There are so many great songs that we keep discovering from 2008 that we could do this almost continuously until the end of the year. In playlists to come we will feature Portishead, Cut Copy, M83, Secret Machines, Sigur Ros, Vampire Weekend, Girl Talk, Travis, Tilly and the Wall, Headlights, Okkervil River, British Sea Power, Lykke Li and many others.

Today's playlist of the best indie songs (in our humble opinion, of course) of 2008 features indie and alternative artists like Throw Me The Statue, The M's, Why?, Weezer, Sprengjuhollin and The Week That Was.

"The Airport Line"- The Week That Was from The Week That Was
"Lolita"- Throw Me The Statue from Moonbeams
"Big Sound" - The M's from Real Close Ones
"The Vowels, Pt. 2" - Why? from Alopecia
"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived"- Weezer from The Red Album
"Sumar i Mula"- Sprengjuhollin (photo, right) from Sprengjuhollin

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008

Some people have asked if this series of best songs is also a representation of the best indie albums as well. The answer is yes. The songs are in no particular order, but they are favorite songs selected from each of this year's best albums. At the end of the series, we'll publish the entire list of IRC's favorite album releases of 2008.

For those of you wondering why we present only six songs at a time, it's just a format we contribute to six-packs; yup, corny, but hey, it's the music that counts.

Today's best of 2008 indie includes artists The Hush Now, Unicycle Loves You, No Age, Santogold, The Magnetic Fields and Rainbow Arabia.

"Traditions"- The Hush Now from The Hush Now
"Dangerous Decade"- Unicycle Loves You from Unicycle Loves You
"Eraser"- No Age (photo, right) from Nouns
"Starstruck"- Santogold from Santogold
"Till the Bittend"- The Magnetic Fields from Distortion
"Watchout"- Rainbow Arabia from KVRX 3x5 2008

Bonus Track: "All of My Love" American Music Club from The Golden Age

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008

It's a risky assumption to some degree, but chances are most of you have seen or heard of one of YouTube's biggest 'indie' hits - the guitar video by South Korean teenager Lim Jeong-Hyun (aka, funtwo).

In the self-made video, viewed on YouTube alone over 52 million times since its December 2005 debut, all you see at first is a guy with a guitar and a hat covering his face as bright light shines through a window behind him.

Then you see and hear the first few seconds and realize something rare and sensational is happening. Immediately recognizable as one of classical music's masterpiece works - "Canon" by Pachelbel - Hyun does it justice by playing guitar along with a pre-recorded up-tempo rock rendition.

It's electrifying, for sure. The style played by Hyun is reminiscent of 1970's and 80's guitarists like Dwanye Allman, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and Jason Becker.

There's an interesting revival in recent years of a classical music inclusion in modern rock music. Bands such as Radiohead, Arcade Fire, Ra Ra Riot, Vampire Weekend and many others are integrating classical instruments into their songs and shows to great success.

Part of the rising popularity of classical music influences on modern rock music, most especially in the so-called 'indie rock world', is due in large part to the Internet, as will continue to be the case for years to come.

Labels: Guitar Hero Series, Lim Jeong-Hyun

Proving to be one of the best indie-electronica albums of 2008, Cut Copy's In Ghost Colours has received lots of praise from fans in the states and overseas, as has the band's increased visibility at various music festivals during the past two years.

The Ravonettes' 2008 album Lust, Lust, Lust from Vice Records is a big improvement over their last release in 2005, Pretty in Black.

Lust helps recreate some of the band's brilliant and brassy garage rock-pop sound from their 2003 sophomore release, The Chain Gang of Love.

Other artists featured here include The Ruby Suns, Titus Andronicus, Wool Strings and Final Fantasy.

"Feel The Love" - Cut Copy from In Ghost Colours
"No Future Part One" - Titus Andronicus (photo, right) from The Airing of Grievances
"Aly,Walk With Me" - The Ravonettes from Lust Lust Lust
"Shirley Poppy" - Wool Strings from Eardrums Autumn Compilation
"Tane Mahuta" - The Ruby Suns from Sea Lion
"The Butcher" - Final Fantasy from Spectrum, 14th Century

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Albums, Cut Copy, The Ravonettes

Admittedly, this next installment of the Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008 contains more songs from so-called 'mainstream indie' artists. Some are indie and alternative music artists that broke through in 2008, like The Dodos and Firewater, and others, such as The Stills and The Black Keys are no strangers to the 'scene', if you will.

Even more, including Wolf Parade and Secret Machines, have gained a solid following in the more mainstream indie channels. So far, we've featured dozens of artists and bands in this series, from Ra Ra Riot and Radiohead to Hospital Ships and Fleet Foxes, to name a few.

