What to include in an introduction to (history of) alternative and indie music?

 I'm very fond of music, and I have eclectic tastes.  I decorate time with music when it doesn't distract me from other duties, often using classical or ambient music while working, and sometimes using popular music while doing other activities. I was actually a DJ on a small local nonprofit radio station when I was a teenager.

The music that tends to be most popular usually holds no attraction for me, and most of my favorite popular music is from alternative or independent label musicians. I'm interested in creating a series of podcasts or radio programs in Mandarin Chinese to introduce such music to an audience in Taiwan (and China, perhaps).  One of my motives is to help create a market demand for live concerts by the sort of bands that in America would play in venues with audiences of several hundred up to a thousand.  The big name bands that can play in huge venues are already known all over the world, and the unknown bands that tour on a shoestring and play to audiences of fewer than a couple hundred can also make a go of it, but the middle-tier popularity bands have a hard time touring in East Asia because they are too famous to tolerate the low returns they would get performing in small venues, but not famous enough to have much of an audience outside of North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand/Japan.  

So, what would I include on such a series of podcasts, and what would I say about the songs?  For an hour of programming, you need about 48-52 minutes of music, leaving you with 4-6 minutes for explanation/description and another few minutes of station identification, weather, or advertising and public service announcements.

Hour 1: The antecedents.

Garage Band sound:

Louie Louie (Kingsman) 1963 (out of Portland, Oregon—my father went to high school with these guys)

Surfin’ Bird (Trashman) 1963 (out of Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Sometimes garage bands could break big, as the Kingsman and Trashmen did in 1963. This was "outsider" music at its time, but it had broad appeal.

Independent label

Apache (The Ventures) 1962 (out of Tacoma, Washington, recording on the independent label Dolton out of Seattle, Washington)

Pipeline (Dick Dale) 1963 (from Massachusetts and Southern California, started out on his own label, Deltone Records)

Dick Dale and The Ventures were extremely influential on rock music. 

British Invasion

You really Got Me (The Kinks) 1964 (London, England).  Important because it was loud and super simple.  Loud and simple, with a garage band sound, this provides a foundation for the alternative music that was to come later, such as punk music.

Psychedelia and Glam Rock

A Dream for Julie (Kaleidoscope) 1967 (London, England), a representative sample of the sort of music called psychedelia, which was extremely popular from 1967-1969, and is associated with popular bands such as The Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, and the Moody Blues.  This music took a philosophical position, and questioned many assumptions of mainstream culture and music, and thus influenced other artists to write music that challenged the values and assumptions of mainstream world-views.

All Tomorrow's Parties (The Velvet Underground) 1967 (New York City). The Velvet Underground were an influential part of the countercultural music scene, and an important inspiration for many alternative bands that followed. The band was not only musically influential, as the popular uprising to change the Communist government in the Czechoslovakian Republic was called the “Velvet Revolution” partly because many of the activists were very fond of the Velvet Underground.  Lou Reed and John Cale, two members of this band, continued to be extremely important in creating innovated sounds and musical forms for decades following.

Ride a White Swan (T. Rex, Marc Bolan) 1970 (London, England), Glam Rock such as the early music of David Bowie and the work of Marc Bolan was extremely popular, and included performances and costuming that questioned presentation of gender. The music and performances were sometimes shocking and outrageous, a characteristic that was also an important ingredient of some early alternative music.

Experimental and Electronica

St. Elmo's Fire  (Brian Eno) 1975 (London, England), Brian Eno was a significant innovator in electronic and guitar music and sounds. He is one of the founders of the ambient music form. He also created innovative popular music that influenced others who were interested in sounds that were different from the mainstream. 

Franz Schubert - Endless Endless  (Kraftwerk) 1977, Synthesizers and electronic music were another part of the alternative approach to music, and Krafwerk basically introduced this sound and approach, which became so influential in the 1980s.

Regiment (Brian Eno & David Byrne) 1981 (New York City). This album was influential for its use of sampled music, and this song uses the voice of Dunya Yunis, a Lebanese mountain singer, whose performance Eno and Byrne found on a world music collection Music in the World of Islam. The mixing of sounds on this album inspired many later artists, and such unusual and experimental music was generally only heard on stations or programming that included alternative and indie, punk and new wave.

American innovators of the 1970s

Roadrunner (Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers) 1972 (Boston, MA). Jonathan Richman was an example of an eccentric outsider whose music was inspiring to other artists who wanted to do something different. 

