The Undertones
The Undertones is one of the greatest first wave punk bands. They are mainly known for their hit single Teenage Kicks, which is probably one of the best punk songs ever written. Their approach is a bit more melodic than that of Sex Pistols or The Clash on their first album.
Cashier No. 9
This band is probably my favourite find on the list. The band plays beautifully hypnotic, yet rhythmic and melodic songs with apparent hippy influences. It kind of reminds me of the amazing Nottingham band Temples. I had this sticked later on in the list, but I had to lift it up here just to give it more presence.
Language of Flowers
Language of Flowers is an excellent shoegaze band with messy electric guitars and endearing and laconic female vocals. The sounds are just appropriately lo-fi. This band sounds like the official influence for The Pains of Being Pure at Heart.
Tin Pot Operation
Tin Pot Operation is quite a typical indie rock band with authentic sounding electric guitars, melodic and treble-filled bass lines and lo-fi indie singing. The band sounds a bit like a rougher and more cheerful version of Frightened Rabbit.
Ash
Ash was somewhat of a phenomenon in the 90's. Their melodic college rock sounds very American. The electric guitars are very well controlled. Some of their more non-melodic songs are not that great, but if you just pick the right songs, there are some jewels in there.
The Petrol Emotion
The Petrol Emotion plays 60's influenced indie rock. The songs are quite poppy and catchy even if the hippy-style guitars point towards more psychedelic sounds. This is perfect for someone who appreciates excellent guitar riffs.
The Tides
The Tides is a classic kind of a guitar-driven indie rock band with upbeat and happy songs for the summer. The melodies are quite catchy, but the riffing rhythms, excellent for dancing, still take precedence.
Girls Names
Girls Names is an indie rock band that uses some psychedelic sounds. The bass lines resemble post-punk and the industrial sounding echoey guitars follow that pattern. The rhythms are quite conventional and you can even dance to them.
Burning Codes
Burning Codes plays hypnotic music that has clear, yet simplistic melodies. Their songs have quite repetitive loops, but there are also some parts that surprise you completely. There are definite influences from the hippy era as well.
The Divine Comedy
This indie rock band is very classy. They use excellent string arrangements in their songs. This sounds like Arcade Fire and Brit pop bands of the 90's had a baby that's slightly different from their parents, but everyone can still see where it came from.
Two Door Cinema Club
Two Door Cinema Club is an indie pop band that uses disco beats over groovy brit pop songs. The songs are very catchy and melodic and the vocals are pure and airy. At places, it sounds a bit too commercial, but it's still excellently written music.
SOAK
This indie pop band makes quiet and cute songs with simple melodies spiced up with relaxed atmosphere. In places it sounds a lot like Camera Obscura, but this band lacks the shameless pop composition and gives a touch of cool instead.
Hannah Peel
Hannah Peel makes atmospheric and shamanistic indie pop that changes from quiet and subtle to rhythmic throbbing with excellent bass lines. The percussion is quite unconventional and the pure and clear female vocals give the drums a nice contrast.
Van Morrison
Van Morrison is one of those musicians that critics, as well as crowds have adored for years and years. I never really got into his music, but more recently I think I've finally seen what people see in his music. He is an original singer-songwriter with some soulful elements. He has no doubt been a major influence for many modern day singer-songwriters.
Eire Apparent
This band kind of summarises what the end of the 60's was in music. Shameless, but experimental pop melodies, excellent musicians and hippy attitude. Jimi Hendrix produced the album that became their only one. He also played guitar on it.
Them
Van Morrison used to be in this band in the 60's, but in my opinion both Van Morrison and Them became better after he left the band. Them's 70's albums are filled with wild jams and hypnotic shamanistic solos. The vocals in those albums are also excellent with the raspy sounds.
The Adventures
If you listen to the melodies alone, you kind of get the melodic power pop bands of the 90's. If you concentrate on the sounds, however, you are immediately reminded of the 80's and bands like the Smiths and The Waterboys.
