The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Frank Turner

Frank Turner’s The Next Storm (Jan’15) is a bit all fart and no shit. One of those songs where you can’t find the chorus let alone remember singing it. Perhaps that’s the magic because this is a real good one. Rousing festival fare. A song bound to have thousands bouncing in concerts swearing to a profoundly moving experience they can’t explain unless you were there.

Stirring English indie pop in the mould of James Sit Down  the song itself is a whinge about nothing. Or a celebration of life and a rallying cry for hope. Up to you. Either way it starts out with rain but then the storm passes with exhortations to rejoice. You will rejoice because this is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

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Shit you need to know:

The Next Storm has been called “an uplifting anthem,” with a “heavy but foot-tappingly upbeat instrumental” and “a jubilantly euphoric, though very slight, gospel rock tinge”.

The new album was produced by Butch Walker, famous for making magic for Weezer, Fall Out Boy and The Wombats to name but a select few.

The band recorded the long player in nine days and mostly live with the vocals unedited.

Frank Turner was big into metal, punk and hardcore before listening to Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Then he mellowed out.

Frank said 90's emo band Mineral were one of his favorite bands and that he listened to a fair bit of Jimmy Eat World.

The big man tips Felix Hagan & The Family as one of his big loves these days and says they are destined for bigger and brighter things.

Originally a metaller he loved Iron Maiden and won Celebrity Mastermind with Iron Maiden as his speciality subject.

At one time Frank was getting up to a 100 death threats a day due to misguided perceptions of his politics. He’s actually a good dude who said “David Cameron is a twat ... I wouldn’t vote for that cunt”.

The best big Frank Turner tunes are Recovery, I Still Believe and Get Better.

The dirty double dip comes courtesy of Frank Turner who has big-upped this London indie pop rock band Felix Hagan and the Family. Here is the irrepressible Go Back Home (2014).

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - MisterWives

MisterWive’s Best I Can Do sounds a bit like the ska band Save Ferris’s cover of Come On Eileen. Pretty damn good in other words. Brass pulls us into a verse where the singer coos over soft guitar pop and then the chorus where she gives it the tits accompanied by fantastic trumpets. Lovely jubbly.

Best I Can Do is a light, bubbly, sunny-day song about the pain caused by trying to live up to others expectations. Regardless of the melancholy lyric it’s a song to get your arse bouncing and, fuck me Frank, undeniably one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“I am down on my knees
Begging for release...”

 

 

MisterWives are a New York indie band making sweet indie pop since 2012. Best I Can Do is the fifth single released from the band’s debut album Our Own House(Feb’15). Fifth time right I suppose.

Shit you need to know:

Best I Can Do was called the album’s most, “…chaotically appealing,” song.

Billboard were on something when they described the album Our Own House as having, “…panels bursting with rock 'em, sock 'em action.”

This reviewer said the album was, “...a collection of rousing anthems that have showy vocal hooks, crisp production and choruses packed with youthful enthusiasm.”

The long player Our Own House was produced by Frequency, best known for his work with Eminem.

The band have been often compared to Ellie Goulding and Taylor Swift. Others have mentioned Chic and Capital Cities.

Popped Music thought, “...their sound borrows heavily from the 80s pop era but it’s injected with a syringe full of optimism.”

The band’s influences include No Doubt, ABBA, The Smiths, Fleetwood Mac, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, The Police, Walk the Moon, Regina Spektor, Sublime, Radiohead and Of Monsters and Men.

Misterwives topped the chart on Billboards emerging artists and were MTV's Artist To Watch for 2015.

The band do a good cover of old eighties singer Cyndi Lauper’sbiggest hit Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

The singer studied international opera.

 

 

 

Let’s crack on with some Sublime seeing as they influenced MisterWives. This is one of the legendary Californian ska bands greatest hits Caress Me Down (1996).

