indie rock music

Indie Band of the Month: The Spinto Band

I've always been a sucker for indie bands that have great web sites, especially those that are built with Flash, despite it's limitations (such as embedded audio tracks - MP3, please). But The Spinto Band's new website is something to behold.

The site has a starry-midnight-moon-glow theme going on, which is appropriate as Halloween is only two months away. Right now, the content is a bit thin, but the band plans to offer new material each Tuesday up to the October 7 release of their new album release, MoonWink.

MP3: "Summer Grof" - The Spinto Band from the forthcoming new album release MoonWink, due out on October 7.

Bonus Tracks (MP3 can expire at anytime)

MP3: "Vivian, Don't" - The Spinto Band
MP3: "Needlepoint" - The Spinto Band

The site design and navigation in Flash is awesome, so check it out if you a fan, or are curious about the band.

There are no official MP3s from MoonWink available, but there is a Flash stream for some songs on the album including "Summer Grof".

The band's new UK label calls the album "11 tracks of bendy indie pop behaviour that very occasionally sounds like ELO being played backwards." We shall see, fluff masters.

Last week, The Spinto Band signed with Fierce Panda Records after what the label calls "months of intense negotiations." The band exploded onto the indie rock scene in 2005 after their song "Oh Mandy" became an unexpected hit record.

Soon, the latest spring chickens of indie rock were opening for established rockers like The Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Art Brut and Rilo Kiley.

To up the ante for their latest release, The Spinto Band signed on producer/engineer Dave Trumfio (Wilco, Built To Spill, Billy Bragg, Mates of State) and mixing engineer Tchad Blake (Tom Waits, Los Lobos, Cibo Matto, Paul Simon).

+ The Spinto Band MySpace Page

Labels: , , ,



   August 30, 2008    0 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Featured Indie Rock Artist Offering Free MP3s: The Octopus Project

I've always believed that if indie rock artists and bands want to attract a loyal following, one of the most important things they need to do is offer free, no-frills MP3s for download on their official website.

Evidence that this approach works follows a path of logic and a huge demand for such a service by music lovers searching to discover new bands.

During the past year, popular rock bands like Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have offered for free to anyone a full download of their most recent albums. The response to both has been overwhelming.

Not only does an indie group or a more 'established' rock band get plenty of positive publicity for
offering their music for free download, but they also build and solidify coalitions of loyal fans who
will often promote the band via the irreplaceable WOM (word of mouth), purchasing merchandise, buying their other music and attending their shows.

We all know how much that can cost, especially after TicketMaster and LiveNation often charge in fees up to, and more, than half of the original price of the concert ticket itself.

Over the next year, IRC will be featuring artists and bands, ranging from indie rock to 'mainstream' rock, who offer free MP3 downloads of their music on their websites, whether individual songs or entire album downloads.

In the first installment, IRC spotlighted NIN's newest album, The Slip. After announcing that the entire album would be available to anyone for free after a simple registration, the album has been downloaded tens of thousands of times on NIN's official website.

Here is that story and information on how and where to download the album in MP3 format.

This installment features the popular Austin, Texas indie rock band The Octopus Project. While there are no full album downloads, nor no free downloads for their latest release, individual tracks from all of their albums dating back to 1999 are available at the following link:

Download Free Octopus Project MP3s:
http://www.theoctopusproject.com/mp3s.html

Enjoy.

Labels: , ,



   August 26, 2008    0 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Festivals So Far: From London to California

It is hard to believe that August is half over and soon we will be saying good-bye to another summer. If there was only a way to make the summers stretch out like they seemed to when we were kids.

In the past month, there have been dozens and dozens of major music festivals across the United States and the world.

The much-anticipated rock fests for August are Chicago's famed Lollapalooza, The Virgin Festival in Baltimore, the New York City metro area's (actually Jersey City, NJ, just across the river) new, major rock festival - the All Points Festival, aka "Coachella East", not to mention the much anticipated Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's beautiful Golden Gate Park Polo Fields, just a few hundred feet from the ocean amongst the carpet green grounds and Monterey pine trees.

