The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Ages and Ages

Diversionary (Do the Right Thing) (Jan’14) is a lovely little song that hits it out of the park. Bye fucking bye. Imagine a campfire, an arm around a friend, buzz on, and a guitar accompanied sing-along of Stand By Me or the mild religious fervor of Kumbaya My Lord. This is aural crack; instantly lovable but with a message everyone can approve.

Ages and Ages are eight beautiful people. 

Projecting positive vibes from Portland they have been showing people the light for five fun filled years full of music.

Diversionary comes from Ages and Ages second book of gospels Diversionary (2014). They draw inspiration from popular fairy-tales.

Feeling it deep down in your soul? Then try Light Goes Out or So Freely.

And here's the best fucking song I know with mental crutch used by the psychologically weak in the title; Wooden Sky with a 'knock you dead' gorgeous little acoustic number called Oh My God It Still Means A Lot To Me (2009). It's an outrageously simple, laid back, but wonderful tune.



The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Rancid

Rancid’s Evils My Friend (Sept’14) is a ska punk song in the mould of every other great ska punk song Rancid ever made. Evils My Friend has got organ, (that’s a selling point) and punk shout-along boot's boy verses. Rancid rock harder than a prison rapist's erection and have delivered their best song since Out Come The Wolves.

  

Evils My Friend is off the the Berkeley, California, punk's eighth album Honor Is All We Know (Oct'14). An album many critics suggest is their best since Out Come The Wolves (1995).

Rancid have been running down the backstreets for more than twenty years and have mad love for The Clash.

The best Rancid tracks are Collision Course, Old Friend and Junkie Man.

Out Come The Wolves... ,hands down Rancid’s best album,was released in 1995. The same year Goo Goo Dolls released A Boy Named Goo, with, I shit you not, this stand out punk rocking tune Slave Girl.

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Golden Coast

 

 

 

 

 

Golden Coast’s Break My Fall (July'14) comes with a massive 80’s synth riff, think A Ha Take On Me or MGMT Kids, that sucks you in faster than the words free Asian porn.

The song is bouncy, free spirited and like Grouplove but with a little more saccharine than substance.

 

 

Break My Fall is the L.A. duos first single although both have worked in music for years.

Golden Coast have shown some love for BANKS, The Preatures, Waters and more.

Jonesing for more? Check out The Futurist and A Dream and a MPC for more of the same happy, good times, tunes.



Let's go with the X Ambassadors Jungle remix with Jay Z for sloppy seconds. It's on Denny White's, Golden Coast singer, Spotify playlist and it's just good.

“Follow me into the jungle,

Ain't no God on the streets”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Jenny Lewis

 

 

 

Jenny Lewis’ One Of The Guys (July’14) sounds like Joan Jett with pop sensibilities. One Of The Guys is produced by Beck.

One Of The Guys rolls along behind big drums, choral verses and lands on a catchy chorus with more to the lyrics than most.


 

Jenny Lewis started making music in the band Rilo Kiley back in 1998 and rolld out of Las Vegas, Nevada.

One Of The Guys is off Jenny Lewis’ third solo album Voyager (July'14).

Jenny Lewis was a child actress and the bands she digs are Death Cab For Cutie, Built To Spill and ahhh... country music.
Looking for more of Jenny? Try It’s Not Me or Completely Not Me.

 

Jenny ‘nah I didn’t do it’  Lewis collaborated with Rostam Batmanglij from Vampire Weekend on Completely Not Me.


So here’s Vampire Weekend with Unbelievers(2013) a heavenly indie anthem.

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Eytan and The Embassy

 

 

Eytan and the Embassy Weekend Warrior (March’14) is a to-die-for track indie pop track. Weekend Warrior is smart, uplifting, swings and it’s got some soul.

That Weekend Warrior has a killer chorus goes without saying. Hi-lar-i-ous video for a wicked groovy song, only a cockhole couldn't love this song.


 

 

Eytan and The Embassy have been hard pimping it in the New York City since 2009.

Eytan and The Embassy would put you on the mean streets unless you are listening to Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Brian Wilson, Radiohead, Springsteen and The Strokes.

Eytan and The Embassy are too busy bitch slapping the Johns hard to make albums. If you need more baby more, their song Everything Changes (2012) doesn't perform sub-par fellatio.

Eytan and The Embassy have gigged with OK Go. So with no better excuse than sharing the same stage here is OK Go and This Too Shall Pass (2010) which is just the highest quality indie pop rock you will ever find and a fitting partner to Weekend Warrior. Indie anthems both.

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Ball Park Music

 

 

Ball Park Music’s Trippin’ The Light Fantastic (Jun’14) has the dance rock thing going for it. Don’t be fooled by the title Ball Park Music totally rock out as well as inspiring you to get on the good foot.

  Trippin’ The Light Fantastic is off the Brisbane bands second album Puddinghead  (April'14).


Ball Park Music have a chubby for Radiohead and the Beatles amongst many others.
Others songs to put a smile on your dial include She Only Loves Me When I'm There, It's Nice To Be Alive and All I Want Is You.

Ball Park Music have toured in support of rock gods Weezer but this support slot goes to Loon Lake, who have supported Ball Park Music on tour, and Cherry Lips (2012).

Cherry Lips is a Stonesy-lite ecstatic little rocker, turn up the volume and avert your eyes from the screen, worse videos have been made but they usually involve donkeys in Tijuana.