No More Mr. Nice Guy (Alice Cooper) 1973 (Phoenix, AZ, with roots in Detroit, Michigan). Alice Cooper was a mainstream popular band, but like the glam rock of England, the band used unusual costuming and stage performances that were described as “Shock Rock”. Their songs and performances were critical of mainstream values and institutions.

Marquee Moon (Television) 1977 (New York City). Television were important influence on punk and alternative music, especially with their emphasis on basic guitar sounds. 

Hour 2: Early Indie and Punk in the USA

Loud, Dirty, Rock

Two important groups who brought the earlier forms of popular music toward the underground and alternative side are the Stooges and the New York Dolls. In particular, Iggy Pop, the leader of the Stooges, is sometimes credited with starting the punk music scene in the United States. Sometimes the New York Dolls are credited with this. At any rate, we will hear an early Stooges song from 1969, a mid-70s song from Iggy Pop as a solo artist without the Stooges, and an example of what the New York Dolls sounded like around 1973. These artists are known for a raw, loud sound, and their powerful influence on subsequent bands that shaped American punk and rock-n-roll in the late 1970s through the 1980s.

I Wanna Be Your Dog (The Stooges) 1969 (Detroit, Michigan), 

The Passenger (Iggy Pop) 1977 (Detroit, Michigan), 

Personality Crisis (New York Dolls) 1973 (New York City), 

  The influence of the CBGB music venue in New York City.

The CBGB music club in Manhattan, New York City (1973-2006) was originally intended as a venue for country, bluegrass, and blues music. However, in the mid-late 1970s it was the place where many of the punk and new wave bands played.  In the 1980s it became more known as a venue for the eighties style punk music and hardcore punk, a form of punk that was very angry, fast, and masculine. This is where bands like the Ramones, Blondie, The Talking Heads, the Cramps, and the Fleshtones performed. The Damned, one of the first punk bands out of the British punk movement first played in America at CBGB.  The genre of punk when it first appeared in America was not always as angry, fast, and loud as it became later in the 1980s. The following songs give a sense of the diversity of the New York punk sound in the mid-to-late 1970s:

Blitzkrieg Bop (The Ramones) 1976  (New York City), 

Heart of Glass (Blondie) 1978  (New York City), 

Mind (Talking Heads) 1979  (New York City), 

Animals (Talking Heads) 1979  (New York City), 

Those last two songs are from the Talking Heads, another extremely influential band. The next two songs are by the Cramps, a band that, like the Ramones who opened the previous set, played a simple style of music that was trying to get at the attractive basics of rock-n-role as it existed in the 1950s or early 1960s. In fact, the second Cramps song I’ll play (Green Door) is a cover of a 1956 song. The Cramps are notable also for being one of the first bands to sign with the I.R.S. record label. The punk and alternative and indie forms of popular music initially represented bands creating their own labels, rather than working with the major music industry companies, and I.R.S. was one of the early record labels set up to record, produce, and market this music. I.R.S. is what would be known as an independent label, like the Dolton label the Ventures had used for their music, or the Deltone label Dick Dale created for his music. 

The Mad Daddy (the Cramps) 1979 (New York City). Illegal Records label was a precursor of I.R.S. label (Stewart Copeland involved with both). 

The Green Door (the Cramps) 1981 (New York City).  An early record on the I.R.S. label.

Blue Mask (Lou Reed) 1981  (New York City), 

That last song, Blue Mask, was the title cut from an album Lou Reed released with the major label RCA in 1981. Lou Reed had been part of the Velvet Underground, and this song represents the fact that by the early 1980s, major record labels were signing artists from the underground, new wave, and punk scenes, and some of the earlier founders of alternative popular music were, while not becoming mainstream, at least gaining a wider audience.

Punk, West Coast and Washington, DC

The punk genre was one of the main streams of counter-cultural popular music that evolved into alternative rock. It was thriving all around the country by the end of the 1970s and early 1980s. Here is a song by the extremely influential San Francisco band Dead Kennedys, whose overtly political songs inspired fans all over the world who enjoyed radical or anarchist politics with their anarchic loud punk music. On the other side of the continent, in Washington, DC the independent record label Dischord, which is still in business, was a leading source for the louder and noisier forms of punk that became hardcore, and, in the case of this song by the Rites of Spring, you can hear one of the earliest examples of the form of music that became “emo”, named for its extremely raw emotional lyrics and singing style. 

