The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Palma Violets

One of the best indie songs of 2015 is Palma Violet’s Danger In The Club (Feb’15). Any song you can imagine becoming an English football chant has frightening potential. And this chorus shout-along “ …for you a… you… a…” has Seven Nation Army size boots.

This song reminds me of some old punk band like the Strangler’s, although Palma Violets have said they listened to a lot of pre-punk before making the record and others have compared the new album to the Sex Pistols.

“Weight in my voice, such a man

Change the sound of a distant screaming”

 

Danger In The Club is the title track from Palma Violets' second record of the same name (May’15).

Palma Violets are an English indie rock band from Lambeth, London. The lads have been leading the sing alongs for five years now.

Shit you didn’t need to know:

Palma Violets have been called punks and have mentioned a fondness for The Clash, Nick Cave and The Gun Club.

Palma Violets have described themselves as a ‘moment’ band and capturing their ‘yoofullness’.

Palma Violets have said they liked touring the States because it was sunny and there was more free beer.

Jeez they are not ugly are they. Bastards.

Do you have a need for more of the Palma Violets? You can't go past Best Of Friends, you really can't.

Harrison. What a sterling fucking picture of these four hard fucking chargers. Not a looker among them. Real men. Men's men. Barber dodgers.
 

 

 

Silly slappers goes to Harrison and Dear Constable (2007).

Dear Constable is a standout Joe Strummer-esque track from these English indie rockers, four horsemen who rode out of Sheffield, England. Stout.

Dear Constable is a raucous piece of rebellion and if St Joe were still alive I am sure he would approve.

“I can see the lies, dancing in your eyes,

you’re not an honest man…”

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Tiny Little Rocks

One of the best indie songs of 2015 is Tiny Little Rock’s Again (Aug ’14). Yes, it’s outside the box, but that don’t mean it don’t fucking belong there. This tune reminds me of Flying Nun songs for putting the best parts at the end, but others will be thinking of Radiohead. Either way it’s infuriating. But this is better than either of those examples.

 

Again is cool, sparse and haunting in the first three minutes but then it heats up like the rock in your pipe and makes it well worth the wait. This will be going on your repeat playlist. A car driving, house cleaning song. Or one you put on in the background of a conversation, unnoticed until people start foot-tapping and ask “Who’s this?” You only need told once. This is magic, this is Tiny Little Rocks.

 

 

 

Tiny Little Rocks is solo artist Pierre Guillaume.

He comes soulfully sauntering out of Brussels, Belgium. Again is the first release from four singles, all released in 2014.

Shit you didn't need to know:

Tiny Little Rocks have been compared with Thom Yorke/Radiohead and Muse.

Pierre Guillaume has a new Fender Stratocaster. It’s a nice guitar.

Next on is David Bowie's Tin Machine and the hard rocking wild thing that is Crack City (1989).

Your man had a big swinging pair back in the day, don’t you know?
 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - The Very Best

 

The closest this uncultured heathen ever got to African music was Paul Simon’s Graceland. But if you like that may I suggest you are going to love The Very Best Let Go (Jan’15). It may well be the best indie song of 2015 early doors. That’s all I got. Let Go is a bit African and a lot of sweet, sweet, well actually, amazingly sweet pop.

The Very Best are the definition of great indie pop; both culturally disparate and universal, mentally stimulating, spiritually uplifting and watch out that's your arse shaking. More than the sum of it's parts, this really is the very best, I wouldn’t lie to you.
 

 

Let Go is the second single from The Very Best’s second long player Makes A King (April’15). The duo are from Malawi and Sweden but fight out of London.

Shit you need to know:

Makes A King has a bloke from Vampire Weekend, the bassist Chris Baio, on the album. Let Go is one of the songs that features him.

Makes A King was recorded in Malawi with random locals assisting.

The band describe themselves as ‘global pop’ and have collaborated with M.I.A.

If you're looking for more sweet pop from The Very Best don't go past Makes A King, Kamphobo and Kondaine.

Scintillating seconds goes to L Fresh The Lion and Survive (2014).

There's a sublime fusion of Sikh and Aussie going on in this indie hip hop tune from Sydney. More multi-cultural magic.
 

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Volunteer

 

Volunteer The World Will Begin Again (Jan'15) has a middle of the road Imagine Dragons feel. Blockbuster indie. Or indie pop. Snare? Present.‘Whoas'? Accounted for. Genuine love for the world? Pinned to our proudly protruding chests. I hope someone patented those 'Whooo whoas', that’s bank right there. A euphoric indie song emblematic of mainstream indie pop.

“Don’t come you gotta feel it.”

 

 



The World Will Begin is the debut song from the same-titled short player The World Will Begin Again (Feb’15). Cory Quintard is Volunteer. He comes fighting out of Nashville, Tennessee by way of Orlando, Florida. Cory called in a drummer, Austin Smith, to play on the E.P.

Shit you need to know:

Bands mentioned in the same breath as Volunteer include Imagine Dragons, Passenger, Bastille and Parade of Lights.

