Thought of some good ones (not all "classic" but almost):

Built to Spill - "Keep It Like A Secret"
Death Cab for Cutie - "Transatlanticism"
Apples In Stereo - "The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone"
Luna - "Penthouse"
Nada Surf - "Let Go"

Some albums I haven't seen mentioned that I would argue are pretty essential:

Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
The Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2 (or any other Microphones album, actually)
Spoon - Girls Can Tell & Kill the Moonlight
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The Books - The Lemon of Pink
The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas & The Sunset Tree

Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out, One Beat
The Decemberists - Castaways and Cutouts

Indie Rock Hall of Fame: Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted: Luxe & Reduxe, Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Spoon - Kill the Moonlight
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Decemberists - Picaresque (that one i haven't seen named yet)
Wilco - YHF
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love (nor this record, for that matter)
Pixies - Doolittle

One fantastic album I haven't seen listed yet is Dismemberment Plan's Emergency & I...I would recommend that in a heartbeat...

And for the record, Pavement's Wowee Zowee kicks S&E's and CRCR's ass...

And for the record, albums to avoid:

Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The most banal, waste of time indulgent bullcrap I have ever heard. Don't even bother.

The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Grandiose, pompous, and overblown. Bad, corny lyrics with relatively unsophisticated melodies. Most of the songs sound dated already...only bother with the first song...

Replacements - Tim
Don't let anyone fool you. Westerburg can't friggin sing. Three good songs does not an album make.

Sancho, first Elvis and now Paul? You are setting yourself up for some lashings which will follow soon enough.

some yet to be named:
bubble & scrape-Sebadoh
boces- Mercury Rev
they spent their wild youthful days in the glittering world of the salons- The Swirlies
hissing prigs in static cotour- Braniac
michigan- Sufjan Stevens(illinois is great btw)
either/or- Elliott Smith
i see a darkness- Will Oldham(Bonnie Prince Billy)
0+2=1- No Means No
locust abortion technician- Butthole Surfers
whenever your ready- Flop
crappin' you negative- The Grifters
the dirt of luck- Helium
le tigre- Le Tigre
drive like jehu- Drive Like Jehu
rid of me- PJ Harvey
featuring birds- Quasi
let's get ready to crumble- The Russian Futurists
tons more, but.....

You're probably right mark f, but unpopular opinions are opinions nonetheless...

quote:

Originally posted by SanchoPanza!!!:
And for the record, albums to avoid:

Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The most banal, waste of time indulgent bullcrap I have ever heard. Don't even bother.

The Arcade Fire - Funeral
Grandiose, pompous, and overblown. Bad, corny lyrics with relatively unsophisticated melodies. Most of the songs sound dated already...only bother with the first song...

Replacements - Tim
Don't let anyone fool you. Westerburg can't friggin sing. Three good songs does not an album make.

Agree, agree, and WHAT!!!!???!!!!

Saying that Westerberg can't sing while plugging a PAVEMENT record is funny. I will say, though, that the Replacements mean much more to those who saw them live than those who didn't.

I'm not really into Tim. I like Let It Be, though.

I didn't like what I've heard of Fiery Furnaces, but I think Funeral is a great record (If a teensy bit overrated by some). It's too early to call it 'classic' though because it might be one of those albums you really want to be great so your opinion gets inflated.

I really like Costello, though. I have four albums of his and I think three are great, and one is good.

There's always a strong split between the Tim/Let It Be/Pleased To Meet Me fans. Each record carries a great degree of sentimental import to me...the 'Mats were the first alternative/indie band that I really got into, they were from my hometown of Mpls, and I hold all three of those records in extremely high regard. I think Let It Be, which gets the most critical lauding, has more duds on it than the other two, but also has a few out and out classics. You have to sit thru "Gary's Got a Boner" and a half-assed cover of "Black Diamond" but you also get "Androgynous" and "Answering Machine." Tim and Pleased To Meet Me are each, easily, two of my favorite albums. Ever. I look forward, with bated breath, to the reissues of all the 'Mats records, reportedly due this fall, and supposedly packed with demos and outtakes.

I've forced myself to sit through Tim about ten times and it just doesn't do it for me. The last half of the album is okay, but Jesus H. Christ, this is what people have been going nuts over for so long??? The band can't carry a tune! Not to mention their sound has been ripped off tremendously over the years, but, as many will say, the great ones will never be diluted by their imitators, and to these ears, The Replacements just don't sound special anymore....

