The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - River City Extension

River City Extension are an indie rock band from Toms River, New Jersey who marry elements of 70's rock, Americana and folk to make indie opuses. They cite their influences as Bruce Springsteen and Yeungling while liking artists like Paul Simon to My Morning Jacket to Reni Magritte. There is a little of Blinded By The Light in the featured track.

White Blackmail (March'15) juxtaposes crying guitar and a maudlin vocal in tone and lyric,"I've been down so long I don't know what I'm fighting for", with a jiggy beat that leads to a final ecstatic indie all in. There are even a few bars of violin and piano to intensify the dramatic weight. Listen carefully for a 'whoa' and a 'hey'. That's indie gold right there son. Good as gold. Just like a Compton pimp, River City Extension use all the tricks and White Blackmail is gonna love you up. Hard. White Blackmail is a spine tingling majestic bird taking flight and one of the best indie songs of 2015.

"For you my heart will always bleed

I love you honey, take what you want from me".

 

 

 

Shit you really need to know:

River City Extension have been together since 2007 and White Blackmail is off their third long player Deliverance.

The band have described White Blackmail as about being in an abusive relationship with their art.

The album Deliverance is about conquering self-doubt through self-worth and is "passionate" and "expansive" according to this review and having "bits and pieces of awe and wonder" by Under The Gun Review.

River City Extension have been compared to Counting Crows and Vampire Weekend. Others are brought to mind of Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers.

The band have been touring with Air Traffic Controller to promote their new album this year.

River City Extension do nice things like hand writing their lyrics for fans and making personalized mixtapes of their songs for fans.

The not to be missed River City Extension songs are Our New Intelligence and If You Need Me Back In Brooklyn.

Slippery seconds is the best indie song of 2014. Period. The Californian indie rockers Cold War Kids and their appropriately named gem First (2014).

“There comes a time, in a short life
Turn it around, get a rewrite”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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”