Category: Top 10 Indie Rock Songs

The Top Ten Indie Songs playlist for February 2019 is different this time around.

Rather than posting a MP3 playlist, for this month we are using YouTube videos and audio files. The streaming playlist is still available on the Top Ten Songs page.

Foals’ topped the Top Ten Songs for February with the track (and video – below) “Exits” from the album Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost Part 1 (March 6th).

This playlist is also streaming now on our Spotify channel.

You can stream on our YouTube Channel as well. Enjoy and please like, follow, share – and always love each other!

March was a fantastic month for new album releases, and for the singles from those albums, which makes this preview of the top three songs from each week of March’s Top 10 Songs playlists, a real treat, not only because there is so much terrific music, but also because the playlists reflect which songs – out of nearly a couple hundred singles altogether – were the favorites of IRC listeners.

It turns out that there are actually five weeks (the first playlist starting on Feb. 26th and the last ending on April 1st) of Top 10 Songs for the month of March. This unusual outcome happens a few times a year because of overlapping weeks that include days from the previous month and from the following month (since Tuesdays are when most albums are officially released). That said, March started off with a bang. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke‘s musical side project, Atoms for Peace, produced the first No. 1 song of the month, “Default,” according to which songs were streamed and downloaded the most by IRC listeners.

Trailing close behind “Default,” the new single, “Blue Ice,” from Shout Out Louds‘ new LP, was only two ‘votes’ behind to finish in the No. 2 slot for the week. Also, The Smiths‘ guitarist Johnny Marr dropped his debut solo album – easily one of the best debut solo albums of the year – and captured the No. 3 position with the catchy pop rock single, “Upstarts.”

1. “Default” – Atoms For Peace from AMOK on XL Recordings (CD)
2. “Blue Ice” – Shout Out Louds from Optica (MP3 album)
3. “Upstarts” – Johnny Marr from The Messenger (CD)

View, listen to and download the other seven Top 10 singles for the week of Feb. 26th – March 4th, featuring more great songs from The Mavericks, Ivan & Alyosha, Deathfix, Gold Fields, and another from Johnny Marr.

March 5th – March 11th

The first full week of March, but technically the second week for March 2013 Top 10 Songs playlists – March 5th through March 11th – was dominated by one of our favorite artists of recent years, Treavor Powers, known by many as simply Youth Lagoon. The lead single, “Dropla,” from his swirling synth-centric sophomore album, Wondorous Bughouse, was, by far, the No. 1 song of the week. At quite a distant No. 2 was the magnificent single, “Good Friend,” from Cloud Cult‘s fresh release, Love, released by Earthology Records. Coming in at No. 3 was the terrific track, “See Me On My Way,” by the new-to-us indie band Superhuman Happiness. The Top 10 Songs for this week also include singles by artists and bands named after the artist (or a moniker that looks like a person’s name), as well as short, easy-to-remember band names like Hey Marseilles, Hollis Brown, Bill Baird, Helado Negro, Cy Dune, John Murry, and Water Liars.

1. “Dropla” – Youth Lagoon from Wondrous Bughouse on Fat Possum

Stream or download the rest of the Top 10 Songs for the week of March 5th – March 11th.

March 12th – March 18th

The return of David Bowie was the big news in music this week. This is also where the dilemma came in for us. Bowie is a commercial artist with extraordinary name recognition, so one can’t call him indie. However, one could equate him with being alternative. There are quite a few younger music lovers that are all into the alt. and indie rock thing, but don’t know who Bowie is. And yet his influence on today’s indie artists is enormous. He is one of the most cited names in music that bands who submit to IRC write down as a major influence on their music. On March 12th, Bowie released his first album in a decade, and the lead single, “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” immediately shot up to the top of the list to become the No. 1 song of the week, beating out by far the No. 2 song, “Window Sill” by Pickwick. Swedish indie pop band, The Mary Onettes, scored the No. 3 song of the week with their single, “Hit The Waves.”

1. “The Stars (Are Out Tonight)” – David Bowie from The Next Day (deluxe CD edition)

Listen to the full Top 10 Songs playlist for the week of March 12th to March 18th.

March 19th – March 25th

This week’s Top 10 Songs playlist highlights tracks from the Best New Music Releases post for the week, as well as the latest installment of the 5 DIY Bands to Watch, the Album of the Week from the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Suede’s first album in more than a decade.