Volunteer been called alternative pop but Mr Quintard describes himself, somewhat surprisingly, as alternative rock.

People have thrown around words like ‘arena’ and ‘anthems’ but then people get excited, don’t they?

Cory Quintard does a rip snorting blue grass version of La Roux’s Bulletproof with a couple of cobbers on the street.

 

OK the double dip today is as random as a hooker in Pattaya, but I'm going Kiwi and the indie dance anthem by Kids Of 88 Little Bit (2010). That's how we do.

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Peace

This is a king hit and with their biggest UK tour just announced Peace are on fire. I’m A Girl (Jan’15) is a definitive track of 2015, straight off the bat. The band, with a gleam in their eye, have charged out of the crease and hit it straight over the bowlers head for six. Something England’s team can't seem to do.

 

 

I’m A Girl is a song with something to say against violence, “Do you feel like a man cos you got blood on your hands? If we're living in a mans world, I'm a girl,” and possibly gender roles. I’m A Girl rocks as hard as a Palestinian street protest.

 

 

 

Getting jiggy since 2009, this indie rock band bound out of Birmingham, England. This is their third entrée from the second big player Happy People(Feb’15).

Shit you didn't need to know:

The band have described their music as " dark, melodic indie techno".

Producers of the album Happy People are Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Adele) and Duncan Mills (Catfish and the Bottlemen, Jake Bugg, The Vaccines).

The band motto is, "Music to grind, roll & smoke. Music to fuck you in the heart".

The band have been compared to Foals and mention influences like David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Kula Shaker.

The best Peace songs are the very groovy World Pleasure, Lost On Me and Follow Baby.

Here is a fucking fire cracker from the Welsh indie rock band Feeder and their best head banger, the cosmic wonder that is Buck Rogers (2001).

Hold on to your knickers Wilma things are about to get hairy.

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Carl Barat and The Jackals

Carl Barat and the Jackals have a fucking belter here with A Storm Is Coming (Jan’15). There are crunchy rhythm guitars, straight out of The Clash's London Calling days, and a killer chorus to a very English indie rock track.

 

 

 

Not just punky A Storm Is Coming bears the hallmarks of the greatest hits of ‘Cool Britannia’.

 

“I don’t mind, I know a storm is coming

Things won’t ever be the same again

I won’t run this time, it has to be now or never”

 

 
A Storm Is Coming is off the Carl Barat and The Jackal's debut album Let It Reign (Feb’15). Yes Barat does have a few under his belt.
Let It Reign is an album NME described as crackling“with delinquent fervour and lyrical punch” as they wiped come off their sycophantic chins with relish. Rolling Stone said it was a "call to arms" while they beat themselves off in a frenzy. While other cynics have said it's a bit 'meh'.

Shit you need to know:

The drummer was in a Swindon wedding band before he got the call up into the band.

Carl Barat supported the Sex Pistols back in his Libertines days.

The Black Keys drummer once said Carl Barat looks like a prick and there was no one else he would rather “punch in the face”.

Carl Barat is good friends with one of the godfathers of punk Mick Jones, who produced both of the Libertines albums, the first a debut UK number one.

Carl Barat rips them off to the Velvet Underground, The Clash, Nirvana and The Doors. With the usual caveat, to name but a few.

You mustn’t go past Glory Days if you are looking for more crackers from Carl Barat and the Jackals.

It's Glory Days end of fucking story.

 

Stirring the porridge goes to the London indie rock band The Rifles and the genius of Heebie Jeebies (2013). Heebie Jeebies  is as English as clinging onto former triumphs and yet at the same time inspiring straight up, couldn't happen anywhere else in the world, transcendental fuckin magic.

Here is an ode to getting pissed.

 

“Get a call from Tel and I don't know your brother
Said we met last night about ten to three
And put the world to rights in a minute on an empty street”

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Modest Mouse

After a creeping down the stairs whimsical vocal opening, Modest Mouse dial in some ska for Lampshades on Fire (Dec’14).

And it goes right off…

…arses are skanking to this one…

There’s a sense of urgency in the swing and this is going park… all… day… long...

“Well you all know what I’m talking’ about
Shaved off my eyebrows when I fall to the ground
So I can’t look surprised right now”

 



Modest Mouse are an indie rock band famous for blowing hot and cold. Some people have called them "crazy motherfuckers". They come ducking and diving out of Issaquah, Washington.

Lampshades On Fire comes sliding off Modest Mouse's sixth dam-buster Strangers To Ourselves (Dec’14). Modest Mouse have been putting the bounce in peoples step since 1993 but their latest album comes after eight years of rest and recreation. No surprises that the tune is an oldie tarted-up.

Shit you didn’t need to know:

Two former members of Modest Mouse now play with the Cold War Kids.

The singer broke his jaw in a bar fight once and three years later spent 10 days in a Buffalo jail because of a pissed while driving conviction.

The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr was a member of the band from 2006- 2009.

The Pixies and Meat Puppets have been mentioned as influences on Modest Mouse.