Holiday in Cambodia (the Dead Kennedys) 1980 (San Francisco), a “political punk” band

Hidden Wheel (Rites of Spring) 1985  (Washington, DC), probably deserves to be called the first “emo” band.

Just as punk was becoming louder, faster, and more male-dominated, other punk artists or those attracted to punk started becoming more proficient at playing their instruments, started playing with more pop sensibilities and more accessible melodies, and as a result, began to gain a wider audience.  The phenomenon of music videos and an early cable network station that played music videos all the time (MTV) also exposed Americans who lived far from the cultural centers where more innovative artists were developing new sounds, to music unlike what they could hear on the their local radio stations.  For American young people living in rural areas or small cities, unless they had a college station they could listen to with their radios, just about the only way they could hear music like this was on the MTV network, which occasionally put videos by new wave or alternative artists into their play rotation, and eventually established a special program to feature such music for a couple hours each week. 

Wall of Voodoo and the Go-Gos are two Los Angeles representatives of this Post-Punk or “New Wave” sound that was capable of attracting a mass audience. R.E.M., out of the college town of Athens, Georgia, also played a form of accessible music that owed more to folk music than to the angry, loud punk music that was popular, but this form was so unlike the type of music that then dominated the radios, that it all was grouped together as alternative music. While these bands started out obscure and unknown, and the Go-Gos were certainly in the “punk” genre when they started out, some of this music caught the public’s attention and generated hits for the artists.  The Go-Gos were near the top of the popular music charts in 1982 with Vacation, and R.E.M. eventually became huge, playing to stadiums.  Other massively popular bands such as U2 started out this way, initially touring North America playing in small college campus venues, and ending up among the elite super-famous musical leaders in culture.

Diversity in Post-Punk and New Wave and Alternative music in the early 1980s

Animal Day (Wall of Voodoo) 1980 (Los Angeles), Post-punk New Wave

Vacation (the Go Gos) 1982 (Los Angeles), American New Wave music

Radio Free Europe (R.E.M.) 1983  (Athens, Georgia), Post-punk alternative music (folk influences)

Hour 3: The take off of independent and punk music in the UK.

In the United Kingdom, as in the United States, many musicians and aspiring musicians were deeply dissatisfied with the forms of rock-and-roll that were popular on the radio. The dominance of easy listening, progressive rock, disco, and vapid popular music irritated these persons, and as did the control of the major recording labels over what was marketed to the public.

Throughout the United Kingdom, some of these artists formed garage bands, or they started building their own electronic instruments, or they innovated with new forms of sound and approaches to music.  At the same time, many people who liked this approach, and wanted to escape the dominance of the major record labels, or else had no chance of catching the attention of record company executives, started creating their own recording studios and record labels.  Punk music was an important part of this trend, but a wide variety of artists adopted the do-it-yourself attitude and countercultural rejection of mainstream music while creating music that sounded nothing like the punk music of such famous bands as The Sex Pistols or The Clash.  

This first song is by the Clash, one of these bands that was vocal in its criticism of major record labels. The song Complete Control complains about the way record labels mistreated the musical artists who signed contracts with the music industry giants. After Complete Control by the Clash, we’ll hear Boredom by the Buzzcocks, a band that was the first one to establish their own independent label (the New Hormones label) to pay for the pressing and distribution of their Spiral Scratch extended play record. The song was recorded in a short (three hour) session, and mixed in about two hours, and then master tapes were taken to be pressed into vinyl. So, let us now hear a song by a major label punk band complaining about artists being mistreated, and a song by punk artists who were doing it all on their own without the help of a big record label company. 

Complete Control (The Clash) 1977 (London, England), Punk song criticizing the behavior of CBS Records.  

Boredom (the Buzzcocks) 1977 (Manchester, England),  one of the first UK punk albums, and the first one a band made on their own label. 

X-Ray Spex were one of the early punk bands, the led singer was a woman, who went by the name Poly Styrene. She is one of the first in a line of women who have enjoyed the loud and angry sounds of punk and alternative music.  The saxophonist was a 16-year old girl named Susan Whitby. This song is an attack on consumerism, which is described as bondage, as if persons deluded by capitalism and the pursuit of consumer goods are engaged in a masochistic fetish. After this song from 1977, we hear a 1979 song by the post-punk band Gang of Four, expressing similar sentiments about the failures of capitalism and consumerism.