Of course, not everyone will always like our music picks, but we try to keep it as eclectic as possible, picking up on the 'blogger buzz' as well as being uniquely independent in featuring great indie artists that are so good it's hard to believe we are one of the few indie-focused blogs that strive to be a conduit between the artist and the indie/alternative music fans. As we like to say, "awesome music rarely heard".

It's awesome when you all participate and say what you think about the choices and ones we should have included. There's still time to influence what is spun on these playlists :)

To leave any kind of feedback, click on the Comments link below (doesn't require logging in to anything and has fields to put in a name or mark anonymous).

Today's installment of the year in indie rock music features Wolf Parade, Firewater, The Stills, Secret Machines, The Dodos and The Black Keys. Enjoy.

"Soldier's Grin" - Wolf Parade from At Mount Zoomer

"Some Kind of Kindness" - Firewater from The Golden Hour

"Being Here" - The Stills from Oceans Will Rise

"Strange Times" - The Black Keys (photo, middle right) from Attack & Release

"Now You're Gone" - Secret Machines from Secret Machines

"Jodi" - The Dodos from Visiter

Most Popular Posts on IRC:

- Best Indie Rock Songs 2008 - Full series

- Indie and Alternative Christmas Songs

- Shearwater Releases New EP, Snow Leopard

- Artist of the Month: Goh Nakamura

Note: To everyone who has sent music to us recently, we do our best to listen to it all, especially when it is sent meeting the guidelines/requirements. :)

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Best Music 2008, Secret Machines, The Black Keys, The Dodos, Wolf Parade

Today's six-pack of the best indie songs of 2008 includes great tunes from artists and bands like PlusMinus, Port O'Brien, Sunfold, Hooray for Earth, The War on Drugs and MGMT (formerly Management).

If you missed any of the previous installments, check out the previous five editions.

"I Woke Up Today" - Port O'Brien (pictured above) from All We Could Do Was Sing

"Sara The American Winter" - Sunfold from Toy Tugboats

"Snowblind" - PlusMinus from Xs on Your Eyes

"Take Care" - Hooray for Earth from Hooray for Earth

"Taking The Farm" - The War on Drugs from Wagonwheel Blues

"Weekend Wars" - MGMT (pictured top right) from Oracular Spectacular

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008

Many music sites, blogs, newspapers and magazines are publishing their best albums and songs of 2008. In all, there is a pretty good consensus on what are some of the greatest indie albums of the past year. They include releases from Radiohead, Conor Oberst, Fleet Foxes, Portishead, Okkervil River, REM and Vampire Weekend, among many others.

During IRC's Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008 on-going playlist series, we've made a deliberate effort to include songs from releases by lesser known, but equally as note-worthy, bands and artists like Goh Nakamura, The Dodos, Titus Andronicus, Mates of State, Ra Ra Riot, Magnetic Fields,The Annuals, Goh Nakamura Unicycle Love You and Afternoon Naps.

Today's Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008 - volume no. 5 - features You Me & Iowa, The Very Most, Of Montreal, Afternoon Naps, Crystal Stilts and Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

"Dress The Stage" - You Me & Iowa
"Good Fight Fighting" - The Very Most
"Id Engager" - Of Montreal
"Postcard" - Afternoon Naps
"Shattered Shine" - Crystal Stilts
"Think I wanna Die" - Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (photo: right)

Up Next: Port O'Brien, The War on Drugs, Hooray for Earth, Sunfold and PlusMinus. Check out the complete series of The Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008.

Labels: Afternoon Naps, Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Artists, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Of Montreal, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin

If you've been following this series, you know that the playlists feature an eclectic mix of artists and sounds. This next installment for our favorite indie music songs of 2008 features more 'popular' indie artists and those who remain famously yet-to-be-discovered.

You never know when you'll find you favorite new artist or song. Hopefully, you've agreed with many of our choices through this series.

"Heads Roll Off" - Frightened Rabbit from The Midnight Organ Fight

"White Winter Hymnal" - Fleet Foxes from Fleet Foxes

"Empty House" - Paper Route from Paper Route

"Lost Coastlines" - Okkervil River from The Stand Ins

"Year of the Dog" - The Lovely Sprarrows from Bury The Cynics

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Songs, Firewater, Frightened Rabbit, Okkervil River

Goh Nakamura is not only our pick for Artist of the Month, but also one of our favorite 'surprise artists' of 2008.

Nakamura, a San Francisco native born singer/songwriter, describes his music "Dreamsicle pop " as "ditties about parking tickets, impossible crushes and faraway dreamlands."

