.....of the last 20 years.

It was about 20 years ago that a friend of mine lent me an old TDK cassette with That Petrol Emotion's Babble on one side and Husker Du's Candy Apple Grey on the other. Changed my life when I realised that some of what Peel played was not just noise. Since then I've been an avid follower of 'indie rock' (to paraphrase Sebadoh) and this semi-anniversary got me thinking about which have been the key albums that have cropped up since then.

So, just to get started:

Pixies - Surfer Rosa. (The blueprint for Nevermind and hence grunge. Maybe not as important now as ten years ago).

Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff (Would Nirvana have happened without this record?).

Isn't Anything - My Bloody Valentine (Converted the shoe gazing/white noise with melody thing that had started with Psychocandy and turned it into a really potent force).

OK Computer - Radiohead (I'm almost ashamed to admit it here but I never really got this record. However everybody else did...including lots of record company executives who went out shopping for OK Computer lite).

In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Neutral Milk Hotel (To my ears the sound of this album is cropping up more and more frequently as the decade continues).

Slint - Spiderland (Invented post-rock? Unlike anything else I've heard).

Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted (Not my favourite Pavement album - that would have to be the peerless Wowie Zowie - but the one that brought the punk/anyone can have a go into independent music and spawned hundreds of bands and squillions of ideas).

However my choice for the most influential 'indie' album of the last 20 years would be:

Uncle Tupelo - Anodyne (The forerunner of the American folk tinged indie music that is around today...and there is a lot of it).

Well.........?

More recently:

Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
The Strokes - Is This It?

Both spawned several sound-alike bands.

In picking key records of the last 20 years, you chose to go with Isn't Anything over Psychocandy or Loveless?

Not taking anything away from Isn't Anything, which is great, but I think either of those other two albums have proven to be far more influential.

And I think Daydream Nation is a must-have on this list.

quote:

Originally posted by tomrainbow:
Pixies - Surfer Rosa. (The blueprint for Nevermind and hence grunge. Maybe not as important now as ten years ago).

You know, I've been thinking a lot about this lately, as I've been pretty obsessed with the 80's over the last several weeks. Everyone always gives Pixies a ton of well-deserved credit as the key factor in the rise of alternative. But looking back, I think 1988's Nothing's Shocking by Jane's Addiction had a more prominent role in making hard rock (I mean that's all it is really) fashionable again.

Also, to your excellent list I would add:

Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend (1991)

Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me (1987)

Spiritualized - Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (1997)

Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (1999) - Toss up between this and Wilco's Summerteeth (1999) as to who jump-started the indie-fascination with Pet Sounds.

Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary (1994) - For better or worse, this is the beginning Emo.

I realize that many of those weren't on indie labels, but I'm using the loose definition of 'indie'.

quote:

Originally posted by leamanc:
In picking key records of the last 20 years, you chose to go with Isn't Anything over Psychocandy

Psychocandy was 1985, but I too would go with Loveless. And Daydream Nation should have been a given on this list.

these "most influential" lists always just turn into best lists.

quote:

Originally posted by just indie:
these "most influential" lists always just turn into best lists.

I hope your not pointing the finger at me, because I definitely picked albums I think are influential. Tomrainbow's list, also seems very well thought.

not pointing at anybody, just dont see how daydream nation is influential, it perfected a sound, not invented or revived it. o ya and you guys forgot the 1st stone roses album(britpop starts, if no stone roses no oasis.)

quote:

Originally posted by just indie:
daydream nation is influential, it perfected a sound

I remember reading about Daydream upon it's release in Rolling Stone. I daresay most of the population had never heard of them at that point-- I know I sure as hell hadn't. Now, I know that Sonic Youth wasn't doing anything they hadn't been doing for the previous eight years or so, and just adding to the legacy of the original No Wave class, but as for bringing it to the masses? HUGELY influential. Post-Daydream, there were literally hundreds of records which came out trying to cop that sound. Hell, Blonde Redhead still does it to critical acclaim!

Fugazi - Repeater (1990) - The essence of the DIY aesthetic and highly influential to post-hardcore.
The Jesus Lizard - Goat (1991) - Noise rock/math rock
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing... (1996) - Instrumental hip hop
Radiohead - Kid A (2000) - OK Computer was already mentioned, but both these releases should be considered as some of the most influential records of the last 20 years.
Talk Talk - Laughing Stock (1991) - Post-rock

I'll also second Diary, Daydream Nation and Spiderland.