As for Pavement, Malkmus has a much better voice, in my own opinion. He seems to have a more distinct delivery and a slightly wider range. I just get no personality from Westerburg at all, with all his gravelly antics.

While there are a handful of Pavement songs that i really enjoy alot, I can't see why they garnered so much praise. In their "Overrated" issue for the 90's, a Chunklet writer commented that Pavement "ruined" indie rock in the 90's. I wouldn't go that far, but I'll take any Replacements influenced band over a Pavement wannabe any day.

Much like Neutral Milk Hotel, my memory of two awful Pavement live shows makes me care less about them. In one of the shows, I honestly thought that members of the band were playing different songs, it was so chaotic and unrehearsed. And if that was the point, then I just don't get it.

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime
Meat Puppets - Up on the Sun
Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted
Pixies - Doolittle
The Replacements - Let It Be
Built to Spill - There's Nothing Wrong With Love
Velvet Undergound & Nico - s/t ("Banana Album")
Television - Marquee Moon
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
Dinosaur Jr. - You're Living All Over Me
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane, Over the Sea

Notables

Archers of Loaf - Icky Mettle
Afghan Whigs - Congregation
Dismemberment Plan - Emergency & I
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin

I've probably missed too much, this is just off the top of my head.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
While there are a handful of Pavement songs that i really enjoy alot, I can't see why they garnered so much praise. In their "Overrated" issue for the 90's, a Chunklet writer commented that Pavement "ruined" indie rock in the 90's. I wouldn't go that far, but I'll take any Replacements influenced band over a Pavement wannabe any day.

Whoops...
Thats all I can say here...
Ruined indie rock? They were the indie rock in the 90's...

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Saying that Westerberg can't sing while plugging a PAVEMENT record is funny. I will say, though, that the Replacements mean much more to those who saw them live than those who didn't.

The replacements better than pavement?!? Thats crazy enough, but saying Tim has a better voice than SM? Thats completely laughable.

Part of my fascination with Pavement's music stems from the question I ask myself when I listen to something like Wowee Zowee: how in the hell did they think of this? The guitar interplay, the melodies, everything. It just totally blows my mind the way they bring so many elements together and make it work.

I'll lay off The Replacements, though. I am probably being unfair as I am running off the steam generated by a knee-jerk reaction to Tim that has perpetuated itself over repeated listens. Perhaps I'll go back to it in a new mindset. Or check out their other albums. Or maybe I don't like them. I don't know.

quote:

Much like Neutral Milk Hotel, my memory of two awful Pavement live shows makes me care less about them. In one of the shows, I honestly thought that members of the band were playing different songs, it was so chaotic and unrehearsed. And if that was the point, then I just don't get it.

Ahh, you're not supposed to get it. You're supposed to stand there in your tattered Rites of Spring t-shirt and twirl your budding goatee, nodding your head along with all the other strung-out indie-heads...I just kid.

To place value judgments on either the Replacements' or Pavement's music seems too harsh to me. I'm a fan of both. I don't understand loving one and dissing the other, but to each his own. Malkmus IS Pavement. He's not one of the Pavement guys. He wrote the songs, sang the songs, played lead guitar, etc. To say that Malkmus is "one of the guys from Pavement" is like saying "Westerberg is one of the guys from the Replacements." I love both bands, so to me, that's a GOOD thing! Malkmus' new album rocks. They are both damn fine singers!!!

radiohead- OK Computer + Kid A
sonic youth- daydream nation
wilco- yankee hotel foxtrot
bright eyes- fevers and mirrors
neutral milk hotel- in the aeroplane over the sea
pavement- slanted and enchanted
the pixies- pretty much everything
broken social scene- you forgot it in people
the shins- oh, inverted world
godspeed you black emperor- life yr skinny fists
beck- odelay
my bloody valentine- loveless
the white stripes- elephant or white blood cells (ok, a bit new, but will be classic)
cursive- the ugly organ
modest mouse- lonesome crowded west
blur- 13
built to spill- there is nothing wrong with love
ENON- high society

and although this isn't really "indie rock", EVERY indie rock kid loves this album: The Velvet Underground + Nico, s/t 'andy warhol' record. Because it's awesome and minimalistic and dischordant and probably inspired loads of modern indie rock bands.