Silver Jews
This band is somewhat legendary indie rock group that is still known only to selected audiences. it certainly has a cult following. Deep baritone voice and lo-fi electric guitars accompany country-influenced melodic indie-rock tunes.
And now for the actual list...
The Strokes
I start this list with one of the bands everyone knows is from New York. The Strokes really turned a new leaf in indie music at the turn of the millennium. In the 90's most bands had made carefully produced sounds with innovative melodies. The Strokes (along with the White Stripes) brought indie music back to basics. Just authentic electric guitars, punky beat and raunchy vocals.
Nada Surf
Nada Surf makes beautiful melodic indie rock. Almost every single song could be a hit because of amazing songwriting that is simple but irresistibly catchy. Their career started in the 90's with a bit more college rock style fast tempo rhythms, but on moving to the 00's their sounds became softer and more melodic. Excellent vocal harmonies.
The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
This amazing indie rock band combines buzzing guitars of shoegaze to up tempo pop melodies. Their music is perfect for nights out and for dancing the night away in indie discos. Truly simple melodies, but just because of that, irresistibly catchy. Especially the first album is amazing!
Blonde Redhead
Classy and original sounding indie rock group Blonde Redhead combines bleak and melancholic melodies, spacey guitars and art rock class. Their songs paint huge noise walls, but it's still all melodic stuff. The high male vocals and even higher female vocals of this band melt perfectly together.
Shivaree
I learned to know this band from the film Kill Bill, vol.2. This was the best song in that film. I had to find about the band behind the song immediately and I noticed that it's not just one song band. Shivaree has loads of great indie pop/rock songs with seductive melodies and even more seductive vocals.
Mercury Rev
Mercury Rev is one of the most unique bands out there. Their music is full of beautiful strings, musical saw and the most amazing spacey high-pitched singing voice. The songs are like stories from a different planet. This dream-pop has influenced bands such as The Flaming Lips, but it's more beautiful than that.
Antony & the Johnsons
This band caught my ears after their amazing album I Am a Bird Now. The singer's trembling and beautiful voice sang right through me in to my heart. Especially the ending song Bird Gerhl has made me cry out of sheer beauty. I remember arriving to Vienna on a boat listening to that song and almost bursting to tears with sun setting over beautiful Danube. Excellent art-indie.
Interpol
In my mind, Interpol was the greatest post punk revival band of the early 00's. Their first album caught my attention, but it was Antics that really blew my mind. Dark and bleak melodies, original baritone and crying guitars make amazing music.
Sonic Youth
One of New York's most legendary bands, noise rock band Sonic Youth, is not the most easily approachable band, but once you get to their world, there's no return. Their early albums were too noisy and off-key for me for a long time, but once I listened to their more recent albums I started to understand their genius and now the old albums sound amazing as well. One of the parents of modern indie.
Lee Ranaldo
Above mentioned Sonic Youth's guitar player, Lee Ranaldo, embarked on a solo career quite recently. His music is more melodic and more commercial than Sonic Youth's but it has the same remarkable guitars. This is a perfect indie rock album showing off that New York talent at its best.
Patti Smith Group
I always have difficulties in classifying Patti Smith's music. It was on the one hand an early stage of punk, but at the same time it's more melodic and pop-oriented than that. Some of the songs even have sick-influences but with that great punk attitude. You might even say that she has taken the best parts of the 70's music and blended them all to make perfect music.
Ramones
One of the most legendary bands of the punk's first wave. This brought complicated music of the early 70's back to the basics teaching to the youth that anyone can play guitar and be in a band. The songs are perfect pop songs, but the buzzing guitars play just few chords over again and the drums keep the beat steady with not many fills to begin with. One of the all time legends.
Beastie Boys
I've never been interested in rap or hip-hop. I know that Beastie Boys is close to that field, but there's definitely something different about this music. They use many authentic rock instruments to make great riffs and their style of shouting out their music resembles at places Rage Against the Machine. This blend of musical styles is excellent example of New York innovativeness.
Blondie
One of the greatest bands from New york, Blondie knows how to take the best bits from all the musical styles and make it all sound truly original and their own. There are styles from punk to rock and from disco to pop all blending in beautifully. Parallel Lines is one of the most legendary albums of all times.
