by Matthew Lawrence 

What is indie rock?

Well, it’s rock.  That’s certain, because “rock” is half of the phrase “indie rock.”  But aside from that, it’s hard to say.  It’s rock that comes out on independent record labels, but not all indie artists stay on indie labels.  Liz Phair started on indie superlabel Matador but moved to Capitol.  And even the labels themselves sometimes get bought out by larger corporations.  Sub Pop debuted in 1986 with a cassette tape featuring underground superstars like Sonic Youth, Shonen Knife and Skinny Puppy.  Now they’re half owned by Warner Brothers, the same conglomerate that puts out records by Ashley Tisdale and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

And while people can (and surely do) argue about whether bands like the Shins (who are on Sub Pop) can be classified as indie when their album debuts at #2, it’s not a very interesting conversational path to go down.  Instead, talk about the hundreds of great indie musicians out there, ranging from American bands like Hüsker Dü and Sonic Youth to British ones like Orange Juice and The Fall.  There are angry men like Ian MacKaye from Fugazi and perky women like Heavenly’s Amelia Fletcher.  There are bands you’ve probably heard of, like Death Cab for Cutie, and ones you probably haven’t, like The Shop Assistants.  The great thing about indie is the ability to share new bands and songs with others, because the more you dig, the more you want to keep digging.

To get you started, here are eight great indie rock records to check out.  If you like them, keep going.

The Pixies – Doolittle (1989, 4AD/Elektra Records)

The Pixies’ second full-length album is by no means the first great indie rock album, but many consider it one of the best. It’s also one of the most successful, spawning two American modern rock hits (“Here Comes Your Man” and “Monkey Gone To Heaven”) and eventually selling over half a million copies.  Made for British indie label 4AD but picked up at the last minute by Elektra, Doolittle combines punky guitars and deranged vocals with disturbing imagery of eyeballs being sliced and gods getting killed by sludge.

The Vaselines – The Way of the Vaselines (1992, Sup Pop)

The Vaselines were mostly unknown outside their native Scotland when they broke up in 1990, but gained attention when Kurt Cobain started naming them as a major influence.  The duo’s entire output totaled less than an hour’s worth of music, and what little they did release included weird little songs about sex, Jesus, tripping, HP Lovecraft, and Scottish TV hosts, not to mention their sexually ambiguous six-minute Divine cover.  Later, Nirvana covered of “Molly’s Lips,” “Son of a Gun,” and “Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam,” which prompted Sup Pop to release all their recordings on one album.

Pavement – Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain (1994, Matador Records)

Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus sounds really bored.  Or maybe he’s pretending he’s bored in order to seem cooler.  Either way, part of what makes Pavement great is the distance between Malkmus and the stuff he’s singing about.  On Pavement’s second and best album, he sings about “Range Rovin’ with the cinema stars” and going out on tour with Smashing Pumpkins, but sounds so uninterested by either prospect that it’s even more jarring when he actually shows some emotion on “Stop Breathin’.”

The Magnetic Fields - Holiday (1994, Feels Good All Over / Merge Records)

Stephin Merritt is a funny man, never more so than on his keyboard-heavy third album.   (Magnetic Fields studio albums are usually just Merritt with occasional contributions from his friends.)  He sets the scene for one of the CD’s more romantic songs by conjuring a ferris wheel “under more stars than there are prostitutes in Thailand.”  Poppy and sad, he deals with romance and dancing more than most indie rockers, and Holiday’s grand finale is a tragic love song called “Take Ecstasy With Me.”

Guided By Voices – Under The Bushes, Under The Stars (1996, Matador Records)

A whopping twenty-four tracks of guitar rock, GBV’s ninth album features catchy melodies, strange lyrics, stranger song titles, lo-fi guitars, and Robert Pollard’s unmistakable vocals. It’s a good place to start with GBV; thanks to production by Steve Albini and former Pixie Kim Deal, it’s not quite as homemade-sounding as their earlier stuff, but it’s also not as poppy as their later songs, which you might recognize from the Scrubs and Buffy The Vampire Slayer soundtracks.

Cat Power – Moon Pix (1998, Matador Records)

Before Chan Marshall was the face of Chanel, she made dark, spare records. Moon Pix opens with a drum machine and Salt-N-Pepa-quoting lyrics, a sharp contrast to the bleak guitars on the rest of the record.  Known for her chaotic live show, where she sat in the dark, rarely finished songs, and occasionally ran off the stage crying, Cat Power translated much better to record.  Highlights on this album include the Bob Dylan cover “Moonshiner”, the surprisingly dancy “Cross Bones Style,” and “Metal Heart,” the “Amazing Grace”-quoting stunner that she covered herself on her new Jukebox album.

The All Girl Summer Fun Band – 2 (2003, K Records)

For over twenty-five years, indie-pop bands have been releasing albums on Calvin Johnson’s influential K Records label.  An indie supergroup, The All Girl Summer Fun Band features members of bands like The Softies and The Thermals .  Like many K releases, their albums were cutesy without being pretentious.  2 is their better record, louder and a little more confident than their debut.  Songs like “Dear Mr. and Mrs. Troublemaker” and “Becky” are high-school love songs, but in their songs, refreshingly, the girl is always in charge.

Velvet Teen - Cum Laude! (2006, Slowdance Records)

Cum Laude!, the third Velvet Teen  album and last before founding drummer Logan Whitehurst died of brain cancer, shows how American indie rock has morphed in the last ten years.  Distorted, indecipherable vocals and noisy keyboards add moody ambiance to traditional guitars, drums and bass.  Younger indie bands have more options than their compatriots ten or fifteen years ago; keyboards are cheaper now and home digital recording offers lots of options that were once unthinkable on a small budget.