestral layers, and touching lyrics, the Australian-native delivers an intricate and artistic composition that is catchy and absorbing. In Haubrich’s own words: “Bon Iver influences autotune harmonies on the 2nd verse.”
Originally working in the animation industry in Montreal when Covid hit Haubrich moved out of the big city. Working wherever possible, and writing music on the road, Frankie ended up wild lobster fishing, harvesting maple syrup in plantations, walking huskies, and in snowed in bakeries in northern Quebec.
instagram.com/walk_in_wardrob/
What do you get when you take two-thirds of Boston 80’s post-punk band, Native Tongue, separate, age for 30+ years, combine, throw in some new technology, mix thoroughly and serve?
Result: Dream of a Man in a Top Hat.
Long-time Boston musicians Lee Leffler (guitars, keyboards) and Michael Frackleton (drums, bass, keyboards) rehearse in separate houses; lyrics are typed into phones; drums are electronic, and yet, in the end, it works.
The duo’s sound has an uncompromising sensibility that is unique and all of their own, while also drawing on familiar and varied influences. Check out this new single, “Bill and Lulu.” Isn’t that something ‘else’?
#4.
In reviews of their debut album, the six-song EP Blunt Instrumentals (released summer of 2020), bloggers and others touted the duo’s music as “cool, psychedelic, experimental, wild” and “infectious.” The duo’s moniker is a challenge, and also quite curious, to say the least. We’ve always been huge fans of anything post-punk-leaning: that’s what you have here – done in the Massachusetts way.
Many years ago they opened for bands like Bush Tetras, Mission of Burma and Pere Ubu. That’s some big acts. Leffler and Frackleton’s top musical influences, according to them, are Yardbirds, Jack White, Syd Barrett, Tame Impala, Dandy Warhols, and The Beatles.
Based in the mid-Commonwealth city of Worcester, the Massachusetts indie rock/pop band GrandEvolution recently dropped the softly melodic single “Shattered,” and it certainly got our attention for the composing and producing of a dream-pop-leaning single that harkens back to the days of post-punk pop.
A well-toured band before the pandemic, GrandEvolution spent most of last year writing and working on songs for the new album Glow. “Shattered,” according to guitarist and vocalist Sarah Kenyon is “about suddenly losing your biggest supporter and feeling hopeless and empty.”
#5.
In the past, the band has opened for artists such as Soul Asylum, Kay Hanley, Tantric, and Smile Empty Soul. The trio’s biggest musical influences include The Cranberries, The Jayhawks, Butch Walker, Muse, and Radiohead.
The other obviously talented band members are drummer Scott Kenyon and bassist Gregory Bromberg.
The mysterious alt/post-rock single, “New York,” from the band House of Light is “a catchy explosion of urban celebration; nostalgic of the 90s but with fresh synth twists,” says guitarist and vocalist Justin de Vries. “It’s an urban lament.” The track was mixed by Clif Norrell ( NIN, REM, Jeff Buckley).
Launched in Berlin in 2016, the band (originally from Australia) are nowadays located in U.K. and Los Angeles.
House of Light regularly tours around the globe performing a mix of retro-rock, new wave, and psych-rock – complete with croons and shouts amidst a cinematic shoegaze-mesh of synth keys and guitar riffs.
The lyrics evoke the new-romanticism of the 80s and the disillusion of the 90s. The single is from the band’s upcoming album release, Come Into My Night.
#6.
They have been interviewed by Andy Rourke (The Smiths) and attended by Frank Black (Pixies).
The band has opened for artists such as Pete Doherty, The Drones, and Lydia Lunch and are heavily influenced by “Joy Division, Nick Cave, 80s synth pop, city sounds, Leonard Cohen, and the Cure.
The other band members are Tina Zimmermann (vox/synth); Linda Kiss (bass); Trevor Song (synth); and Phillip Haut (drums).
instagram.com/the.house.of.light
#7.
The sprawling single, “Floatin'” by Pittsburgh multi-instrumentalist, and one-man band, Andrew Chris, is “an imperfect love story.”
“I was inspired by humanity’s obsession with floating in general,” Chris says, adding, “and [how] even when we succeed in ‘floating,’ we always come back down to earth.”
The self-described ’25-year-old independent rocker/rapper’ has spent a decade working on music in his bedroom. Since the age of 15, Chris has been making beats and playing the guitar and bass with heavy influences from the 1960s and 70s guitar rock artists and bands.
After bouncing around in different bands, Chris struck out on his own. His first solo album from 2019, Studio Rat, “blends intricate genres from rap and rock to create a new sound,” but he says he’s upcoming sophomore drop will emit a new style as evidenced by the new single.
#8.
German synth dream duo Anna Lanfer (Grau) and Peter Milos (Confirmation) made the top ten for their summer track, “Girl Vs. Boy.”
Riding on the wave of his first single, “Give it Up,” which earned regular airplay on German radio, Milos teamed up with Lanfer, and Niko Stoessl, to hone in on his signature analog synth-heavy and beat-driven, futuristic sound to produce “fierce and visceral portrait of two lovers dancing around each for the new single.”
#9.
The irresistibly catchy High Lonesome comes to us via Portland musicians Sumner Rahr and Fritz Frerichs’ (aka, Band Called Lovejoy) time spent in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
The two friends worked daily retail jobs and wrote, rehearsed, and recorded at home in the evenings.
The featured title single is off of the band’s new debut EP, High Lonesome.
Lyrics like “I’ve been down this road before / Uneven broken and now alone / I’m ready as hell” embody the promise of youth life: unexpected, thrilling, and exciting” stand out in particular.
Inspired by sounds from The Black Keys, The Doors, and Pink Floyd, the band’s EP journeys through “solitude, gratitude, and escape – all while creating a uniquely original narrative.”
Lead singer and guitarist, Sumner Rahr, saw overnight success on TikTok (1.6 million views ) for a cover of Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” at their EP release party, propelling the band’s social following and message.
#10.
San Francisco musician Andrew Thomases says his new indie/alt rock song, “Cure Me” is: “A reflection of the political scene in America prior to the last presidential election…a compelling plea for guidance and healing in a time when nothing is certain.”
Accompanied by a psychedelic lyric video, the single serves a modern twist of the nostalgic sounds of the ’80s and ’90s, mirroring influences from The Cure, retro rock rhythms infused with captivating melodies, and a steady drumbeat.
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