Bel's Boys
Bel's Boys play excellent and melodic pop music with influences from melodic 60's bands like The Beatles and The Zombies. The sounds are more modern, but the songs are pure hippy era. The sounds are closer to baroque pop and power pop.
exmagician
This band plays amazing indie rock with catchy melodies wrapped in psychedelic stoner-rock sounds. The soft drum beats and playful guitars are very hypnotic while the vocals are accurate and even the harmonies sound amazing.
The Vals
The Vals make cute and catchy indie pop with very good melodies. There are clear traces from the hippy ear, but the sounds are more modern. I really love the vocals. They are clear and personal, making the songs sound meaningful.
The 4 Of us
This indie folk band plays quite commercial sounding music, but the melodies and compositions are still quite good. At times, it sounds a bit like Turin Brakes. I really like the lead singer's soft yet personal singing voice.
Catoan
Acton plays dark and melancholic indie folk. It really reminds me of Starsailor's first album. The melodies are well structured and the vibrating vocals sound very beautiful. There's also some saxophone and pizzicato used along with blinking sounds.
Isobel Anderson
Isobel Anderson plays excellent indie folk with nice acoustic guitar picking and well made vocal harmonies. This is kind of conventional singer-songwriter stuff. Her vocals are pure and clean and the subtle use of strings gives the music a nice touch.
Colenso Parade
Colenso Parade plays quiet indie folk with somewhat lo-fi sounds. The vocal harmonies are not entirely pure, but it doesn't really matter. It just gives the sound a bit of an edge. They also use some melodica in some of the songs.
Jake Burns
Jake Burns is a classic kind of singer-songwriter, who you might expect to find at a corner of a pub playing his guitar. He's even pictured in the album cover with two pints of stout. Great storytelling through folk music.
Shrug
Shrug plays acoustic folk with simple sounds. Anyone who likes authentic guitar sounds will probably appreciate the picking here. The vocals are raspy and you actually believe everything that's said in a voice like that.
Ciaran Lavery
This singer-songwriter is all about his amazing raspy vocals. His guitar playing is quite good as well and his compositions are also amazingly beautiful, but his trembling voice is what makes his music spectacular. This is recommended especially if you like Ryan Adams.
Tired Pony
Tired Pony plays quite well produced indie folk. The acoustic guitars are accompanied by soft organ sounds, piano, echoey chorals and raspy male vocals. The lyrics mainly talk about lost love and heartbreak, like the best pop songs usually do.
Southern
I had the pleasure to see this duo live a couple of years ago when no-one really knew who they were. They're not that well-known even now, but they have made this amazing album of bluesy folk music. The guitars are absolutely phenomenal and the vocals blend beautifully together.
The Jepettos
The Jepettos play endearing indie pop with cute and high-pitched female vocals. The main instrument seems to be a mandolin. The melodies are very catchy and the vocal harmonies are well-constructed. There are some cute sounding cheap instruments on the background.
Joshua Burnside
Joshua Burnside plays bluesy folk music with incredibly raspy voice. The backgrounds are played with a guitar, banjo, violin, bass, drums and and hand claps. His voice sounds a lot like Modest Mouse or Frightened Rabbit.
Tracer AMC
Tracer AMC plays magical post-rock music with melodic guitars and progressive rhythmic changes. Instead of huge guitar walls, the sounds are quite clear and beautiful. The electric guitars sound quite amazing.
Scheer
Cheer makes extremely melancholic emo music. They use strings, anguished singing, beautiful picked acoustic guitars and ominous female vocals. If you wish to wallow in your sadness with something highly sad, I truly recommend this music.
Snow Patrol
I don't really like the majority of Snow Patrol's music, because it's way too commercial for my taste, but sometimes they achieve in making just amazing songs with clear and beautiful vocals and blinking strange instruments.
Therapy?
This band is quite well-known as a hard rock band that plays tight guitar riffs and belch out rock yelling. They do, however, have some really beautiful ballads as well, which are more into my liking. The strong vocals still reveal their true sound even in those ballads.
Big Self
Big Self plays quite 80's influenced industrial pop music. The bass lines are filled with treble and they really guide the rhythm and melody. The vocals are strong and raspy. The production would have been way too 80's for me a while ago, but now I've grown more accustomed to the 80's sounds.
