Favorite Bands

• The Flaming Lips - Weird/eclectic rock? If you can listen to Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots without being overcome by one of the emotions present on that album in great quantity, you must be dead. Their most recent album, At War With the Mystics is really only OK, sad to say.
• Pink Martini - Oregon's "Little Orchestra", very popular in some circles. Has been playing the midnight New Years Eve concert at the Walt Disney Concert hall for a couple years now. The best concert I ever saw was Pink Martini playing with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Amazing doesn't begin to cover it. Sympathique is better than Hang on Litte Tomato, but both are very good.
• Ratatat - One part video game music, one part electronica, one part funky baselines, two parts awesome, and you get Ratatat. Find a copy of their self-titled debut album, with all possible haste.
• E*VAX - Like Ratatat (in fact, mostly the same band), but slower, more poppy, less rocky.
• Wilco - Somewhere between indie and country lurks Wilco. I can't say I love everything they have done, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a really excellent album, and their previous release Summer Teeth has got a lot going for it (although it isn't as good as YHF). I'm not really a fan of anything newer than YHF, at least not yet.
• The Boy Least Likely To - The album The Best Party Ever is really a work of art. It is indie-pop filtered through childhood, augmented with a fisher-price xylophone, and mixed with some heavy bitterness about growing up. Musically this is one of those albums that you can't listen to without cracking a huge smile. Lyrically, there is some amazing depth of emotion here, but this is by no means "emo". Very clever, glorious music. If you can manage to get a copy, do so. And if you can catch them in concert, you must. BLLT put on a darn good show.
• Modest Mouse - Made popular by Summer '04s Good News For People Who Love Bad News, commonly thought of in indie circles as their sell-out album, Modest Mouse has been around for a while. Last I counted they were approaching their 10th full-length album. I particularly recommend starting with Good News ... or the indie-favorite The Moon and Antarctica. Once you've got a taste for them, try Sad Sappy Sucker. Other albums by Modest Mouse have failed to impress me (although I haven't listened to them all by any means.)
• The Decemberists - Do you like songs that tell a story? Then this is the band for you. Singer/songwriter Colin Meloy, who holds a degree in Creative Writing, writes nearly every song as a story filled with archetypal characters. Heavy Dickens themes. In truth, everything I've heard from them is fantastic, but no single album is good all the way through. Generally I like the first halves of Castaways and Cutouts and Picaresque, and assorted tracks from Her Majesty. Best tracks: Legionnaire's Lament and The Infanta, although there are many many wonderful tracks to pick from.
• The New Pornographers - Indie power pop. The New Pornographers is composed of members from several Vancouver bands, and mixes the best-of from each group. All of their current albums (Mass Romantic, The Electric Version, and Twin Cinema)) are good. I like TC and EV best, but all are good. Closer to mainstream than much on this list, with some nice summery/beachy overtones.
• Magnetic Fields - Eclectic, clever, and very well executed, the Magnetic Fields are a fascinating band. If you've got the opportunity, I strongly recommend picking up their three-disc set "69 Love Songs," which has a number of fantastic songs on it ("Book of Love" from disc 1, and "Grand Canyon" from disc 2 are great, but I've got lots of favorites.)
• Cake - My wife and I have been listening to Cake for roughly a decade now. And unlike any other group that we could claim that about, they are still favorites. Partially because of their unique style, and partially because of their impressive lyrics, Cake is one "popular" band that I'm willing to claim allegiance to. Fashion Nugget is definitely my favorite of their five albums.
• Franz Ferdinand - You probably heard a couple songs from these guys during Summer '04. Their self-titled debut album is fantastic. Not a weak track to be found anywhere. So cool. By comparison, their 2006 release You could have had it so much better is much more refined, but weaker all around.