The Velvet underground
Lou Reed's band hung out with the artsy folk of New York in the late 60's. The presence of the likes of Andy Warhol produced gentle and weird sounds out of the hippy tradition. This art-pop band has influenced so many bands out there, but it still manages to sound like no-one else.
Simon & Garfunkel
Manhattan's Greenwich Village was the set for the 60's folk scene and along with the great Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel brought their sweet and incredibly beautiful folk for us to enjoy. The vocal harmonies are probably finer than with any other artist and guitar picking is top notch.
Don McLean
The 70's folk artist Don McLean is mostly known for his long hit song American Pie. His music has a lot more to give though. The American Pie album is filled with great songs ranging from beautiful ballads to up tempo folk jams. Guitar-work is top notch and the high and clean vocals are great.
Lou Reed
Lou Reed's solo career has always been more important to me than Velvet Underground. Especially his first solo album Transformer is a perfect glam rock/art rock album. Songs such as Perfect Day, Walk on the Wild Side and Satellite of Love are perfect songs with original sounds and composition.
Carole King
Carole King sings mostly the same songs that soul artists of the 60's sung over and over again, but the sound is different. Her approach is softer and more relaxed. The musicians in the background really know their stuff. Tapestry is a legendary album good for lazy weekends.
Thurston Moore
Sonic Youth's Singer/guitarist Thurston Moore's solo career shares some similar features to Sonic Youth's music, but the sounds are softer and more acoustic. At best, the songs are beautifully hypnotic, but sometimes the music gets a bit boring. I suggest you pick just the best songs to a playlist to really enjoy Thurston Moore's talent.
Sharon Van Etten
Everyone who knows me and my taste in music knows that I love melancholic and sad music. Sharon Van Etten is one of the absolute masters of this kind of music. the melodies are really dark and sad and her beautiful vocals pierce through you in a great force. There are songs to make you cry and songs to give you shivers.
Regina Spektor
Regina Spektor is actually Russian, but I'm adding her into this New York section, because she started her musical career in New York. Her music could be described as melodic indie pop with some references to baroque pop. Her voice is one of the best ones around ranging from deep sighs to high pitched yells.
Grizzly Bear
This baroque pop group has made some absolutely fantastic melodic masterpieces of songs, but then again they don't have enough of these songs to fill whole albums. it's a shame, since I would really enjoy a band that makes more songs like Two Weeks. Sounds are incredibly classy and original.
Adam Green
Adam Green is one of those few artists that caught my attention with his fantastic lyrics. His music is really good as well, but clear pronunciation and funny lyrics make his poetry really enjoyable. His second album Friends of Mine is amazing stuff from beginning to the end. Music is pretty basic singer-songwriter indie pop.
Blood, Sweat & Tears
This band is one of the most legendary 60's and early 70's bands. Their music combines elements of soul, rock funk and jazz. Their debut album is really strong in terms of professionalism in instruments and the attitude. As a bass player I really have to admire the bass lines.
Vampire Weekend
One of the most original sounding indie acts from the 00's. vampire Weekend draws influences from reggae, ska, afrobeat, baroque pop and rock to come up with danceable songs. They really sound like no other band and I think that's the reason they've received such praising reviews throughout their career.
Talking Heads
Talking Heads has always intrigued me as a band, but it's never been one of my favourites. the problem for me is the lack of good melodies. It's more about the rhythm and innovative sounds. As such, I think they truly have their unique talent, but I would hope for more melodies to make it an artist I would really enjoy listening to.
TV on the Radio
One of the classiest indie acts of the last decade. TV on the Radio is all about urban rhythms and modern sounds. Much like Talking Heads, their music sounds at times phenomenal, but it won't attract me enough because of the lack of good melodies. Indie rock combined with hip hop and electro manages to sound really modern.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
this band started out with making noisy punk indie with screaming female vocals. After a couple of albums they had evolved to really classy dance rock band with songs to make indie crowds jump up and down in discos. It's Blitz! is a really good dance album.
White Rabbits
White Rabbits know how to make hypnotic and manic indie rock. Their songs have fantastic loops of electric guitars making your feet stomp the ground. It's not the most relaxing type of music, but really good for anger or for dancing.
The Bravery
This indie rock band combines electronic sounds to fast tempo indie rock. The general feel is similar to post punk revival bands, which is enhanced by the laconic baritone vocals and sharp electric guitars. There's a really modern and industrial feel to their sounds.
