5 Indie Rock Bands Your Girlfriend Will Like
The boundaries of the indie music genre are stretched so wide that two different indie performers can sound completely unique. Anyone, who makes original music, automatically becomes an indie musician. The big plus of this is that you can always find a song to your taste. Let your girlfriend listen to these five bands, and you’ll no longer have to quarrel over what music to listen to on a car trip.
1) Beirut
Their music is pretty difficult to characterize. Of course, this is indie folk, but it’s impossible to tell which musical tradition dominates in their works. The thirst for travel has brought the band’s lead singer Zach Condon to Europe, where he fell in love with Balkan brass music and gypsy folklore. That’s how the band got its branded rhythms and recognizable brass. Later, Condon visited French Brittany, and Beirut’s songs acquired some French chanson notes. Mix all these musical traditions with a pinch of ukulele and Condon’s distinctive vocals – and you’ll get the idea of what Beirut is.
Their work is a great journey from city to city, from country to country. This makes their albums sound different but with recognizable features. Strictly recommended to those, who love good brass, excellent music, and traveling.
2) Mac DeMarco
Indie rock does a much better job uniting people than dating apps. And Mac DeMarco unites people with different music tastes within the indie genre. He’s a guy with a very strange relaxing music and no less strange outlook on life. His style has something from surf-rock and a little bit of The Doors, but at the same time, his music hard to confuse with other bands’ works. Even DeMarco himself doesn’t know which genre he belongs to. And what do critics do when a musician plays non-mainstream music and is less popular than Kanye West? They call this artist an indie musician. So they did with Mac.
3) Chad VanGaalen
This man makes music not everyone can understand and appreciate. But if you listen to at least one of his songs and like it, you’ll become obsessed with what he does. Chad is also an artist, although his pictures and animations raise even more questions than his songs.
In addition, VanGaalen is the author of a hymn to infernal indie which now has dozens of covers by other bands. We’re talking about “Molten Light.” Simple in its structure, it bewitches with its demonic accordion, disturbing chords, and a music video created by Chad.
4) The Smiths
If it weren’t for The Smiths, indie-pop we know today wouldn’t exist. At least that’s what the band’s fans say. And it’s not even because of Morrissey’s poetry. It’s all about the laconic, catchy guitar parts by Johnny Marr, who managed to create a really exciting underground sound. The band broke up in 1986, but their music is still loved. Marr and Morrissey continue to work in the genre separately.
5) Pixies
Start signing ‘where is my mind…’ – and everyone, from a 50-year-old clerk to your pen pal from a Ukrainian dating service, will recognize the song. The world is divided into those, who call Pixies an alternative band, and those, who believe that they belong to the indie genre. Given that the line between these genres is very, very thin, we think Pixies deserve a spot on this list, especially since they made a huge contribution to the development of indie music.
David Bowie said that this is one of the most underrated bands in the history of music. After a lot of wonderful songs, reunion, and entering hipster music library, most people know Pixies only as a band that wrote the soundtrack to Fight Club. It’s a pity. They should’ve got much more recognition at least because of surrealistic texts about mental illnesses, UFOs, insects, and endless allusions to avant-garde works.