MJ Lenderman
Wednesday's guitarist turned solo songwriter, writing deadpan, devastating stories of washed-up men over ragged, Crazy Horse-indebted guitar.
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Geese
Brooklyn teenagers turned genre-hopping art-rock band, shifting from post-punk to hallucinatory Americana to pure noise, often within one song.
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Wednesday
Country songwriting buried under walls of shoegaze noise, an Asheville band turning small-town Southern stories into acclaimed rock records.
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English Teacher
Leeds art-rock band led by Lily Fontaine, whose sharp-tongued debut This Could Be Texas won the 2024 Mercury Prize.
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Big Thief
Adrianne Lenker’s plainspoken, devastating songwriting wrapped in a band that can whisper or roar, often inside the same song.
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Waxahatchee
Katie Crutchfield turned Alabama roots and lo-fi punk into some of the clearest American songwriting of her generation. Start with Saint Cloud and Tigers Blood.
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Alex G
How a self-taught songwriter from suburban Philadelphia turned bedroom Bandcamp uploads into one of modern indie rock's most quietly influential catalogs. Start with Rocket and House of Sugar.
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Fontaines D.C.
Five friends who met over poetry in Dublin and turned literary swagger into one of the most vital, fast-evolving rock bands of their generation. Four albums in five years, no two alike.
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boygenius
Three of indie's finest songwriters, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, joined as one band and turned friendship into some of the most affecting rock of the decade.
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Wet Leg
How two friends from the Isle of Wight turned dry wit and fuzzed-out guitars into one of the decade's most acclaimed debuts, a viral single, and two Grammy wins.
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Faye Webster
An Atlanta songwriter who braids bedroom indie, weeping country pedal steel, and slow-burn R&B into quietly distinctive pop. Deadpan, warm, and unhurried.
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Elliott Smith
The fragile, Beatles-schooled songwriter who turned whispered confession into an art form. Start with Either/Or, then follow the melody into XO.
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Built to Spill
Doug Martsch's Built to Spill turned interlocking, sky-reaching guitars into a template for modern indie rock. A patient, rewarding listen that shaped a whole generation of bands.
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The Last Dinner Party
The London five-piece who turned baroque theater and glam-rock swagger into one of the decade's most talked-about debuts, crowned before their first album even arrived.
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S.G. Goodman
The queer Kentucky singer-songwriter whose reedy drawl and clear-eyed lyricism turn life in the rural South into some of the most quietly essential roots music of her generation.
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Friko
The Chicago four-piece behind one of 2024's most acclaimed debuts, a band that swings without warning from a fragile whisper to string-laced, cathartic noise.
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R.E.M.
R.E.M. formed in Athens, Georgia in 1980 around Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry. Across a thirty-one year run they became one of the defining American alternative rock bands before disbanding in 2011.
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Mitski
The American singer-songwriter who built her career in New York and rose through the 2010s indie scene, from self-released records to acclaimed albums like Be the Cowboy and The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We.
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Phoebe Bridgers
A Los Angeles songwriter who rose in the late 2010s with Stranger in the Alps and Punisher, a member of the trio boygenius, half of Better Oblivion Community Center, and founder of the Saddest Factory label.
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Lucy Dacus
The Richmond, Virginia songwriter who built four albums of narrative indie rock and is one third of the acclaimed trio boygenius with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers.
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Julien Baker
A Memphis singer-songwriter known for sparse, guitar-and-voice indie recordings across three solo albums, and one third of the acclaimed trio boygenius with Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus.
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Mac DeMarco
A Canadian indie-rock songwriter based in Los Angeles who self-records most of his music at home. His warped, laid-back guitar tone and lo-fi production made him a defining voice of 2010s indie.
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Nirvana
Nirvana was an American rock band formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987, built around Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic, and drummer Dave Grohl. Across three studio albums they carried the Seattle grunge sound and alternative rock into the mainstream in the early 1990s.
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Soccer Mommy
The recording name of Nashville songwriter Sophie Allison, who began by self-releasing on Bandcamp before becoming a leading indie rock voice of the late 2010s and 2020s, moving from lo-fi home recordings to fuller guitar-driven studio production.
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Japanese Breakfast
The solo project of Philadelphia songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michelle Zauner. Across four Dead Oceans albums it grew from lo-fi bedroom pop into lush, widescreen indie pop and art rock.
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My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1998 and led by Jim James. Known for reverb-heavy vocals and expansive live shows, they became a defining 2000s indie and jam-scene act.
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Denitia
Denitia is an American singer, songwriter, and producer who moved from atmospheric Brooklyn indie R&B to a hazy, guitar-lit strain of Nashville Americana, self-producing across albums like Highways and Sunset Drive.
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Coyote Island
Coyote Island is a Florida-rooted indie and electronic project blending chillwave textures, live-band jam grooves, and reggae rhythms, with guests like Matisyahu and Mihali of Twiddle.
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Penelope Road
An American indie roots-rock band whose warm, guitar-forward songwriting spans two EPs and a run of singles, including live sessions cut at Macon's historic Capricorn Sound Studios.
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Billie Eilish
The Los Angeles singer-songwriter who, with her brother and producer FINNEAS, recorded her early music at home and became one of the defining pop artists of her generation. A multiple Grammy winner, including Album of the Year, and a two-time Academy Award winner for Best Original Song.
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