indie-rock-bands

"Combining an insouciant cool with explosions of pure guitar noise, Dinosaur Jr. was a band that paved the way for the grunge explosion of the early nineties."

"Galaxy 500 never altered its trippy, somnambulistic formula, but what a splendid formula it was."

"A major innovator of dramatic, experimental guitar music was Louisville, Kentucky’s Slint. The band’s final album, Spiderland, was released in 1991 and is considered one of the founding works of post-rock and its cousin, math rock."

"By the fall of 1999, the members of American Football were done with college, with emo, and with American Football itself. The trio had decided to break up even before the release of their first full-length; thus, the album turned out to be a farewell from a band that had scarcely introduced itself. American Football was also a rebuke of the Midwestern scene that had been shaped by the incalculable long-tail influence of Mike Kinsella’s previous one-album supernova Cap’n Jazz, rerouting emo’s bloodline from hardcore toward minimalist jazz and meditiative math-rock. [...] After the bursting of the Myspace bubble, hundreds of bands took Kinsella’s elliptical expressions of hope and heartbreak as unfinished business, rebuilding the genre on a foundation of open-tuned Telecasters, capos, and red and black flannels. Yet, while the sound of American Football is remarkably easy to replicate, its spirit of wistful carpe diem remains forever elusive."

"American Football made an EP and a self-titled album in the late '90s that didn't garner tons of attention at the time of their releases, but in the years that followed, the sparse and emotional sound the trio created became an influential emo touchstone. Their stature grew, and when they reunited in 2014 for a handful of shows, the outpouring of love and support they received spurred them to make the reunion a more permanent venture."

"I’m gonna shine out in the wild kindness and hold the world to its word."

"American Football still stands as one of the most important bands for the genre and it’s [Mike Kinsella's] twinkling, technical guitar work that forms the foundation for the group. His chemistry with guitarist Steve Holmes, and the ways they weave in and out of each other on “Never Meant” and “I’ll See You When We’re Both Not So Emotional” are remarkable."

"You can’t miss what you forget."

"I've never recognized 'emo' as a genre of music. I always thought it was the most retarded term ever. I know there is this generic commonplace that every band that gets labeled with that term hates it. They feel scandalized by it. But honestly, I just thought that all the bands I played in were punk rock bands. The reason I think it's so stupid is that – what, like the Bad Brains weren't emotional? What – they were robots or something? It just doesn't make any sense to me."

"Emo means different things to different people. Actually, that's a massive understatement. Emo seems soley to mean different things to different people − like pig latin or books by Thomas Pynchon, confusion is one of its hallmark traits. [...] The word has survived and flourished in three decades, two milleniums, and two Bush administrations. It's older than four baseball teams, six basketball teams, four football teams, and two soccer leagues. It's older than five former Yugoslav republics, the last seven national spelling champions, and Avril Lavigne. It's older than most of its fans. It's been a source of pride, a target of derision, a mark of confusion, and a sign of the times. It's been the next big thing twice, [and] the current big thing once. And yet, not only can no one agree on what it means, there is not now, nor has there ever been, a single major band that admits to being emo. Not one. That's pretty impressive, and contentious. And ridiculous. Good thing too − because so is emo."

"It's safe to say emo music today is barely a shadow of what it once was. Nobody today thinks about the DIY hardcore punk element that the genre was founded on. Now when you hear emo you think Hot Topic, you think whiny pre-teens, and you think terrible sellout radio tunes. Most people either hate or love the genre of emo based on the era they grew up in. Lovers of the first wave generally hate the 1990's second wave, listeners from the 90's generally hate the 2000's era, and people who grew up through the 3rd wave now realize what crappy music they were listening too. Whether you love it or hate it, you might as well laugh at it."

"The one fact that no one seems to debate − or at least debate that loudly − is that emo emerged from hardcore."

"Emo is not supposed to hold up. You get older and maybe you feel the same, but the same just feels different."

"Listening to Slanted & Enchanted is like listening to a college radio station that you can barely tune in -- melodies are interrupted by shards of white noise, only to have a simple hook pull everything back into focus. On their first full-length album, Pavement constructed a cycle of gleeful guitar noise punctuated by fragments of melody floating in and out of the chaos."

"With Pavement it's the sound and feel that matter, not the words or themes. Quoting lyrics to get to the heart of Pavement is misguided. Go online and print some out and you'll see that, taken on their own, they're generally meaningless. Read the track-by-track notes [Malkumus] prepared for Melody Maker at the time of the record's release and it's clear just how unknowable these songs are."

"Pavement is perhaps the defining American indie rock band of the 1990s, the group that captured the slacker zeitgeist of the alt-rock era. Standing detached from the tumult of grunge, Pavement seemed laconic, sometimes lazy, as they threaded their love of underground American rock and British post-punk, dressing their winding melodies with squalls of feedback and shambolic rhythms."

"Pavement weren’t the only early-’90s band that turned noise into something like pop [...] but the low-key charm of Slanted and Enchanted felt different. Whatever angst they might’ve felt was sublimated by a bookishness and sense of grandeur that made even their feedback seem sweet."

"I was dressed for success But success, it never comes"

"I want you to be crazy, 'cause you're boring, baby, when you're straight. I want you to be crazy, 'cause you're stupid, baby, when you're sane."

"On the day that your mentality Decides to try to catch up with your biology, Come round.Cause I want the one I can't have. And it's driving me mad. It's all over, all over, all over my face."

"I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour, But heaven knows I'm miserable now. I was looking for a job and then I found a job, And heaven knows I'm miserable now.In my life, why do I give valuable time To people who don't care if I live or die?"