• Hot Hot Heat - A slightly goofy rock band from Canada . . . no, it isn't Barenaked Ladies (who are good in their own right), but the musically more awesome Hot Hot Heat. More similar to Franz Ferdinand than anything else I can think of, Hot Hot Heat is great in its own way. I strongly recommend Make Up The Breakdown, and I love some of the tracks on Elevator although it is certainly more high on filler.
• Pain - With a name like Pain, it ought to be dark, moody, and gothic. Instead, it's kinda more like goofy-indie-ska. Bright, beautiful horns, goofy songs, lots of energy. Some surprisingly beautiful tracks. I've heard and loved Full Speed Ahead, Wonderful Beef, and Midgets with Guns, but I have to say I like Full Speed Ahead best of all. Especially the tracks Futz Said Julie and Excalibur.
• Belle and Sebastian - One of the most respected and influential indie bands around, and perhaps for good reason. Their most recent album, The Life Pursuit is one that has stayed on heavy rotation for several months. I can't say I know too much about their earlier work, but their multi-CD release Push Barman to Open Old Wounds (which compiles many of their EPs) is also really very good and quite approachable even for B&S neophytes.
• Apples (in Stereo) - Lo-fi indie rock. This is one of my guilty-pleasure bands, especially my favorite Apples album, Velocity of Sound: I know it is inane, but it is just so damned catchy and fun to listen to. Bits of Her Wallpaper Reverie are highly reminiscent of the Beatles, and so far I think those are their two best albums by far.
• Neutral Milk Hotel - Beautiful, slightly lo-fi, very indie. The occasional accordion or bagpipe doesn't seem out of place at all (and you might not even notice). Lyrically they are amazingly beautiful, although you'll never figure out what they are talking about. In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea is a wonderful wonderful album.
• The Shins - If you're even vaguely into the indie music scene, you've heard of The Shins. In my opinion, they put out some really great music. But as great as it is, it is often somewhat subtle: I can listen to their music for quite a while and love it, every track, but not really be aware of it at the same time. Still, it is quite good, and I highly recommend it.
• The Lucksmiths - Slower than The Shins, but still has some of the same intangible awesomeness of The Shins. Great melodies, beautiful vocal quality. Good stuff all around. Naturaliste is getting some major playlist time from me lately.
• The Polyphonic Spree - Uh . . . 1970s inspired trance-laden choral music? Like the Flaming Lips if they had more than two decent musicians? Big, sweeping melodies, goofy and lighthearted.
• The White Stripes - For a gimmick band, these guys are awesome. But yeah, they are totally a gimmick. From the "Are Meg and Jack married? Brother and Sister? Both?" rumors, to the fact that they have their own band colors and patterns, to the illusion that there are only two musicians, they are a gimmick. But that doesn't mean that they aren't awesome all the same.
• The Eels - I haven't heard much from these guys, but their two-disc album "Blinking Lights (And Other Revelations)" is fantastic. Beautiful sounds, gorgeous melodies, and wry lyrics. Deep down, Blinking Lights is trying to be depressing, with tracks like "Going Fetal", "Old Shit/New Shit" and "Ugly Love", but it pulls a fast one on you by providing such fantastic sound that you just can't help but feel great about feeling anything. Good stuff.
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Their self-titled debut is one of those albums that you either love immediately, or love eventually when everyone around you is telling you that you're gonna love it. Took me a long while to break down and get a copy of this, but in the end I'm very glad I did. That said, I do not understand where the comparisons to Boy Least Likely To come from - CYHSY is really more like if Modest Mouse got rid of Isaac Brock and hired on a drunken lead-singer from a Violent Femmes cover band. Instrumentally, it is very Modest Mouse. Vocally, it is very slurred, with a definitely Violent Femmes quality to it. In the end, it is just some catchy stuff.
• Sunset Rubdown - This one is hard to classify, but I know I love it. Their album Shut Up, I'm Dreaming has some of the most complex (but palatable) music I've heard in a while, and wonderfully deep lyrics to match. This is not something that can be passively absorbed in the background, it demands attention (at least initially). And that attention is a great investment.