Rolling INDIE 2021

Or I guess it's really an EP. But it's good. Gorgeous sax playing on it among other things.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SxE2Hr64pY

thanks for posting that track - i had only listened to the spoken word cut (which i really couldn't stand) and this is much more alluring

The spoken word one works in the flow of the record I think. The vibe of it all reminds me a little of Astral Weeks, minus the Celtic mysticism but with the musical fluidity.

the cassandra jenkins album (it's short at 31 minutes and 7 tracks but that's still enough to be an album and it's being called that) is fantastic. absolutely sublime sophisti-folk. i didn't really connect with "hard drive" (presuming this is the spoken word one sean is talking about?) when i first heard it on its own but it works so much better in the context of the album. the arc of the songs slowly dissolving into ambience across the course of the album is wonderful.

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

extremely recommended for fans of kaputt

the arc of the songs slowly dissolving into ambience across the course of the album is wonderful.

Yeah that’s a good description. The final instrumental track is gorgeous, instead of tacked-on it feels like a culmination or coda.

Just now getting around the Goat Girl myself, I did this. I'm not sure what I expected, but this is more Stereolab-ish than I expected, in a rather good way!

Nightshift from Glasgow are a female vocal outfit with a postpunk pop sound. Byron Coley hears some Athens, Ga in their sound which I don’t. More Delta 5 and Shopping. New effort Zoë is on Bandcamp

wish i could get into the cassandra jenkins but asmr shit makes my skin crawl and i can't take the mouth noise close mic shit

seems like it's good music though

my wife was like "is this aimee mann?" which i thought was a pretty sick burn, still like it tho

the new nana yamato album is interesting stuff, her song "fantasy" sounds like if a mary timony band had a drum machine and nico on lead vocals

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCe_g-RRBhY

Speaking of Mary Timony, she’s doing a virtual show March 4 for the re-release of her Mountains first solo album. It’s a paid event with link on her Bandcamp

I like this Really From album. Neo-post-rock? Post-post-rock? They're interesting. (And are in the category of hard-to-Google bands, so I can't even tell if they've been discussed on ILM.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyOtw2hD55w

I think I mentioned it on the emo thread. some really cool stuff going on though it does feel a tad frontloaded to me

That may be, it's one of those albums I've put on and let run a few times, so I can't swear I've paid attention all the way through. The last track is good, tho.

this might be my favorite album of the year so far, super fuzzy indie-pop from a 21-year-old Australian woman i'd never heard of until a month ago:

https://fritzmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pastel-2

Oh nice, I've been on a Frankie Rose kick all weekend and, while this doesn't sound identical or anything, it's where I'm at right now.

Yeah this Fritz album is good! Thanks for that. Tuneful shoegaze/dreampop with winsome vocals is pretty much my jam.

Yeah I've really been liking that album the last coupe of weeks! If you're into "tuneful shoegaze/dreampop" don't miss the Jetstream Pony album from last year, one of my favorites that this Fritz album reminded me a bit of.

https://jetstreampony.bandcamp.com/album/jetstream-pony

Some of this Fritz very nearly fills the Alvvays-shaped hole in my life, but still I hunger for a follow-up to Antisocialites.

totally. well said.

i bet it's not too far off.

i don't know why any band of any real size would release an album right now vs. waiting till they can tour again. not saying that's the case w/ Alvvays, but you have to think they're probably getting close w/ LP3.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C_tFlCkWVM

new mannequin pussy is great

stuff like this is why tiktok is the best app pic.twitter.com/dasGE6f2o3

— chet porter (@chetporter) March 23, 2021

I guess this thread is as good as any for Ethel Cain, she crosses a lot of boundaries — dream-pop emo with a SoundCloud overlay? I like both tracks so far from the forthcoming EP. Also went back to last year’s Golden Age EP, which is more atmospheric and a bit less pop than this, also very good. She’s interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnEJZC8hQ18

what is a SoundCloud overlay? i don't know what that means.

