April was a particularly exciting month for anticipated and big-name artist releases, as well as for some surprise drops by new and on-the-radar indie rock bands.
The kick-ass new single, “Taking Me Back,” from Jack White‘s latest album, easily made our No. 1 spot. Two decades on, White’s power as a force for rock music around the globe is unmistakable. Once the unofficial frontman of indie/alt guitar rock, White has since become a global phenomenon and an A-list rock star.
“Taking Me Back” proves that White can still apply his searing White Stripes-battle riffs with new ideas and concepts.
Plus, check out the other indie rock gems from The Smile; Silverbacks; DITZ; Kurt Vile (yes again); Built to Spill (still got it!); KEG; Viagra Boys, IDLES and another 2022 sensation: Wet Legs.
Entertainment Weekly’s editors featurethe ‘Indie Rock 25’, profiling albums from 1984 (apparently the ‘beginning of indie’) to present, including classics from The Hold Steady, The Replacements, Yo La Tengo, The Pixies, Spoon, Pavement, Built to Spill, and The White Stripes to name a few.
Some of the choices are questionable, not for being selected, but for their position in the ranking. For example, why is Radiohead’s In Rainbows given the No.1 spot on the list? (Modest Mouse’s stunning Lonesome Crowded West release is buried in the list at No. 12, just to name one aberration).
Afterall, Radiohead’s In Rainbows has been out less than six months, the band pissed off a lot of fans back in October for what was considered a dubious ‘first release’ and there are many other albums on this list that are well-oiled classics – truly landmark albums that have etched themselves in to the history of ‘indie rock’ – and beyond – to a greater degree than In Rainbows has or ever can.
Lastly, Radiohead has become so commercialized as an entity in the past year that I would argue they no longer fit into the ‘indie rock’ genre to begin with.
Nevertheless, there are still some good choices on this list, just their position on the list is highly question, even head-scratching.
Indie music fans in south Florida are already arriving in south Florida for this weekend’s Langerado Festival.
The 2008 Langerado Festival has a hot lineup for a relatively little-known music fest (compared to Lollapalooza, Coachella and Bonnaroo). During the next few days, IRC will highlight some of the headlining aritsts for Langerado 2008, including links and embeds of videos from the 08 festival performances as soon as they are available. Today’s featured Langerado artist is Sound Tribe Sector 9(STS9). While they haven’t released a new album in nearly three years (Artifact, 2005), the band has toured so much in recent years that fresh material doesn’t seem to matter.
STS9, the dub-happy jam band from Georgia that has had a loyal following for a decade now, but only really broke through with Artifact (and relentless concerts and fest appearances) will take the stage on Friday, March 7, 2008 from 1 am to 4am (I double-checked it and that’s what the schedule says).
The website iClips.net will stream the STS9 set and many other sets from all four days of the festival according to its website. So, you can bet there will be updates about that as more information and times come in. If you can’t make it to Langerado, you might be able to get a lot closer with the continued advances in Internet technology!
In the meantime, here’s a YouTube clip of STS9 performing “Aimlessly” at Langerado 2007:
Here’s a popular video of STS9’s David Phipps using the DIY 8×16 monome controller of “Be Nice”. (monome.org).
MP3 – Sound Tribe Sector 9 – Be Nice
For anyone who was, or was not, at Red Rocks 2007 in Colorado, here’s a great video performance that represents the band at its best performing a six-minute jam session.
The band also played at ACL Fest 2007 (in searing heat and dripping humidity) – here’s a short, but excellent quality video of the band jamming at ACL 07 (not sure what the tune is though; some of STS9 music is improvised or spin-offs of songs in their catalog – which is surprisingly small).
Stay tuned to IRC for artist profiles, YouTube video performances from Langerado 2008, MP3s, blog reviews, photo galleries and more.
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