Blender's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever
In the December issue of Blender, the magazine's editors have compiled what they see as the "The 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever," opening with this little graph:
Mumbled lyrics, couldn't-care-less strumming, white dudes in sweaters--what's not to love about indie rock? Born 25-odd years ago in suburban garages and spread via college radio, it has made distortion into something hummable, boredom into something thrilling and aimlessness into a raison d'être--and these days, thanks to blogs and the fine people at Grey's Anatomy, it's more popular than ever.Grey's Anatomy and blogs? Cute. Let's take a look at 100-50 here and then round it up post-jump. There are a lot of classic albums on this thing ... and a lot that aren't.
100 The Shaggs - Philosophy Of The World
99 Dream Syndicate - The Days Of Wine And Roses
98 Palace Music - Viva Last Blues
97 The Mekons - Rock 'N' Roll
96 TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
95 The Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
94 Half Japanese - Greatest Hits
93 Big Black - Atomizer
92 Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
91 The Chills - Kaleidoscope World
90 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
88 Daniel Johnston - Yip/Jump Music
87 Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
86 Flipper - Album - Generic Flipper
85 The Clean - Anthology
84 Beat Happening - You Turn Me On
83 The Misfits - Walk Among Us
82 The Embarrassment - Heyday 1979-83
81 The Vaselines - The Way Of The Vaselines
80 Feist - The Reminder
79 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
78 The 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators
77 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
76 Le Tigre - Le Tigre
75 Galaxie 500 - Today
74 The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
73 Meat Puppets - Up On The Sun
72 The Mountain Goats - We Shall All Be Healed
71 Stereolab - Refried Ectoplasm
70 Mudhoney - Superfruzz Bigmuff Plus Early Singles
69 Nick Drake - Pink Moon
68 Descendents - Milo Goes To College
67 Hüsker Dü - New Day Rising
66 Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth
65 Various Artists - No New York
64 Cat Power - The Greatest
63 Nirvana - Bleach
62 The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms
61 LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
60 Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
59 Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
58 Built To Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
57 Bikini Kill - Pussy Whipped
56 Archers Of Loaf - Icky Mettle
55 Bad Brains - Bad Brains
54 Unrest - Imperial F.F.R.R.
53 Smashing Pumpkins - Gish
52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
51 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
50 Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
49 Spoon - Kill The MoonlightNice to see Sebadoh's III so high, but while we're talking numbers, how can they say indie rock started "25-odd years ago in suburban garages" and include The Velvet Underground? No bother - it's a great record. Also by the numbers: Bands with two albums on the list: 4 (Pavement, Hüsker Dü; Meat Puppets); Hip-hop albums: 1 (De La Soul); 2007 albums: 2 (Feist, Animal Collective). They obviously took care to highlight only early indie releases from some of the major-bound superstars (e.g., Bleach, White Blood Cells) ... so why so much Interscope? OK, what else did Blender get right and/or wrong? We'll start: Where's Jesus Lizard?
48 Mission Of Burma - Vs.
47 Green Day - Kerplunk
46 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
45 Fugazi - Repeater
44 Various Artists - Wanna Buy A Bridge?
43 Black Flag - Damaged
42 Brian Eno - Another Green World
41 Modest Mouse - The Lonesome Crowded West
40 New Order - Power Corruption & Lies
39 Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
38 The Strokes - Is This It
37 Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
36 Elliott Smith - Either/Or
35 Liz Phair - Exile In Guyville
34 Superchunk - On The Mouth
33 The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
32 Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
31 Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand
30 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
29 Violent Femmes - Violent Femmes
28 The Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs
27 M.I.A. - Arular
26 Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister
25 Sebadoh - III
24 The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
23 Yo La Tengo - Painful
22 Meat Puppets - Meat Puppets II
21 The Modern Lovers - The Modern Lovers
20 The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
19 Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
18 Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
17 The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
16 Slint - Spiderland
15 X - Wild Gift
14 De La Soul - 3 Feet High And Rising
13 Hüsker Dü - Zen Arcade
12 Dinosaur Jr - You're Living All Over Me
11 Minutemen - Double Nickels On The Dime
10 The Smiths - The Smiths
09 Big Star - Third/Sister Lovers
08 My Bloody Valentine - Loveless
07 The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground
06 Arcade Fire - Funeral
05 Pixies - Surfer Rosa
04 R.E.M. - Murmur
03 The Replacements - Let It Be
02 Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
01 Pavement - Slanted And Enchanted
Posted at 1:04 PM in List, Shit List
Tags: Arcade Fire | Pavement | Pixies | R.E.M. | Sonic Youth | The Replacements | The Velvet Underground
Ughhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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yeah, Gish. but illinois over michigan?
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Uugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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Bee Thousand is so lo-fi it doesn't even get italics.
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@ Jonny B
Yeah, something like that
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No "You Forgot It In People"?
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funeral is WAY TOO HIGH
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List of bands that should have NEVER made it on to this list (ie. will NEVER be "classic"):
1) Art Brut
2) Young Marble Giants
3) Green Day
4) Rilo Kiley (especially More Adventurous)
Bands/albums that SHOULD have been on this list:
1) The Cure - Pornography
2) The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts
3) My Morning Jacket - Z (or It Still Moves)
4) Wilco - Being There
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Love seeing Milo Goes to College at #68...love that CD
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never has the Shit-List tag been more appropriately used.
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Ummm...Jesus Lizard is and always will be terrible. So, I am hoping they are in the trash where all crappy trash belongs. Next, I can't comment on a list like this because, number 1, it is a Blender magazine list and therefore, stands for and means nothing. To anyone. And B, every time a list like this comes out, buttholes from all over spend way to much of their butthole energy writing in to say, "Hey, where's one of my favorite albums?" No Michigan or You Forgot it in People? How could the brilliant editors at Blender get it wrong? Blender, the end-all, be-all music magazine for our time. So, please, don't write a comment here asking where is this or that band or lamenting an inclusion you don't agree with. It is a list made by a group of crappy magazine editors. Let it go.
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Hey. Do I preach at you when you're lying stoned in the gutter?
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I try so hard not to backlash against the arcade fire -- funeral is a really good record -- but it's impossible not to want to take them down a peg when people insist on putting them higher on lists than bands like Husker Du and the Velvet Underground. I mean, c'mon!! They're good -- maybe even a defining band of the last few years -- but, even if they have the potential, they haven't had time to get THAT good. Can't help but wonder if its just there to off-set the age of the other records in the top 20.
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OK, if you're going to include Velvet fucking Underground and then put them UNDER Funeral, your life privileges should be revoked.
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@ andy
i agree
i love arcade fire but really, they are ranked too high here.
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well i suppose if Grey's Anatomy is a reliable source for "indie rock", then this list is great. but in the real world, this list sucks.
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My Quick Thoughts.
90 Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
Why this? Why not Feels?
89 Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll
Seriously?
80 Feist - The Reminder
Classic?
79 Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Good, but shouldn't be on this list this high.
77 Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
A great loss of credibility with this choice.
64 Cat Power - The Greatest
Maybe. But a little high.
52 Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground
Very high in the grand scheme of things, should be farther back
51 Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
Very high.
50 Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Not even their classic material. It'd be one thing if this was Take Offs and Landings, but they chose the wrong album!
46 Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
April Fools?
38 The Strokes - Is This It
Way too high. Maybe in the 80s or 90s, but not in the 30s
33 The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Seriously? At 33?
30 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Should be way higher.
27 M.I.A. - Arular
Way too high, but still on this list
06 Arcade Fire - Funeral
Should be considerably farther down the list.