Although Nakamura has had a loyal following for a few years now, his popularity is picking up momentum in the past six months or so. Nakamura's music video for "Embarcadero Blues" has been viewed over a million times on YouTube:



Nakamura's sound is catchy, wonderfully produced acoustic pop. Music lovers who enjoy artists like Matt Pond PA, Matthew Sweet, Elliot Smith and Neil Finn are likely to have Nakamura's music playing again and again.

That said, it's fair to say that Nakamura can easily appeal to a larger segment of music lovers. His music is the kind that you will probably find yourself liking the more you listen to it.

His 2004 debut Daylight Savings was received well by the indie music press. Yet it is the release of Ulysses - not to mention the fact that it's available for free - is a contender for one of 2008's best 'under the radar' singer/songwriter releases of 2008.

Here are two MP3s from Nakamura's Ulysses:

Suitcase - Goh Nakamura
Hangman - Goh Nakamura

You can Download Ulysses for free or purchase the CD extra edition.

All downloads/purchases of Ulysses includes a specially selected collection of songs by some of Goh's favorite bands:Odessa Chen, The Invisible Cities, Scrabbel, Michelle Amador, Adam Shulman, Nyles Lannon, Grand Hallway, the Botticellis, Picture Atlantic, Annie Lin, Love is Chemicals, The Lofty Pillars, Lucien Lamotte, David Rhodes.

Labels: Artist of the Month, Goh Nakamura

Today's playlist featuring the best indie rock songs of 2008 arguably includes a couple of bands that are more 'mainstream'.

It's impossible not to feature Radiohead's In Rainbows. The veteran alt indie rockers' latest release has quickly become one of the most popular alternative/indie rock albums ever, and perhaps even more so because it was initially available as a free download worldwide.

Along with Radiohead, here is the latest playlist of the best indie songs of 2008 by less-known independent artists like Goh Nakamura, White Denim, Cassandra Castaway, Annuals and Love is Chemicals.

Listen to the songs by clicking on the titles. IRC supports and promotes great music by highlighting it for tens of thousands of people each month.


Please click on the link below to see IRC's MP3 policy.

"Tell Me Why" - Radiohead
"Suitcase" - Goh Nakamura
"Sitting" - White Denim
"Our Darkest Days and Nights" - Love is Chemicals
"Confessor" - Annuals
"Clytamnestra" - Cassandra Castaway

Check back for more playlists featuring the best indie rock songs of 2008 from now until the end of the year.

Related posts: Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008, Vol. I and Vol. II.

Labels: Albums: In Rainbows, Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Radiohead

Usually this blog is all about music. But we cannot let a transformational moment like November 4, 2008 pass without some words.

From every corner of the earth, people have reacted to the election of America's first black president, Barack Obama, with jubilation, hope and wonder. From Montreal to Beijing, Paris to Cairo, Kogelo to Baghdad and Tokyo to Buenos Aires, hundreds of millions of people know one thing today - a monumental, positive thing has happened in America that will change the course of history.

Most Americans, and people around the world, have never before witnessed such clear affirmation of the creed "all men are created equal" as the election of Barack Obama to the U.S. presidency.

When the elite colonists with their powdery wigs and feathered pens wrote those famous five words two centuries ago in the Declaration of Independence, they were wise to qualify their pronouncement with the words that followed; specifically, that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

The election of a black man to the presidency of the United States was likely never envisioned or conceived by the authors of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. But that is one of the great things about our imperfect, troubled and triumphant journey - we continue to work towards fulfilling the promise of America, and to a larger extent, humankind. Despite all of the barriers he, and we, knocked down along the way, Barack Obama was elected because he is exceptionally qualified for the job. Plain and simple.

Last evening before a crowd of tens of thousands of people in Chicago's Grant Park, President-elect Obama made it clear that America is the place where all dreams are possible:

"If there is anyone out there," he said, "who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer."

As President elect Obama made clear during his campaign, and again in his victory speech last evening, the days ahead will not be easy; "there will be setbacks and false starts," he said. Yet it is undeniable that Obama has ignited, in America and throughout the world, a new age of optimism, hope and inspiration rarely fulfilled in history.

After centuries of slavery, segregation, racism, hatred, fear and discrimination towards people of color, tens of millions of Americans said yes to a black president, and in turn, sent a clear message to the world: no matter who you are, what you look like or where you come from, if you work hard, uphold common values, do the right thing, and strive to make the world a better place, you can accomplish anything, including becoming president.

Obama's election to president is a calling to all people: live up to your potential, pursue your dreams, work together for common goals, help your neighbors, care for children and the earth, and stand up against hatred and injustice.