The newest single, “Let The Day Begin,” from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, was by far the No. 1 song for the third week of March, beating out the No. 2 song of the week, “Just Make It Stop,” from Low‘s latest album, The Invisible Way, released by Sub Pop Records. After more than a decade without a new single, Suede demonstrated they’re still loved, capturing the No. 3 spot of the week with their new single, “It Starts and Ends With You.”

1. “Let The Day Begin” – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club from Specter At The Feast on Vagrant Records

View and listen to the rest of the most popular singles for the week of March 19th to March 25th via the Top 10 Songs page.

March 26th – April 1st

Even though we wrote a lukewarm review of The Strokes‘ new album, Comedown Machine (the raw, initial reaction to a band we’ve followed for over a decade), we’ve actually started to warm up to it more after repeated spins during the past week. That said, we still prefer the ‘old’ Strokes near perfect pop rock songs of yesteryear, and are therefore happy to see that one of the more traditional sounding tracks – “All The Time” – from Comedown Machine came out on top, by a huge margin, to become the No. 1 song of the week, bypassing Wavves‘ terrific new single, “Demon to Lean On,” which finished the week at No. 2.

Even more pleasing, simply because they were a new-to-us band, and their new album is amazing, was the fact that the band Little Green Cars‘ new single, “The John Wayne,” scored the No. 3 slot for the week to round out the top three songs for the last week of March 2013. While that trio of tracks is a great start, you’ll definitely want to listen to all of the Top 10 Songs of the week by clicking through to the Top 10 page, which now has all of the most popular singles for each week of March ready to stream and download. Plus, don’t forget to check out the original Best New Music Releases post playlist for the week, and in case you missed them, the latest installment of 5 DIY Bands to Watch (which was a hit with IRC listeners), as well as the Artist of the Week, Nathan Xander, and

1. “All the Time” – The Strokes from Comedown Machine (CD)

View and listen to the remaining songs for the last weekly Top 10 Songs playlist for the month of March 2013.

Compared to July, the quality and quantity of new album releases for the month of August 2012 went a long way in saving this summer from being a bummer for new indie rock music.

There are still two weeks of releases until summer officially ends on the fall equinox of September 21st. This is important because there are some big-time releases for September, including this week’s new albums from Animal Collective, Cat Power, Stars, Two Door Cinema Club, among others, and the upcoming new albums from Grizzly Bear, Band of Horses, The XX, The Vaccines, and many others that we’ll be telling you about in our upcoming Anticipated Fall Album Releases feature.

Back to August. There were some great albums dropped in August, in case you missed them, including releases from Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, Yeasayer, Bloc Party, Wild Nothing, Poor Moon, Divine Fits, Blonde Summer, Teengirl Fantasy, Dead Can Dance, and Bear Mountain.

Because of when August started and ended, there are a total of five week’s of Top Ten Songs playlists, with a little overlapping at the beginning with July and at the end with September. The Top Ten Songs playlists always span from a Tuesday to a Monday because Tuesday is the traditional day of the week that new albums are released in the United States. In the U.K. and many other parts of the world it is Monday.

August 28th – Sept. 3th

This week’s Top Ten Songs playlist mix is based on three separate posts – Best New Music Releases, Week of Aug. 28th, plus the latest Fresh Tracks mix and DIY Artist of the Week: Dalton.

But it was the spectacular new single from Divine Fits, “Would That Not Be Nice,” that beat out all of the competition for the No. 1 most streamed and downloaded song of the week. The new power pop single from The Raveonettes, “She Owns The Streets,” captured the No. 2 spot, followed by Cat Power‘s “Cherokee” at No. 3, and Wild Nothing‘s new track, “Paradise,” took the No. 4 slot. To round out the top five was Poor Moon‘s “Holiday.” Now that’s an impressive first half for any Top Ten Songs mix. The second half featured fresh album tracks from Matthew Dear, Teen, DIY artist Dalton, Richard Hawley and Dan Deacon, respectively. We were surprised to see Deacon’s off-the-wall techno dance trip out single, “Lots,” (No. 10) wasn’t higher up in the charts, but in the last four positions, there were often only one or two ‘votes.’

There are many other ‘keeper’ tracks from the three post playlist links above, so you might want to click through to each one individually. We try to make as many songs ‘keepers’ as possible – can’t satisfy all the people all the time, but if we can satisfy most of the people most of the time, that’s golden. Think of us as your new music filter because you don’t have time to go through hundreds of songs a month to pick out the best.