This list is very recent. It's not really based on "Greatest of All Time", but rather a list of "Best of what you may have heard from a limited panel of judges", which probably means it's just a slow month at Blender.
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No Soft Bulletin? No Spaceman 3? No Pulp? Broken Social Scene? But they were sure to include Wolf Parade?!
What a bunch of clowns.
Shit list indeed.
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Yeah and what about unrest's imperial F.f.r.r???!!!
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Hartwell got it right on the nose. Except for what he said about The Jesus Lizard. He had his head up his ass one that one...
THE JESUS LIZARD - DESTROY BEFORE READING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imoIrvKDk8Q
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"arcade fire sucks, moan, bitch, bitch, cry, emo, moan. I hate my liberal arts classes so much. Why isn't any band now as cool as the velvet underground. I hate lists, but I loved misshapes.
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only one elliott smith album?
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!pavement!
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It's funny - the only choice they got absolutely right was #1. But why on earth is Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain almost forty spots below it? And Funeral at #6?! Bee Thousand should be much higher. Execution of All Things should be the only Rilo Kiley album on here and it should be much further down. How many of these are actually indie recordings in the true sense of the word? FRANZ FERDINAND ahead of Beat Happening, Daniel Johnston, The Vaselines, Built to Spill (aka the real pioneers)...you've simply got to be kidding me.
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It's a pretty comprehensive list, but it's nothing that they couldn't have just copied from an "Encyolpedia of Rock" manual. I wouldn't take anything Blender publishes about music too seriously, however. Their last cover had a "Pussycat Doll" on the cover.
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First of all Blender is a horrible magazine with questionable taste. But- I like this list? I have enjoyed all most all of these records and the ones that I haven't heard (Half Japanese, The Clean) I plan on investigating. I even "get" the 1 hip-hop choice.
You can quibble over the rankings, but if this list has people explore these records - i'm all for it.
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define "indie-rock". are albums only on independent records eligible? blender sux
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i didn't know indie-rock was turning 25, how did i miss that birthday party?
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I don't think the arcade fire suck -- and I've been out of college for quite awhile. I just think it's bizarre to see a record that influenced so many of the records on this list below a fun, interesting record that may or may not even stand the test of time -- let alone change the musical landscape. It's not just the velvs, what the hell are the Smiths doing under arcade fire?
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Is this a joke? This is a joke, right?
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I, for one, cannot BELIEVE no one has bashed The Hold Steady at #20. You bitches are always so damn divided about that band!
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People who make their own lists on this page deserve a punch in the nose. Knock that shit off.
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The albums on here are all valid except for a few (Franz, Brut, Le Tigre) but the order is seriously fucked.
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I agree that too much energy is spent on silly lists like this. I'm more interested in the attitudes that went into compiling a list, if any did. Were there descriptions or reactions to albums? Anything journalistic at all?
If not it sounds like they methodically read through a few resources like allmusicguide, metacritic, pitchfork, and compiled the list without actually being familiar with very much of this music. I don't see any other way Viva Last Blues, The Velvet Underground, M.I.A., and De La Soul should ever be on a single all-time list.
What goes through the minds of a person who knowingly includes two pavement albums vs. one VU album (and how do they pick that one over the first LP or White Light...?)
The answer is simple and doesn't deserve debate; there aren't minds like this. If it seems too frustrating and surreal to be real,well, it probably is. A machine built list for people who don't know any better, and for their part, don't really care to, and that's fine.
But for every kids that picks up this issue of Blender for the soft-core promise of its cover and hardly even notices lists like these, there's gotta be a few who stumble across Will Oldham or The Shaggs and never look back.
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Hold Steady's "Separation Sunday" at #20? HAHAHA! And that's over the likes of Neutral Milk Hotel's "The Aeroplane Flies High", Mission of Burma "Vs." and Fugazi's "Repeater."
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lists blow.
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Where's the Moon and Antarctica???
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Maybe it's just 'cause I've got them on the brain (happened to blog about them today), but... hullo, Drive Like Jehu? Can't deny that band.
Also, I have no quibble with Arcade Fire's placement. The further away we get from that record, the more important it's going to feel. I mean it.
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My theory is that five guys sat down at Blender, each wrote down 20 "indie" CDs and then put them in this order. One of the guys has read "Our Band Could Be Your Life." One of them hasn't heard anything from 2007 other than "In Rainbows." One is "over" Rolling Stone, but still reads it cover to cover. Hence, this post-Braffian clusterfuck.
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Neutral Milk Hotel at 32?! That should be a top-20 shoe-in.
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so indie rock started 25 years ago, yet the 13th Floor Elevators are indie rock?
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I propose that comments #1 and #3 correctly summarized this post, and I would like to echo them again:
Uggghhhhhhhgghhhhhhhhh.
Uggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.
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Love or hate them, The Jesus Lizard should be on this list and any other. People have been blatantly copying aspects of their sound for years.
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I'm putting the gun in my mouth...
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I just looked to see that they got #1 right. Yep. Moving on...
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I really want to bitch about this list, but they gave the modern lovers some pretty high praise, and that makes me happy. I'm gonna go listen to jonathan richman for the rest of the day.
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1. NMH should be much much higher. no effing question.
2. re: Chris Mackey, Young Marble Giants are already classic. certified.
that is all.
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I obviously don't know what 'indie' means.
I mean, isn't it ironic that they have such obviously mainstream bands like Nirvana and REM on the list (albeit, for those two, only their 'early' records) yet nothing from The Clash, nothing from U2, nothing from the Cure? I can certainly recall a time when none of those bands would've been what you'd consider mainstream. (And the Cure--ever?) Seems like a big, big double-standard here.
On the other hand, it was pretty neat to see X on the list (even if they don't belong without the Ramones, Blondie, etc). I love me some X.
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where are:
The Grifters
The Replacements
(smog)
???
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Blender stepping all over hipster turf. Watch the hipsters flare up.
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i haven't read all the comments but I would say a huge mistake is having Arcade Fire at #6. That is beyond ridiculous.
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Come on, its blender magazine. who the fuck reads that for indie or even good music news & reviews. i'm surprised they did as good as they did. that magazine is the equivalent of 'us weekly' for music.
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There should have been more Smiths. Speaking of the other "Smith" is Either/Or really better than XO?
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flecton big sky - i refer you to #3.
seriously kids, do your homework.
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SOMEONE SEND BLENDER THE TV ON THE RADIO SUCKS MEMO!
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So, the author says: "OK, what else did Blender get right and/or wrong? We'll start: Where's Jesus Lizard?"
Then Hartwell says: "So, please, don't write a comment here asking where is this or that band or lamenting an inclusion you don't agree with."
I somehow agree with the top 5, but yeah, this list could totally use some Jesus Lizard. Some Stone Roses & JAMC as well.
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since when is m.i.a. indie or rock?
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Alan Knut - the answer to your question is "yes, absolutely." don't mean to be a douche and keep responding, but there's enough to quibble with here without getting it even more wrong than Blender. come on kids, i believe in you. step your game up!
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Pavement sucks.
At least not as good as the Smiths, VU, um everyone else on the list.
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no 'up the bracket'?
hmm..
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i can see stereogum doing a list like this.
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EVERY BAND I LIKE IS NOT ON THIS LIST, THEREFORE THIS LIST IS INANE AND WRONG AND THE PEOPLE WHO COMPOSED IT SHOULD BE BOILED IN MELTED DOWN COPIES OF TV ON THE RADIO CDS!!!
is that about right?
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Oh look, it's Craig Marks record collection! Squirt!
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Does anyone who likes the Clean's Anthology way more than Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot wanna go get a beer?
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who the fuck is stephen malkmus?