She’s absorbed some of the production and aesthetic of SoundCloud rap. Her other recent single “Michelle Pfeiffer” features actual SoundCloud rapper Lil Aaron, though not rapping per se.

“michelle pfeiffer” is a banger, it’s true

New Reds, Pinks & Purples is lovely, sort of like a lost Television Personalities album

https://theredspinksandpurples.bandcamp.com/album/uncommon-weather

i don't think songs hit me as hard as the ones on last year's "you might be happy someday" but it still rules and i listened to it 3x in a row today

the strongest tracks on both are the ones with the most new order in their veins

wow. that was lovely. just the type of pretty bedroom guitar indie I was looking for. if you liked the previous better then I think im going to go through the discography backwards now because that was great

I agree, nice album. I liked the EP last year too. It all sounds a bit the same imo, but it's a sound I like.

this is nothing I haven't heard before, but it is exceptionally comforting and really enjoyable

I was on the fence until the modulations at the end

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvQCWX8w_Yw

The new Blair EP is good. Don't know much about them.

https://blair123xyz.bandcamp.com/album/tears-to-grow

Too sluggish and "wait, here's the loud part" for me, but in my old age I'm fine letting people like what they like.

This is from January, but I only found it about a month ago and it's been in constant rotation since

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fPik8hkSOw

The full Ethel Cain EP is out and is good, though I think the singles remain the standouts. I'm still not really sure how to classify her emo/shoegaze/SoundCloug/grunge with area aspirations, but she's pretty interesting. If she really releases the two-hour opus she tells Pitchfork she's working on, I'll listen at least once, maybe more.

Maybe SoundCloug is the right way to describe her ...

I don’t know if this belongs on rolling indie but I don’t really know which other of the rolling threads it may fit too:

https://open.spotify.com/album/3eZAhywJmUNwvJuiIvD0Nd

Dora Jar, really impressive debut EP. “Quiver” in particular is one of the songs I can’t stop looping.

the new half waif is a fuckin banger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mgdrBbv8Lk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oq-lvTXf3s

love the new Faye Webster - there's some Rilo Kiley to it but the bass and synth flourishes are brawny

"Indie" is probably nowhere near the best category for this one, but since we don't have a rolling 2021 garage or psych thread and I don't think it's quite worthy of it's own thread just yet, I want to give a shout out to the Grave Flowers Bongo Band record on Castle Face. Produced by Ty Segall, it's a nice little burst of psych-pop garage rock with a tinge of krautrock tossed in.

For like the maybe three people on this board who've ever discussed The Preatures, Isabella Manfredi's first solo single came out this week. She still seems like the transglobal long-lost Haim sister, but song is a proper bop. I love the synth sound choices (wiggly and farty).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGyn7L5KUoQ

Do we have a rolling indie/twee/jangle thread for 2021? This is comically generic, but the sun is out and it is pressing my buttons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3NPI1-s43I

I have overlooked both Jay Som and Palehound to this point, but I like the Bachelor album. This one's especially catchy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQihAil8-s0

i like both of them but after listening to this album ^ a bunch (for a review) i have decided that Ellen Kempner is a killer songwriter

After an 8 years hiatus, a new Freelove Fenner album:

https://freelovefenner.bandcamp.com/album/the-punishment-zone

In love with the new Lightning Bug album, I think it belongs here? Seems their last album was more of a "show me a NEW shoegaze band" thing but this one sorta pulls a Mojave 3. "The Right Thing is Hard to Do" and "I Lie Awake" especially lovely.

https://lightning-bug.bandcamp.com/

and turns out the former has a pretty video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_06I-c73_8

really nice, thanks

sloppy jane album is a fun bit of intricate baroque pop, gleefully over the top (gong hits, string quartets, the works)

oh didn't know there's a new one! I loved the last one, will check it out.