After years of trying, promoters were granted license to hold a major outdoor festival this year featuring dozens of top indie bands and artists, with Radiohead playing two nights of the three day festival.

Nearly two weekends ago, the Download Festival 'San Francisco' (actual location was Mt. View, CA, about 30 miles south of the city) was held at the Shoreline with disastorous results, giving a totally different meaning to "down" and "load". The attendance was shockingly down from the previous year, almost off 60 percent and it showed by the thin crowds. There was not much "load" to the fest as far as line-up, especially when you consider that there are so many major festivals this year (including the debut of the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park in September).

hove festival - norway - june 23-26 - beck, the raconteurs, brain jonestown massacre, panic at the disco, the raconteurs, the kooks, yeasayer, foals, flogging molly, les savy fav, the cool kids, stars, dinosaur jr. and more.

rock werchter - july 3-6 - belgium - headliners: the national, rem, my morning jacket, the hives, panic at the disco, editors, beck, band of horses, air traffic, cool kids, hot chip, radiohead, the kooks, neil young and many others.

o2 wireless festival - july 3-6, london - jay z, hot chip, beck, the raconteurs, the national, morrissey, black kids, sea wolf, the whigs, cornershop, fatboy slim, goo goo dolls, counting crows, the hold steady and dozens more.

fib heineken 2008 - july 17-20 - the brian jonestown massacre, my morning jacket, gnarls barkley, the raconteurs, my bloody valentine, sigur ros, death cab for cutie, leonard cohen, spiritualized, justice and many others.

ruis rock 2008 festival - july 4-6 - finland - him, floggy molly, anti-flag, interpol, the national, bullet for my valentine, primal scream, the sounds and others.

optimus alive 2008 - july 10-12 - portugal - neil young, bob dylan, spiritualized, interpol, ben harper and the innocent, rage against the machine, galactic, the hives and a dozen others.




Labels: ,



      0 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Indie Alternative Record Label of the Month: Dead Oceans Records

There are few things more enjoyable regarding online music experiences then to discover a great record label that you didn't already know of. This month's indie label honor goes to Dead Oceans Records.

The label is based in Austin, one of the country's top indie/alternative rock cities, where each year two of the music industry's biggest events - the South-by-Southwest Conference and the Austin City Limits Music and Arts Festival - are held. Smart place to start a record label if you don't mind the Texan heat.

Dead Oceans has a great line-up for a relatively small and new label, including indie and alternative rock bands like Explorers Club, Bishop Allen, White Hinterland, The Bower Birds and Evangelicals.

The label has just released The Explorer's Club new debut album, Freedom Wind. This is an interesting album and definitely worth a try, especially if you enjoy the following free track from the album.

MP3: Do You Love Me - Explorers Club

You can purchase Freedom Wind at from Dead Oceans

MP3: Skeleton - Evangelicals

Another recent release from the Dead Oceans indie record label worthy of checking out comes from The Bower Birds. This is a new and pleasant discovery here at IRC. Many fans are enticed by the band's Middle-Eastern influenced tracks that are adeptly mixed with a kind of indie rock that is rarely heard.

The band's song "In Our Talons" embodies this ecelectic offering of influences on The Bower Birds sound.

MP3: In Our Talons - The Bower Birds

View amazing artistic, albeit low budget, music video for "In Our Talons" featured on MTV2 and YouTube.

Canadian Director Alan Poon describes the making of the video to subterraneanblog:

"The images were created by taking individual snapshots of each animal in each position [for] approximately 5 seconds...per day...features three different nature vignettes - a crow (we think), a pair of preying mantises and a crab - and there are three members of Bowerbirds."



In a way coming upon the Dead Oceans Record label was a bit jarring and coincidental for me . Only two days earlier, I had heard a report on NPR about "dead ocean zones" increasing worldwide. The dead zones, a major concern of enviornmentalists and governments worldwide, are growing at an alarming rate worldwide.