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"Let It Be" should be #1. I understand they need to kiss some indie rock ass to try and make this list fly, but it's never going to work anyway, people are going to whine no matter what, so just be honest and give The Mats their due. "Let It Be" should be #1.
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Pavement #1? Make a list and all but don't break out Pavement at #1.
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ummmmmmm....Radiohead? I'm guessing they didn't make the list since they have always been on a major label until now? I'd still call them one of the most, if not the most important indie bands there is. And I don't even like them that much.
same thing i guess with bloc party (on a major label) who would be near the top of my list.
For me, Apologies to the Queen Mary, Illinois, Turn on the Bright Lights, Oh Inverted World, bee thousand, in the aeroplane over the sea, lcd soundsystem need to be much higher.
for forgotten bands, i'll throw in comsat angels. one of the bands that comes in around Blender's "25 year" bday that alot of these band owe something to.
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and all the people bashing Art Brut need to go see them live sometime, one of the best live acts out there. 89 seems like a decent spot for them.
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i'm sorry, but how can m.i.a. come in higher than two of the best albums of the 1990's [and possibly even ever]: "either/or" and "in the aeroplane over the sea"?
i mean, arguing over legitimacy with blender is kinda like beating a dead horse, but COME ON! "aeroplane" should have been placed in the top ten even without proper thought.
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IMA KILL ME A HIPSTER
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i shall call this list "fodder for the what.cd freeleech period"
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some people should really not generalize, indie is quite a big genre now? dance music is not fucking rock man pls undestand that, what ever happened to the drum bass & guitar set up?
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80 Feist - The Reminder
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!
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I hate the world.
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Oh, good, no Decemberists. Yep, I'm going to go out of my way to take this list seriously.
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Plain and simple: Best of lists are retarded! Especially ones that are this broad. I mean give me a break. It's flawed and doomed from the beginning, but nonetheless: M.I.A. at #27!?!?!? GIVE ME A BREAK.
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postal service.
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emergency & I is a tad low no?
like maybe 90 spots too low
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Somebody needs to compile a list of the top 100 biggest dipshits that post on Stereogum.
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what no 'baby one more time'?!?!?!
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several retarded things here:
As mentioned, only ONE Elliott Smith record?
Also mentioned, where the FUCK is BSS' "You Forgot it in People"???!??
Pavement at number one? Stupid.
Where is "Castaways and Cutouts" or "Her Majesty"???!?
Yeah, let's put De la Soul and Liz Phair on this list, but leave off MOTHERFUCKING BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE.
Yeah, let's put on Feist's record that came out.. oh... five months ago? On a list about the best indie rock albums ever???!?!!?!?! But let's leave off Broken Social Scene. What THE FUCK.
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Go kill yourself hipster shit list.
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come on people, the whole point of lists like this is so you can trash them! stop writing to complain about people complaining. jesus h krist, lighten the hell up!
Ummmmm - so my take is that there is a fair amount of useless crap on here. never understood how anyone could listen to rilo kiley. at all. they suck. art brut are a silly gimmick band that will be completely forgotten within 2 years. never understood neutral milk hotel. feist is annoying adult contemporary/commercial music. i love the replacements, but 'let it be' at no. 3 seems silly to me. same with big star - great band, but not so high. glad to see 'gish' where it was, and as the only s.p. to make the list, its the only great album they made.
and the list is missing jesus and mary chain, the cure, the pixies (!), wire, the stooges, stone roses, flaming lips, mercury rev, rem - some significant oversights. i would get rid of clap your hands say yeah, the hold steady, art brut, the clean, wolf parade, the chills, to make room for bands which actually deserve it. and sonic youth's 'sister' i would also put on there but higher up.
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They, for the most part, have the basics. Obviously the ranking is off because thats just where opinion comes in.
although, it really is odd they left out you forgot in people.
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first of all...who cares...it's blender
its a crap rag to begin with
this list is fucking impossible to produce. fucking impossible. no one would agree ever even agree with 50% of it ...ever! I am actually surprised that anyone from Blender has heard of Mission of Burma or the Feelies. So Kudos to a shitty magazine that is upping the ante for music magazines with proper knowledge. I bet they will be diggin a little deeper in those record crates to avoid compiling a similar list.
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Glad to see "Painful" so high and "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" should be higher. Agree with GbV.
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Uhhh, The Clean anthology is an anthology of all the Clean's material. I love the Clean, but... still. It's an anthology.
Uhhhh... Where is Wire's Pink Flag?
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what what what
where are my decemberists?
and Neutral Milk Hotel should be at least top 5.
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Anything Elvis released on Sun Records should top this list. I think they were just singles before he jumped to RCA, so we'll just call all his Sun 45s one album and that's number one. Also, Atlantic Records was an independent label before being bought out by Warners, so number two on the list should be Led Zeppelin IV. Number three is anything Coltrane put out on Impulse! Records; let's go with "A Love Supreme". An obvious choice, I know, but a list like this should be a little obvious at the top.
Who's gonna mess with that top three? Seriously, just try.
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lolz >
http://community.livejournal.com/ohnotheydidnt/17471332.html?thread=2015378532#t2015378532
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Silver Jews, anyone? Fuck you, Blender.
I'm glad people are pissed about Broken Social Scene, considering they are a bit better than the Arctic Retard Monkeys.
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Oh, well, if Blender says so, it must be true.
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We could all add and subtract from this list - and is Blender really that bad - seems to be a pretty popular publication that we all read. I so totally agree with the top ten choices - Great job - Lists are fun!!
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Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque will always be my number 1!!!
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Sorry kids, Pavement rapes and pillages at their leisure.
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I gave this a cursory glance earlier but went back for seconds and just noticed Art Brut. Ahahahaha, DUMB.
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Expecting this list to rule is like expecting Hooters to have a good jukebox.
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@ corey:
More like Silversun Pickups! Am I right? Huh? Huh?
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has blender ever NOT made a shit list? everything they spew out is pure crap and they carry it all off with this smugness that makes me want to vomit.
and since when is pink moon an indie rock album?
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lol @ M.I.A. being over Wilco - YFH
Too silly. What a terrible list.
Score = 2
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties.
But I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge, but I was there.
I was there.
But I was there.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra,
Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra,
Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,
Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
You don't know what you really want. (x15)
Score = -2
Yep, "Slanted and Enchanted" is the Holy Grail of Indie Rock. Period. At least they got that right and also "Let It Be".
Score = 1
It's really weird to me that most of the Funeral bashing seems to come, directly or indirectly, from the fact that a) It's only a few years old, or b)Successful.
It's still a tremendous album, and it marks what I'd consider the defining moment in "indie" music of the last decade. Nobody could validly argue that it wasn't massively influential, whether you like the music or not. Easily deserving of it's place, IMO.
Score = -2
Loveless should still be higher.
Score = 3
why wasn't the bravery on this list? THEYR TOTAL INDIEZ
Score = -1
neutral milk hotel one space away from the shins is RIDICULOUS. aeroplane and yankee hotel foxtrot are top 10, or top 5.
Score = 1
carp. Somehow this feels off topic, but personally I think All Hail West Texas is the Mountain Goats finest album. carp.
Score = 0
m.i.a number 27?
are you serious?
fuck you blender.
Score = 1
After a hundred comments no one has mentioned Polvo. I rule; you suck.
Score = -1
Agreed on Neutral Milk Hotel (should be top 10) and while I'm a huge Pavement fan - we didn't need both crooked rain and slanted on there.
I will say this - regardless of which order they come in... the top 50 is a pretty damn worthwhile.
