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NME's greatest indie anthems ever:


A.Pel

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1. The Libertines

Cant Stand Me Now

2. The Libertines

Dont Look Back Into The Sun

3. The Libertines

Time For Heroes

4. The Libertines

Up The Bracket

5. The Smiths

How Soon Is Now

6. The Smiths - There Is A Light

7. Babyshambles - Fuck Forvever

8. The Smiths - This Charming Man

9. The Smiths - Panic

10. Oasis - Cigarettes And Alcohol

11. The Stone Roses - I Wanna Be Adored

12. Pulp - Common People

13. The Strokes - Last Nite

14. Oasis - Live Forever

15. The Stone Roses - Fools Gold

16. Joy Division - Love Will Tear Us Apart

17. Suede - Animal Nitrate

18. Oasis - Supersonic

19. The Verve - Bittersweet Symphony

20. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit

21. Oasis - Wonderwall

22. Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drums

23. The Las - There She Goes

24. The Stone Roses - Love Spreads

25. Radiohead - Just

26. Oasis - Dont Look Back In Anger

27. Oasis - Champagne Supernova

28. Joy Division - Transmission

29. Manic Street Preachers - A Design For Life

30. Pavement - Cut Your Hair

31. Pixies - Monkey Gone To Heaven

32. Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

33. Blur - Parklife

34. The Stone Roses - I Am The Resurrection

35. Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies)

36. Arctic Monkeys - I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor

37. Pixies - Gigantic

38. Blur - Song 2

39. Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather

40. Radiohead - Creep

41. My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise

42. The Breeders - Cannonball

43. Dinosaur Jr - Freak Scene

44. The Cribs - Hey Scenesters

45. Kasabian - LSF

46. Klaxons - Golden Skans

47. Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot

48. The Killers - Mr Brightside

49. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control

50. The Rapture - House Of Jealous Lovers

I'm all for Libertines loving, but fucking hell.

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With the exception of maybe a dozen songs, that's like the soundtrack of hell for me.

Thought the NME would know more than 10 bands, though. Even their older bands are a bit... well "calm the beans, min". TWO Pixies songs? Whatever. Surprised one of them wasn't Debaser since everyone seems to absolutely love it for some reason.

42. The Breeders - Cannonball

Bit random considering the rest of the list is Britpop & whatever-the-fuck-you-call-the-current-crop-of-shite-bands-pop. Obviously didn't want to put TOO many actual Pixies songs in.

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Guest bluesxman

Cannonball by The Breeders is an amazing song in it's own right, an indie club staple and fuck all to do with not putting in another Pixies song.

The only things that surprise me on that list are 1. 4 Libertines songs on the top. Actually, it doesn't surprise me so much as make me incredibly sad.

AND 2. only Manics song is A Design For Life rather than Faster or Motorcycle Emptiness, both examples of them truly doing their best work rather than the starting point of descent to snoozedom.

As with all these lists these days, he people who are likely to take the time to vote are probably too young to know some of the lesser names in indie of days gone by, hence the reason the only 'old' stuff is generally the big names - Joy Division, The Smiths, Pixies, Stone Roses, etc, generally the bands that if you made a bog standard students guide to indie band essentials, they would be there.

I mean Christ, I remember the days when there would have been at least a couple of Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, Ride, James, Happy Mondays, Levellers, Ministry, Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, New Fast Automatic Daffodils, etc songs in there....to cut a long story short it's another pish NME list that means fuck all. So why did I waste my time writing this? Gah.

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I've never understood why people get excited or exasperated with "Top 10, 50, 100 etc" lists like these.

They are absolutely meaningless because they tend to go with the zietgeist and the demographics are heavily skewed at any given time.

If my peers and I were putting list like this together, NONE of those turgid, boring, generic, grossly overrrated (in my opinion) tracks would be on it.

Would my list be any more/less valid ?

Just look at Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list for example. Kurt Kobain? Johnny Ramone? - both incredibly important artists, but great guitarists? Not in my opinion - others might disagree. I mean - Jack White, Joan Jett - FFS!