“Mucho gusto, me llamo Bradley,

I'm hornier than Ron Jeremy”

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Animal House

Animal House Figure It Out (May’15) is a rollicking number. It should make their bones. Bands count songs as good as this on their thumbs in a career. Resembling a mod-sounding sixties rock hit but with some quirky psych pop stylings and lashings of new century indie. Here’s looking at you, the ever fucking present  Strokes. Shit it’s better than them but.

 

 

A song as simple as the title suggests, Figure It Out comes screaming into the world kicking arses, taking no names, nor prisoners. And not striking any poses. This is rock’n’roll at its finest, a hard-on in a pair of well worn leather pants stinking of pussy, weed and whiskey. A head banger with an indie bent. You are a straight up shit-shovelling dick if you don’t realize Figure It Out is one of the best indie songs of 2015.

 

 

Figure It Out is the second single from a garage rock band who fight out of Brighton, England, by way of Brisbane, Australia. These young heroes have been playing together since 2014.

Shit you need to know:

Of the tune Figure It Out Clash Music opined it’s a, “...deliciously outrageous piece of riff-laden guitar pop. Stuttering and brawling.”

The Four Oh Five called Figure It Out  “snarling” and “attitude-laced”.

Circuit Music said it’s, “An undeniably infectious and ramshackle garage-pop singalong”.

Animal House have been compared to The Strokes and The Libertines.

Animal House have also been mentioned as similar to early Kings of Leon.Animal House have supported Courtney Barnett and The Preatures this year.

The other Animal House song is Sour. It’s fucking good too.

The dirty double dip is from 1960’s pop rock band Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch. It’s Hold Tight (1966). It’s a tit ripper.


 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Alcoholic Faith Mission

Alcoholic Faith Mission win the gold star for best band name and with Orbitor (Dec’14) they have a slow burner that opens up with vocals and synth then rachets up the tension to an epic all out scream into the unforgiving wilderness.

 

 

A song about seeking validation through social media, and the neurosis associated with it, Orbitor is a massive dark electronic monster. This brooding, painful song with a massive chorus is one of the best indie songs of 2015. No shit Sherlock.

“Ripping your flesh apart, ripping your flesh apart...

Hey! Am I good enough for you?”


 

Alcoholic Faith Mission are a Danish band from Copenhagen. Orbitor comes off their same titled fourth album Orbitor (Feb’15). Alcoholic Faith Mission describe themselves as indie, lo-fi and alternative. Obviously they took a change of pace on this album and embraced electronica.

Shit you need to know:

This commentator said of the tune Orbitor that it, “feels like a communal festival anthem waiting to happen,” and is, “the most dizzyingly infectious synthpop gem in years.”

Of the new album Orbitor this reviewer called it, “an album whose superficial singalong simplicity masks songs of belonging and rich ambition.”

This reviewer thought their sound has, “evolved into a thrilling, cinematic pop sound, nostalgic for the late 80’s/early 90’s.”

Alcoholic Faith Mission have been compared with Tears For Fears, MGMT, Tangerine Dream and Adam Ant.

Alcoholic Faith Mission have been vocal in big-upping Broken Social Scene as an influence but also mentioned significant others being The Most Serene Republic, Snowden, Animal Collective and Explosions in the Sky.


Other Alcoholic Faith Mission songs that don’t felch from dead men’s bums are Another You and Running With Insanity.

The dodgy double dip is another random. Stars are an indie pop rock band from Toronto, Canada. Trap Door (2014) is their biggest and bestest, an English indie pop sound-alike.

 

 

 

 

  

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Galaxie

 

 

Galaxie Robot Lynx (Jan’15) is a spaced out glam rock stomp. Big synth and airy layered vocals in the chorus gives this rocket wings but the verses are pure shit kicking grime. Robot Lynx has  an honest to god lead break too. It is heaven as space battalions prepare for the last ditch offensive in an all out war for intergalactic domination.