Score = 0
velvet undergrounds sucks
Score = -5
32-28 should be 1-5. I about had a heart attack when I saw that run of albums so low. And only one Elliott Smith? Arular higher than god knows how many great albums? Really?
Score = 0
yes i misspelled velvet underground, no i don't care, and btw: please don't ever post lyrics in here again. does anyone else despise lcd soundsystem? it seriously sounds like music for babysitting my younger ADHD-addled brother.
Score = -1
yes i know i spelled velvet underground wrong, no i don't care, btw, why paste a full song's worth of lyrics in here, that was messed up. especially lcd soundsystem, they sound like music for babysitting my adhd-addled younger brother.
Score = -4
damn i'm stoned.
Score = 0
I HATE JAMES MURPHY
Score = 1
Green Day is indie... okay then.
where's the Flaming Lips?!
Score = 3
74 The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
Of all the great Fall albums, the only one they put on this list is a greatest hits comp? What the hell?
Score = 3
Tell me why The Strokes are not number 1.
Its just crazy to me.
The best album ever made.
The YYY's before us..
It's just sick.
I wont even speak on ROF . Its not even on the list. Explain
Score = -3
Maybe not in the top 100 but I think Lambchop's Nixon album deserves an honorable mention. The self tilted album by The Glands too. Good stuff.
PS @ sonicyouth - Go punch yourself in the face you 4 post in a row retard.
Score = 1
say what you will...but i agree with more blender reviews than pitchfork reviews
Score = 0
I don't understand how a list with such a loose definition of "indie rock" (Nick Drake? Seriously?) can not include any Radiohead.
Score = 0
And don't even get me started on Bright Eyes at 52.
Score = 0
Are they really going to argue that the best (in their opinion) Arcade Fire album is better than the best (in their opinion) Velvet Underground album? Also, Arular over CR, CR? Is that for serious?
Score = 2
Neutral Milk Hotel should have been Top 5, at least.
Arcade Fire sucks!
Score = 1
That really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Score = 1
Lists are for remembering things you can't or won't remember; to take care of tedious shit like laundry, groceries and oil changes. Your mind is so full of clutter from your day job and TiVO that you need something to remind you to be responsible. No one should ever "need" to make a list of their top 100 "all-time" anything. Give it a rest and put on some music; maybe even something from the "Shit list".
Score = 0
could i interest anyone in a macy's gift card?
Score = 0
There's some great records on this list- I'm still confused with what "indie" means- when many of these were pressed and shipped by majors- It's safe to say that 75% of the indie music audience & editors are middle to upper class college educated- yet steeped in corporate denial- Dig this- the higher the tuition- the more indie the campus station- Sam Phillips released some smokin' indie records- so did Barry Gordy- and across the pond- Joy Division, Primal Scream, Jesus & Mary Chain- hello
Score = 1
Anyone who puts the Arcade Fire over the Velvet Underground needs to have their testicles flayed.
Score = 5
Shouldn't Hum have a place on there somewhere?
NIN is indie?
Score = 1
the strokes should be in the top 20, if not the top 10. that record put bands like interpol, yeah yeah yeahs, rapture, and white stripes on the map. think of what that record did. it brought so many people into the indie world because of its greatness.
Score = -2
Fugazi's 13 Songs should be on here, not Repeater. And higher.
Greatest Hits (Half Japanese) is not an album, it's a compilation. A greatest hits cannot be considered in this bullshit list.
There is NO FUCKING WAY that AC's Strawberry Jam is on this list. It came out 1, 2 months ago?
Sorry if I repeated anything, I'm not going through 130+ posts.
Score = 1
true, i agree about the strokes. new york city music scene became huge again because of those guys. #1
Score = 1
This list is just ridiculously over-american. Where is Ride, Jesus and Mary Chain, Teenage Fanclub, Boo Radleys, Primal Scream, Spiritualized, Blur etc. etc. etc. ...
Score = 4
Someone needs to Clarify what INDIE MUSIC is. last time I checked, Nine Inch Nails, Nirvana and Green Day were not Indie. and that goes for many bands on here.
Shanetron's comment where he listed a bunch of albums cracked me up, as he slammed any album that was modern day indie music like Franz Ferdinand, The Shins, Arcade Fire, CYHSY, or Interpol. Those are the Indie Scene. I love the Velvet Underground with a passion but they are not Indie, not the way I define the Indie movement.
-Illinois should be higher than 60.
-The Shins should be much higher than 32. They have become the defenition of the word "indie" and they are only at 32?
- It still annoys me that no one will ever give credit to anything Modest Mouse did from Float on Forward becuase its all too "mainstream". Only cool people listen to old modest mouse music. give me a break.
- Seeing the hold steady at 20 makes me die a little inside.
- Milk Hotel should be top 10.
- Pavement? #1? Pavement? I guess thats a "cool" answer that the hipsters will like but i don't see how its the greatest album of all time for indie. If you are going to call The Smiths, Velvet Underground and Nirvana Indie, and then put pavement way up at #1? I think not.
- As much as I like fiest, that album came out like 6 months ago? give it a break, its good but not greatest album ever. even if it was, give it more than a few months to see if it lasts the test of time.
- Seeing Wolf Parade and New Pornographers on the list makes me feel good.
- The Arcade Fire Deserve to be where they are. now are the velvet underground better? well they are legends and have had 40 years to sit on that work. I would put it ahead of Arcade fire in a greatest album of all time list, but not far. That album is amazing. give the arcade fire some time and they will become cool.
becuase thats all this list is about. what's the cool answer. not the right one.
Score = -3
YOu all complain about how shitty a magazine Blender is, yet you are all so offended that they don't list your own top 5. Fuck, who cares really?
Score = 0
No Broken Social Scene...?
MIA is "Indie Rock"...?
Joy Division at number 18...?!
But Arcade Fire get number 6!!!!
@ Hoppergrass: I have never read Blender Magazine (can't get it over here), but from seeing this list, I assume it's a piece of shit.
Score = 3
Arcade Fire albums should NEVER be on any "Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever" list, no matter how shitty the magazine/webzine is. Especially if Broken Social Scene and Stars are not present on questioned list. Neither should any records by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Arctic Monkeys, Art Brut, LCD Soundsystem, The Hold Steady, Nirvana, nor Green Day (not even "1000 Smoothed Out whateverthefuckthatrecordiscalledidontgiveahorsesshit").
Score = 1
Morrissey's a prick, but The Smiths's should of still been closer to #1
Score = 0
these comments crack me up. people do take this crap too seriously, including me, who had to spend ages blogging about it because i was surprised at just how many of these albums i actually have. and i could care less about the ranking, that's even more arbitrary than the actual list.
a few responses:
to the person who asked where the pixies were. um, at like #5 - how'd you miss that?
re: "indie" - as this is a list of indie *albums*, green day's "kerplunk" absolutely counts - it was released on lookout records, berkeley's punk rock bastion of indiedom - maybe not as indie as say, sarah records, but pretty damn indie. nine inch nails on the other hand - did they ever put anything out on an independent label? and yeah, there are several other non-indie records on there, but i understand their selection as representing an indie ethos (like REM in their early days - whereas NIN were always played on mainstream radio as far as i know. okay, i just think they suck. there ya go.)
i also agree with the person who said it was too american-centric - i'd have added the boo radleys and ride for sure, and probably mojave 3 or neil halstead, as well as the bats and the verlaines.
guess i'm the only one who thinks camper van beethoven should be on this list (and yes, most of their albums were indie - released on independent project records originally). i will admit huge surprise that the people at blender (which i'd never heard of but which apparently sucks according to the commenters here) had actually heard of the embarrassment.
and to the guy who asked about the clean vs. wilco, yeah, i'll grab a beer with you!