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Air Traffic Controller

 

 

Listen to the feel good tune The House (Feb'14) by Air Traffic Controller on a sunny Sunday afternoon doing the housework and you will have a Shit I like that song who sings that? experience.

No riots are gonna be started in their name but The House is a by the books indie melody, drum and sing-along. Air Traffic Controller infiltrate your music loving body until you just need more.

 

 

 

 

The House  is off Air Traffic Controller’s debut effort NORDO released in 2012 by the Boston band.

The singer actually was an Air Traffic Controller in the US Navy.

Air Traffic Controller have mad love for Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, The Beatles, Paul Simon and so on.

Don't go AWOL, stay on base with Hurry Hurry and Pick Me Up.

 

It's all about the geography this week so suck up a little arse kicking from the hilariously stupid Dropkick Murphys and the not at all stupid song The State of Massachusetts.

What is it with New England and the Irish? Why don't they just go fucking back there the potato loving sons of bitches and see how much they like it? God-damn dumbasses.

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Death from Above 1979

Death from Above 1979's Trainwreck 1979 (July'14) takes the cake for both band and song names. The song is a quirky dance punk number vaguely reminiscent of Indie Brit bands of Cool Britannia vintage but more of a headbanger than any of those butt bandits.

“I was born on the highway in a trainwreck
With a heart that was beating outta my chest”

 

 

 

 

Death from Above 1979 are a Canadian duo from Toronto who have been creating white riots since 2001. Trainwreck 1979 comes hard swinging off their second long player The Physical World. 1979 refers to the singer slash drummer’s birthday.

The tune is a little bit dance and a lot bit punk and it's no surprise the band have expressed admiration for a variety of musical influences like Mastodon, Diana Ross, Daft Punk, ACDC, Deep Purple and Michael Jackson.

Here is a picture of Death From Above 1979 in their grots, because that's the way they roll.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The double dip is Tweeter and the Monkey Man by The Headstones simply because they are Canadian too and it's a punk rocking tune.

“Tweeter and the Monkey Man
Were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night
Selling cocaine and hash”

Pure poetry. Do not go near the Travelling Wilbury’s version. It's shit.

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Joelistics

 

Joelistics Say I’m Good  (May'14) oozes rebel attitude. As the song says “I am not another voice in the choir”. What the fuck this ain’t gangster rap?

That’s right Timmy. Thinking man’s hip hop need not be an oxymoron.


 

  

 

 

 

Joelistics is Joel Ma a member of the group TZU spitting out of Melbourne. He’s been telling it straight for over a decade.

Say I’m Good is off Joelistic's second solo album The Blue Volume (June'14) and rails, in part, against Australia’s mainstream preoccupation with xenophobia.

How do you know you are in Australia? The clocks are set back 200 years. Just kidding Skippys!

Want more Joelistics tracks? It’s all good, check out Out Of The Blue and In The Morning.

By rights any talk of Oz hip-hop would be remiss without mention of The Hilltop Hoods. So consider them mentioned because here are the mighty Butterfingers with the best Aussie hip hop to ever make it on vinyl FIGJAM (2005).

They are right they are fucking good.


 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - Cold War Kids

 Cold War Kids’ All This Could Be Yours makes a dash for the finish line with driving drums and “Ooh oh ohs" creating an eerily desolate and desperate scene. It’s catchy but.

 

Cold War Kids are from Long Beach, California and have been making music since 2004. All This Could Be Yours is off their fifth album Hold My Home (Oct’14).
 

Cold War kids have described themselves as a soul punk band and have diverse likes. However the bass player's favourite bands as a youngster were Blur and The Jesus and Mary Chain. Great taste my man. Other Cold War Kids influences are Jeff Buckley and the Velvet Underground.


If you’re looking for further ammunition from the Cold War Kids try the indie anthem First or Miracle Mile. They're good ’uns.

 

Both the guitarist and the drummer in Cold War Kids are originally from Modest Mouse. Modest Mouse are from Portland, Oregan, and started making music in 1993. They are similar to Dr. Dog or Bloc Party. Their main influences are The Pixies and The Talking Heads. Float On (March, 2004) was the lead single from their fourth album Good New For People who Love Bad News (April, 2004) and is their most popular song. So with no further ado here’s the Modest Mouse classic Float On.

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2014 - WATERS

If Indie tunes were smack Got To My Head (Feb’14) is a hot shot.

Whimsical, melodic, killer chorus and wham-bam, just like your man, done inside three minutes. Bliss. This should be preserved in amber as a perfect specimen of indie pop in case scientists thousands of years from now need to extract the DNA to recreate the sound of people having orgasmic fun while we burning up all the oil and extinguishing life on land and in the oceans.

From a San Francisco band, Port O’Brien, Van Pierszalowski is the driving force behind this band, active since 2011.

Got To My Head is off WATERS second pop of the weasel, the album It All Might Be OK (Oct'14).

Van Pierszalowski has a woody for Weezer but who doesn't?

Another WATERS song that is bloody good is I Feel Everything.

The drummer of Grouplove, Ryan Rabin, produced WATERS new album It All Might Be OK.
 

Here’s the Californian indie rock band Grouplove Ways To Go (2013). Ways To Go was the lead single off Grouplove’s second album Spreading Rumours (2013) that was released to widespread critical and public acclaim.

Fuck it’s awesome.

“I didn’t ask for that,
You give me heart attack,
I didn’t want to care”