Nowadays, Built to Spill is considered one of the original mainstays of indie rock, with a trio of mid-to-late-‘90s albums under their belt considered indie-rock classics. But they were fairly...
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Tindersticks’ self-titled debut is a minor masterpiece of brooding, muted anguish, a whiskey-soaked, carnival-meets-barroom blues gem. In a drearily slurred and mumbled delivery, vocalist Stuart Staples paints a picture of...
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Sometimes I will wake in the night with a warm, meandering bassline roaming through my consciousness, soon to be joined by a brushed rhythm and spare electric guitar melody—and when...
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For one brief moment, the Boo Radleys were great. Whereas their previous album had been a fairly routine (if still decent) shoegaze affair, the aptly named Giant Steps (1993) incorporated...
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There’s a saying among literary types that asserts that some writers only have one good novel in them. (There’s also the similar, more well-known expression that everyone has at least...
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Lou Barlow left proto-alt-rock band Dinosaur Jr. in 1989 with a chip on his shoulder and his ever-confused heart on his sleeve. His work in Sebadoh, along with co-writer and...
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It is a true testament to the decency of my college roommate during the 1988-1989 school year that he never burned my Sonic Youth Sister album, which I played fairly...
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I have a joke I think to myself (it’s not good enough to tell others out loud, really) whenever I listen to Yo La Tengo: that my first Yo La...
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I’ve always wanted to dismiss Belle and Sebastian. To my ears, they come across as overly precious, privileged prep school students playing at being Nick Drake, only with as many...
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Guided By Voices is almost the quintessential alternative rock band, in the truest sense of the word—not the loud but radio-accessible, metal-informed brand of alternative—think Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Hole, Soundgarden,...
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