Score = 0
I'm glad to see such an outrage regarding Broken Social Scene NOT making this list. "You Forgot It In People" practically pays homage to Pixies, GbV, Husker Du, Replacements, etc.
Also, glad to see Spoon's "Kill The Moonlight" just make it below the the top 50, but I think "Girls Can Tell" should be on there too.
If Black Flag, Desendents, Bad Brains, and the Dead Kennedys made it, then where the fuck is Minor Threat?! Fugazi IS on here but still .......
Franz Ferdinand ........ WAAAAAAAAY too high.
And if Arcade Fire is #6, then The Strokes, GbV, Modest Mouse, and Neutral Milk Hotel should be ranked just as high.
Score = 0
Leigh, just because some of those records were released on "Indie" labels doesn't justify them being on this list.
As stated at the top of the post, the 100 albums are being classified as "Indie-Rock", not "bands who have released music on Indie-Labels."
Score = 1
Really - Nick Drake as "indie rock"?
Score = 1
This list doesn't seem based on anything at all lol
It simply looks like the list of the editor's favortite records or something
Score = 0
Why is The Fall, which has been one of the most important and influential bands in existence, if not one of the more famous, for thirty years, represented by a greatest hits comp that only came out a few years ago?
Score = 2
thing is, Funeral IS that good. over time, it'll be hailed as a classic.
but if you're going to include Velvet Underground, it should be at #1.
NMH & Strokes should be higher, and there's lots of missing stuff.
but yeah, Funeral is perfectly placed, it's just that VU should be at the top.
Score = -2
Love Cat Power, but The Greatest over Moon Pix? Whaaaaa?
Score = 0
if my subscription to that magazine wasn't free, i would cancel it because of this list. actually, i would cancel it because it's horrible in general, not just this.
Score = 0
Ok ComFuckingPuter?!?!? Where is it?
Score = 0
i just puked a little
no at the drive in???? seriously???
no godspeed you black emperor??
no built to spill's perfect from now on??
no lips?
no BSS?
no braid or get up kids or sunny day real estate???
are feist, MIA, Art Brut, Artic Monkeys and rilo kiley more indie rock than ATDI?? Feist is about as indie rock as buying groceries at walmart after church on sunday morning.
blender should stick to the hot girls on their covers and not trouble themselves with any kind of music analysis.
jesus h
Score = 3
It's on their site:
http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=2974&src=GM7070:MD
Score = 0
So a bunch of interns from a Maxim spin-off make a "controversial" list of indie rock records, and we're all taking it seriously? Niiiiice.
Score = 1
Definitely confused about the eligibility here.
Wilco's YHF was not an independent record, unless they are counting the short period of time the band released it on their website. They held the rights to it, but eventually signed with another label under the Warner umbrella, and that label put it out.
Still, I appreciate the effort and the album deserves to be recognized.
About the list as a whole: no one likes any kind of best of lists, ever, end of story. I think there are a lot of good records on there, and if a few people discover some new artists or old favourites because of this list, it's a good thing.
Score = 0
Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam?
ummmm show me one person who thinks that is their best album(besides Blender).
Score = 0
Me thinks the people have been Blender has been reading Pitchforkmedia
Score = 0
Me thinks the people at Blender have been reading Pitchforkmedia
Score = 0
"I'm still confused with what "indie" means- when many of these were pressed and shipped by majors"
The fine print on the disc/in the liner notes is not relevant to this list.
"nine inch nails on the other hand - did they ever put anything out on an independent label?"
TVT qualifies as an indie label.
Score = 0
The thing about Fuenral is it came out after indie rock had become an established genre, while The Velvet Underground helped inspire the genre but was really on an island by itself. It's kind of like including Zeppelin II on "a greatest heavy metal albums" list: obvioulsy it's a better album than, say, Metallica's Master of Puppets, but you could legitimately put Master of Puppets higher because it's more metal. The Velvet Underground would obviously own Funeral on a general "greatest albums of all time" list, but I think it's not completely crazy to place it lower than Funeral on this one.
Score = 1
To reiterate, some of those aren't even on "independent" labels.
Score = -1
Zen Arcade may be one of the most important albums ever, but among Husker Du albums, it's near the bottom. It's incoherent, inconsistent, and at times, down-right boring. It's predecessor and succeeder both blow it away.
Also, there's a difference between indie and indie-rock. Many of these albums cannot be called rock.
And as someone else already said, where the hell is Drive Like Jehu? Not just was DLJ the best emo band of the '90s (for that matter, where is Rites of Spring or Sunny Day Real Estate), but the best of all time.
Then there is the inclusion of Dead Kennedys and Black Flag, but no Minor Threat or Negative Approach (not to mention the far superior hardcore bands that Blender doesn't know even existed).
But the biggest travesty is that there is no They Might Be Giants. TMBG's first three releases are three of the most quintessential indie-rock albums ever conceived and you'd have to think that at least one would get a nod. Especially if Cat Power's anemic The Greatest nearly cracks the top 50.
Score = 1
i think you could make a pretty good argument for strawberry jam being animal collective's best album
Score = 0
Fuck the indie stereotype! The Strokes define rock and roll! It's the modern age baby!
Score = -2
More than 85 percent of these bands will be forgotten in 30 years.
Score = 0
how did you forget the libertines up the bracket? thats ridiculous
Score = -1
Reservations:
"We Shall All Be Healed" is hardly the best Mountain Goats record. I would have chosen "All Hail West Texas", though I'm shocked TMG made the list at all.
No TMBG?
And what's with all of the fucking greatest hits albums?
Personal #1: "Lonesome Crowded West"
And 85 percent of these bands will NOT be forgotten within the next 30 years.
Score = 0
Blender is a promotional mag. They took a few good historic records, mix it with a bunch of more popular records, and then add the bands they want to promote to make them seem credible. Does that help explain?
Score = 1
oops, missed both murmer & surfer rosa. sorrreeee. i agree about camper van beethoven also, our beloved revolutionary...is a great album, aside from being an album with great songs, its a great song cycle. oh, and the fucking strokes fucking blow. yawwwwn.
Score = 1
Flipper? OMG, nobody puts Flipper on a list!
Score = 1
more adventurous?! over takeoffs&landings? why is feist on there? wtf @ 95.8% of this list.
Score = 0
The current so called modern bands that are on this list are really just unoriginal mainstreamed versions of records that have already been made over and over again. And by including these bands with such original bands as the Velvet Underground made 40 years ago only shows how stagnant this music has become. Its like jazz was in the late 80s. Not bad, just unoriginal. And when music evolves and finally becomes something different only a few bands will be remembered as the true pioneers. Thats why more than 85 percent of these bands will be soon forgotten.
Score = 0
#1 was a great fucking choice - hell, the only choice. When I think Indie, I think Pavement. Im kind of surprised at Crooked's spot, but then again its not too indie, more of a classic rock feel. If thats how they were directing this list.
Score = 1
THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES
Score = 0
I realize Husker Du is on there twice, but what about Sugar's "Copper Blue"? Bob Mould's strongest album ever...hands down.
Score = 0
This sin't a true indie list unless Brian Jonestown Massacre is on it.
Score = -1
you've gotta be kidding me. for the one fugazi record they choose they take repeater and then they put the fuckin hold steady in front of it? get real.
Score = 0
In case you weren't aware, every genre ever created is now considered INDIE. This includes 80's feelgood rap, industrial, 70's folk, hallowe'en punk, and whatever the fuck M.I.A. is. IT'S ALL FUCKING INDIE!!