Oxford Collapse
Oxford Collapse is a wild and anarchic version of skate punk or college rock. Their vocals are off-key and all over the place, but the instruments are highly controlled beating fast punk rhythms. I can imagine this band is really something seen live, although I dread the amount of mosh pits I would expect to find on their gigs.
Vivian Girls
Vivian Girls is a band of excellent low-fi indie rock. Their laconic singing voices and authentic sounding electric guitars are full of attitude. I would sometimes hope for a bit more melodic approaches, but all in all, their music is exactly what this kind of band is expected to play.
Diiv
Diiv is one of the most classy bands of recent years. Their mostly instrumental music is filled with dark melodies and plucking, clean electric guitars. The drums and bass are fairly simple keeping up the beat for elaborate guitar harmonies.
Frankie Rose
Frankie Rose has really similar kinds of guitars as Diiv, but the vocals have a greater part to play in this music. The melodies and sounds draw a lot of influences from the 80's post-punk era and especially Joy Division.
The Drums
This is mainly a one hit band. Let's Go Surfing was a big hit all around the world. Other songs by the band are made in a similar style, but they lack the catchy feel of that song. The other songs are by no means bad, but they are just not interesting enough. Pretty basic guitar indie.
North Highlands
North Highlands is a great guitar-driven indie rock band with great female vocals. The songs have interesting hooks and classy sounds. The only problem might be lack of originality. This band sounds a lot like all the other indie rock bands from Brooklyn.
The Walkmen
The Walkmen play easygoing indie with exceptionally great melodies. It's not just fast tempo dancing, but they can slow down and show their true talent in creeping and hypnotic rock jams. Really good songwriting and cool sounds.
Television
Television was one of the legendary bands of the late 70's combining the low-fi aesthetics of punk and talented guitar work of the early 70's. Their album Marquee Moon is a classic. This band has no doubt influenced a lot of 00's indie rock groups.
Hercules & Love Affair
This party band combines all the party genres under the same roof. There's disco, electro, dance and hip hop styles used in their music that is perfect for parties and dancing. The music may not be interesting enough to be listened to at home, but for parties, it's spot on.
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters is more than anything, a party band. Their more recent albums have been all about disco beats and raunchy lyrics. Their first album on the other hand is by far their best one. it combined that disco stuff to glam rock sounds to make beautiful dance songs with catchy melodies.
Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple combines soul sounds and styles to more basic indie pop. Her vocals are fantastic, but I would like to hear more and better melodies in her songs. The sound is very classy, but something bothers me in her sense of melodies.
La Sera
La Sera plays upbeat indie rock with fantastic melodic approach. The sound is fairly simple, but it's just right for this kind of laid back pop-rock. La Sera has previously played in Vivian Girls, but compared to that, her solo stuff is less lo-fi.
Lady Lamb and the Beekeeper
This band plays melodic and innovative indie rock. The songs are quite long containing many different parts. Even though the music is fairly basic pop when it comes to melodies, that mixing of different verses makes it more interesting than your average indie combo.
Lauren O' Connell
Lauren O' Connell is a singer-songwriter with a honey dripping voice and rock n' roll attitude. The sounds are folky but the voice gives the songs a certain boost to make it sharper. Melodies are great and the band works perfectly with pretty stripped down instrumentation.
Waxahatchee
This music resembles Mazzy Star quite a lot. Same kind of hypnotic and slow song structure with buzzing guitars and unprocessed vocals. There are no explosions in the music, but that's just the way it's meant to be. Catches your attention and makes you stay in tune for more.
Hem
Hem is playing quite simple but beautiful folk. the vocal harmonies work perfectly and the folk violin and cello accompany the guitar and piano nicely. You can also hear some delicate banjo playing in the background. Beautiful and relaxing stuff.
Mutual Benefit
Mutual Benefit is substantially very basic folk band, but their sounds have some added extra spice. Banjos and strings bring fairytale like atmosphere similar to Andrew Bird's music. The high and doubled vocals are just incredibly beautiful.
Doug Keith
This singer songwriter draws influences from traditional Americana folk, but sometimes the songs tune to more rock n' roll sounds and attitude. The beats in the background remind me of some indie rock bands as well. Absolutely gorgeous stuff.
Lucius
If you want to hear delicate, beautiful and fairytale-like folk sounds, Lucius is a great choose for you. Her vocals are weirdly enough very similar to Bon Iver. The instrumentation is mainly very stripped down acoustic stuff. Really well played picking.