Oh Bondage (Up Yours) (X-Ray Spex) 1977 (London, England)

Natural’s Not In It (Gang of Four) 1979 (Leeds, England)

Convincing People (Throbbing Gristle) 1979 (Kingston upon Hull, England)

We are continuing now with some of this innovative music that was coming out on small, independent labels in the late 1970s and early 1980s. 

Interzone (Joy Division) 1979 (Salford, England)

Temptation (New Order) 1979 (Manchester, England)

Electricity (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) 1980 (Liverpool area, England). Dindisc Records

Read It In Books (Echo and the Bunnymen) 1979 (Liverpool, England). Zoo Records

Honey Mad Woman (The Raincoats) 1983 (London, England). Rough Trade label.

Felicity (Orange Juice) 1982 (Glasgow, Scotland). Postcard Records.

I Melt With You (Modern English) 1982 (Colchester, England). 4AD Records (Beggars Banquet)

Ghost Town (The Specials) 1981 (Coventry, England). 2 Tone Records

 

Ranking Full Stop (The English Beat) 1979 (Birmingham, England. 2 Tone Records / Go Feet Records (Go Feet was a label created by the Beat to produce and sell their records).

New Life (Depeche Mode) 1981 (London's far eastern suburbs, England) Mute Records.  British Synthpop initially also came out of independent labels.  

Hour 4: More Post-Punk and Do-It-Yourself music out of the UK

I Don't Know What To Do With My Life (The Buzzcocks) 1979

Love Will Tear Us Apart (Joy Division) 1979

Bunker Soldiers (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) 1980

Second Skin (The Chameleons) 1983

Eighties (Killing Joke) 1984

Blue Monday (New Order) 1983

(This Is Not A) Love Song (Public Image Limited) 1983

No Bulbs 3 (The Fall) 1984

Rusholme Ruffians (The Smiths) 1984

The Cutter (Echo & The Bunnymen) 1985

Ocean Rain (Echo & The Bunnymen) 1984

I Promise (Radiohead) 1997

Hour 5: College Radio Music

Genius of Love (Tom Tom Club) 1981

These Dangerous Machines (Martha and the Muffins) 1983

Seven Chinese Brothers (R.E.M.) 1984

Alex Chilton (The Replacements) 1987

Take the Skinheads Bowling (Camper Van Beethoven) 1985

Don't Let's Start (They Might Be Giants) 1985

When Men Were Trains (Big Dipper) 1987

Boy (Book of Love) 1986

Years Later (Cactus World News) 1986

Why Are You Being so Reasonable Now? (The Wedding Present) 1987

I Love Hot Nights (Jonathan Richman) 1987

Here Comes Your Man (Pixies) 1990

So You Think You're In Love (Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians) 1991

Not Too Soon (Throwing Muses) 1991

Hour 6:  Punk, Pop-Punk, Riot Grrrl

Punk wasn’t necessarily “hardcore” yet

Where Next Columbus? (Crass) 1981

Run Like A Villain (Iggy Pop) 1982

Southern California

TV Party (Black Flag) 1981

The Hammer Hits The Nail (The Flesh Eaters) 1983

The Cheerleaders (Minutemen) 1985

Washington DC, Dischord Records, Ian MacKaye

Minor Threat (Minor Threat) 1984

Waiting Room (Fugazi) 1989

Twin Cities and Midwest

Love Is the Law (The Suburbs) 1982

Guns at My School (Hüsker Dü) 1981

Chartered Trips (Hüsker Dü) 1984

I Can't Hardly Wait  (The Replacements) 1985

Heartbeat (Big Black) 1987

The 90s.  Emo and Riot Grrrl

In Circles (Sunny Day Real Estate) 1994

Rebel Girl (Bikini Kill) 1993

Get Up (Sleater-Kinney) 1999

Hour 7:  Grunge, 1990s, Pacific Northwest

Early influences (from Massachusetts!) KAOS-fm radio and Calvin Johnson 

Out There (Dinosaur Jr.) 1993

Feel the Pain (Dinosaur Jr.) 1994

Good Enough (Mudhoney) 1991

Cry for a Shadow (Beat Happening) 1991

Seattle

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) 1991

All Apologies (Nirvana) 1993

Spoonman (Soundgarden) 1994

Better Man (Pearl Jam) 1994

California

Interstate Love Song (Stone Temple Pilots) 1994

Doll Parts (Hole) 1994

Idaho

Big Dipper (Built to Spill) 1994

Untrustable / Part 2 (Built to Spill) 1997

Hour 8:  1990s Alternative

UK early 1990s popular on College Radio in the USA

Tonight I Fancy Myself (The Beautiful South) 1990.  From Hull, England

Right Here, Right Now (Jesus Jones) 1990. From Wiltshire, England

Grey Cell Green (Ned's Atomic Dustbin) 1991. From Stourbridge, near Birmingham, England