All jokes aside - Gish over Siamese Dream?
The Greatest over You Are Free?
Score = 0
"This sin't a true indie list unless Brian Jonestown Massacre is on it."
Riiiiiiiiiight. Might as well put Coldplay on that list if we're trying to get that crap on there.
Score = 1
And if they're putting that Arcade Fire garbage that high, might as well put Franz Ferdinand much higher.
Score = 1
Jesus Lizard are a band I only need to listen to about once a month. When I do, however, I feel that nobody should be higher. The rest of the time, maybe #5. Pixies #1, Modest mouse #2, Violent Femmes #3, Jehu #4 #6 MBV rest who gives a shit.
Score = 0
i hate blender.
WHERE'S PATRICK WOLF'S LYCANTHROPY?!
Score = 0
Kill The Moonlight is WAY too low for my taste. And not including You Forget It In People is a grave oversight. Grave!
Score = 1
You FORGOT It In People. There we go...
Also, if Oh, Inverted World is included so should Chutes Too Narrow.
Crooked Rain is better than Slanted and Enchanted.
Score = 0
Blur?
pulp?
Oasis?
Score = -1
Without an album (or three/four) by Pixies, the most influential indie-rock band of all-time, this list has no cred whatsoever. Good to see "Spiderland," though.
P.S. lulz to the dude above who confused "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" with a Smashing Pumpkins boxset.
Score = 0
Oh wait, "Surfer Rosa" is five. That's what I get for not having my non-prescription plastic hipster glasses on. D'oh!
Score = 0
They got the artists right, but screwed up the albums?
Mass Romantic > Twin Cinema?
More Adventurous > Take Offs and Landings?
The Reminder > Let It Die?
Oh, Inverted World > Chutes Too Narrow?
Besides that, what is Blender doing even mentioning indie rock? Shouldn't they be busy posting scantily clad photos of Christina Aguilera or something?
Score = 0
This is the 33rd best list of songs I've ever seen.
Score = 0
This isn't a true indie list unless the life-changing "Hell Hath No Fury" by Clipse is at number one.
Score = 0
With the understanding that most "lists" are basically fodder for pop culture vultures and are better off ignored, what the hell is Emergency & I doing at a bottom-feeding number like #95???? That's atrocious.
Score = 0
Dinosaur Jr - Youre Living All Over Me
Husker Du - New Day Rising
2 great great albums ..pre - Nirvana and very
influencial nuff said..
I love Rollins Band and would include 'Life Time' too
A Britsh band called New Model Army with 'Ghost of Cain' or 'Thunder and Consolation' also would be on my list :))
how bout PiL - Metal Box??
big problem with Franz Ferdinand BIG PROBLEM
(ah no not getting too upset but i really dont like em though)
Score = 0
where's My Morning Jacket?
I don't think I know what "indie" means.
Score = 0
Polvo sucks.
Score = 0
THE BIRTHDAY PARTY "JUNKYARD" or "HEE-HAW"
GRINDERMAN
LIGHTNING BOLT'S LAST 3 ALBUMS
SOCIAL DISTORTION "MOMMY'S LITTLE MONSTER"
PULP "DIFFERENT CLASS"
THE WALKMEN "BOWS + ARROWS"
T.REX "THE SLIDER"
MORPHINE "CURE FOR PAIN"
MR. AIRPLANE MAN "MOANIN'" or "C'MON DJ"
Score = 0
Madvillain - "Madvillainy"
J Dilla - "Donuts" or "The Shining"
Little Brother - "The Minstrel Show"
just to name a few.
Score = 0
im goin to post it again, b/c apparently you idiots dont get the point i was making with this song. This time READ the lyrics.
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from France and from London.
But I was there.
I was there in 1968.
I was there at the first Can show in Cologne.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the Internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1962 to 1978.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Tokyo and Berlin.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties.
But I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge, but I was there.
I was there.
But I was there.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1974 at the first Suicide practices in a loft in New York City.
I was working on the organ sounds with much patience.
I was there when Captain Beefheart started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing Daft Punk to the rock kids.
I played it at CBGB's.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
I used to work in the record store.
I had everything before anyone.
I was there in the Paradise Garage DJ booth with Larry Levan.
I was there in Jamaica during the great sound clashes.
I woke up naked on the beach in Ibiza in 1988.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody. Every great song by the Beach Boys. All the underground hits. All the Modern Lovers tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every Niagra record on German import. I heard that you have a white label of every seminal Detroit techno hit - 1985, '86, '87. I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '60s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a synthesizer and an arpeggiator and are throwing your computer out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a Yaz record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your guitars and bought turntables.
I hear that you and your band have sold your turntables and bought guitars.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records? This Heat, Pere Ubu, Outsiders, Nation of Ulysses, Mars, The Trojans, The Black Dice, Todd Terry, the Germs, Section 25, Althea and Donna, Sexual Harrassment, a-ha, Pere Ubu, Dorothy Ashby, PIL, the Fania All-Stars, the Bar-Kays, the Human League, the Normal, Lou Reed, Scott Walker, Monks, Niagra,
Joy Division, Lower 48, the Association, Sun Ra,
Scientists, Royal Trux, 10cc,
Eric B. and Rakim, Index, Basic Channel, Soulsonic Force ("just hit me"!), Juan Atkins, David Axelrod, Electric Prunes, Gil! Scott! Heron!, the Slits, Faust, Mantronix, Pharaoh Sanders and the Fire Engines, the Swans, the Soft Cell, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics, the Sonics.
You don't know what you really want. (x15)
Score = -2
@adrienne -- nobody missed your point, it was just very obvious and not worth discussing, and made poorly by posting a very long set of lyrics rather than something that you might have come up with on your own. Also, I'm not sure you picked up on why the point itself was somewhat misplaced: nobody was just naming obscure yet influential albums for the sake of seeming knowledgeable. Most music fans over the age of 20 would be familiar with 99% of the albums listed in the comments above.
Score = 0
I love what music stirs in the mind...listen to all you wingers...Sounds like an English mag your'll getting emo about? All I can say is that Slanted changed my musical life and Sigur Ros is missing...So I agree and disagree...nothing more-nothing less...We souldn't live our lives by lists
Score = 1
Why is Blender still published?
Score = 0
this is the worst list ever.
grosssss.
Score = 0
I don't think a band is indie if their debut--and all their later albums--were released on a major label. Even more, I think this is a bad hybrid of '82-'07 bands with some so-called classic indie artists. So I give it a B- for bad faith in their mission.
Score = 0
Way too earnest in your endeavor, Blender. Where's the pretense, for Christ's sake?
Score = 0
. . . Where are the Silver Jews?
Score = 0
I love the juxtaposition of 07 VU and then 06 Arcade Fire... Who would say that Arcade Fire is superior?
And where are the Silver Jews?
Score = 2
weren't Joy Division on an independent?
Score = 1
really? the only yo la tengo album is painful? what about i can hear the heart beating as one? what about and then nothing turned itself inside out? what about electr-o-pura?
COME ON GUYS!!!
Score = 0
Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, definitely. Social Distortion, too. Bad Brains is a good call. Pixies? I think not.
How about:
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material
Ween: Pure Guava, The Pod or The Mollusc
XTC: Drums and Wires (alt enough?)
Zero Boys: Vicious Circle
Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend
The Stranglers: Rattus Norvegicus (not alt enough?)
Richard Thompson
They Might Be Giants: Lincoln or Apollo 13
Agent Orange: Living in Darkness
Score = 0
Teenage Fanclub's Bandwagonesque, definitely. Social Distortion, too. Bad Brains is a good call. Pixies? I think not.