Need a few more peacemakers for the collection? Take aim with these hard hitters Float On or The World At Large.

Pudding for the fat bastards goes to this juggernaut by the Canadian indie rock duo Japandroids, and their 2012 anthem The House That Heaven Built. 

Everybody needs a regular fucking dose of this monster track.

“When the soul of the city, was laid to rest

And the nights forgotten and left for dead”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - The Bohicas

More rock than dance and more alternative than indie, but apparently preferring to eschew genre labels, The Bohicas To Die For (Jan’15) lives up to its name.

A track with a laid back glam groove, this rocker hits the back of the net and you’re going home in a London ambulance. It’s dynamite release the socks and grab your cocks rock’n’roll.

 



This is just the third single from a band that are in many peoples headlights this year… “To Die For is a swaggering stomp of a song… channelling Marc Bolan, Led Zeppelin and Arctic Monkeys to riveting effect.” (Sunday Times) 

Shit you need to know:

Supporting the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Rival Sons and Royal Blood these four heavy rollers are from Essex, London. They began making music in 2013.

Kings of Leon, Ray Charles, The Beatles, The Strokes and The Vines are some of The Bohicas' influences.

To Die For was produced by Mark Rankin (Queens of the Stone Age) and Chris Merrick Hughes (Tears For Fears).

The first salvoes fired from this young bohemeth are XXX, Swarm and Crush Me.

 

 

I was put in mind of this London alternative rock band Elastica and one of the hits from their heyday Connection (1994). So fucking get some.


 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - The Score

The Score's Oh My Love (Jan’15) sees grown men banging on about love and they “feel my heart beatin out my chest” in this self-described ‘carefree Sunday Cali’ song. It'll either make you want to chuck chunks or singalong.

 

Oh My Love is cheesier than your neglected granddad's dick-flap. Yet with the happy factor dialled up to, wait, that's off the fucking charts, and a dose of big drum, this song totally pulls it off, thanks in main to a bit of a gospel ring to the vocals.This song should have been a sunshine and cool breeze summer radio classic.

“Oh my love let me be your fire
We're a thousand miles up and about to get higher
Feel my heart beating out my chest
You're the only prayer I need to make me feel blessed”

 

Eddie Anthony and Edan Dover are a crafty pair of musical careerists with big press behind them, “Everything about this band tells us they are on the verge of exploding…”.

The Score have two E.P.’s and this stand alone single to their name. But all things being equal, this is the hit.

Ingredients in The Score's potpourri include playing pop punk tunes by the likes of Taking Back Sunday and Fall Out Boy. One of the dudes is into jazz piano and they both like soul music.

Shit you need to know:

Both men were quite successful in New York City but gave it all up to find the big time in Tinsel Town. Oh the derring-do of these bold two. Bet they are enjoying the beaches.

Are you feeling the love? Are you looking to score more? Try this goody, Catching Fire (Mar’15).

 
What I can offer you after that aperitif is the main fucking course. One of the chosen few, one of the greatest punk bands to ever grace the earth, the Korean ska-punks and heroes of the republic, Crying Nut. This is their run for cover, fan favourite Ride The Horse (1998).

These big bosses have plenty of high calibre in the case if you want to go dipping in their well of goodness.

 

Good bastards to a man and rock legends all.

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Royal Tongues

A feel good indie pop song Royal Tongues Rollin’ On (Jan’15) is like a giant vibrator. It hits all of the sweet spots. In fact it's an ecstatic dance song for fantastic nights. A song as sticky as a plumbers crack in summer, the chorus is the intro and propels you into the verse with the emotion pouring out of the duo's voices, setting the stage for something truly special.

 

 

Rollin’ On offers drum machine, synths, echo vocals and a stone cold awesome, massive chorus. Words fail me there is no way to do this track justice, music just does not get any better than this. This is as addictive as sex on ice and get me a preacher, I testify, this is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

Jeez 80’s pop just keeps rollin’ ...

 



  

Royal Tongues are a duo from Buffalo, New York. They have picked up hype fast for this, only their second single. Although, both men have had various careers in music, writing and producing they have finally struck out on their own. Someone snidely suggested they had been saving their best songs for themselves.

Shit you need to know:

Royal Tongues main influences are Smallpools , Passion Pit, Youngblood Hawke and Grouplove. Unless you threw in Handel's Hallelujah Chorus it's statistically impossible to find a group of more uplifting influences!

Royal Tongues more left-field influences are The Killers, ABBA, Jimmy Eat World and Taking Back Sunday.

Royal Tongues have also been described as a poppier, yeah that’s a word, Killers. Someone was having a good day!

As of February 5^th, 2015 they have only a paltry 750 likes on Facebook but Rollin On has had half a million Spotify plays. That must be set to change.

Got a taste for more wonderful? Try their fabulous first single The Balance or the even better Higher.

Sinful seconds go to the German band Liquido because of the wickedly addictive synth intro in this indie dance rock song Narcotic(1996).

Narcotic is the official anthem of the French footy team Bordeaux.