50 Fun Facts About Indie Music

Which British singer signed to the indie label XL Recordings after a friend posted her demo on Myspace?

Adele joined XL in 2006, fresh out of the BRIT School, and the small label was still her home when it released her album 21 in 2011.

Which Sheffield band's 2006 debut album sold a then-record 360,000 copies in its first week in Britain?

Arctic Monkeys built that demand before they had a deal: demo CDs handed out free at early gigs were copied and shared online by fans.

Which band's 1979 debut Unknown Pleasures has a cover showing stacked radio pulses from a distant pulsar?

Joy Division's sleeve plots signals from the first radio pulsar ever discovered, and in 2012 Disney sold a T-shirt that reworked the image around its cartoon mascot.

Which Detroit duo told reporters they were brother and sister when they were in fact a divorced couple?

The White Stripes were Jack and Meg, married in 1996 and divorced in 2000; against convention, Jack had taken his wife's surname.

Which indie folk act recorded the album For Emma, Forever Ago over a winter alone in a Wisconsin hunting cabin?

Bon Iver respells the French for good winter, a greeting Justin Vernon heard on the TV series Northern Exposure while ill in bed.

Which Oxfordshire band let fans name their own price in 2007 for the self-released download album In Rainbows?

Radiohead were free to try it because their EMI contract had run out, making it the first pay-what-you-want release by a major act.

Which 2007 film about a pregnant teenager took a soundtrack full of Kimya Dawson songs to number one in America?

Juno owes its sound to its star: Elliot Page suggested the Moldy Peaches to the director, and the album became the Rhino label's first chart-topper.

Which Leeds band, chart-toppers with the single Ruby, took its name from a South African football team?

Kaiser Chiefs chose the name to honour Lucas Radebe, the Leeds United captain who began his career at Kaizer Chiefs in South Africa.

Which Las Vegas band took its name from a fictional group seen in a New Order music video?

The Killers went beyond the name: the video for their own single Somebody Told Me copies parts of the stage set from New Order's Crystal clip.

Which Scottish band behind Take Me Out picked its name after seeing a racehorse win the Northumberland Plate?

Franz Ferdinand saw a horse called Archduke Ferdinand win in 2001, which set them talking about the archduke whose assassination led to World War I.

Which Manchester band of the 1980s paired the singer Morrissey with the guitarist Johnny Marr?

The Smiths lasted just five years: formed in 1982, they broke up in 1987 amid tension between their two songwriters.

Which band's single Country House beat Roll with It by Oasis to number one in a much-hyped 1995 chart race?

Blur won by 274,000 copies to 216,000, in what was the best week for British singles sales in a decade.

Which Montreal band won the 2011 Grammy for Album of the Year with The Suburbs, out on the indie label Merge?

Arcade Fire handed Merge the night's top prize; the label had begun in 1989 as an outlet for its two founders' own group, Superchunk.

Which New York band fronted by Julian Casablancas led the garage rock revival with the 2001 debut Is This It?

The Strokes saw the American CD delayed after the September 11 attacks, and a song about the city's police was swapped for a new one.

Which New York band behind the 2008 single A-Punk was formed by students at Columbia University?

Vampire Weekend took the name from a short film that singer Ezra Koenig shot one summer, his own take on The Lost Boys.

Which Australian psychedelic act is really one man, Kevin Parker, who writes, plays and produces the music alone?

Tame Impala only becomes a group on tour, when other musicians join Parker to play the parts he recorded himself.

Which teen drama set in Newport Beach had guest bands play at its fictional concert venue, the Bait Shop?

The O.C. treated music as a character, in its creator's words, and put out six soundtrack albums of the acts it championed.

Which Texas city has been home to the South by Southwest music festival and conference since 1987?

Austin saw 700 people register for the first conference; by 2018 attendance had passed 161,000.

Record Store Day, launched in 2008 for indie music shops, copied a free giveaway day held for which products?

