Indie Music Universe

Amazon.com has released a list of The 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time on their website.

For the purposes of compiling the list they decided to use a combination of hard and fast rules and gut instinct.  Here are the four rules they used for their selections:

• One album per artist.
   
• No EPs or singles, this list is about albums.
   
• No greatest hits collections or compilations of previously released tracks.
   
• Nominations must have been originally released on an independent label. Albums released on indies which were later acquired and/or re-released by majors are allowed (like Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation, originally released by a pre-1989 major label merger Enigma Records).

Amazon has also set up a discussion forum, which allows visitors to voice their opinions about the list.  Naturally, there are customer disagreements (and surely there will be more), but this is a great starting point for music fans looking to get into the world of indie rock.

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Popularity: 21% [?]

The indie hip hop group, Atmosphere, is no stranger to the music industry.  The Twin Cities duo, consisting of an MC named Slug (Sean Daley) and a producer named Ant (Anthony Davis), has released six albums, 11 Sad Clown tour albums, and various side-projects like Felt – amounting in well over a million units sold. In addition, the group has also performed to sold-out crowds everywhere from modest sized venues in their hometown to colossal festivals in Japan. They are no doubt one of the most commercially successful and long-lived independent hip hop acts.

As Rolling Stone once gushed about Slug, "This Minneapolis indie rap hero has potential to spare, delivering taut, complex rhyme narratives with everyman earnestness." Or as the Village Voice once wrote of Ant, "His dusty grooves are hooky and R&B-informed, and even when they back up Slug's most maniacally depressed rhymes, they never feel heavy-handed."

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Popularity: 12% [?]

Neko Case rides the ‘Cyclone’
by James Reed

Let’s talk about that album cover. On the front of "Middle Cyclone," Neko Case is in full-on battle stance. Squatting on the hood of an old Mercury Cougar and gripping a long sword, the singer-songwriter looks like a cross between a flame-haired chanteuse and a medieval warrior staring down an invading army. Bring it on. She’s ready.

It’s a jarring image, but when you hear her new songs, the artwork comes into focus. Case is indeed ready for battle on the new album – to reclaim dormant childhood memories and face her need to be loved.

"Middle Cyclone," which is out tomorrow, is by far Case’s most quixotic album, and that’s saying a lot considering the abstract ideas behind her last studio album, 2006’s "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood." Yet it’s also the most revealing and rewarding work in a 12-year recording career that has seen Case evolve from an alt-country siren to a singular songwriter as capricious as a weather vane.

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Popularity: 9% [?]

Going to be in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area this weekend?  You may want to head on over to the Paid Dues Independent Hip Hop Festival on Saturday, March 28th at the National Orange Show Event Center if you’re a hip hop fan.

Paid Dues is a new urban event presented by Murs 3:16 in association with Guerilla Union. There’s a vibrant rap scene with advanced lyricism, stinging political commentary and quality DJ performances that continues to flourish in a seemingly parallel universe, largely shunned by the mainstream media.

Paid Dues allows artists ample time to play full live sets. Usually, artists will only have enough time to play a few songs at your favorite radio stations’ music festival or Summer Jam. Paid Dues allows its artists/bands to play all their favorite songs and even some new material. There will be some awesome groundbreaking music at this year’s show. There will be no "short" sets.

Here’s the lineup for the ‘09 festival:

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Two popular indie artists, Neko Case and Andrew Bird, are scheduled to perform at Lollapalooza 2009, which will take place on August 7-9, 2009 at Grant Park in Chicago.

Neko Case (http://www.nekocase.com) is an American alternative country singer-songwriter, best known for her solo career and her contributions as a member of the Canadian indie rock group The New Pornographers. Case’s third fully solo album of original material, Middle Cyclone, was released on March 3, 2009. Middle Cyclone debuted at #3 on the Billboard charts in its first week of release, making it Case’s first album ever to reach the Top Ten in the United States.

Andrew Bird (http://www.andrewbird.net) is an American musician, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Bird’s fifth solo album, Noble Beast, was released on January 20, 2009, and contained fourteen new songs, with bonus tracks available for download from iTunes and eMusic.