“Would That Not Be Nice” –Divine Fits from A Thing Called Divine Fits on Merge Records

“She Owns The Streets” – The Raveonettes from Observator – Sept. 11th

“Cherokee” – Cat Power from Sun

“Paradise” – Wild Nothing from Nocturne on Captured Tracks

“Holiday” – Poor Moon from Poor Moon on Sub Pop

“Headcage” – Matthew Dear from Beams on Ghostly International

“Electric” – TEEN from In Limbo on Carpark Records

“Breaker” – Dalton from Dalton EP

“Leave Your Body Behind You” – Richard Hawley from Standing At The Sky’s Edge on Mute

“Pieces of You” – Mad Planet from Ghost Notes on Planetary Fro Records

August 21st – August 27th

The last week of August, which often signifies the wind-down of summer for students and vacationers, for IRC included two main posts that were competing for the top singles of the week – a new Fresh Tracks playlist and the weekly Best New Music Releases. In the past, we would only count singles for the Top Ten Songs if there were part of the best new releases playlists. However, with efforts underway to include more Fresh Tracks and other such MP3 playlist posts, it only makes sense to also include those as well.

The last No. 1 single of the week, by only four ‘votes,’ was Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti‘s lead single, “Only In My Dreams,” followed closely at No. 2 by Yeasayer‘s new single, “Henrietta” from the new album, Fragrant World. Bloc Party’s new lead track, “So He Begins to Lie,” from their new album, Four, trailed Yeasayer by more than a dozen votes to grab the No. 3 spot. Three huge bands battled it out all week for the No. 1 spot, and APHG won. The No. 4 track for the week of August 21st, “No Sense,” is from a band we’ve never heard of before, Bailterspace. A buzz band of the past couple of years, Teengirl Fantasy, rounded out the top half of the playlist with their new single, “End.” The lower half of the Top 10 features new singles from Six Organs of Admittance, Grizzly Bear, Happy New Year,

“Only In My Dreams” – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti from Mature Themes on 4AD

“Henrietta” – Yeasayer from Fragrant World on Secretly Canadian

“So He Begins to Lie” – Bloc Party from Four

“No Sense” – Bailterspace from Machine on Fire Records

“End” – Teengirl Fantasy from Tracer on True Panther Sounds/R&S

“Waswasa” – Six Organs of Admittance from Ascent on Drag City

“Yet Again” – Grizzly Bear from Shields (pre-order) – out Sept. 18th

“Twins” – Happy New Year from Happy New Year on Brooklyn’s Crikey! Records

“Another Stitch” – Gregory Pepper and His Problems from Escape From Crystal Skull Mountain on Fake Four, Inc.

“Pyrakantha” – Balmorhea from Stranger – Oct. 2nd

August 14th – August 20th

Our main focus for this week was the three-day outdoor music festival, Outside Lands, which celebrated it’s fifth anniversary with one of the best lineups in its five years. Headliners on two main stages in San Francisco‘s Golden Gate Park included Neil Young, Metallica, Stevie Wonder, Jack White, Beck, The Kills, Franz Ferdinand, Andrew Bird, Passion Pit, Silversun Pickups, and many others. See our pre-fest post, plus our coverage of Day Two and Day Three.

The indie rock band, Black Pistol Fire, released their new album this week from which the lead single, “Crows’ Feet” topped all others to take the No. 1 song of the week. Due to a thin week of releases, this is the first time we are a couple of songs short of a full Top Ten list, but they’re still great songs.

“Crows Feet” – Black Pistol Fire from Big Beat ’59

“Opium” – Dead Can Dance from Anatasia

“Wild Light” – Wild Cub from Youth

“I Can’t Stand to Be Refused” – Height with Friends from Rock and Roll on Friends/Cold Rhymes Records

“Bombs and Bruises” – Black Pistol Fire from Big Beat ’59

“If I Left Tomorrow” – Simon Joyner from Ghosts on Ba Da Bing

“Alone” – Asteroid Shop from Distance Luxury

“#1 in Heaven” – MNDR from Feed Me Diamonds on Ultra Music

August 7th – August 13th

The first August No. 1 of 2012 goes to the new title track off the new album by Redd Kross, Researching The Blues. The band Niki and the Dove came in with the No. 2 song of the week – voted by all of you by your streams and downloads – with the single, “DJ, Ease My Mind.” The indie folk rock band Bear Mountain secured the No. 3 position of the week, followed at No. 4 by an artist to watch, Erik Blood. The catchy, memorable track, “Mallrats (La La La)” from the indie band The Orwells rounded out the Top Five with the No. 5 song of the week. The lower half of this week’s Top Ten Songs playlist features, in order, Permanent Collection, Kid Smpl, Ormonde, Birds and Batteries and Koko Beware.