Stiff Little Fingers
Stiff Little Fingers plays fast tempo punk. It's a bit more modern sounding than some of the early first wave punk bands. Their riffs and vocals sound quite a lot like The Replacements' early albums. The songs are nicely melodic.
The Outcasts
The Outcasts plays lo-fi first wave punk. The sounds are muffled and the tempos are going all over the place, but the attitude is fantastic and the melodies are a bit more interesting than those of some punk bands out there.
Henry Cluney
Henry Cluney makes strange lo-fi punk music. The electric guitars are a lot softer than in most punk. The vocals are a bit out of tune and very strange, but at least it all sounds very original. It captures the punk attitude of making music without talent.
Rudi
Rudi plays fast-tempo, yet melodic punk music that sounds quite a lot like Ramones, but with sounds that already anticipate the future of 90's skate punk. The choruses are very catchy and this music is even good for dancing.
The Tearjerkers
This punk band plays quite conventional first wave punk. The guitars sound crummy and the bass is filled with treble playing melodic rock n' roll scales. The skills are maybe not that great but what they lack in skills they make up for in attitude.
The Defects
The Defects plays fast-tempo and aggressive punk music. This band sounds definitely a bit more modern than the other punk bands on this list. It has that aggressive 80's punk sound. The attitude is quite fantastic.
Joyrider
Joyrider plays 80's sounding alternative rock with some psychedelic elements in the bass lines and wavy guitar sounds. The vocals on the other hand sound quite similar to some of the early grunge bands.
LaFaro
La Faro makes heavy sounding hard rock. There's a similarity to 90's grunge bands, but I think the riffs are closer to bands like Queens of the Stone Age. The main attraction in this band are the heavy guitar riffs.
Fighting With Wire
Fighting With Wire makes hard rock with big vocals and big sounding guitars on overdrive. The choruses are quite melodic and catchy. The bass lines stand up with the amount of treble. They also use some unconventional percussion in the songs.
General Fiasco
General Fiasco plays quite commercial sounding indie rock with lightly overdriven guitars and power pop chords. The vocals are trained and the songs have great pop music writing behind them. There's quite a big stadium sound with this band.
Nine Lies
Nine Lies plays 90's style alternative rock, where the hard rock influences are apparent even if the sounds are a bit lighter. The overdriven electric guitars have been put together with simple, yet catchy pop melodies.
sixstarhotel
This band plays modern progressive rock with strange rhythm changes and mathematical electric guitars. The vocals do not impress, but I guess this kind of music revolves around the instruments anyway.
And So I Watch you From Afar
This post-rock band is not very conventional post-rock at all. They actually play quite a lot of riffs and the rhythm section reminds me of Vampire Weekend. Still, there is that sparkly electric guitar playfulness that makes this sound like post-rock.
In Case of Fire
This post-rock band plays heavy guitar riffs and sing unconventional melodies over it with airy and echoey voice. The drums are wildly fast and they even manage to insert some catchy hooks here and there.
Window Seat
Window Seat plays alternative rock with some influences from progressive rock. The rhythms are not that conventional, but the vocals and sounds are very familiar from many rock bands of the 90's. There's also a strange deranged disco feel to some of the songs.
Mojo Fury
Mjo Fury makes atmospheric post-rock where the piano takes the lead over other instruments. Some of the quiet bits with their pianos and rhythms remind me of the band Why? for some reason. This is not easiest music to get into.
Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer uses innovative electronic sounds over cute and childish pop melodies. The vocals have been sung through some kind of a vocoder and they sound great with the buzzing synth sounds. I think I would call this nerd electro pop.
David Holmes
David Holmes is best known for the music he made for the film Ocean's Eleven. The funky jams with excellent rhythm section and amazing horns work brilliantly. This is excellent music for a night out . This would probably be even more amazing live.
David Holmes Presents the Free Association
This is David Holmes' band that makes quite similar music to his solo stuff. Funky and psychedelic loops of hypnotic melodies and pure instrumentation experimentation. Amazingly funky instrumental music.
Mark McKnight
This is the only great jazz musician I could find from Northern Ireland. He is a great guitarist though and the rest of the band play really tightly. The sounds are quite modern. This is the kind of jazz is just pure enjoyment, because the players are so incredibly talented.
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