Like an echo from the past, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. 45 years ago, ring out more loudly now than ever before that we must not judge people by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

There is no question that President-elect Barack Obama is an extraordinary individual with a wonderful, smart wife, Michelle and two adorable young children. Anyone who has taken the time to learn about him in-depth and who has watched him over all these months can not reasonably dismiss his values and his fundamental belief that America is a great nation.

Barack Obama is a natural born leader and he has the opportunity to be a force that can change the world. Right now the world, starting with we Americans, need to change the way we do things, not just for the future of our children and the planet, but for ourselves.

Novemeber 4, 2008 and the election of Barack Obama as 44th president of the United States is a day etched into the minds of billions and a historic day that will be written into history in every language and culture on this planet for as long as there is human civilization.

It is a day that many people alive will remember for the rest of their lives. It is a time in history when we have the opportunity to come together as one world, one people for a common cause - to live in peace and prosperity without destroying our precious planet in the process.

The days that follow will test us all, and hopefully bring out the best in all of us. With so many people feeling hope again, the chances are good that great things are going to happen.

Labels: 44th U.S. President, President Barack Obama, Worldwide Reaction to Obama

Nowadays a lot of people think of indie rock as more mainstream that what it actually is. Hopefully, this blog does a good job in representing artists and bands that make great music.

Yet we're also suckers for great music from well known artists like Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie, to name a couple. But most of the time, you'll find music on IRC that reflects the 'more indie' side of indie rock music.

In featuring the 'best indie rock songs' of 2008, let's be real; this is not an actual accounting of the 'best indie songs', but instead our list of the best 'indie' and alternative rock music of 2008.
IRC seeks to be an outlet for mainly unknown music that deserves to be heard by a larger audience.

There is no methodology or ranking in these best of 2008 playlists; they are simply songs released in 2008 that we think rise above the rest of the 'indie' indie music scene.

"Cape Canaveral" - Conor Oberst
"Broken Calculator" - Royal Bangs
"Can You Tell" - Ra Ra Riot
"Hawaii!" - Unicycle Loves You
"Honor Amongst Thieves" - These United States
"Sleepyhead" - Passion Pit
"Stumble In" - Sleepercar

In case you missed it, here's volume one of the Best Indie Rock of 2008. Stayed tuned, there's much more indie and alternative songs from 2008 coming up.

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Conor Oberst

We had a blast near the end of 2007 putting together the best indie rock music of the year, and from the reaction, many of IRC's regular and new visitors enjoyed the series.

This year will hopefully be no different, except there is more of an emphasis on band's whose labels are more friendly, or straight up encouraging, to offering some free music to their fans from the label sites or the artists' official websites.

Overall, 2008 didn't offer the volume and breadth that 2007 had. Nevertheless, there are plenty of album releases, and memorable songs, that emerged during the year, and worth noting.

To kick off the series, here are six songs from Tilly and the Wall, Wild Years, Tokyo Police Club, The Botticellis, Goh Nakamura and Hospital Ships.

The Best Indie 2008 series will run continuously until the end of this year, which is, as hard as it is to believe, two months shy of a new year. Let's just hope it's a better year than most of 2008 has been.

Best 2008 Indie MP3s:

"The Shots I Drank" - Hospital Ships
"Section of the Sky" - Goh Nakamura
"Old Home Movies" - The Botticellis
"In A Cave" - Tokyo Police Club
"Half Japanese Girl" - Wild Years
"Cacophony" - Tilly and the Wall

Next installment features bands and artists such as Ra Ra Riot, Unicycle Loves You, These United States, Passion Pit, Sleepercar and The Royal Bangs.

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Top Songs 2008

Boston's Hooray for Earth is one of the most exciting breakthrough indie bands of 2008, but have yet to receive the name recognition that they very well could get in 2009.

Since their debut album in 2006, it's clear that the band's music appeals to indie fans who like like poppy, keyboard and vocal driven music. The song "Take Care" from the band's debut album is the type of songs you listen to when you're in a good mood, or want to be in a good mood.

From their newest release the song "Want Want Want" is yet another memorable song that helps solidify the band's talent and promise. There are other tracks on the band's EP Cellphone, including "Warm Out", that make us think they could be a band to watch in 2009.

MP3: "Take Care" - Hooray for Earth from
MP3: "Want Want Want" - Hooray for Earth

While the band may be labeled as a pop band, some of their songs have a clear influence of 80's style rock and new wave. To hear more, check out two additional free downloadable tracks from the band's official website and purchase the album to get all of the songs from Hooray for Earth.

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Goh Nakamura, Hooray for Earth, Hospital Ships, New Releases