The dead ocean zones take over when high concentrations of oxygen-sucking algae form at the mouths of major rivers. Fertilizer run-off from farms flow into streams and then major rivers where they amass in piles, choking the ocean zone's oxygen and killing marine life.

In places like Florida, Japan and Europe, there have been an alarming increase in the number and size of dead ocean zones during the past four decades. Marine environmentalists and oceanographers around the globe say that dead ocean zones are the greatest threat to the world's already threatened oceans.

Hopefully bringing this issue to your attention might get a few people to write their Congressional representatives (it's our democracy if we want to take it).

Labels: , ,



   August 17, 2008    0 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Download Free MP3 Album, The Slip, From Nine Inch Nails

After writing about Nine Inch Nails a few weeks ago, a number of you have written to me pointing out that I did not include the link to NIN's new album free download.

Oops! You're right, I did, and now after having listened The Slip by NIN's for a few weeks, I'm convinced it's worth downloading, especially for free.

There are few 'big name' indie and alternative bands out nowadays willing to offer their music for free, but if you think about it, the strategy is a smart one. Not only do you create loyalty with long-time fans, but it's also a great way to attract new fans. And thus, sell more concert tickets and merchandise.

Let's face it, the give-our-music-out-for-free approach is working, as bands like NIN have shown. Now it's up to many other music artists and bands to follow their lead, and in return, grow their base.

The record industry made windfall profits off CD sales for decades; but the formula has changed and the sooner they embrace it, the better off they will be in the long haul.

If you're a Nine Inch Nails fan, you probably already know that the band will be performing tomorrow, August 10th, at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore. Check back later for YouTube and other videos from the 2008 Virgin Festival lineup.

Download The Slip for free at NIN official website.

The following is the official NIN's music video for the track "Lights in the Sky" from their latest free release, The Slip:

Labels: , , ,



   August 9, 2008    1 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Lollapalooza 2008 Kicks off with Radiohead, Raconteurs, Bloc Party, Cat Power and Others

Lollapalooza 2008 kicked off today in Chicago's Grant Park. The event set for this weekend (August 1-3) features dozens of top indie artists and bands is expected to sell out of tickets, especially the high-priced three-day pass.

Friday's Lollapalooza 2008 line-up includes popular indie bands like Bloc Party, The Raconteurs, The Kills, Mates of State, Rogue Wave, Holy Fuk, Yeasayer, Gogol Bordello and Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks.For reasons unknown to IRC, Radiohead is not being webcasted during what is expected to be a nearly three-hour set.

Other artists performing on Friday (but not via the webcast) include Black Keys, The Black Lips, Cat Power, VHS or BETA, The Cool Kids, Manchester Orchestra, Louis XIV, Enemy UK, CSS and more.

If you've forgiven AT&T Blue Room for censoring Eddie Vedder (who called out Bush's ruinationof the world) at last year's Lollapalooza, then you can watch performances throughoutthe weekend (provided you have a beefy Internet connection and fast computer - and that AT&T has enough pipes set-up).

Saturday's Lolla line-up for the AT&T webcast includes The Gutter Twins, The Go! Team, DeVotchka,Explosions in the Sky, Broken Social Scene and Wilco. On Sunday, you can watch The Whigs, Office,G Love & Special Sauce, Blues Traveler, John Bulter Trio, Flogging Molly, Love and Rockets, The National.

Not featured on the Blue Room on Saturday are bands like Okkervil River, Battles, Brand New and for the hard rock fans, Rage Against the Machine. Sunday's Lollapalooza line-up also features The Weakerthans, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Iron & Wine, Nine Inch Nails, Love and Rockets and Kayne West.

All-in-all, the line-up is not as powerful as Lollapalooza 2007, but there's still enough power house rock and indie to keep fans entertained.


AT&T Blue Room webcast from Lollapalooza.


