Indie Rock Quotes

• Generally I try to read anything but indie rock journalism or anything about music at all, especially in the summer.

  Emily Haines

  Summer, Rocks, Trying

  "Taking Measurements: An Interview with Metric". Interview With Devon Powers, www.popmatters.com. October 12, 2004.

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• We create music to express ourselves and when the world relates, that's a beautiful thing. We're all trading off each other's culture, so no matter what lines you put--country indie rock, rap, we're all somehow gonna find a way to come together.

  Jay-Z

  Beautiful, Country, Rap

  "Jay-Z's 'Made In America' Commercial Airs During London Olympics" by Nadeska Alexis, www.mtv.com. July 28, 2012.

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• In indie rock, there's the phenomenon of: "Oh, this guy seems totally normal, but he's actually crazy." There's more of that out there than you'd think.

  Tom Scharpling

  Crazy, Thinking, Rocks

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Indie rock is very healthy, there's a lot of diversity and a lot of creativity, but it does not have the revolutionary spirit of the late-70s punk scene in regards to design and politics and fashion and stuff like that.

  Bruce Pavitt

  Fashion, Creativity, Rocks

  "Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman". Interview with Jason Crock, pitchfork.com. July 7, 2008.

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• What's cool about indie rock is that one band can do effectively the same thing as another band, and one band nails it, and the other one doesn't. I like that elusiveness.

  Andrew Bird

  Rocks, Nails, Band

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I like the glamorous indie rock look, like The Libertines. But you know, without the heroin needle sticking out of my arm.

  Ed Westwick

  Rocks, Arms, Looks

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• I played in rock bands in college and then right out of college I moved over to Europe and lived in Ireland for about four years playing in indie rock bands. I love and miss being in a band, I still am in a band but pursuing that as a career I definitely missed it but I felt like that ship had sailed.

  Bill Watterson

  College, Rocks, Years

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• I've always found that whatever you say about indie rock, it is the most inclusive genre or title for anything. It doesn't pin you down too much, like other labels would. It's just newer, it has less baggage.

  Andrew Bird

  Rocks, Titles, Labels

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• A lot of the music I listen to is indie rock. It's not on the radio.

  Laura Bell Bundy

  Rocks, Radio

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• This indie rock stuff, I mean I like it, too - it pushes all my buttons: sex appeal, dissonance. It's emotive, disenchanted.

  Ketch Secor

  Sex, Mean, Rocks

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• You kind of have to be like " What have you been working the last five years for? Why are you complaining?" It's essentially me talking myself out of being a crybaby indie rock butthead.

  Mac DeMarco

  Rocks, Talking, Years

  Source: www.quipmag.com

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• I really do listen to all types of music, not only rock, but everything from good pop music - which is usually older pop music - to RB and indie rock. I love indie rock more than a lot of the commercial stuff that you'd expect.

  Amy Lee

  Rocks, Stuff, Type

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• To begin with, the key principle of American indie rock wasn't a circumscribed musical style; it was the punk ethos of DIY, or do-it-yourself.  The equation was simple:  If punk was rebellious and DIY was rebellious, then doing it yourself was punk.  'Punk was about more than just starting a band,' former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt once said, 'it was about starting a label, it was about touring, it was about taking control.  It was like songwriting; you just do it.  You want a record, you pay the pressing plant.  That's what it was all about.'

  Michael Azerrad

  Simple, Ethos, Keys

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• I didn't grow up with indie rock - I mean, I listened to bands that are considered indie rock, but I think that term is dead and uninteresting.

  Justin Vernon

  Growing Up, Mean, Thinking

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• I'm like the Fugitive, running from the one-armed indie-rock community!

  Billy Corgan

  Running, Rocks, Community

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• Hip-hop is mostly what I listen to, other than jazz. I've given up on pop music and indie rock.

  Jess Row

  Rocks, Hip Hop, Hips

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Now that the generation that grew up on '80s indie-rock has attained influential positions in the culture, that music is the new yardstick. And that will shift yet again some day.

  Michael Azerrad

  Rocks, Generations, Culture

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• The idea of having an indie rock "career" while living in a remote backwater like Seattle was too ridiculous to contemplate. It was simply about having adventures, one day at a time, one song at a time.

  Bruce Pavitt

  Song, Adventure, Rocks

  "Experiencing Nirvana". Interview with Jenn Pelly, pitchfork.com. February 12, 2014.

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• Indie rock is just as susceptible - if not more susceptible - to all the gross things about people becoming total ass clowns in music, and only worrying about money and image. I'm not interested in being a part of that.

  Justin Vernon

  Rocks, People, Worry

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• If I like hardcore straight-edge punk music, gentle psychedelic folk music, gangster rap, indie-rock with a lot of guitar pedals, and I find inspiration from all these things in different songs of mine, shouldn't I be allowed to make any of this kind of music that I want? And it's the same for the comic books, why should I only make autobiographical stories? Or only political stories? Or only superhero stories? Or only comedy stories? I am a bit creatively desperate, when I sit with a pen and paper I am desperate for ANY idea that makes me excited, I don't care what kind of idea it is!

  Jeffrey Lewis

  Song, Inspiration, Rap

  Source: therumpus.net

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• There was no indie rock band in the 90s at the level of, like, Grizzly Bear. I listen to their records and it's crazy how good they sound. That really freaks me out.

  Travis Morrison

  Crazy, Rocks, Sound

  "The Dismemberment Plan". Interview with Lindsay Zoladz, pitchfork.com. June 27, 2013.

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• I'm so disconnected from an indie-rock community that I am the hermit people used to guess I was.

  John Darnielle

  Rocks, People, Community

  Interview with Daniel Handler, believermag.com. July 1, 2004.

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• In small towns, bored teenagers turn their eyes longingly to the exciting doings in the big cities, pining for urban amenities like hipster bars and farmers' markets and indie-rock festivals. Like everyone else, they want the vibrant and they will not be denied.

  Thomas Frank

  Hipster, Teenager, Eye

  John Summers, Chris Lehmann, Thomas Frank (2014). “No Future for You: Salvos from the Baffler”, p.113, MIT Press

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• I have a car in Nebraska. When I bought it, they gave me a satellite radio, and there's an 'indie-rock' station. It's just nothing I'm interested in.

  Conor Oberst

  Rocks, Car, Nebraska

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• One of the best moments of any Liars show is hearing the crowd squawk 'We're doomed! We're doomed!' on cue during 'We Fenced Other Houses with the Bones of Our Own.' Maybe not the most uplifting audience sing-along in the indie rock world, but one of the most reliably entertaining.

  Rob Sheffield

  Uplifting, Liars, Rocks

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