class="archive category category-essential-indie-bands category-25">

“50 Years…And Still Rolling” – The Rolling Stones

Welcome to another guest writer – to look at another essential band not previously considered. The Rolling Stones – or as Nisha puts it – “50 Years…And Still Rolling”. Many a band or artist can be defined by greatness achieved, summits scaled, and indelible, iconic impressions left behind. The Beatles have The Ed Sullivan Show, […]

Jacob’s Mouse

Jacob’s Mouse was a three-piece alternative rock/punk band from Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk (England), made up of Hugo Boothby (guitar) Jebb Boothby (bass, also Hugo’s twin brother) and Sam Marsh (drums, vocals). Formed during the late 1980s, the trio released The Dot EP in 1990. A vinyl-only release which showcased the group’s interest in […]

R. Stevie Moore

R. Stevie Moore from Nashville in the USA is an essential exponent of lo-fi and the DIY ethic, with over 400 LPs behind him and a legacy dating back the the late ’60s. Unsurprisingly I won’t even go near the back-catalogue as R. Stevie Moore continues to release more and more, seemingly each week. Having […]

Shonen Knife!

After just over thirty years it is about time I took a look at the Osaka, Japan, based Essential indie band trio – Naoko Yamano – since formation (Vocal / Guitar), Ritsuko Taneda – since 2006 (Bass / Vocal) and Emi Morimoto since 2010 (Drums /Vocal) better known as Shonen Knife!. While others were wondering about inventing indie pop Shonen Knife! […]

Review of Spiderland by Slint

Thanks to Micus Decimus of Evol  for this review of the seminal band Slint and their album Spiderland. HISTORY Slint have been hailed by many as the originators of post rock. Mixing hardcore punk ethics (but not punk aggression) with desolate soundscapes.  The band formed in 1985 and consisted of – David Pajo (guitar), Brian […]

Don Van Vliet | Captain Beefheart

It is a shame I never got round to writing about this remarkable man before his death on 17th December 2010. I tend to ignore being on trend, but Captain Beefheart, is an iconic exception. There is a plethora of background on Don Van Vliet, and I am not aiming to reproduce the immense catalogue […]

The Velvet Underground

Arguably one of the most influential bands of all time and a must for the indie bands blog. The Velvet Underground, started as collaboration between Lou Reed, a native of New York and John Cale, from West Glamorgan. Reed was under contract as a songwriter for Pickwick Records, and Cale was a classically trained musician, […]

The Damned

As a Bromley Punk, the Damned are not perhaps the natural choice, you may expect the usual Banshees, Pistols et al to appear, but as I said, I run my own course not only in my life, but on the indie bands blog. With their incessant drum and energy, the Damned remain essential listening for […]