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Gimme Indie Rock: 500 Essential American Underground Rock Albums 1981–1996

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Description

The ultimate guide to one of the most revered periods and movements in American rock history.The 1980s are one of the most ridiculed and parodied epochs in popular music€ ” what with all the skinny lapels, synthesizers, spandex, and Aqua Net. However, music fans in the know recognize that beneath the glossy veneer broiled a revolutionary movement of self-directed, anti- corporate, punk-influenced bands that created a nationwide network from the ground up, thanks to independently recorded releases, photocopied fanzines, and self-financed tours.In Gimme Indie Rock, music journalist Andrew Earles describes 500 essential indie-rock albums released by 308 bands and artists from coast to coast in markets large and small. From giants of the movement (Black Flag, the Minutemen, Mission of Burma, Fugazi, Superchunk, Melvins, Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat, Hüsker Dü, the Replacements, Sonic Youth, Mudhoney, Dinosaur Jr., Big Black, the Pixies), to more obscure bands which nonetheless made their own impacts (Jesus Lizard, Cows, Low, Mercury Rev, Polvo, Squirrel Bait, Karp, Bongwater, Naked Raygun, Sun City Girls, and many others) and scores of artists who still await their proper due (Fly Ashtray, Dumptruck, Truly, Man-Sized Action, Steel Pole Bathtub, godheadSilo, Sorry, Team Dresch, Further, Grifters, World of Pooh, Trumans Water, Malignus Youth, Eggs, and many more), Earles provides an exhaustive album guide to the era. Earles also features those bands that cut their teeth on the indie circuit but graduated to a greater degree of mainstream recognition in the late 1980s and early 1990s (acts like R.E.M., Soul Asylum, Urge Overkill, Hole, Smashing Pumpkins, and Nirvana), making Gimme Indie Rock is the definitive manual for the best of American indie music made between 1981 and 1996. Read more


Publisher ‏ : ‎ Voyageur Press (September 15, 2014)


Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 15, 2014


Language ‏ : ‎ English


File size ‏ : ‎ 31463 KB


Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled


Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported


Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled


X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled


Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Happy I Found This Book...
Indie has become a term, like Alternative, that kind of encompasses everything outside the mainstream of Pop Music and anything played with any regularity on the radio. Ostensibly the term came from describing bands on Independent labels, but it has morphed into mostly anything not played on the radio by bands (almost) nobody has heard of. I label a lot of bands "Indie" in my jukebox software because it's short and sweet and "Alternative" is out of vogue. As it relates to this book though Indie is Indie. Once upon a time it meant bands that had almost no chance of scoring a major label record deal. They either sounded bland or too much like everybody else OR their sound was so outrageous, aggressive or anti anything you ever heard that they needed a place to exist. I am very curious when it comes to music. I'm constantly feeling like I might be missing something. A book like this is not necessary for me; I have maybe 3000 albums, 4500 CDs (yeah I know, sucker!) and an MP3 library of roughly 200K songs. With maybe 25 years left on the planet I will never hear everything in my collection again. I just kind of surf the bands I feel like exploring on a given day. Why do I have a full complement of All Them Witches records for instance? Someone, some DJ or some review must have pointed me in their direction. I listen to their entire catalogue to find out, sometimes twice in a row for fun. Oh yeah, that's why I like them I say to myself. I'm only halfway through this book, but I have found several bands I never would have known about. It's really an exhausting reach. Having spent decades in Boston, I have a very good idea of bands that were great, but who never made it out of that region. That is kind of what you'll find in this book; bands that have word of mouth critical acclaim, but who never really broke nationally. Or bands who have such an eclectic sound that they are an acquired taste. I'm not much for Hardcore Punk or Metal for the record. Sure I own a Black Flag or a Dead Kennedys record or two because everyone said they were great, but generally I'm looking for more melody than those bands sometimes afford. I'm more interested in an Alt-Country gem than I am an Industrial Rap record. I like a little bit of everything, but my goal in reading this book was to find a bunch of music that I somehow missed over the years. Mission accomplished. The format kind of fits my goals; I don't need a review of every album of every band they mention, I Just want to know what great records I never heard. I've downloaded maybe 12 bands I had never heard of prior to reading this book. That's right; never heard of. That is saying something most of the time. I'm just now combing through the K's. It's fun exploring decades old bands that never quite made it beyond a cult following. None of my friends my age are doing anything close to this so I'm only doing it for myself. Nobody else is interested honestly. Still, if you lived this period (I was in my 20's & 30's back then) and you love collecting music like I do, you will find a ton of value in this publication. It's a quick and easy read and very educational, at least it was for me. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 25, 2019 by John Farrell
    • Get this book now if you care about American music
In 'Gimme Indie Rock' Andrew Earles depicts a kaleidoscopic history of the original American indie rock era within the record guide form. Imagine it as a longform, macrocosmic reviews section from a zine. Earles chronicles this history through his idiosyncratic list of 500 (not the 500, as he has noted) of its essential albums from 1981 through 1996. Born in 1986, I have little first-hand experience of the selections, barring the most popular, which were given a heartening fair shake. For instance, Green Day's 'Insomniac' (their heaviest, and only great album) unexpectedly making the cut. However, Earles presents an amiable, mind-expanding guide through the obscure and mainstream. Give in to the format and read 'Gimme Indie Rock' cover-to-cover. After forcing myself to read entries on bands I assumed I'd outgrown, I found how quickly Earles had me reconsidering their merit. The section on Tortoise made my lapsed casual fandom bloom into obsession. Less spectacular was my attempt to re-engage the Flaming Lips early discography. But Earles had me so sincerely fired up to do so that the disenchantment could only be my fault. New favorites came instantly: Trans-Am, Bowery Electric, Archers of Loaf, Gastr del Sol. I've barely dug into the massive want list I've concocted from the book. Take time checking everything out. There's no rush to hear each band during the initial read. Make a list and use the book as a reference during a more natural listening excursion afterward. 'Gimme Indie Rock' is reacquainting me with the styles of music that got me playing guitar and paying attention. It's recontextualizing artists I discovered in mature arcs as eager, hardcore-playing upstarts. I mistakenly believed rap and electronic music were the last gasps of American musical ingenuity, but Earles has me convinced of American guitar rock's vitality. I eagerly hope for a second volume of the book that begins in 1997. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 3, 2015 by Wes Borland
    • A fitting survey of the rock n' roll that built what we now call 'Alternative'
If you came of musical age during the era (1981-1996) covered by this compilation, it is both a great test of how cool you really were (I couldn't help but keep a running tally of how many of these bands I'd listened to and/or seen live), and a reminder that you weren't as cool as you thought you were... It also prompted me to go back and listen to a few old favorites again, as well as to go looking at some gems I missed. I'm sure there's room for argument about whether some of the bands or albums belong on the list, and some that got looked over, but not many. It's US-centric, for sure, but I think it's a fair assertion that lots of the indie movement came from the States. But only the truly dorky would hesitate to admit that this is a pretty damned good cross section of the best those years had to offer the hipsters of the era, and a welcome walk down memory lane. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2017 by J. T. Gotsick
    • Good stuff
Ignore the blowhards who need to turn every conversation about music into a pissing match. Do you like music? I do. And I don't listen to enough anymore. So far, this book has been a laser pointer, picking out great entry points for bands I was always curious about, but was either to distracted/broke/asleep to actually seek out. Having Spotify as an accompaniment will increase your enjoyment of this book immensely, and vice versa. I wish I would have just bought those Prisonshake and Trumans Water albums all those years ago ... ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2015 by Daniel Powell
    • a great resource...amazing
Must have title if you are in to researching '80s and '90s alt/indie rock. A good resource for finding out about older bands. The only downside is the fact that pretty much all the bands are rock/hardcore/post-punk/punk, etc. Detailed reviews of a TON of albums from the '80s and first half of '90s. BUY THIS TITLE NOW! ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2015 by Patrick

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