"Park the car at the side of the road. You should know time's tide will smother you, And I will too.When you laugh about people who feel so very lonely, Their only desire is to die. Well, I'm afraid it doesn't make me smile. I wish I could laugh.But that joke isn't funny anymore. It's too close to home, And it's too near the bone."

"And if the day came when I felt a natural emotion I'd get such a shock I'd probably jump in the ocean."

"Last night I dreamt That somebody loved me. No hope, no harm, Just another false alarm."

"Ah, a jumped-up pantry boy Who never knew his place. He said, "Return the ring." He knows so much about these things. He knows so much about these things."

"Stop me if you think that you've heard this one before, Nothing's changed. I still love you, oh, I still love you Only slightly, only slightly less Than I used to, my love."

"All men have secrets and here is mine. So let it be known. For we have been through hell and high tide. I can surely rely on you, And yet you start to recoil. Heavy words are so lightly thrown, But still I'd leap in front of a flying bullet for you.So, what difference does it make? So, what difference does it make? It makes none. But now you have gone, And you must be looking very old tonight."

"I am the son and the heir Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir Of nothing in particular.You shut your mouth, how can you say I go about things the wrong way? I am human and I need to be loved, Just like everybody else does."

"Good times for a change. See, the luck I've had can make a good man turn bad. So please, please, please, Let me, let me, let me Let me get what I want this time."

"I want to go home, I don't want to stay. Give up education As a bad mistake."

"I know I need hardly say How much I love your casual way. Oh, but please put your tongue away, A little higher and we're well away. The dark nights are drawing in And your humour is as black as them. I look at yours, you laugh at mine, And "love" is just a miserable lie."

"Upon the sand, upon the bay, "There is a quick and easy way," you say. Before you illustrate, I'd rather state: I'm not the man you think I am. I'm not the man you think I am.And sorrow's native son, He will not smile for anyone. And pretty girls make graves."

"Under the iron bridge we kissed. And although I ended up with sore lips, It just wasn't like the old days anymore. No, it wasn't like those days. Am I still ill? Ohh... Oh, am I still ill? Ohh...Does the body rule the mind? Or does the mind rule the body? I dunno..."

"I started somethin. I forced you to a zone. And you were clearly Never meant to go. Hair brushed and parted. Typical me, typical me Typical me I started something ...And now I'm not too sure. I grabbed you by the gilded beams Uh, that's what tradition means."

"Shyness is nice and shyness can stop you From doing all the things in life you'd like to. Shyness is nice and shyness can stop you From doing all the things in life you'd like to.So, if there's something you'd like to try, If there's something you'd like to try, Ask me, I won't say no. How could I?"

"Burn down the disco, Hang the blessed DJ. Because the music that they constantly play, It says nothing to me about my life."

"Don't feel bad for me. I want you to know, Deep in the cell of my heart, I will feel so glad to go."

"Is it wrong to want to live on your own? No, it's not wrong, but I must know How can someone so young sing words so sad?"

"And if a double-decker bus crashes into us, To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. And if a ten-tonne truck kills the both of us, To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine."

"Fame, fame, fatal fame It can play hideous tricks on the brain. But still I'd rather be famous Than righteous or holy, any day, any day, any day. But sometimes I'd feel more fulfilled Making Christmas cards with the mentally ill. I want to live and I want to love. I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of."

"It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to hate. It takes strength to be gentle and kind Over, over, over, over."

"It's time the tale were told Of how you took a child And you made him old.It's time the tale were told Of how you took a child And you made him old. You made him old.Reel around the fountain, Slap me on the patio. I'll take it now."

"The boy with the thorn in his side, Behind the hatred there lies A murderous desire For love."

"Girlfriend in a coma, I know I know - it's serious. Girlfriend in a coma, I know I know - it's really serious.There were times when I could Have "murdered" her (but you know, I would hate Anything to happen to her) No, I don't want to see her."

"Hand in glove. We can go wherever we please And everything depends upon How near you stand to me.And if the people stare, Then the people stare. Oh, I really don't know, And I really don't care.Kiss my shades..."

"[The Smiths] emerged out of the UK post-punk scene, but it wouldn’t be any more accurate to call The Smiths “post-punk” than it would be to call the Meat Puppets “hardcore.” Whoever you tried to compare them to, they sounded different. Whoever influenced them–be it The Byrds, The Velvet Underground, or the New York Dolls–they transcended those influences and made them their own. They got even better throughout their airtight, four-albums-in-four-years run, but they already had their unique approach entirely figured out on this debut. Andnce you fuse The Smiths’ influence with any of the more hardcore-informed albums [of 1984], you’ve pretty much got the ingredients for the vast majority of popular post-hardcore and emo."

"Oh, but don't mention love. I'd hate the strain of the pain again.A rush and a push and the land that We stand on is ours. It has been before, So it shall be again. And people who are uglier than you and I, They take what they need and just leave."

"Tell those stories to me I'm dying to hear. The things you've done and seen, Farfetched as they may be. You strike a smile in me, Your stories ring of perjury, Construed with self empowering theme."

"I would swallow my pride, I would choke on the rinds, But the lack thereof would leave me empty inside. Swallow my doubt, turn it inside out, Find nothin' but faith in nothin'. Want to put my tender Heart in a blender, Watch it spin 'round to a beautiful oblivion. Rendezvous, then I'm through with you."

"So-Cal is where my mind states, But it's not my state of mind. I'm not as ugly, sad as you. Or am I origami, folded up and just pretend? Demented as the motives in your head."