It’s French so I don’t know what the songs about. Just try it out for fucks sake. It’s brilliant and no fuckin doubt one of the best indie songs of 2015.

 

Galaxie are a French Canadian indie garage rock band from Montreal. They have been hard marching since 2002. Robot Lynx is the lead single off their fourth album Zulu (Feb'15).

Shit you need to know:

Galaxie were known as Galaxie 500 from 2002 -2010 before shortening the moniker because of confusion with the American band.

This concert review says the new album Zulu mixes mix African rhythms with hard rock. Sounds good to me. Anyway they gave the gig four and a half stars out of five.

The lead singer slash songwriter said for the last album he, “...listened to a lot of T. Rex and Bo Diddley”.

About the bands last album this reviewer said it’s, “...rough-edged (hard-hitting riffs) with a soothing presence (discotheque bass and semi-psychedelic vocals)...perfect balance of pace and lightness that gives “Tigre Et Diesel” its regal, electronic, intergalactic presence.

Galaxie played support for Alvvays this year.

Dragon is another Galaxie cracker, Interstice  bangs as hard as a Bangkok hooker and Piste 1 is the shit too.

The  double dip is as random as Donald Trumps hair. It’s a beautiful song from London alternative pop singer Layla. This is her sweet masterpiece Oh My Love (2013).

Hit the two twenty mark for the all in if you have no patience.

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Mating Ritual

Mating Ritual’s Hum Hum (March’15) intro minded me first up of old acid house band KLF’s Doctorin’ The Tardis. Which is cool because KLF are the fuckin coolest cats to ever rock’n’roll. No qualifications. In 1991 KLF were the world’s number one single selling artist when they burned one million pounds and “...in 1992, they fired blank machine gun bullets at the Brit Awards audience, dropped a dead sheep outside the aftershow party, and then quit the music industry." Cool cats.

 

 

So back to Hum Hum. It’s a bit of glam rock and the singing sounds like a cool Phil Collins. Assuming that were possible. A song about the end of a relationship, the powers turned up full and this epic is hands down one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“But it doesn't matter if we are miles apart
I can still see the crazy on your face.”

Mating Ritual is an indie pop solo project of Ryan Marshall Lawhon started in late 2014. He comes surging out of Los Angeles and this is his fourth song.

Shit you need to know:
BuzzBands thought Hum Hum is “...a good ol’ new wave rocker, stardate 1986 or so.”

Mating Ritual's record company ho hummed that the tune was “a game changer” and had “driving guitars, unrelenting drums and anthemic vocals” while comparing Mating Ritual to Jay Z. No word of a lie.

Mating Ritual songs have been described as having a "...dynamically epic digi-pop soundscape."
Some dude on Indie Shuffle compared him to Big Data, Joywave and (of course he played in them) Pacific Air.

As mentioned Ryan Lawhon was in a band with this brother called Pacific Air that garnered attention supporting the likes of Passion Pit, Two Door Cinema and Walk The Moon.

Ryan Lawhon has talked about growing up listening to New Age music and being influenced by it. Other than that I’m thinking he might not hate Nine Inch Nails.

If you need to know what the big man's listening to check out his Spotify playlist.

Other Mating Ritual tunes worth a gander are Toxins and Game.

 

 

Stirring the porridge is the industrial rock band, from Cleveland, Ohio, Nine Inch Nails. This is their biggest hit, and deservedly so, the killer Closer (1994).

“You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings
You can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything”

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - My Morning Jacket

My Morning Jacket Big Decisions (March’15) starts deceptively slowly but then the big fuzzy guitar comes in to assist the all in and it’s hold on to your seatbelts as this monolith takes flight. At times big seventies band influences threaten to overwhelm but this is too honest a tune for that to happen. Instead some arresting vocals grab your attention as he sings from the gut of something both personal and paradoxically with universal resonance.

