The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker's Wicked Waters (Mar’15) is a winner in the name game for both the singer and the song. And the video features cops shooting at the singer before he walks into a bar and picks up a guitar from the band playing and joins in. Choice. Hailing from New Orleans and blending modern rock with a liberal dosing of blues, his self-titled debut album Benjamin Booker (Aug’14) minded Clash magazine of The White Stripes, The Strokes and Kings of Leon. London In Stereo called Wicked Waters, "rambunctuous and seething."

 

Benjamin Booker is a blues/garage/punk rock musician and his heroes are Los Angeles cowboy punk band The Gun Club and his main influences T. Rex and Blind Willie Johnson. Benjamin Booker's music is best described as, "...a well mixed cocktail of punk, folk and New Orlean's blues". Wicked Waters carries a tale from despair to revelation like the sheriff's galloping horse in a black and white western. I don’t know if the blues can be jiggy but Wicked Waters sure as shit is. Jiggy as fuck. With organs like a Doors wigout, ‘can I get an amen’ gospel vocals from the preachers favorite hell-fire sermon and a garage band rock out at the end, the Manchester Evening News called Benjamin Booker, "...powerful and soulful...a voice in a million" and Wicked Waters, “...bouncy and infectious.” It is. As infectious as a frat boys communal wank mitt. Wicked Waters is one of the best indie songs of 2015.
 

“Well my heart is feeling empty
Well my legs are feeling weak
Well my heads sore from yesterday
Well I stumble when I speak.”

 

Shit you need to know:

His music has been compared to Jack White, The Black Keys, The Strokes, Led Zeppellin and Chuck Berry.

Spin magazine thought the long player Benjamin Booker was "...a contender for rock record of the year."

Clash magazine called Benjamin Booker, “...an electrifying introduction to the future of the blues” and Wicked Waters “riotous,” while DIY magazine said Wicked Waters is "ferocious" and "blistering. "

Benjamin Booker is label mates with Alabama Shakes and has toured with Alabama Shakes and his album was produced by Andrija Tokic who did the same for Alabama Shakes.  

Benjamin Booker was on fluffer duties for Jack White's 2014 national tour.

Other cracking Benjamin Booker tracks are Have You Seen My Son? and Violent Shiver - (all minute and a half of it!)

 

 

Slippery seconds should, must and will, go to Alabama rock band Alabama Shakes today and their massive 2012 hit Hold On.

“Bless my heart, bless my soul,
Didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Boxed In

Piano driven. Big bubbly bass. Funky as a leper’s love muscle and a smidgeon quirky. I mean outside the box. No guitars. A mite transcendental in part. Those are just a few of the reasons to love Boxed In's Mystery(Jan’15).

 

 

Mystery is an indie pop song about exploring the depths of a romantic relationship, it’s jiggy as a porn stars tits when she's on top and as much fun as a ferret down your pants, and dollars to dimes one of the best indie songs of 2015.

“Complicated sighs but in all the right directions
I look this way, and there you are”

 

 

Boxed In are a four piece band with Oli Bayston, a singer slash songwriter and producer, at its creative centre. Boxed In popped out of London in 2013. Mystery is one of a few singles from their debut album Boxed In (Jan’15).

Shit you need to know:

Lonely is the motherfucking blogger who didn’t punch plastic after hearing this ditty.

Click music described Mystery as “electric funk”. Sounds like what robot girls swallow. Stereogum said Mystery has, “atmospheric sweeps which swell and recede".

Clash music called it, “psychedelic,” fucking adjective of the year for the English, “idiosyncratic” and “whimsical.” Others mentioned "classical undertones" and a "craftsmanship and complexity worthy of a Thom Yorke or Aphex Twin".

Finally Barry Gruff opined Mystery has “an undeniably infectious groove and more than a hint of electronica.” Which does sound better than ‘stickier than a Gypsy’s gash on dole day’.

Oli Bayston played in a Manchester band Keith for years and has done grind for many bands or singers including Lily Allen.

The big man says hepitches a tent for 70’s motoric Kraut rock and House and likes The Bohicas, Little Cub and Zola Blood.

Oli has written tunes for 2 Bears, produced The Voyeurs and The Bohicas.

Boxed In's music has been described as similar to 2 Bears and poppy Hot Chip tunes.

The band have performed fluffer duties for La Roux and Django Django this year.

 

 

 

 

 

The double dip is Kiwi indie folk band Avalanche City and their New Zealand number one song, Love Love Love (2011).

Which is as happy as the title sounds. Superb video too.