When doing research for my main assignment in music history January 2009, I noticed that there weren’t really any thorough articles on indie music online. My local library held no books on the subject, and not even the best music encyclopaedias had articles or notes concerning it. I realised that this was due to the novelty that indie really is. Indie as we know it today started about the same time as the new millennium. Actually, it would be fair to call the 2000s the decade of indie, both musically and stylistically.
The lack of previous literature landed me more work but it also provided me with freedom when writing about indie. I could group bands into genres and name them as I pleased. Readers may well disagree with my theories, but I personally think they make sense.
A great year for music has come to an end and, unlike most other people, we’ve managed to wait until the year is actually over to publish our lists of best albums. I mean, what if someone got the crazy idea of releasing an insanely great album a few days before new years eve? Not that it happened, as far as I know, but that’s really not the point.
Ok, so we’re entering a freezing cold season (at least for us Norwegians) and with that I feel there’s kind of a natural urge to put away all that dancy and upbeat summer music and put on some love songs that can keep you warm through the winter. I’ve made you a little spotify playlist to help with the transition.
The Swedish indie pop band Heart-Sick Groans have, with the help of a bunch of students from a Danish drawing academy, made a really cool music video for their song “Three Day Blow,” which will be featured on their upcoming EP Gentlemen, If you aint right, get right.
The video has a very DIY-feel over it and is downright charming, though I must say that the faces of the paper dolls kind of creep me out. Well, take a look yourself. The video is cool and the song is nice and catchy.
While everything else, including girls, have come and gone, Yo La Tengo has stayed. Since I started listening to them in the end of eighth grade, Yo La Tengo has always been there for me. They have always been my reliable source of good music, never ever disappointing me. I can with proud heart say that I’ve never heard a Yo La Tengo-song I really dislike.
Lawrence Arabia is a one-man-show and behind the name there’s a New Zealander by the name of James Milne. And no, believe it or not, he didn’t have anything to do with The Lord of the Rings. I think? I’ll have to check that up.
Vampire Weekend have been a fresh contribution to the music scene with their unique classic and african inspired music. The music world was taken by surprise with their self-titled debut in 2008, which gained broad acclaim followed by many festival appearances. Now, they’ve released a second full-length, and it will be interesting to see if this album is a worthy sophomore effort, or just a rashful effort to cave in on fame to finance a posh dame.
It’s cold now. Really cold. So cold that there’s just one thing that can thoroughly thaw our frozen bodies; ukulele pop. It’s most likely a sound you associate more with summertime, but honestly, don’t we need it more right now?
With the conclusion that the people who didn’t end up liking them after the previous album wouldn’t change their minds with the next one anyway, Now We’ve Got Members have decided to screw those people and rather make even more obscure music.
Spoon Train Audio are here with another Oslo compilation, showing yet again how much great music the capital’s independent pop scene has to offer. There’s been a lot of talk about Bergen being the musical capitol of Norway, but for every time I play through Oslo 2, it gets clearer and clearer that Oslo really is the capitol of Norway, musically too.
I remember a Facebook group named something like “Since when did Indie Rock refer to pussies afraid of amps?” Here’s a band that should crush such beliefs. Oliver Ackerman and his band aren’t exactly afraid of amps. Just like their first album, this one is full of noise, distortion and fuzz on every level. Even the drums are distorted.
Kråkesølv is the band I’ve been waiting for for a long time now. They are the fresh breath I needed. Their complex songs are sort of a mix of post-rock, 90’s emo (bands like Mineral, The Van Pelts and Cap’n'Jazz, not the newer kind) and contemporary bands like Death Cab For Cutie. Add in some vocals in a Norwegian dialect and you have something really magical.
Mumford & Sons is a quartet from london playing their own blend of gospel, bluegrass, british folk music and the modern folk rock. It’s anthemic, with a lot of sound, filled with big drums, acoustic guitar and dramatic volume changes. It often goes from complete silence to an explosion of sound, with banjo, brass, drums and vocal harmonies almost big as a choir. Marcus Mumford’s singing is both warm, calm, soaring and screaming.