Category: Indie Playlists

Therefore, thus begins a three-part series of Last Call for Great Indie Songs of 2008. Many of the songs in this playlist mix series were discovered in 2009 thanks to recommendations from others.

You can also check out and download tons of great 2008 indie songs after reviewing this playlist. There’s a good chance you’ll find some new music and bands that you may have never heard of before. Enjoy and support the independent music movement! Check out your favorite bands’ official web sites, tell friends, buy their albums and go to shows.

“Coney Island” – Good Old War
Bonus: “Looking For Shelter” – Good Old War

“The Baltic Sea” – The Social Services

“Everybody Say” – Takka Takka

“Water, Here” – Bodies of Water

“No Excuses (The Autumn Cantata)” – Air France

“My Lonesome Only Friend” – Rx Bandits

“Oviedo” – Blind Pilot

“Factories” – Winter Gloves

“St. Cecilia” – The Swimmers

“The Song Entire” – You Me & Iowa

“Guns & Ammo” – Minus The Bear

“Pastures” – We The They

“St. Cecilia” – The Swimmers

“Chain” – School of Seven Bells

“Love in Our Hearts” – Electric Touch

“Hard Feelings” – The Constantines

“Farther Away” – Apple Bros

“Ships In A Bottle” – Butch Walker

“Exclamation Love” – Ariel Abshire

“From Stardust to Sentience” – High Places

“Rockist” – School of Language

“Strand the Test of Time” – Wilderness

“Summer of Hate” – Crocodiles

The second installment of this series will focus exclusively on hot songs from 2008 sent (usually during 2009) to IRC directly by bands and artists. The playlist will basically be a fairly large special edition of the on-going In Dee Mail profile/playlist series.

If you’re looking for more of the best indie songs of 2008, check out the following pages:

– Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008 – Free, legal MP3s of some of the best songs of 2008 from bands and artists like The Hush Now, Pete and the Pirates, Annuals, The Sound Arrows, The Very Most, Thao, Born Ruffians, Cut Off Your Hands, TV on the Radio, White Denim, Mates of State, British Air Power, Mates of State, The Ruby Suns, Ra Ra Riot and dozens and dozens more.

– Best 2008 Indie Albums – Fleet Foxes, The Walkmen, MGMT, The Little Ones and Melpo Mene, plus a listing of the best indie and alternative rock albums of 2008.

New York City has been a mecca for popular music going all the way back to Harlem’s Cotton Club and greats like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show, the rise in popularity of rhythm and blues, the folk rock movement of the early 1960s, spurred largely by Bob Dylan, followed by The British Invasion (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks) and Fillmore East and psychedelic rock, the advent of funk and soul, disco and Studio 54, and successive waves of the punk, pop, rock, rap, hip hop, indie and the list goes on and on.

Whatever music genre you’re looking for – from acid jazz to shoe gaze, Mississippi blues to garage rock, city-slicked bluegrass to Broadway musicals, New York, the world’s music capital, has it all.

From The Velvet Underground to The Ramones, Billie Holiday to Simon and Garfunkel, The Strokes to Animal Collective the list of iconic New York musicians and bands is mind-boggling, but not more so then the sheer number of songs recorded in the past nearly 100 years that reference New York in some way, either in the track title or song lyrics.

In this first installment of three special playlist mixes, IRC features some of our favorite songs about NYC. This mix is an extension of the popular State of Music playlist mixes, an on-going series that has focused mostly on songs that are about the 50 states. In time, there will be more mixes of songs about cities around the U.S. and the world. But right now it’s New York time.