Early Bird tickets for Lollapalooza go on sale March 31st.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Not only does Maria Daines make rock for the good times, blues for the bad, and music for the soul, she also sings for a very worthy cause — animal welfare.

Hailing from Cambridgeshire, UK, the Maria Daines band formed in 1996 becoming a fixture of the live music scene & making several TV appearances, garnering fans in over 20 countries and recently winning awards including best artist in the International Online Music Awards 2006 & 2007. Frequently aired on BBC radio and FM stations, the band supported US artist Pink at Cardiff International Arena for the Party For Animals World Wide in August 2007. This concert raised over $130,000 for six animal welfare charities.

Maria communicates her profound sympathy for the very real and deeply feeling awareness of animals with undeniable, irresistible conviction. There is no question that she, along with her guitarist and fellow music writer, Paul Killington, is the voice for the helpless and hopeless animals of the world through her incredible musical talent.

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Popularity: 86% [?]

by Erick Schonfeld
TechCrunch.com

The concept of building a Digg for music has been tried before (see Contrastream or iJigg), but a music streaming site called thesixtyone is the closest I’ve seen so far to getting the formula right. It features only about 50,000 tracks self-uploaded by indie artists and music labels, but visitors can listen to the full stream of each track and vote their favorites up the rankings by hitting the "heart" button. The results are highly listenable playlists by genre, tag, or just what’s hot right now.

The key to making the site work, however, is not simply the Digg-like voting system. By now, that is becoming a pretty common feature (even the Hype Machine uses hearts) and is fairly easy to manipulate. The voting on thesixtyone is combined with some concepts learned from video games. Listeners cannot just indiscriminately heart up any song they want. They are given a limited number of heart points on a daily basis. More points can be earned for identifying good music early or recruiting friends to the service. Songs can only be given positive heart points, however. They can’t be demoted for being really bad. But the fact that the number of points are limited means in theory that only the most deserving songs will get enough to make it to the home page or the top of any given category.

Read more on TechCrunch…

Popularity: 5% [?]

by Erikka Innes
SF Indie Music Examiner

 
The talented acting, singing, music writing duo known as Bishop Allen released their 3rd album today. The new album, titled ‘Grrrr’ features more of this pair’s signature slightly nasal, unique vocals, folky pop sound, and often amusing lyrics.

Their new album has flashes of brilliance and also its moments of ho-hum. Some tracks take awhile to get going. For example in the song ‘Dimmer’ it takes around 55 seconds before the dramatic, memorable lines appear: ‘I would choose the darkest horse. That’s the horse I’d ride.’

However, other songs are amazing start to finish. Track 6, ‘The Ancient Commonsense of Things’ is brilliant. It has a low-fi feel and the chorus ‘oh oh the ancient common sense of things’ accompanied by what sounds like xylophone will stay in your head for weeks. (In a GOOD way.)

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Popularity: 8% [?]

By Ryan Pearson, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES – Producer lends beats to seminal hip-hop album, then tries the solo route.

Kanye West faced long odds when he did it five years ago, turning from Jay-Z’s "The Blueprint" to his own "The College Dropout." Now longtime friend 88-Keys is trying to walk in West’s shoes – with a little boost from West himself.

The New York-based musician, whose real name is Charles Njapa, was in Los Angeles recently to meet with West. At the video shoot for their humorous single, "Stay Up (Viagra)," both men donned prosthetic makeup to make them appear in their 80s, then drove around the city in a limo with video vixens.

They looked ridiculous but that’s the point. Keys says he’s trying to bring a sense of lighthearted fun to a genre that can get bogged down in negativity. And West seemed ready for something silly after the serious themes of his last album, "808s & Heartbreak."

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Popularity: 7% [?]

On Saturday, March 14th, the 2009 Independent Music Award winners from Canada’s Annual International Music Convention were announced.

The Indies, as this event is called, celebrates the best in independent music. Nominees are selected by committees of industry professionals from all areas of the music scene and winners are decided by a combination of public and industry voting.

Here’s the list of winners: Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 9% [?]