In picking key records of the last 20 years, you chose to go with Isn't Anything over Psychocandy or Loveless?



I actually wrote Loveless and then chose to go with Isn't Anything because I feel that the latter is where MBV graduated from being a pretty bog-standard jangly guitar band (see Strawberry Wine) to a band creating their own sound. Loveless always felt like an extension of the ideas that germinated on Isn't Anything and, for me, lacked that visceral edge that made Isn't Anything such a revelation.


I think 1988's Nothing's Shocking by Jane's Addiction had a more prominent role in making hard rock (I mean that's all it is really) fashionable again.

Maybe it's because I'm on the other side of the pond, but I would say that Jane's Addiction had much less coverage in the music press here (and hence impact) than Pixies. Bearing in mind most of the music I listen to is American, you may well be right that Nothing Shocking had a greater influence.


Guided by Voices - Bee Thousand (1994)

I love GbV but I always felt that Robert Pollard would probably still be teaching English if Pavement hadn't come along and invented Lo-fi.


Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin (1999) - Toss up between this and Wilco's Summerteeth (1999) as to who jump-started the indie-fascination with Pet Sounds.


You're absolutely spot-on, so much stuff sounds like Pet Sounds these days. It's strange how albums come and go in terms of their influence on music. When I started getting into alternative music at the end of the 80s, the bands/albums that were constantly mentioned were things like Astral Weeks, Big Star's Third, Can, Velvets. It seems as though modern day indie is looking to different places for inspiration...so when is someone going to pick up and run with Beefheart's legacy (a goldmine that has laid relatively untapped for the last 35 years)?

quote:

so when is someone going to pick up and run with Beefheart's legacy (a goldmine that has laid relatively untapped for the last 35 years)?

Have you heard Man Man?

quote:

Originally posted by tomrainbow:
Pavement hadn't come along and invented Lo-fi.

That is the funniest thing I've read here on the forums ever.

Beat Happening - Jamboree

Also, Diary - hugely influential, yes. Beginning of emo? Nah. There is nothing on Diary that is a huge leap forward from, say, Jawbreaker. SDRE were popularizers, not innovators. And emo started with Rites of Spring.

Also - Operation Ivy - Energy - a lot of shitty ska-punk bands started because of them, but the influence can't be denied.

quote:

Originally posted by odysseyandoracle:
SDRE were popularizers, not innovators. And emo started with Rites of Spring.

Good point, but the press jumped all over the term 'Emo' in the wake of that record. Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker and even (gasp) Nick Drake and REM's Automatic for the People have been tagged as emo in retrospect.

How loosely are we defining "indie" here, anyway? Anything that's not on a major label, or only bands that fit vaguely into the "indie rock ghetto" (no offense intended).

Some more food for thought:

Celtic Frost - Into the Pandemonium
Entombed - Left Hand Path
Napalm Death - Scum
Bikini Kill - various early releases, not sure if you could latch onto any one record in particular here

There's of course tons of electronica that could be listed since pretty much all of it is released on independent labels.

quote:

Originally posted by Maximum Jack:
Hell, Blonde Redhead still does it to critical acclaim!

Except Blonde Redhead sounds good.

quote:

Originally posted by tomrainbow:
.....of the last 20 years.

OK Computer - Radiohead (I'm almost ashamed to admit it here but I never really got this record. However everybody else did...including lots of record company executives who went out shopping for OK Computer lite).

Well, if you're going to call Radiohead "indie" then i'm going to submit these albums:

Nirvana "Nevermind"
Pearl Jam "Ten"
Alice in Chains "Dirt"
Redhot Chilli Peppers "Bloodsugarsexmagic"

quote:

Originally posted by tomrainbow:
Robert Pollard would probably still be teaching English if Pavement hadn't come along and invented Lo-fi.

!

Ya'll's got some larnin' to do.

Radiohead - Kid A (2000) ?

Thom Yorke will be the first to admit that this album wouldn't have happen if not the Richard D James AKA Aphex Twin ground breaking "IDM" artist.