The Top 50 Greatest Landfill Indie Songs of All Time (2020)

re other genres I guess business techno would be an equivalent xps

every action having an equal and opposite reaction might explain the rise of the xx in 2009, ruining UK indie from the other direction

Galli-curci is good, as are many on that list, I can even appreciate Alessandro Moreschi. But the majority of the cylinders are of a much lower quality in terms of performance, technology and preservation.

― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

the phenomenon moreschi represents is, unsurprisingly, an interesting one to me... the whole thing was just super messed up. and the most messed up thing of all was that it was all just misogyny. as far as i'm aware prepubescent boys don't have any special vocal qualities girls don't. there was no reason for it.

I don't feel like Guillemots really count ITT. They were more like a less annoying UK(ISH) Arcade Fire than these swaggering schmindie blokes. I still have a big soft spot for 'Trains to Brazil'

I don't feel like Guillemots really count ITT. They were more like a less annoying UK(ISH) Arcade Fire than these swaggering schmindie blokes. I still have a big soft spot for 'Trains to Brazil'

― Do I look like I know what a jpeg is? (dog latin)

Trains To Brazil is such a great single. There's some good stuff on the debut album too. The second album was career suicide and they never recovered.

Oh not heard anything past the first album. How was it career suicide?

It was just a weird mix of styles, most of which didn't work. The hooks weren't as strong and it just seemed really unfocused and underwritten at times. The lead single, Get Over It gave them their biggest hit, but it's really jarring and miles away from Trains To Brazil and Made Up Love Song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJNe0AjNXrs

There's a handful of songs on there I'd save like the opener Kriss Kross and the second single, Falling Out Of Reach which was lovely.

the phenomenon moreschi represents is, unsurprisingly, an interesting one to me... the whole thing was just super messed up. and the most messed up thing of all was that it was all just misogyny. as far as i'm aware prepubescent boys don't have any special vocal qualities girls don't. there was no reason for it.

― Kate (rushomancy), Sunday, May 21, 2023 8:14 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

fwiw I think his voice does have a different quality about it - though perhaps much of this is due to the head voice he uses (which was standard at the time for opera singers.) Undoubtedly a great motivator for the continued existence of castrati was the culture/traditions of the vatican, moreschi was the maestro pro tempore of the sistine chapel choir, and his only recordings were made in the vatican.

okay finally went to dive into the playlist and fucking lol--- some of these aren't even available on us spotify! oh boy.

anyway, here we go...

guillemots are terrible, but i appreciate them for their shameless coldplay aspirations.

les incompetents sounds like someone successfully making fun of these kinds of bands. dreadful.

had to go over to youtube for the paddingtons and i regret every second. jfc.

(i'm not making it all the way through most of these btw. getting the cliche out of the way: THEY ALL SOUND THE SAME)

okay, i get what ya'll mean re: maximo park. "our velocity" sounds like they had an actual producer working with them. still not all the way my thing, but it at least sticks out (in a good way).

lol the editors. "riyl interpol"

"hounds of love" cover is vile.

I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY I HATE PETE DOHERTY

may regret this but: two door cinema club isn't that bad - one of the better things on here so far!

bromheads jacket are fucking awful. that is all.

"we'll live and die in these towns" is downright hilarious. i like it. "so bad it's good"

this mystery jets is admittedly terrible, but i like how it goes full twee: twinkly synths, big stupid chorus, and hey even some sax. maybe it's just that it has some variety in the arrangement and that's why it sticks out, but i don't mind it.

lol the cribs - "dude, johnny marr's new band!" oh dear. on the better side of this stuff, but still. sigh of disappointment.

WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON WITH THE SINGER IN BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB?? STOP THAT, FRIEND!!!

...sheesh, this stuff must be awful because "mardy bum" came on and i was like "oh that's not too bad!"

i remember reading a review of this kooks album (inside in / inside out) where the reviewer was really going to bat for them; "these lads are bringing something truly different to the scene and are surely the future of rock music" (paraphrasing). hoo boy, they sure do suck in retrospect.

aaahahahahahaha!! "fuck forever"!!! it's.... so, so terrible. still very tempted to vote for it. good times.

finally, the fratellis- meh, they suck. what's new?

really undecided on what to vote for. do i genuinely enjoy any of these songs? no. any enjoyment in this stuff always involves a bit of sardonic humor; even with the ones that aren't 'so bad it's good' i'm still enjoying it with a smirk.

Generator by the Holloways should have made the list. I remember Radio 1 calling it a song that it is impossible not to be lifted up by. Hehehe, one might say, but then it had the last laugh by semi-inventing Vampire Weekend.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bIC4V_DIrg

Yoooo

I like the 5 songs here I'm able to remember

good god, that interview. was that supposed to be cheeky!?

"did you ever call her katie manure?" ffs, how do you interview the kooks and come off the cuntiest cunt of the lot??

voted two cinema club btw.

two door cinema club soz

fwiw I think his voice does have a different quality about it - though perhaps much of this is due to the head voice he uses (which was standard at the time for opera singers.) Undoubtedly a great motivator for the continued existence of castrati was the culture/traditions of the vatican, moreschi was the maestro pro tempore of the sistine chapel choir, and his only recordings were made in the vatican.

― the world is your octopus (Camaraderie at Arms Length)

that's the damnedest thing, it's so fucking DARVO. we get called groomers but it's always been christian authorities who are the actual groomers.

sorry, i know we're supposed to be talking about how shit babyshambles are.

it's true that moreschi's voice is unusual. i can't think of any _physiological_ reason why this should be the case, though. my suspicion is that nobody sounds like moreschi today because, well, nobody really wants to!