Yr Own World (Blue Airplanes) 1991. From Bristol, England

Early 90s American Sounds that weren't grunge

And Hiding Away (The Innocence Mission) 1991.  From Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Fortune Cookie Prize (Beat Happening) 1992. From Olympia, Washington

Line Song (Shrimp Boat) 1993. From Chicago, Illinois

Feeling Down in the mid-90s?

Loser (Beck) 1993. From Southern California

Self-Esteem (The Offspring) 1994. From Southern California

All the Umbrellas in London (The Magnetic Fields) 1995.  From Boston, Massachusetts 

Snare, Girl (Sonic Youth) 1998. New York City 

Late 1990s

Date with Ikea (Pavement) 1997. From New York City 

Randy Described Eternity (Built to Spill) 1997 (but play the version from Live, 2000). From Boise, Idaho

Hour 9:  Accessible (Beautiful) Alternative Music

The 1980s

Avalon (Roxy Music) 1982. From London, England

Down on Mission Street (Lloyd Cole and the Commotions) 1984.  From Glasgow, Scotland

Among the Americans (10,000 Maniacs) 1985. From Jamestown, New York

Up On The Sun (The Meat Puppets) 1985. From Phoenix, Arizona

You (Tuxedomoon) 1987. From San Francisco, California

Birthday (The Sugar Cubes) 1988. From Reykjavik, Iceland

You Keep It All In (The Beautiful South) 1989. From Hull, England

The 1990s

The Guitar (The Lion Sleeps Tonight) (They Might Be Giants) 1992.  From New York City

Angels with Dirty Faces (Los Lobos) 1993. From Los Angeles, California

Mustard (Latin Playboys) 1999.  From Los Angeles, California

Sylvia (Creeper Lagoon) 1997. From San Francisco, California

Is It Wicked Not To Care? (Belle & Sebastian) 1998. From Glasgow, Scotland

Virginia Reel Around the Fountain (The Halo Benders) 1998. From Boise, Idaho and Olympia, Washington.

Hour 10: The New Millennium 

1999 

Millennium Cars (Keith Secola) 1999. Ojibwa singer from Cook, Minnesota

Waitin' for a Superman (Is it Getting Heavy?) (the Flaming Lips) 1999. From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Carry the Zero (Built to Spill) 1999. From Boise, Idaho

Else (Built to Spill) 1999. From Boise, Idaho

2000 

Balls (Sparks) 2000. From Southern California 

Legal Man (Belle & Sebastian) 2000. From Glasgow, Scotland

The New You (Tim Keegan & Departure Lounge) 2000. From London, England

The Littlest Birds (The Be Good Tanyas) 2000. From Vancouver, British Columbia

The Sailor in Love with the Sea (The 6ths) 2000. From Massachusetts (Stephin Merritt)

Bohemian Like You (The Dandy Warhols) 2000. From Portland, Oregon

Later On

Elephant Song (Sky Cries Mary) 2003. From Seattle, Washington

Museum of Idiots (They Might Be Giants) 2004. From New York City

One Chance (Modest Mouse) 2004. From Seattle and Portland

Hour 11: Below the Equator

New Zealand (and Flying Nun Records)

Six Months in a Leaky Boat (Split Enz) 1982.

Loving Grapevine (Jean-Paul Sartre Experience) 1986.

The Crying Room (David Mitchell and Denise Roughen) 1996.

The Record Store (The Brunettes) 2004.

The Sun (The Naked and Famous) 2010.

Australia

Don't Change (INXS) 1983. 

Right Here (The Go-Betweens) 1987.

Beds Are Burning (Midnight Oil) 1987.

I'm a Believer (Anita Lane) 1993.

Beautiful Trash (Lanu) 2007.  ( Lance Ferguson is originally from New Zealand)

Morning Song (The Babe Rainbow) 2019.

South Africa

Bafana Bafana (Cop On the Edge) 2010. 

Fire Is Low (Freshlyground) 2010. 

Down South (Jeremy Loops) 2015.

Hour 12: Europe in the 80s 

Electronic, Industrial, and Experimental

Cars (Gary Numan) 1979. From London, England

Collapsing New People (Fad Gadget) 1985.  From London, England

Yü-Gung (Einstürzende Neubauten) 1985.  From Berlin, Germany

Headhunter (Front 242) 1988. From Belgium

Sympathy for the Devil (Dem Teufel Zugeneigt) (Laibach) 1989. From Slovenia

More Mainstream and Popular

Up On The Catwalk (Simple Minds) 1984. From Glasgow, Scotland

Marcia Baila (Les Rita Mitsouko) 1985. From Paris, France

Ask (The Smiths) 1986. From Manchester, England

Just Like Heaven (The Cure) 1987.  From Crawley, West Sussex, England

Björk in the 1990s

Human Behavior (Björk) 1993. From Reykjavik, Iceland

Covering 1980s Alternative Songs decades later

Fade to Grey (Nouvelle Vague) 2006. From Paris, France

Hour 13: New York City

Introduction to the New York City scene

Chinatown (Luna) 1995. 

The 2000s

You Only Live Once (The Strokes) 2005. 

Forever Song (Mosquitos) 2003.  

Don't Tell Them (Paul Brill) 2006. 

Someone Great (LCD Soundsystem) 2007.

Two Weeks (Grizzly Bear) 2009.

Laughing With (Regina Spektor) 2009.

Knotty Pine (Dirty Projectors & David Byrne) 2009.

The 2010s

Tragically Alright (Ex-Cops featuring Ariel Pink) 2014. 

Give Me Just A Minute (Computer Magic) 2015.  

Crying in the Sunshine (Miniature Tigers) 2017. 

Seventeen (Sharon Van Etten) 2019.

We are in the 20s now

Overlord (Dirty Projectors) 2020. 

Everything is Gonna Be All Right (Infinity Song) 2020.

Hour 14: East Coast 

Vampire Weekend and Rostam (New York City, but Rostam lives in Los Angeles now)

A-Punk (Vampire Weekend) 2008. 

Bike Dream (Rostam) 2017. 

Rich Man (Vampire Weekend) 2019

New England

Gigantic (Pixies) 1988. From Boston, Massachusetts

Art Isn't Real (City of Sin) (Deer Tick) 2007.  From Providence, Rhode Island

Sleepyhead (Passion Pit) 2008.  From Cambridge, Massachusetts

Just One Look (The Derevolutions) 2018. From Boston, Massachusetts

Have Some Fun

Considering A Move To Memphis (The Colorblind James Experience) 1987. From Rochester, New York

Every Hour Here (Innocence Mission) 1991. From Lancaster, Pennsylvania

Ohm (Yo La Tengo) 2013. From Hoboken, New Jersey

Mid-Atlantic

Arpeggiator (Fugazi) 1998. From Washington, DC

Shade And Honey (Sparklehorse) 2006.  From Richmond, Virginia

Easy (Thao with The Get Down Stay Down) 2009.  From Falls Church, Virginia (now relocated to San Francisco)

Hour 15: Canada

The 2000s, Anglophone Canada

Anthems For a Seventeen Year Old Girl (Broken Social Scene) 2003. Toronto, Ontario

Precious Metals (Russian Futurists) 2003. Toronto, Ontario

Haiti (Arcade Fire) 2004. Montreal, Quebec

Sing Me Spanish Techno (The New Pornographers) 2005. Vancouver, British Columbia

Jamelia (Caribou) 2010. Hamilton, Ontario

What about Francophone Canada? (it is more “pop” than alternative)

Montréal (Ariane Moffatt) 2005. Montreal, Quebec

Tourne encore (Salomé Leclerc) 2011. Sainte-Françoise, Quebec

Rêves d'été (Laurence Nerbonne) 2015. Gatineau, Quebec

The 10's in Anglophone Canada

The Lamb (Little Scream) 2011. Montreal, Quebec

Da Dunda (Slam Dunk) 2012. Victoria, British Columbia

Amerika (Wintersleep) 2016. Halifax, Nova Scotia

Utopia (Austra) 2017. Toronto, Ontario

Saved by a Waif (Alvvays) 2017. Toronto, Ontario (but from Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island)

Texas (Jennifer Castle) 2018. Toronto, Ontario

Hour 16: The American South

Rockabilly and Psychobilly

Bales of Cocaine (Reverend Horton Heat) 1993. From Dallas, Texas

Deja Varoom (Southern Culture on the Skids) 1997. From Chapel Hill, North Carolina