yeah the indigo de souza album is great

i don't really hear the nilufer yanya comparison though, yanya's doing something much more distinct with her sade+pixies+post-punk thing while this is a pretty typical sort of us indie rock

saw a p4k article on water from your eyes, checked 'em out, and they actually seem sorta great. ambitious fuzzbombs with sadier/melody echio's chamber-style vocals. the noisier they get, the more i like them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWJ11XodSlM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6C3cRd0-zk

annoyingly, their 2021 album has songs called "quotations" and ""quotations,"" it's the former that i like, tho the latter is interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB6kbkgA31A

Doesn't look like there's a 2022 indie thread nor anywhere else it seems appropriate to post this, but the new Florist album is gorgeous and will appeal to fans of Big Thief, The Microphones, and presumably Emily Sprague's past work, though I've only dipped my toes in

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/florist-florist/

Really like both of these quite different songs by Disq, a band I had never heard of before I heard Cujo Kiddies on the radio
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3sYUKm2YK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwjCKeggYXk

anyone here dig flasher? punchy, easygoing, indie comfort food with some solid hooks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9Hkt_KtleM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu2gxtXAoUA

Flasher <3 <3 <3

Brilliant band. I don't think I like the new one as much as the punkier Constant Image but it's solidly enjoyable nonetheless.

well of course there's no 2022 indie thread, indie died with trust fund

but then it came back!!!!!!

https://trustfund.bandcamp.com/track/capital?from=fanpub_fnb_trk

Love this song:

https://hazysourcherry.bandcamp.com/track/i-wanna-kill-your-girlfriend

https://surfacetoairmissive.bandcamp.com/album/shadows-leap

Let's get our hearts broken again

also impossibly lovely and only 20 minutes long: this

https://denizenrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mouth-a-jar

shades of Scott Miller, Bob Drake and even Cardiacs in amongst the more regular power-pop sounds

enjoying this new Sobs record. power pop forever

Yeah, it's good... though except for a hyperpop-ish coda in one song, it's so explicitly 1990s-sounding that you'll feel the Crystal Pepsi make your teeth hurt (or whatever cliched metaphor you prefer).

We've been talking about the Momma album (Household Name) in the "Sounds that sound like the '90s" thread – but want to mention it here too, as I've been listening to it daily since discovering it there. Yes, they sing kinda like Veruca Salt (a stated influence), and reference a few Pavement and Smashing Pumpkins songs in the lyrix... but it's not just a nostalgia exercise, the songs are so good!! I'm really into this album.

(btw – Tracks 2 and 9 are the highlights)

I've been enjoying Vancouver band Dumb, who were mentioned in the Best-Of 2022 thread (for this year's album, Pray 4 Tomorrow). They are total early–Parquet Courts clones; their band name suxx; and they don't really have "songs" (more in the way of cool jams)... but they sound great!

Would appreciate recs of other bands on a similar tip...

They are definitely masters of their craft.

Heard this playing in a store, looks like it came out last year; it's not really "indie," more just standard throwback rock, I guess... good tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9rQuAWoRPM

The Heavy Heavy - Miles and Miles

dead meat by the tubs is really good - jangly but propulsive, angry but catchy. really like the vocals, which the bandcamp page compares accurately to richard thompson.

I like this new "Blondshell" album – apparently she's an L.A. local who was doing pop stuff under a different name, then shifted to '90s-style rock.

"Tarmac" is top track:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71y4IS2dMa4

the description of an l.a. native who switched from indie to pop was not very inspiring, but gotta say i'm impressed with the blondshell album! some lovely melodies and production touches, like the high, ny dolls-esque piano that rings through "salad," and the choruse...well, they pop

Turns out she's actually an NYC native, and moved to L.A. to study music.

ok i guess that explains it

(I'm not sure if it explains anything, lol... just wanted to flesh out the backstory, as I had originally posted "L.A. local" and then learned more)

really like this new rvg record. well-produced, and well-written set of '80s alternative inspired rock music. it's post-punk at times, cure at times, sometimes will touch on psychedelic furs. the most striking song on the record is "squid," which is a fun and sinister bit of camp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAEevfmZSr4