Right, let’s give this thread a kick in the janglies.
What are the best indie-pop labels and sites out there? Because, y’know, I’ve practically finished my work for the day and need entertaining.
LET’S LIST.
This counts right?
Hayman Kupa Band
That’ll do for starters. What about labels, though? Alcopop are filling a Fortuna Pop-shaped hole in my life, but what else is out there?
Slumberland in the US is probably the most reliable indiepop source these days. Now Labrador seem to have gone off the boil at least.
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Aye, there’s a lot of good stuff on Slumberland - I need to have a proper rummage through their Bandcamp page. Any label that put out stuff by The Spook School is fine by me.
TOPS - Sugar at the Gate surely meets the Indie Pop criterion ?
New Pains Of Being Pure At Heart track:
I’m not one to police genre boundaries, so I couldn’t say, but it does remind me that I still haven’t listened to San Cisco’s new album yet:
Ooh, I like the sound of this.
Belong didn’t really grab me and I didn’t even realise they’d had another album since then. This new track sounds ace, though.
They’ve already been mentioned, but I haven’t heard anything in this genre in the past few years that is quite as good as Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. This song in particular has been been on constant repeat over the past year or so:
Not familiar with San Cisco - will check them out!
In regards to TPOBPAH; I never got round to listening to Belong (the artwork always reminded me of Noah Lennox; not that this put me off it) and Days of Abandon was fairly enjoyable. Their debut is still great though!
San Cisco’s debut is great (esp. if you get the version with their prior EP packaged with it).
They’re a band from Perth, Australia, so it’s not that surprising that you haven’t heard them, though Awkward got picked up on radio here and used in an advert and stuff, so it also wouldn’t surprise me if it got a big push overseas:
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Rejoice. Makthaverskan have returned to save us from having to scrape the bottom of the barrel for indie pop.
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Post-Indietracks recommendations:
Luby Sparks - shoegazy indiepop brilliance from Japan.
Pillow Queens - - YouTube
And best of all - I’d never heard The Wave Pictures before. Phenomenal!
We’re being spoiled!
New Radiator Hospital:
New Spook School! And it’s glorious.
Love this band so much. Listen to Try to be Hopeful on a nearly weekly basis.
Arise, ye olde thread.
Been thinking a lot recently about how much I love indie pop.
Also just read this new Bandcamp piece on Slumberland, which was great and definitely has some recent stuff I’ve missed
I also listened to this two-part podcast on the history of Slumberland with Mike from the label and cohosted by Glenn from the Reds, Pinks and Purples, which I thought was really interesting and fun
(You can get it on Spotify but I can’t tell if their links work properly on here anymore)
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A 5.5 year bump! That is truly impressive.
Is indie pop now a relic of the past? The most recent album in that Bandcamp piece is (I think) the Peel Dream Magazine one from about 4 years ago…?
Having said that, Fazerdaze came out of nowhere and released an EP last year, and she’s just released a new song:
I’d say other than that probably Sister Wives’ Y Gawres is the only other indie pop release (do we call that indie pop? I don’t know: genre designation is such a minefield) I got last year. Unless Wet Leg count?
Do Wet Leg count?
The Reds Pinks & Purples one on there isn’t even out yet!
I probably wouldn’t count Wet Leg but for me it’s as much of a cultural as musical thing.
There’s a pretty big scene in San Francisco at the moment - Reds Pinks & Purples, Cindy, Chime School, more I don’t know.
Think the UK-side has suffered visibility with Fortuna Pop shutting up shop and nothing really replacing it. There was definitely that period around the start of the decade when they were just hoovering up all the good bands - Martha, Tigercats, Spookies, Joanna Gruesome etc
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Here is some stuff I have been enjoying recently anyway (meant to post this earlier but got bogged down with new style Spotify links not working properly)
Chime School - s/t from 2021 - good jangly stuff
Cindy - 1: 2 - also from 2021 - really nice delicate, almost slowcore stuff
Reds, Pinks & Purples - Summer at Lands End (2022) - really could’ve picked any of his five (!) albums from the last three years, this is just the most recent “proper” one and it’s excellent - old school Sarah Records, Field Mice vibes
Ex-Void and The Tubs - both fairly recent, both ex-Joanna Gruesome folk. Neither capture that helter skelter wildness of Weird Sister but they’re great listens still
Blues Lawyer - All in a Good Time - from this year, more fun jangly indie rock.
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