Porcelain Raft
This dream pop band has a lot of electronic influences but their most simple (and my favourite) songs are closer to basic folk stuff. The vocals are full of beautiful echoes without being too produced. There's some beautiful use of effects in electric guitars.
Yeasayer
This band is one of the most unique sounding bands out there. Their rhythmic section is full of innovative structures and melodies, while really weird, are interesting to listen to. The vocals are not as beautiful as you might hope, but the weird voice adds to the mystique.
Battles
Battles are one of the weirdest bands I've listened to. I somehow really like their music and at the same time I don't like their noisy approach. I just have to be in the right mood for this to enjoy their messy electronic and rhythmic weirdness. Like Animal collective with heavier drumming, no vocals and even more psychedelic approach.
Darkside
Darkside is considered really cool music these days. Their electronic and hypnotic dreamy songs draw influences from 70's synthesiser music but at the same time they are much more rhythmic and funky. There are also some guitars using samplers there.
Dirty Projectors
Dirty Projectors have a really original sound and most of it is thanks to the singer's weirdly off-tune high vocals jumping unexpectedly to different places. The backgrounds fly from electronic and funky beats to more relaxed folky songs.
Simone Felice
One of the Felice Brothers. his solo stuff is further away from traditional pub folk. It's more produced and more mournful but there is great emotions in these melancholic folk ballads. Some songs sound a bit like Leonard Cohen, even though Simone Felice's high vocals are far away from Cohen's baritone.
Double King
The vocals sound like Bruce Springsteen, but the folky and rocky songs have much more funky and danceable qualities. It's like folk but with rhythm section having influences from African music. The vocals are truly masterful.
Alexandra Stewart
This singer-songwriter has amazing hazy vocals that accompany beautiful bluesy and jazzy indie songs. There's some amazing use of electric guitars and organs with various samples to make unique sounds. There's quite a lot of variety in the songs to make her music really interesting.
Glass Ghost
This band sounds like some weird hybrid of Vampire Weekend and Radiohead. The vocals are high and spacey, but the rhythm's are much more interesting than in your average indie-pop act. the music is missing some exploding power, but it's still interesting stuff.
Brothers
This bluesy rock n' roll group resembles The Black Keys with their buzzing rock guitars and stomping drumming. Vocals are really raunchy and harmonica gives some authentic gypsy blues feel to these songs. At best these songs turn into proper jams.
Skaters
Skaters sound very mid 00's indie rock. Carefully made rock melodies and quite subtle overdrive in guitars. The choruses really jump out of the songs making this really radio-friendly. If you like the British sounding indie from late 90's and early 00's, this music is for you.
Drowners
Drowners play punk-pop with great melodies and familiar drum beats from 90's skate punk. There are some similarities to early Nada Surf and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart in the music although the sounds are a bit more rock n' roll than with either of those bands.
New York Dolls
New York Dolls were a legendary glam rock band in the mid 70's. Their sound has the familiar piano sounds and melodies similar to those of T. Rex or David Bowie, but the vocals and guitars are wilder anticipating the birth of punk few years later.
Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers
Johnny thunders was in New York Dolls in their golden years and then moved on to make his solo stuff with a band called The Heartbreakers. This music is even much more punk oriented than the Dolls. For all the fans of punk's first wave.
Kiss
One of the most well-known fathers of 80's hair metal. Kiss' 70's music is much closer to glam-rock than metal, but still it's easy to find links to bands like Van Halen. Actually the old albums bear close resemblance to Alice Cooper.
Bad Books
Bad Books is electric guitar driven indie rock. The melodies are innovative and catchy reminding me of some early 90's alternative rock bands such as The Posies. The doubled vocals add to that same comparison. Great stuff!
The So So Glos
Guitar-driven indie music with similarities to early 00's groups such as The Storkes and Maxïmo Park. The overall sound is a bit more punk than many others in the same category. The vocals are unpolished and quite rock n' roll.
Dean Wareham
Dean Wareham's music is a collection of carefully selected influences from different musical styles. Lo-fi vocals, 80's rock drumming, clean indie guitars and dreamy pop melodies. The guitars and synths on the background use great subtle distortion from time to time still keeping the overall sound fairly clean.