“Researching the Blues” – Redd Kross from Researching the Blues

“DJ, Ease My Mind” – Niki and the Dove from Instinct

“Two Step” –  Bear Mountain from xo (self-released)

“Today’s Lover” – Erik Blood from Touch Screens (self-released)

“Mallrats (La La La)” – The Orwells from Remember When on Autumn Tone

“Escape Pod” – Kid Smpl from Escape Pod EP on Hush Hush Records

“Cherry Blossom” – Ormonde from Machine on Hometapes

“Let The Door Swing” – Birds and Batteries from Stray Light on Eightmaps

“Beach Babe” – Koko Beware from Something About the Summer (self-released)

July 31st – August 6th

The first No. 1 song of August 2012 went to Blonde Summer‘s new single, “Slow Days Fast Company.” The track is an uptempo indie pop anthem with jangling guitar riffs, echoey, reverb vocals, a catchy rhythm and a hook and infusion of airy synth layers that accompany the song’s climaxes- one of the finest ‘summery’ singles of the season. The relatively new band, Wildlife Control, released their self-titled, debut album, from which the lead single, “Analog or Digital,” took the No. 2 song of the week. Another fairly new band, Buttonhead, has the No. 3 track of the week with the single, “Champion Bread.” At No. 4 for the week is the new single, “Growing Pains,” from the band Junk Culture. Rising singer/songwriter Allen Stone’s lead single, “Sleep” from his self-titled, debut album, rounded out the Top Five at the No. 5 position. The lower half of the Top 10 features songs from NIKU, Shovels and Rope, The Black Swans, Sacred Caves and Jason Haywood, respectively.

“Slow Days, Fast Company” – Blonde Summer from Slow Daze EP

“Analog or Digital” – Wildlife Control from Wildlife Control

“Champion Bread” – Buttonhead from 3D Opera Whale

“Growing Pains” – Junk Culture from Wild Quiet
via MusicUnderFire.com

“Sleep” – Allen Stone from Allen Stone on ATO Records

“Broken Seashells” – NIKU from In the Tidelands

“Birmingham” – Shovels & Rope from O’ Be Joyful on Dualtone Records

“Basket of Light” – The Black Swans from Occasion For Song on Misra Records

“On The Outside” – Sacred Caves from Sanctuarium EP on hausKat Records

“The Longest Walk” – Jason Haywood from A Thousand Miles Since Yesterday

The last week of February had so many terrific new album releases that we had to create two installments of the weekly Best New Releases MP3 playlist series. That made it a little more challenging to extract the top song streams/downloads data to come up with this particular Top 10 Songs. Altogether, there were 30 MP3 album singles in Part One and Part Two.

It was predictable, and confirmed by the data, that the wildly popular single, “We Are Young,” by the band Fun, and featuring Janelle Monae, beat out all the other tracks – by a huge margin over the second top song – to take the No. 1 song of the week, as determined by IRC listeners.

“We Are Young” is an uptempo, almost epic, song that has become one of the first anthemic tracks of 2012, and propelled Fun and Janelle Monae, into the stratosphere where millions of music loveres who have never heard of either artists, are admirers, thanks mainly to the song being covered on Glee and featured in a heavily run car commercial.

“We Are Young” – fun. (featuring Janelle Monáe) from Some Nights

In fact, the track even shot up on the Billboard charts and was the number one MP3 download on Amazon. The album itself also shot up on the charts, and so far, has received over 50 reviews on Amazon with a rating of almost 5 stars. It’s rare for a recently released album to receive that many customer reviews.

The No. 2 most popular single of the week was “Museum of Flight” from Damien Jurado‘s new album, Maraqopa. As long-time fans of the talented singer/songwriter from Seattle, the release of Maraqopa marks a turning point for Jurado. The newest member of The Shins, long-time musician, engineer and producer Richard Swift, produced Marapoqa, which definitely gives the album even more of its luster, coupled with brilliant songwriting and instrumentation. The lead single is an excellent example of the album’s overall significance.