College Towns

A Thousand Years (Azure Ray) 2002. From Athens, Georgia

Id Engager (Of Montreal) 2008. From Athens, Georgia

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked (Cage the Elephant) 2009. From Bowling Green, Kentucky (but they have relocated to London, England)

Digging for Something (Superchunk) 2010. From Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Deep South

Song Against Sex (Neutral Milk Hotel) 1996. From Ruston, Louisiana

Slave to the South (The Weeks) 2011. From Florence, Mississippi

Can’t Hold On  (The Black Lips) 2017. From Atlanta, Georgia

Cultural Meccas

Becky (Be Your Own Pet) 2008. From Nashville, Tennessee

Hungry Ghost (Hurray for the Riff Raff) 2017. From New Orleans, Louisiana

Texas and Oklahoma

Do You Realize (The Flaming Lips) 2002. From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Actor Out of Work (St. Vincent) 2009.  From Dallas, Texas

Alternative Country

Champaign, Illinois (Old 97's, covering a song written by Bob Dylan and Carl Perkins) 2010. From Dallas, Texas

Thoughts and Prayers (Drive-By Truckers) 2020. From Athens, Georgia

War (Waxahatchee) 2020. From Birmingham, Alabama

Hour 17: The Midwest

Illinois in the 1990s; Alternative Country, Synth-pop, and Emo.

In the 1980s and early 1990s Chicago was the scene where House Music (alternative Dance music) was emerging, and it would go on to strongly influence electronic dance music, trance, and various global forms of dance music. While not as significant to global culture as New York’s contribution of Hip-Hop and rap (rap itself is influenced from the toasting of Jamaican DJs), the people of Chicago can justly be proud of that form of alternative music.  But, alternative and independent music as we are exploring in this series holds closer to rock, punk, folk, synth pop, and country. What was going on in Chicago in the 1990s?  Well, one thing going on was a flourishing of a punk-country or alternative country form, exemplified by WILCO and The Waco Brothers (whose members include several members of the Mekons, a first wave punk band from England that had relocated to Chicago).  

Plenty Tough Union Made (The Waco Brothers) 1995. From Chicago, Illinois (I'll play the 2020 version from the Resist album)

Can’t Stand It (WILCO) 1999. From Chicago, Illinois

Other stuff going on in the late 1990s, included emo music, ("emo" for "emotional").  This was a widespread alternative genre, and I want to share an example from Braid, a band out of Central Illinois, where I have lived for the past couple decades.  But first, the retro-New Wave sound from the Pulsars, two brothers from the Chicago area, singing about their pet robot. Science fiction has been a frequent theme in some alternative music forms. 

My Pet Robot (The Pulsars) 1997. From Chicago, Illinois

Milwaukee Sky Rocket (Braid) 1998. From Champaign-Urbana, Illinois

Indiana and Ohio

Takmit (Saintseneca) 2014. From Columbus, Ohio

Anthropocene (Peter Oren) 2017. From Bloomington, Indiana

Maria (Frances Luke Accord) 2018. From South Bend, Indiana

Trees We Couldn't Tell the Size of (wished bone) 2019. From Athens, Ohio

The National

Carin at the Liquor Store (The National) 2017.  From Cincinnati, Ohio

Turtleneck (The National) 2017. From Cincinnati, Ohio

Northern bands

Holocene (Bon Iver) 2011. From Eau Claire, Wisconsin

You Were Born (Cloud Cult) 2010. From Duluth, Minnesota

Mississippi (The Cactus Blossoms) 2016. From Minneapolis, Minnesota

Concerning The UFO Sighting Near Highland, Illinois (Sufjan Stevens) 2005. From Michigan, but he has lived in New York since the late 1990s)

We will conclude this episode with two more from Chicago.  Andrew Bird is a classically trained musician  with a degree in violin performance, who seems to be involved in almost all forms of music and an unimaginably wide range of instruments. We will hear his 2007 meditation on the course of history and the end of empires, Scythian Empires.  Then, we will hear a song from OK Go, who are now based in Los Angeles, California, but got their start in Chicago, and you may have seen their videos, which are often attention-grabbing.