How about:
Stiff Little Fingers: Inflammable Material
Ween: Pure Guava, The Pod or The Mollusc
XTC: Drums and Wires (alt enough?)
Zero Boys: Vicious Circle
Matthew Sweet: Girlfriend
The Stranglers: Rattus Norvegicus (not alt enough?)
Richard Thompson
They Might Be Giants: Lincoln or Apollo 13
Agent Orange: Living in Darkness
Score = 0
In light of some of those other ones, gotta add -
Primus - Suck on this (Sold 10,000 copies out of their trunk. Nobody on that list was that indie).
Score = -1
Ok. We're talking about creating the impossible here. How does anyone truly create a top 100 indie list? It's all opinion, so you could either a) don't bother or b) define what indie means to you and then create some criteria around what makes an "indie" album successful.
That being said, I have to agree with many of the responses that this list is pretty brutal. BSS is a glaring omission as are the Decemberists. That is simply my opinion though...
Score = 0
One more thing, does anybody really think any band is actually better than Pixies, deep down in their hearts? If so, I accept it, but I'm not sure it's true. Pixies are the best, IMO, ever.
Score = 1
whoever said the white stripes owe their success to the strokes should be shot point blank in the face.
Score = 2
they choose the freakin worst Rilo Kiley album to put in their list. ugh. offensive.
good albums but relly bad spots....Le Tigre is waaay too low.
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I'm having difficulty in whats worse...that list...or the comments made about that list. Do people really know what Indi means?
And for fuck sake...the list is about indi rock...not Shoegaze (i.e.Jesus and Mary chain and Ride.)...not herion rock(i.e. Velvet Underground)...Slint is more of a post rock band and definitly not grunge(do I need to explain there.) All I know is that everyone here is very Emo about all this...settle the fuck down and appreciate what is on there. It's all just art...not a fucking football team...it's just a list...do you get this emotional about a wine list
Some of the best indi recorded albums in the world won't even get heard by mainstream ears...anyone ever heard of Tocotronic...now thats an indi band of brilliance...unlike my spelling
Score = -1
Who cares, honestly? Some of my fav bands and albums are on the list but its not like I'd stop listening if they weren't Blender approved. Its fun to argue about lists but not worth bursting a blood vessel like some of yous guys.
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Go Loaf
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Uh, since when are like half of these artists indie rock? ie., The Misfits, Nirvana, Nine Inch Nails, Green Day, M.I.A., Black Flag? Yes, all great artists, but indie rock? Um, not really?
And where is Broken Social Scene? Seriously, and some Death Cab, and Iron & Wine?
Really, this list is retarded.
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Clearly, the fine folks at Blender are now indie overlords. otherwise, people wouldn't get so worked up about this.
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yeah, why the vu's self-titled one? it lacks...john cale. did blender just not want to pick "the vu & nico" or "white light/white heat" because they're typical? whatever the reason, bad choice.
cat power?
big star. :)
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yea! joy division!
but where's grizzly bear's yellow house?!
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yea! joy division!
but where's grizzly bear's yellow house?!
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Blender is disgusting. It's like the National Enquirer disguised as a music magazine. Blender doesn't care about alternative music. It's all corporate pop.
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my thoughts on this are relatively simple. to me, we each has different "earbuds" like we have different tastebuds. there are many factors that go into each person to help shape their musical landscapes and although we judge each other harshly on musical tastes we cannot condemn anyone for it either. i would have chosen a different top 100 and so would probably every single person that has commented. give it up and realize we are all individuals with different preferences and reasons for ranking things... if we rank them at all.
that said i agree with the person that said it should be rilo kiley's take offs and landings, not more adventurous for god's sake. lol. see?
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p.s. u little music snots are pretty hilarious... while im over here enjoying my music and life u are wasting energy debating something that can never be resolved cuz it's all in your puny little head. fuckin funny. :)
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I think "indie" si the stupidest category to classify music...apparently right now everything that sounds remotely rock/pop is INDIE! and its stupid...I think this is a hard list to write, but I think they coulda put some effort in it. I think Arcade Fire deserves that spot, but some artists...its like, "wow,dude,WOW." No Broken Social Scene. No Blur or Oasis (!!!! >:() no Stars no even (do i dare say it) muse...I mean they picked Franz Ferdinand over all those bands. freakin lame.
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Arcade Fire give me diarrhea.
Speaking of which, Butthole Surfers should be on that list. Perhaps "Psychic....Powerless....Another Man's Sac."
And where the hell are Chrome?
See what happens when you leave the music press in the hands of clueless hipsters?
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First of all, stop being so freaking subjective! All of you!
Its terrible that you let your music taste stand for the rest of society! Do you not see that your own personal favourites are perhaps not worthy of the top spot?
*first rant over*
SECOND RANT!
Its all about influence. Pavement, #1 then? not the hugest influence, over someone like sonic youth? please! My bloody valentine even. But pavement produced the definitive inide album, thus, it is number one.
Bands like the pixies (the pixies ESPECIALLY) are perhaps not anyone's favourite band (?) but they have had such a huge impact thereafter (e.g. with debaser, you can definitely see where Kurt Cobain was coming from when he tried to "write a pixies song".
On that note, The Smiths and Joy Division should have been higher.
anyway, go decide on your own lists people!
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Hold on. What is De La Soul doing on this list? Great album, but what the....last time I checked they are real hip-hop, not real indie rock.
Also, I never thought of Pretty Hate Machine as an Indie album. Perhaps a breakthrough Industrial album. M.I.A? What?
This is more like 100 good albums that keep you looking full of cred.
Does anyone use the word 'cred' anymore?
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I can't believe Godspeed nor Broken Social Scene aren't on this list?!?
Oh and I can understand the Interpol hate but TOTBL was a really good fucking album ANNNNNND it should've been higher just as long as it is lower than Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Funeral. IMHO
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First, lists like these are pointless. Music junkies love to complain and are outrageously opinionated. So, for a magazing like Blender--I think they did a pretty decent job. Could it be better? Hell yes.
Second, I love Belle and Sebastian but I think Dear Catastrophe Waitress is a better CD than If You're Feeling Sinister.
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Pixies not anyones favorite band! They are mine :). You really can't ignore that their reunion tickets sold out everywhere in minutes. They influenced many more bands than just Nirvana. Say, Radiohead for one.
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i mean i like franz ferdinand, but 46?
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I liked the Nuetral Milk Hotel selection. I think part of what should make c.d.'s higher than others on this list is whether they're influential or before their time.
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I'm confused. Why isn't Kid A on there- at number one. Or OK Computer- at number one. I guess I'm not entirely sure if Radiohead are indie or not. I'm diggin all the albums they have on this list, but man the order is off. Interpol is ranked way too low, I didn't see the national on there, velvet underground and Smiths should definatly be ahead of Arcade Fire, even if I happen to believe they put them in the right place. Spoon shouldn't be on there. Where's Sufjan Stevens? Belle and Sebastian ranked too low. You know what- this list is border line evil. I actually want to snap the computer into tiny pieces right now.
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I think indie is way too vague of a term to create a list of.I don't think anyone really knows what indie even means. I sure don't.
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Fuck "Slanted and Enchanted"...
The fact that "The Velvet Underground and Nico" isn't #1, let only not even on the list,
plus Rilo Kiley and a bunch of other shit that definitely shouldn't even be close to the "top 100" makes this list a fucking joke...
And theoretically, if they were using this list for the "100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums EVER!", Daniel Johnston should be #1 since he is a helluva lot more "indie" than anything on that sorry list...
