One of the interesting things about the end of a year is that lots of people spend lots of time and money catching up on new music releases from that year - 2008 to be specific - including the folks here at the cafe.

While the Best Indie Rock Songs of 2008 playlist series officially ended last month at Vol.15, we are still finding music many may have missed, in addition to other great songs from 2008 releases that we already featured.

The following playlist features tracks from artists and bands like Sybris, The Suncharms, Secret Machines, The Tallest Man On Earth and Tigers Can Bite You.

1. "Oh Man!" - Sybris from Into The Trees

2. "Tranquility Day" - The Suncharms from You Can't Have It All

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

4. "The Gardner" - The Tallest Man On Earth from Shallow Grave

5. "Second Nature" - Tigers Can Bite You from Steve Ward Hears Voices

Labels: Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Indie MP3s, Secret Machines, Sybris, The Suncharms, The Tallest Man on Earth, Tigers Can Bite You

As you read this post, IRC is putting together a playlist of some of the greatest songs of 2008 from albums that were just recently released, and a few that took some time to "come around" to. We are also starting to feature artist web links (by default to MySpace) so you can get more from your favorites.

In this installment, Volume XI of the Best Indie Songs of 2008 playlist series, we bring you stellar songs from recent releases by better known indie and alternative bands like San Francisco's The Dodos, Germany's The Notwist and Minneapolis' Cloud Cult. Also featured in this mix are songs from 2008 releases by lesser known artists such as Sweden's Moto Boy and LA's You Me & Iowa.

"Tommy Hall" by You Me & Iowa from The Adventures of You Me & Iowa - You Me & Iowa - MySpace. Another fabulous song by the band, "Dress The Stage" was featured in Vol. 5 of The Best Indie Songs of 2008 (so you know we like this band a lot!)

"Everybody Here Is A Cloud" by Cloud Cult from Feel Good Ghosts - Cloud Cult - MySpace

"Young Love" by Moto Boy from Young Love - Moto Boy - MySpace

"Good Lies" by The Notwist from The Devil, You and Me - The Notwist - MySpace

"Walking" by The Dodos (photo, right) from Visiter - The Dodos - MySpace

Labels: Best Indie 2008, Best Indie Rock Songs 2008, Moto Boy, The Dodos, The Notwist, You Me and Iowa

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

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

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- 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

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

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