LCD Soundsystem
I don't actually like this band very much, but some of their individual songs are fantastic. this band is all about danceable beats and annoying sounds over them. This is a recipe for many mid-00's indie bands. Clubbing, moustache wearing jerks like to dance to annoying sounds. Still, in their own genre LCD Soundsystem is one of the best.
The Last Royals
The sounds of this band are really commercial and suitable for radio. The only thing that makes this band a bit more personal are the weird vocals. The melodies and songwriting in general is quite brilliant and with a little bit simpler production this could really be a lot better.
Les Savy Fav
This weirdly named group plays typical 00's indie rock with a lot of electric guitars and a bit off-key singing. There's nothing really special about this band but if you like this kind of basic indie rock, there's really nothing wrong with these big sounded songs.
The Hold Steady
The Hold Steady has big sounds familiar from many stadium bands. Still their weird vocals and rock attitude separate them from those soulless stadium giants. The apparent influences include Bruce Springsteen.
Ratatat
This rock n' roll band plays mainly instrumental and funky rock sounds resembling those of The Black Keys. The treble-heavy bass takes a dominating role in some of the songs. The organs have interesting rock sounds.
Gogol Bordello
This weird gypsy-punk band sings aggressively danceable songs with stomping beats, shouted vocals, accordions and strings. A lot of influences from Balkan gypsy music. A bit ridiculous at times but mainly really enjoyable party music.
The Haden Triplets
This trio plays very traditional sounding country-folk music. The harmonies are fantastically carried out and the violins and guitars are played masterfully. It's a bit too old fashion for my taste to really enjoy it properly, but there are some good moments for old country fans.
The Felice Brothers
The Felice Brothers play country music with a strong traditional sound. The lyrics are humorous and interesting. The rough vocals fit perfectly to this kind of old time country. Some of the songs work brilliantly even now, but sometimes the sound is a bit too old for my taste.
Peter, Paul and Mary
The traditional folk trio of the 1960's. Their vocals represent the endearing and childish folk tradition. This carries a lot of emotions, but it's sometimes difficult to take these guys seriously, when the songs sound like children's songs. Still, classic stuff that paved way to folk greats such as Bob Dylan.
Tim Hardin
tim Hardin's melancholic folk is very beautiful carrying resemblances to singer-songwriters such as Cat Stevens. Hardin's soft singing voice fits perfectly in piano and string driven folk songs. The music immediately sounds old, but it's still very enjoyable.
Burt Bacharach
More of a songwriter than an artist, Burt Bacharach has made numerous well-known, romantic pop songs. He's not as well-known as you might think based on his songs. I think the reason is that he's not really singing a lot himself and thus gives the stage for other performers.
The Lovin' Spoonful
The Lovin' Spoonful was one of the 1960's pop-groups bearing resemblance to The Beatles and The Beach Boys. Even though they're not as famous anymore, their melodic and sunny pop songs sound great even today and I think they would deserve much more attention in music history than they get.
Luna
Luna's music is laid back indie pop-rock with beautiful melodies and endearing vocals. The sound sounds fairly 90's, but in my opinion in a good way. This music is great for those lazy Sundays when you're just hanging at home doing absolutely nothing.
Fanuelle
Fanuelle's baroque-pop has a unique sound. There's a lot of piano in the sounds but they've added many echoey effects to make it sound otherworldly. The choir-like background vocals are beautiful. Some of the songwriting is great, some a bit dull.
Matt and Kim
This duo plays upbeat indie rock with funky beats and catchy choruses. For some reason this music sounds really urban even though the sounds and instruments used sound organic and free of too much studio twiddling.
Chairlift
Chairlift could well become much more important to me with some more listening. They sound very British with their peppy indie-pop sounds and relaxed vocals. They sound a lot like Allo Darling or Regina Spektor. Great melodic stuff.
The Antlers
The Antlers play effect and sampler filled indie pop-rock with unique vocals. Their music sounds a bit like Grizzly Bear. Organ sounds and clean piano sounds are accompanied by some brass instruments and that high pitched etheric voice.
Liars
Liars started their career with making music that combines folk and post rock in quiet and calm style. They have, however, moved on to make more chaotic electronic music lately. I like the old stuff. The new stuff only has interesting sounds, but it's a bit too chaotic for me.
High Places
This electronic band paints weird and futuristic soundscapes using innovative studio techniques. Their music is really interesting, but there are not many hooks to hold on to. It's more like modern art than music that you are normally used to with individual songs and melodies.
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