Labels: , , , ,



   August 1, 2008    1 Comments
  Get The Feed    MP3 Policy    Indie A-Z    Digg the Indie Rock Cafe    stumble upon indie rock

Subscribe to Feed Me Indie
Get IRC via iTunes, RSS or email.



best indie albums 2009

2009 Album Releases


A.C. Newman - Get Guilty
Andrew Bird - Noble Beasts
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Beirut - March of the Zapotec/Realpeople Holland
Ben Kweller - Changing Horses
Bishop Allen - Grrr
Bon Iver - Blood Bank EP
Dan Auerbach - Keep It Hid
Faunts - Feel. Love. Thinking. Of.
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
Jason Zumpano - Roses $9.99 A Dozen
Lemon Sun - Run With The Faithless
Leopold & His Fiction - Ain't No Surprise
Loney Dear - Dear John
M. Ward - Hold Time
Morrissey - Years of Refusal
Papercuts - You Can Have What You Want
Robyn Hitchcock - Goodnight Oslo
Sin Fang Bous - Clangour
Spirit Spine - Spirit Spine
The Acorn - Heron Act
The City and Horses
The Thermals - Now We Can See
Throw Me the Statue - Purpleface
Vetiver - Tight Knit
Wolves in the Attic - Electronic Hearts


Upcoming 09 Releases

Dan Deacon 3/24
Great Lake Swimmers - 3/31
The Hold Steady - 4/7
Royksopp - Junion - 3/24


Get the Feed Me Indie feed anyway you like it.

*Releases listed alphabetically by first letter of artist or band name. This list will be updated throughout the year



Top 2008 Indie Albums

Air France - No Way Down
American Music Club - The Golden Age
Annuals - Such Fun
Atlas Sound - Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Not Feel
Au - Verbs
Beach House - Devotion
Beck - Modern Guilt
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
Bodies Of Water - A Certain Feeling
Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Broken Social Scene - Something For All Of Us
Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
Crystal Stilts - Alight of Night
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Daniel Lanois - Here Is What Is
Deerhoof - Offend Maggie
Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont.
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Earlimart - Hymn And Her
Elf Power - In A Cave
Envelopes - Here Comes The Wind
Fedrik - Na Na Ni
Firewater - The Golden Hour
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
Fuck Buttons - Street Horrsing
Grand Archives - Grand Archvies
Hooray For Earth - Hooray For Earth
Islands - Arm's Way
Jose Rouse - Bedroom Classics
Little Joy - Little Joy
Mascott - Art Project
Man Man - Rabbit Habits
Mason Proper - Olly Oxen Free
Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
Melpo Mene - Bring The Lions Out
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
Neil Halstead - Abbey Road
Nine Inch Nails - The Slip
No Age - Nouns
Goh Nakamura - Ulysses Of Montreal - Skeletal Lamping
Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
Passion Pit - Chuck Of Change
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
Port O'Brien - All We Could Do Was Sing
Ra Ra Riot - Rhumb Line
Santeria - Year Of The Knife
Shearwater - Rook
Secret Machines - Secret Machines
Sigur Ros - Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Pershing
Spiritualized - Songs in A & E
Sprengjuholin - Sprengjuholin
Tapes N Tapes - Walk It Off
Thao - We Brave Bee Stings And All
The Breeders - Mountain Battles
The Dandy Warhols - Earth To The Dandy Warhols
The Dodos - Visiter
The Explorers Club: Freedom Wind
The Firekites - The Bowery
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
The Kills - Midnight Boom
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understanding
The Little Ones - Morning Tide
The Nice Jenkins - Elephant Twisters
The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely
The Raveonetts - Lust Lust Lust
The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion
The Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
The Submarines - You, Me And The Burgeoisie
The Tallest Man On Earth - Shallow Grave
The Walkmen - You and Me
Titus Andronicus - The Airing Of Grievances
Tokyo Police Club - Elephant Shell
TV on the Radio - Dear Science
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White Denim - Exposion
Wolf Parade - Mount Zoomer
Why? - Alopecia
Xylos - Bedrooms
You Me & Iowa - The Adventures Of You Me & Iowa


in memory of julianna
In Memory of Julie