A song about the emotional toll that’s paid when others eschew responsibility for decisions, it clocks in at the magic three and a half minutes and there’s no fat on this baby. This is a fucking big, booming, crackerjack track. Fuck me sideways if Big Decisions isn’t one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“Only get one chance but you seem to always think twice,
And I'm getting so tired of trying to always be nice”

 

My Morning Jacket are an alternative rock band from Louisville, Kentucky rocking out since 1998. “Big Decisions” is the lead single from their seventh album “Waterfall” (May’15).

Shit you need to know:

Consequence of Sound thought Big Decisions is, “...a gorgeous, infectious rocker, flush with soaring hooks.”

This review thought Big Decisions captures “...My Morning Jacket in all its glory.”

The band said the new album Waterfall sounds like the sounds of, “history  and decades colliding, like a record made by fervant music fans in search of that tingle up the spine,” and has, “...echoes of vintage rock and pop.”

On the topic of influences the singer said ..."We all grew up listening to Zeppelin, the Stones, and AC/DC."

The band have mentioned liking old school hip-hop and Danzig, Scorpion, Europe and the Muppets Soundtrack.

The band are famous for playing a diverse range of covers at their gigs. This includes songs by Rod Stewart, Berlin, Elton John and Black Sabbath.

My Morning Jacket have their own music festivalin Mexico. In 2015 the festival featured Band of Horses, Dr. Dog, The War on Drugs and Sylvan Esso.

The band played a four hour set at Bonaroo 2008 that incuded 35 songs and a guest appearance by Kirk Hammett of Metallica.

The epic My Morning Jacket songs are I’m Amazed and  One Big Holiday.

 

 

 

 

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Slippery seconds belongs to Brooklyn indie rockers Fort Lean and their classic rock influenced Cut To The Chase (2014) from their debut album Quiet Day (2014). Cut to the minute mark for the all in if you're so inclined.

“You think it's cute to carry on
Well, it's not
Oh, don't you know?
You should enjoy this while you can
Because it won't last”

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - The Sugarmen

The Sugarmen’s Dirt (April’15) is a stock standard English guitar jangle indie. It’s not a banger but the lead guitar has some bite and elevates the tune above the mediocre. To find out it was their debut single and produced by the godfather of punk Mick Jones (The Clash, B.A.D) in Paul Weller’s (The Jam) studio was a sign this band were interesting . This is one of those tunes you find yourself checking the artist name again. So not that memorable perhaps but still a shiner.

A song about making your own destiny it's two and a half minutes of ‘let’s get it done’ English indie pop. It’s pretty catchy. The first single from a band who have made famous friends and garnered quick acclaim. Give it a listen. It might be one of the best indie songs of 2015.

 

“Selfish acts are committed,
Even by the omnipotent and wise”



 

Dirt is the debut single from a shiny new Liverpool band started in 2013.

Shit you need to know:

This site thought the “...new single Dirt ( is a ) a major statement of arena-sized intent."

Louder Than War reviewed one of their gigs and thought The Sugarmen played “....a blistering set of upbeat, guitar lead, power pop.”

This chap was minded of The Jam and The Clash listening to them. Really?

Others measured their value by way of “...Orangejuice to Black Rebel Motorcycle Club by way of Grandaddy and a generous sprinkling of Velvet Underground and The Clash”.

The Sugarmen's influences are The Clash, The Velvet Underground, Orange Juice, Bob Dylan, Rodriguez, BRMC, New Order, T REX, B.A.D, Gang Of Four.

The Sugarmen got big fast. This year they have performed fluffer duties for Paul Weller, The Who, The Specials and Blur.

Mick Jones recorded 10 tracks with the band instead of the one the band were expecting.

The band tear it up in their cover of Should I Stay Or Should I Go? with Mick Jones.

The double dip is Clash related. These legends also ripped shit up with their cover of Should I Stay Or Should I Go. These are the alternative rock legends Living Colour and their best barnstormer Cult Of Personality (1988).