Score = -2
Alligator by The National would have been a nice album for that list. Also, Hope and Adams by Wheat ...and its completely subjective but a list of indie greats should include the smiths, the cure and the pixies.
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Jeez, this list thingy seems to just ruin lives.
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Jeez, this list thingy seems to just ruin lives. There's just too many current albums on there to be considered "Classic."
While mentioning Grey's Anatomy they should have mentioned VW ads.
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strawberry jam rocks
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If you think Daniel Johnston is better than Pavement, you're probably more fucked up in the head than he is.
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I love The Hold Steady....but Separation Sunday in the top 20? Over Mass Romantic, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Kill the Moonlight Turn on the Bright Lights AND Is This It? Really? It's not even their best album!
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dismemberment plan outside the top 50? indefensible.
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Big Black, not Jesus Lizard.
Big Black, not Jesus Lizard.
Big fucking Black, not Jesus Lizard.
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Where are the Minute Men, Pere Ubu, Sun City Girls, The Molecules, Butt Hole Suffers, Black Flag, DNA, Boredoms, Ruins, The Contortions, Cop Shot Cop?
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100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums ever????
Its just blender's frat boy opinion written by wannabe musicians; ain't worth getting worked up over but I cannot resist posting.
I thought indie meant indie label acts; many acts on here are backed by major label corporations, regurgitating sounds they copped from some one else.
Then in the spirit of indie rock leave off THE BUZZCOCKS, GANG OF FOUR, MARNIE STERN, DEERHOOF?
Where is Peaches?
Where is Parliament Funkadelic?
And other bands that are responsible for much of the sound here are ignored...
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I can't type fast enough to express the surging loathsome feeling brewing after reading this heinous list.
So just count this as a vote of hate for blender, and it's ridiculous list.
!YOUR LIST SUCKS MAN!
Score = -1
I completely agree with whoever posted about the Stone Roses. God, I loved them. Although I do agree with the Pavement choice/Neutral Milk hotel choice/Bloody Valentine, etc.
Stone Roses, stone roses, stone roses...
Score = 1
we now present the list of the greatest 100 marketing campaigns in Indie Rock history.
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I have been around this scene for 26 years and this"list" is questionable at best. So, take it for what it's worth(nothing), and go on with what you know: what's REALLY GOOD and what YOU really love. The only thing that hurts is putting my beloved Milo Goes To College on there... how dare thee!
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I understand each one has her/his own musical taste. BUT:
1) "Blender's 100 Greatest Indie-Rock Albums Ever". EVER? too many new albums. INDIE-ROCK? sure, like MIA and De La Soul.
2) What about RADIOHEAD?. And forgot The Decemberists? Broken Social Scene? And you put about 30 "new" bands? HAHAHA.
3) I LOVE Arcade Fire. but #6? it was a mistake, wasn't it?
4) The Velvet Underground should be, in my opinion, #1. BUT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO PUT IT ON FIRST PLACE PUT IT SECOND, THIRD. NOT SIX AFTER ARCADE FIRE. COME ONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN.
5) THE WORST MISTAKE EVER: GREEN DAY.
This is a GREAT guide for "I WANNA START TO LISTEN SOME REAL MUSIC" people.
What about the real list? don't be selfish!! we all want to REALLY know the 100 greatest indie-rock albums ever.
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Television - Marquee Moon should have been on the list. If it was, I'm sorry I didn't read it very thoroughly.
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No one mentioned Beulah?
Remember Yoko? Anyone?
DUMB.
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Eughgh. How in the fuck is Feist on here but not Broken Social Scene?? I'd even put Heart by Stars over Feist. YFIIP should be in the top 30. Arcade Fire should be wayyy lower. The first three VU albums should be on there somewhere. THe Rollercoaster album by Red House Painters should be on there. Totally agree with Pavement and Animal Collective seeing as Strawberrry Jam is better then feels and Slanted always unfairly gets put behind Crooked Rain on lists. Nice to see Galaxie 500 and Big Star. Blender is shit though basically. What the fuck were they thinking to half the list.
Score = 1
Also good on them for Brian Eno but WHERE THE FUCK IS SLOWDIVE!?!?
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coming in last with a comment ...
WHAT?
No Ned's Atomic Dustbin?
No Wonder Stuff?
No Dead Milkmen?
No Will and the Bushmen?
OH THE HUMANITY!
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ew. it's as though they took a respected critic's top 50 list, scrambled it, and injected it with so much crap from the last five years it's comical. i wonder how much the check was for...
should NOT be on this list:
wilco
green day
franz ferdinand
arctic monkeys
feist
strokes
rilo kiley
if i gave two shits about music like this, i wouldn't listen to independent music in the first place. (i would read blender, i guess.)
should be higher:
guided by voices
young marble giants
joy division
neutral milk
Score = -1
This isn't the only time Blender has done a shit list. How about the biggest mistake they have ever made by putting "The Doors" as one of the "50 Worst Artists" . They obviously know nothing about music.
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Where is The Go-Betweens, the people that made the list has been hearing music???
maybe the list was made for a software.
Bye; if you wanna hear the Go-Betweens send me a mail: s.azrael@yahoo.es , I'm from Chile
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What about The Libertines???
Their records should've been at number 1, and their not even on the list!
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OK, so im gonna sound a little dated but I like the fact that most of the top 20 records are ones that have been around for years. So I guess The Arctic Monkeys arent hip? I think this list is awesome for the simple fact that younger kids will pick it up and check out some of these bands. Perhaps they will even catch the bug and turn away from the spoon fed mtv culture. I remember hearing At the Drive-In "Acrobatic Tenemant" and The Refused "Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent" when I was sixteen and saying to myself "FUCK Bush and MTV, I need to find more stuff like this". I was a little disappointed that neither of these bands made it on the list. I wish I would have had a list like this to lead me to greener pastures but I had to do it the hard way. I went to record stores and spent hours talking to the people that worked there and listening to their suggestions.
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WTF!! wheres who will cut our hair when were gone??????
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Interesting choice at no 1.Fucking great album,but is is it better then Zen Arcade.Good to see X there,but the problem is they got the wrong one.Australias X at home with you is trully something to behold,if you dont believe me buy it.And not a mention of Squirrelbait or Slint,wrong .
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The fact that Andrew Birds Mysterious Production Of Eggs is the travesty of the situation. Also what about any of the My Morning Jacket before Z. Buuuuuut The Clean was nice to see!
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God, this "indie" b.s. is so tiresome, both the pointless Blender list and the seemingly endless march of indignant "my indie dick is bigger than yours" comments I just read. Face it, the label is a meaningless straightjacket. Stop wasting your lives on all this "indier than thou" crap and appreciate music for its own sake and how it sounds to you personally, despite what all the hipsters say about it.
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I'd think Modest Mouse would be a little farther up on the list but hey I don't have a magazine of my own so I'll let them choose THEIR 'greatest'. I agree with a lot up there... and disagree with a lot. Dont kill me for this but, I think Franz Ferdinand and Green Day have rightful places on that list right where they're at. I love that The Strokes got deserved credit, and that someone besides me out there finally appreciates The Shins! (although in my biased opinion they'd be number one on every music list :P )
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People who aren't into indie music and don't take the time to listen to it often just dismiss The Smiths as depressing and morbid. However, as a huge Smiths fan I know for a fact that their lyrics are humorous and extremely clever whereas Pavement and Sonic Youth are the depressing bands. Seriously, you'd have to have a boring and shit-ass life to think very highly of these 2 bands. They are so untalented and so boring and soooo depressing. Indie and Alternative music is supposed to be for anti-commercial fans, not "anti-well made and intellectual music fans".
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UMmm green day should not be on there
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