Scythian Empires (Andrew Bird) 2007. From Chicago, Illinois

This Too Shall Pass (OK Go) 2010. From Chicago, Illinois

Hour 18: The Pacific Northwest

Washington State

 Every Iceburg Is Afire (Sky Cries Mary) 1995.  From Seattle, Washington

No Sunlight (Death Cab For Cutie) 2008.    From Bellingham, Washington

Helplessness Blues (Fleet Foxes) 2011.    From Seattle, Washington

Portland

The Dandy Warhols' T.V. Theme... (The Dandy Warhols) 1995.  From Portland, Oregon

Oakland (Genders) 2013.   From Portland, Oregon (bands with the same name exist in Texas and Israel)

Chinese Translation (M. Ward) 2006.    From Portland, Oregon

Mystic Isle (Jared Mees) 2017.    From Portland, Oregon

Wide Role (Rose City Band) 2019.   From Portland, Oregon

Doug Martsch and Built to Spill

Stay (Doug Martsch) 2002.   From Boise, Idaho

Goin' Against Your Mind (Built To Spill) 2006.    From Boise, Idaho

 Liar (Built To Spill) 2006.    From Boise, Idaho

Aisle 13 (Built To Spill) 2009.    From Boise, Idaho

Hour 19: California and the Southwest

Early stuff

Jane Says (Jane's Addiction) 1987.

Buddy Holly (Weezer) 1994.

Short Skirt/Long Jacket (Cake) 2002.

Intelligent

Letter From Belgium (The Mountain Goats) 2004.

New Roman Times (Camper Van Beethoven) 2004.

My Family's Role In The World Revolution (Beirut) 2007.

Bay Area

Hey World (Remote Control Version) (Michael Franti & Spearhead) 2009.

Bizness (tUnE-yArDs) 2011. From Oakland, California

Palmreader (Sonny & The Sunsets) 2013.  From San Francisco

Southern California

Cloudlight (Eskmo) 2010.  From Los Angeles (but originally from Connecticut)

Sometime Around Midnight (The Airborne Toxic Event) 2009.

Simple Song (The Shins) 2012.

Ends of the Earth (Lord Huron) 2013.

Hour 20: The United Kingdom

The 80s

Song to the Siren (This Mortal Coil) 1984.

Do It Anyway (Woodentops) 1985.

One Great Thing (Big Country) 1986.

You Trip Me Up (The Jesus & Mary Chain) 1985.

Hit the North, Part 1 (The Fall) 1988.

Powder Keg (The Fall) 1996.

The 90s

Brimful Of Asha (Cornershop) 1997.

I Don’t Love Anyone (Belle & Sebastian) 1999.

The 10s

Are Friends Electric? (Gary Numan) 1979 (this version is from 2012).

Fireside (Arctic Monkeys) 2013.

3WW (Alt-J) 2017.

Aside from Growing Old (Cate Le Bon) 2017.

Semicircle Song (The Go! Team) 2018. From Brighton, England (this album featured young musicians from Michigan)

Shady Grove (Yola) 2019.

Hour 21: Europe

Iceland

You've Been Flirting Again (Björk) 1995

Með Blóðnasir (Sigur Rós) 2005

Dirty Paws (Of Monsters and Men) 2012

Sweden

Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John) 2007

I Was Jesus (Hello Saferide) 2014

Trouble in the Streets (Goat) 2016

Switzerland, Portugal, Belgium

Motherland (Silver Firs) 2013

Dry Dry Land (Tap Tap) 2010

Easy (Absynthe Minded) 2019

France

Pas les saisons (Skydancers Remix) (Mina Tindle) 2015

Les Moissons (Radio Elvis) 2016

La vie facile (Julie Blanche) 2015

Russia

Берег (Shore) (Забавные Игры [Funny Games]) 2019

 Издалека (Izdaleka) (Как Никогда [Kak Nikogda]) 2020

Hour 22: The Folk Revival

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss (Built To Spill) 2001.

Skinny Love (Bon Iver) 2007.

God? (The Dodos) 2008.

5 Years Time (Noah & The Whale) 2008.

Die (Iron & Wine) 2009.

The Cave (Mumford And Sons) 2009.

Starving Robins (Horse Feathers) 2010.

From Finner (Of Monsters and Men) 2011.

Ho Hey (The Lumineers) 2012.

Lightning Bolt (Jake Bugg) 2012.

Time to Run (Lord Huron) 2012.

You Take Yours, I'll Take Mine (Matthew Mole) 2013.

Over Your Roof (Frances Luke Accord) 2014.

Visions (Saintseneca) 2014.

Noah (Amber Run) 2015.