“Walk On The Wild Side” – Lou Reed from Transformer (1972)

“Hello Brooklyn” – Jay Z and Lil Wayne from American Gangster (2007)

“New York, New York” – Cat Power from Jukebox (2008)

“New York City” – They Might Be Giants from Factory Showdown (1996)

“New York State Police” – UK Subs from Warhead (1984)

“Harlem Sunrise” – Rainbow Arabia from Kabukimono (2009)

“New York State Of Mind” – Billy Joel from Turnstiles (1976)

“New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” – LCD Soundsystem from Sound of Silver (2007)

“Chelsea Hotel” – Leonard Cohen from So Long, Marianne (1999)

“New York City Heat” – Dead Heart Bloom from Chelsea Diaries (2007)

“The Last Tango In Brooklyn” – Frightened Rabbit from TLB4 CD2 (2009)

“Piazza, New York Catcher” – Belle & Sebastian from Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

“Fairy Tale Of New York” (Pogues Cover) – Stars from Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (2005)

“Brooklyn” – Creaky Boards from Brooklyn is Love (2008)

“Brooklyn” – Blue Train from No Free Lunch (2002)

See Songs About New York, Mix II

A good song doesn’t necessarily have to fit a format, especially when it comes to the time lapse of a song. However, the mega-obsessed music industry has pretty much trained millions of people for decades that a song between three to four minutes is the perfect cookie-cutter formula for a hit record. Huh.

There are plenty of songs that can make a big impact in two minutes or less, especially in the independent and alternative music arena. The following are a collection of songs that come in, do their thing and get out. Nothing wrong with that. But too much of a short thing isn’t always satisfactory, especially when it is something that you want to last longer.

Nevertheless, these songs each find their own way to make a short song work well. Included in this playlist are and the now disbanded Phoenix rockers The Format, the mostly unknown solo artist Super XX Man, the under-rated indie pop band Okay, 90’s alt band Bells Of and London’s new eccentric purveyors of pop Micachu and The Shapes .

“Closer” – The Format, unreleased (2007)

“Waiting For Your Return” – Super XX Man from Vol. IX (2000)

“Only” – Okay from Huggable Dust (2008)

“Star And Sun” – Bells Of from Two Dos Or Not 2 (1995)

“Lips” – Micachu and The Shapes from Jewellery (2009)

Other playlist series you might enjoy:

– The Great Unknowns
– The Songs of Spring
– Cover Me Indie Songs

Featured for this the last playlist for this particular series are Peter Von Poehl, Airborne Toxic Event, Stan Getz and Matt Pond PA. I’m so busy know with work and other things right now that there’s no time to write a ‘real’ review. Hopefully you’ll find these songs refreshing. Enjoy.

“Wombara” – Peter Von Poehl from May Day (2009)

“Something New” – The Airborne Toxic Event from s/t debut (2008)

“Spring Is Here” – Stan Getz from Jazz After Dark compilation (2004)

“Summer Is Coming” – Matt Pond PA from The Nature Of Maps (2002)

Mothers are recognized one day of the year, but their love, support and dedication are every day of the year. You know who you are. ;)

Since I like sharing thematic playlists of great music with you, and introducing music lovers to bands they didn’t know of previously, it’s appropriate to feature a Mother’s Day Playlist. Happy Mother’s Day.

“Mothers Of The Rodeo” – Iron & Wine from Rare & Unreleased (2002)

“Some Mother’s Son” – The Kinks from Arthur (Decline and Fall of the British Empire) from 1969

“My Mother Was A Chinese Trapeze Artist” – The Decemberists from Five Songs EP (2003)

“Good With The Mothers” – Melpo Mene, unreleased, year unknown

“Gold Star Mothers” – Hammock from Maybe They Will Sing For Us Tomorrow (2008)

“Mother and I” – The Wonder Stuff from The Eight Legged Groove Machine (1988)

“Oh Mother” – Mull Historical Society from Us (2003)

“Mother of God” – The Close Lobsters from Foxheads Stalk This Land (1987)

Spring is the time of year when you want to listen to more music – walk in the park with your favorite songs humming your ears, discover new music with your girlfriend (or boyfriend) and hang out at a BBQ party with friends to catch up on the latest and greatest new releases. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of songs about spring time, or that ‘sound like’ spring.