I liked “Dakota” by Stereophonics. That doesn’t count as landfill indie?

Some more discussion on this list from a couple years ago:

the landfill that time forgot: crap uk bands of 00s/10s

good god, that interview. was that supposed to be cheeky!?

Yeah that was the Popworld style. This one arguably still crosses a line when it gets to the Melua stuff but it's one of Simon's more famous ones.

Landfill indie is just not a genre though....it's a pejorative term meaning "shitty example of a genre in which much shitty music was produced"--50 Shittiest Landfill Indie Songs makes some sense; 50 Best is just completely incoherent.

I suppose maybe 50 Least Shitty Landfill Indie Songs was deemed a little too uninspiring?

Oh, and _Up the Bracket_ is better than anything by the Strokes.

Oh, and _Up the Bracket_ is better than anything by the Strokes.

― gucci meme (theStalePrince)

I don’t even like the strokes but this is not even worth the discussion.

co-sign. libertines were always terrible. they make the strokes sound good.

(and i f'kn hate the strokes)

We did a 1000-post thread on this two years ago? Fucking hell lol

Oh wait, most of it was not from two years ago

Wow, there's a Boaby G skit on that thread I'd completely forgotten about.

As others have said I think "Mardy Bum" is a little out of place here. I voted for that but I have reluctant affection for the Mystery Jets and Two Door Cinema Club songs.

I recall liking a Glasvegas song that sounded a bit like Mazzy Star, but it's not the one on this list. Shout out to Jack Peñate who's done some writing for SAULT recently and is a big part of why Jessie Ware started her own musical career.

Incomplete list of actually-good UK guitar indie bands who began in the 00's:

Clearlake, Late Of The Pier, The Chap, My Computer, Youthmovies, Working For A Nuclear Free City, Electrelane, British Sea Power, Electric Soft Parade (their new album that came out 3 days ago = they've still got it!), The Cooper Temple Clause, Engineers, The Display Team, iLiKETRAiNS, Silvery, Field Music...

It wasn't all landfill around 'ere!

McLusky & 80s Matchbox are the two others that spring to mind. I think of Clearlake and Electrelane as being very late 90s but this is probably just an artefact of abandoning the UK in 2002.

Wild Beasts, Dutch Uncles, Esben & The Witch

I thought of McLusky but decided they weren't indie so much as noise-rock, underground, punk etc. Splitting hairs I know

Clearlake and Electrelane both began in 2000/01 I think - yeah, Electrelane's first single released in January '00 haha

Ahhhh ofc NickB

it IS notable though that most of these good bands are from either London, Brighton or up north. Landfill is very Midlands/Home Counties, discuss etc

I'll reluctantly allow Los Campesinos! if we're extending the Welsh any favours

Also Long Blondes and Clor are very much non-landfill

Wales are in this if Scotland are (which they are)

oh fuck, you've reminded me - Lapsus Linguae!! aaargh how could I forget haha

it IS notable though that most of these good bands are from either London, Brighton or up north. Landfill is very Midlands/Home Counties, discuss etc

― imago, Monday, 22 May 2023 07:54 (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this theory blown to bits by taking stock of just how very very many of these terrible bands are also from London, albeit like, certain parts of it (cough Shoreditch) i bet

It's also just generally bullshit. There were loads of great bands around here at that time, it's just none of them made it into the press. Plus most of your list I would say is bad and boring indie music! British Sea Power as a counter-example to landfill indie, really?

also early 2000s = sappy mawkish singer-songwriter stuff like Turin Brakes, there was plenty of that about.

Long Blondes were landfill-genre but far better than their contemporaries, love them

Babyshambles is fascinating to me only for being Shaggs-adjacent in their complete ineptitude, their rhythm section was always making the worst decisions and then executing these decisions poorly, it’s kind of amazing

I voted Larrikin Love because they somehow were proto- the next decade of landfill in a prescient way and I like their lyrics

Also obv I’m not going to listen to all these songs but I did listen to the Joe Lean song and it’s totally fine?

Is joe lean meant to be a reference to Jolene

It's also just generally bullshit. There were loads of great bands around here at that time, it's just none of them made it into the press. Plus most of your list I would say is bad and boring indie music! British Sea Power as a counter-example to landfill indie, really?

― emil.y, Monday, 22 May 2023 13:43 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

NAME NAMES

Landfill indie, btw:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmRSuTjLKaU

;)

I mean, to me that just sounds like dreary uninspired guitar music, so yeah? It is indie that I would throw into a landfill. Full disclosure: I only listened to the first four minutes before giving up, maybe something incredible happens during the next ten minutes?

I fast forwarded and can report nothing happened.

There's literally an extended noise jam at the end! PROGGE

Anyway the other bands I suggested are better and more exciting honest. Except the ones I crossed out lol

At what stage did Landfill Indie because a catch-all term for almost the entire decade of British indue as opposed to merely the likes of Milburn etc

The Display Team fall into my 'I love Cardiacs but can't find a way into their descendants' category. Iirc they were good at ABC I guess.

My Computer excellent as hell but I file them in the Max Tundra/Cursor Miner part of my mind

Late of the Pier fantastic but I have a weakness for most of the more d̷o̷n̷'̷t̷s̷a̷y̷n̷e̷w̷r̷a̷v̷e̷a̷g̷a̷i̷n̷ dance-oriented such bands of this period. Intimacy is Bloc Party's best!