It's all a popularity contest and is really lazy journalism, a way of chewing up several magazine pages in place of real music news, articles, ideas etc

So, look at the list, have a chuckle, then turn over the page and read something more interesting and meaningful.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
Just look at Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" list for example. Kurt Kobain? Johnny Ramone? - both incredibly important artists, but great guitarists? Not in my opinion - others might disagree. I mean - Jack White, Joan Jett - FFS

Not being funny here, but how can you play down the influence of Kobain and Johnny Ramone? Jack White's a highly influencial guitar player too. Saying that these dudes don't deserve to make a Greatest Guitarist list is like sayng the Red Hot Chilli Peppers have no place on a Greatest Bands list because they happen to be a bunch of washed-up ex-junkies peddling coma-inducing whiteboy funk influenced dad rock mostly listened to by cretins with no taste in music. Still doesn't change the fact that they have had a massive influence on hundreds of successful bands in the last decade, and probably inspired thousands if not millions worldwide to pick up a guitar and give it a shot.

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Not being funny here, but how can you play down the influence of Kobain and Johnny Ramone? Jack White's a highly influencial guitar player too. Saying that these dudes don't deserve to make a Greatest Guitarist list is like sayng the Red Hot Chilli Peppers have no place on a Greatest Bands list because they happen to be a bunch of washed-up ex-junkies peddling coma-inducing whiteboy funk influenced dad rock mostly listened to by cretins with no taste in music. Still doesn't change the fact that they have had a massive influence on hundreds of successful bands in the last decade, and probably inspired thousands if not millions worldwide to pick up a guitar and give it a shot.

I think you might have missed the part of the sentence that said "incredibly important artists".

Their influence on popular music and fledgling guitarists is unquestionable, but, IMHO, as exponents of the instrument, they are basic at best. It's their image, personality and street credibilty that makes them shine, rather than any particular musicianship.

Jack White has a great stripped down, earthy sound, Joan Jett? "I love rock'n'roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby?"...erm, sorry, but no.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
I think you might have missed the part of the sentence that said "incredibly important artists".

Their influence on popular music and fledgling guitarists is unquestionable, but, IMHO, as exponents of the instrument, they are basic at best. It's their image, personality and street credibilty that makes them shine, rather than any particular musicianship.

Jack White has a great stripped down, earthy sound, Joan Jett? "I love rock'n'roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby?"...erm, sorry, but no.

Jack white uses unconventional tuning, octave pedals etc to cover a much fuller range of sounds than a typical guitarist. Hell, he does the job of a full band when they play live, aside from Meg's drumming. Just because he doesn't or can't play arpeggios as fast as Steve Vai or whatever is classed as 'great' guitar playing, doesn't mean he's not up there with the 'greats'. Is an instrumentalist's acclaim really only as good as his or her traditional technique? Johnny Ramone's downstroke style was unheard of to begin with and has been much copied ever since. Kurt Cobain, I dunno - backwards bastard guitar or something. I won't argue against Joan Jett though.

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Jack white uses unconventional tuning, octave pedals etc to cover a much fuller range of sounds than a typical guitarist. Hell, he does the job of a full band when they play live, aside from Meg's drumming. Just because he doesn't or can't play arpeggios as fast as Steve Vai or whatever is classed as 'great' guitar playing, doesn't mean he's not up there with the 'greats'. Is an instrumentalist's acclaim really only as good as his or her traditional technique? Johnny Ramone's downstroke style was unheard of to begin with and has been much copied ever since. Kurt Cobain, I dunno - backwards bastard guitar or something. I won't argue against Joan Jett though.

Some fair points there and like I said it's only an opinion - like all these lists are. I guess the dilemma is in how you define "great".

One dull, conventional sprinter does 100m in 9 secs, another takes 10 secs, but does in style and with "attitude". Who's the greater sprinter - easy, the faster guy. Race-fixing aside, it's totally objective.

Who is the most popular sprinter - the answer to that might be something quite different - because that's completely subjective.

That's why I believe that "Greatest..." or "Best..." lists are a joke. "Most Popular..." or "Favourite..." would be more appropriate.

All the best.

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Guest Tam o' Shantie

That's why I believe that "Greatest..." or "Best..." lists are a joke. "Most Popular..." or "Favourite..." would be more appropriate.

True dat

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Some fair points there and like I said it's only an opinion - like all these lists are. I guess the dilemma is in how you define "great".

One dull, conventional sprinter does 100m in 9 secs, another takes 10 secs, but does in style and with "attitude". Who's the greater sprinter - easy, the faster guy. Race-fixing aside, it's totally objective.

Who is the most popular sprinter - the answer to that might be something quite different - because that's completely subjective.

That's why I believe that "Greatest..." or "Best..." lists are a joke. "Most Popular..." or "Favourite..." would be more appropriate.

All the best.

Nail on head.

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