This playlist features songs from Club 8, The Flaming Lips, The Boy Least Likely To and Afternoon Naps.

“Spring Came, Rain Fell” – Club 8 from Spring Came, Rain Fell (2002)

“Sun Will Shine” – Akron/Family from Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (2009)

“Can’t Stop the Spring” – The Flaming Lips from Oh My Gawd…The Flaming Lips (1987)

“Argyle Spring” – Afternoon Naps from Sunbeamed (2009)

“A Balloon On A Broken String” – The Boy Least Likely To from The Laws of the Playground (2009)

The first playlist for Songs of Spring includes songs from Annuals, Spinning Wheels, Fancy Dress Party, The Postmarks and more. The upcoming Volume III will feature Airborne Toxic Event, Peter Von Poehl, Matt Pond PA and Stan Getz.

Photo from West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California

Almost everyone, and everything, celebrates the arrival of spring. It’s a time of rejuvenation, optimism, joy and warmer, longer days.

Plus, it’s an excuse to create a playlist featuring great indie and alternative songs about spring. This installment features Annuals, Spinning Wheels, The Fancy Dress Party, The Boy Least Likely To, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Postmarks.

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“Springtime” – Annuals from Such Fun (2008)

“Allergy Season” – Spinning Wheels from Master (2008)

“Egg & Spoon Race” – The Fancy Dress Party from Off The Beaten Tracks (2008)

“I Box Up All The Butterflies” – The Boy Least Likely To from The Law Of The Playground (2009)

“Sunshine and Clouds” – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah from s/t debut (2005)

“Winter Spring Summer Fall” – The Postmarks from s/t debut (2007)

The second installment of the Songs of Spring playlist series will feature tracks from The Flaming Lips, Akon/Family, The Airborne Toxic Event, Stan Getz and Matt Pond PA.

The roots of dream pop, if you will, are steep deep in the musical influences of psychedelic rock, post punk, shoegaze and increasingly, indie folk rock.

On Sunday, the first installment of the The Dream Playlist series was published, featuring songs from bands like Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Animal Collective and Odawas. Below are the songs for Vol. II of this series featuring bands and artists like The Magnetic Fields, Sore Eros, Bon Iver, Spirit Spine, Blind Man’s Colour and more.

“The Dreaming Moon” – The Magnetic Fields from Get Lost (1995)

“The Dream Self” – Sore Eros from Second Chants (2008)

“Babys” – Bon Iver from Blood Bank EP (2009)

“Gauze” – Red Red Meat from Gauze (2009)

“Beds” – The Octopus Project from The House of Apples and Eyeballs (2006)

“Vine Swinger” – Blind Man’s Colour from Hidders (2008)

“New Age” – Spirit Spine from s/t debut (2009)

“Harmonic Deluxe” – ISAN from Not Given Lightly (2009)

“Happy Chord Whore” – ISAN from Not Given Lightly (2009)

Animal Collective, and it’s members under different monikers, have been creating “dreamy” sounds for years and have been monumental popularizing this particular genre. Their latest classic release Merriweather Post Pavilion, is a prime example of their influence.

On the song “Also Frightened” the lyrical question “Will it be just like their dreaming?” – and variations of – is repeated over and over to great success. This first installment of the Dream Playlist series features all new songs from Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Spirit Spine, Bon Iver, Odawas, Loney Dear and ISAN. Oh, the songs are not necessarily about dreams per se, they just sound dreamy in some way or another.

“Also Frightened” – Animal Collective from Merriweather Post Pavilion

“Little Shadow” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs from It’s Blitz!

“Boy In The Yard” – Odawas from The Blue Depths (sorta sound like Fleet Foxes)

“One Reminder, An Empty Room” – The Appleseed Cast from Sagarmatha

The second installment of this series, The Dream Playlist, will be published soon.

Look out for a new playlist of songs that are about, or feel like, spring. Plus, another installment of the popular playlist series The Great Unknowns: Rarely Heard Classic Songs.

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