“Museum of Flight” – Damien Jurado from Maraqopa

Right behind Jurado by some 12 streams/downloads was the first single, “Oblivion,” from Grimes‘ 4AD debut, Visions.  With the release of this album, it’s not hard to see why Grimes is – Claire Boucher – was as well in 2011. Visions is a brimming with hazy, dreamy, and intoxicating electro-pop primed with heavy hooks, addictive beats, and the slick and layered vocals of Boucher. It’s really the kind of album you can – and probably will – play again and again without it becoming mundane.

To that point, Pitchfork called Visions “compulsively listenable,” Filter wrote that it “refuses to rest on its laurels,” and Q Magazine proposed: “you’ll have to search long and hard for a more original and distinctive album this year.” Not all the most read critics were as enthusiastic, but overwhelming, Visions has been widely acclaimed by critics and fans alike. Check out this interview with Grimes last week from the blog, Pigeons and Planes.  Grimes also placed No. 7 for the second single off her new album “Vowels = Space and Time.”

“Oblivion” – Grimes from Visions

At No. 4, is an artist who was one of our favorite new artists of 2010 – Wild Nothing. In 2009, in the small town of Blacksburg, Virginia, local musician Jack Tatum started experimenting with his own demo recordings under the moniker Wild Nothing. At a period when the C-86 revival was gaining steam, Tatum’s one-man band cover of Kate Bush‘s “Cloudbursting” got around on the web and indie blogs, and within a few months, Wild Noting was added to the roster of the indie label, Captured Tracks.

Soon after, Tatum was touring with a full band of four other members across the U.S., growing a loyal fan following and appearing in more influential blogs and magazine sites. But it was the release of Wild Nothing’s 2010 debut, Gemini, that really got things rolling. In short – it remains a masterpiece of shoegaze indie dream pop, especially since Tatum did almost all of the songwriting, instruments, and vocals himself. Gemini was present on the top albums of 2010 lists for dozens of publications and blogs, and it’s not hard to imagine it on the top albums for this decade – even though that’s a long ways off – in the year 2020.

Fast forward, or rewind, to now, and there is obviously anticipation building for Wild Nothing’s sophomore album. Word is that it will be out sometime later this year.  The two tracks featured on the newly released 7-inch double-single are “Nowhere,” and “Wait,” the latter of which is now available via Soundcloud.

“Nowhere” – Wild Nothing from Nowhere 7″

The Los Angeles pop indie rock/pop band, Princeton, return with the anticipated follow-up album to their brilliant 2009 debut,Cocoon of Love. The new release, Remembrance of Things To Come, follows in the tradition of the ban’s debut with the power pop hooks, chamber pop, dance-style beats, melodic synths, and the vocals. The title track is a complex arrangement that has a frantic pace to it, and also flourishes into full-on chamber, or orchestral, pop, triggering immediate comparisons to Sufjan Stevens; the instrumental moments in the song sound so much like Stevens that we would never believe that Princeton’s twin brothers Jesse (guitar, vocals) and Matt Kivel (bass, vocals) were not influenced by Stevens on that track – which by all means is a true “indie” hit, as proven by it’s No. 5 position on this Top 10 Songs playlist. They, like Grimes, also have two tracks on this week’s Top 10.

“Remembrance of Things to Come” – Princeton from Remembrance of Things to Come

The second half of the Top 10, in addition to other charted singles from Grimes (#6) and Princeton (#7), includes new singles from a solid group of talented artists such as Perfume Genius (who we profiled last year), plus Dirty Ghosts and Lambchop. We love listening to the Top 10 because IRC listeners pick their favorites from our favorites – pretty cool if you think about it.

“Hood” – Perfume Genius from Put Your Back N 2 It (Exclusive Amazon Version)

“Vowels = Space and Time” – Grimes from Visions

“Florida” – Princeton from Remembrance of Things to Come

“Shout It In” – Dirty Ghosts from  Metal Moon

“Gone Tomorrow” – Lambchop from Mr. M

Note: The Top 10 playlists for March are in the works. We appreciate that you guys understand the huge amount of work that goes into researching and producing the Top 10 Songs playlists, but it’s worth it because how many music sites offer in-depth, listener-determined Top 10 Songs playlists with free and legal MP3s.