Comic books came first: Free Comic Book Day inspired the pitch, which shop owners then worked up at a meeting in Baltimore.

Which online music platform, founded in 2008, began waiving its cut of sales on certain Fridays in 2020?

Bandcamp's fee-free Fridays reportedly raised more than $40 million for artists in 2020 alone.

Which BBC Radio 1 DJ, on air from 1967 until 2004, invited new bands to record four-song studio sessions?

John Peel also ran the Festive Fifty, a yearly countdown of the tracks his listeners had voted their favourites.

Which Seattle label, begun as a fanzine by Bruce Pavitt, released Bleach, the 1989 debut album by Nirvana?

Sub Pop was kept going for years by sales of Bleach, and in 1995 its owners sold a 49% stake to the Warner Music Group.

Which London band, led by Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, released the 2002 debut album Up the Bracket?

The Libertines had the album produced by Mick Jones, guitarist of The Clash, and recorded it at RAK Studios in London.

Which Boston band's soft-and-loud dynamics did Kurt Cobain say he was copying on Smells Like Teen Spirit?

Pixies found bassist Kim Deal through an advert: she was the only person to answer and turned up without a bass, having never played one.

Which kind of American station gave 1980s underground bands like R.E.M. their early airplay, and the scene a name?

College radio lent the music the tag college rock, a term that described where the bands were heard more than how they sounded.

Which supergroup of Julien Baker, Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus won three Grammys in 2024 with The Record?

Boygenius took the name from a type the three had all met: men told since childhood that their every idea is brilliant.

Which Manchester band followed a 1989 debut album by playing to about 30,000 fans on Spike Island in 1990?

The Stone Roses drew some 2,000 gatecrashers on top of the paying crowd, and one reviewer wrote that poor sound marred the day.

Which Manchester label gave catalogue numbers to a nightclub, a lawsuit and co-founder Tony Wilson's coffin?

Factory Records numbered the Haçienda FAC 51, and even a hairdressing salon and a roll of packing tape got catalogue entries.

Which London label grew out of the record shop that Geoff Travis opened off Ladbroke Grove in 1976?

Rough Trade began releasing music in 1978 and was structured as a co-operative, shaped by left-wing politics.

Which label, co-founded by Alan McGee in 1983, later signed Oasis, Primal Scream and My Bloody Valentine?

Creation Records took its name from The Creation, a 1960s band McGee greatly admired, and set out to get young groups onto vinyl.

Indie is short for which word, first applied to a kind of record label rather than a sound?

Independent labels, those working outside the major music companies, came first; by the 1990s the shortened word had come to describe the sound of the bands they released.

Which guitar style peaked with My Bloody Valentine's 1991 album Loveless and also covers Slowdive and Ride?

Shoegaze began as a put-down: the press used it for bands who stood still on stage with their eyes on their effects pedals.

Which nickname was given to the late-1980s scene, led by Happy Mondays, that fused indie guitars with acid house?

Madchester was dreamed up by two video directors, and Happy Mondays renamed an EP to carry the word at their label boss's urging.

Which music website, started by Ryan Schreiber at his parents' home in Minnesota, rates albums on a decimal scale?

Pitchfork reviews carry such weight that a perfect score is news in itself, while its harshest verdicts have been blamed for ending careers.

Which band, formed by students at the University of Leeds, won the 2012 Mercury Prize with An Awesome Wave?

Alt-J is the Mac keyboard shortcut for the triangular delta sign, the symbol the group treats as its real name.

Which band led by Ben Gibbard took its name from a song performed in the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour?

Death Cab for Cutie left Gibbard with mixed feelings: he later said he might have picked a better name had he known the group would succeed.

Which Scottish city produced Postcard Records, the post-rock band Mogwai and the synth-pop band Chvrches?

Glasgow got the Postcard label in 1979, when Alan Horne founded it as a vehicle for releases by Orange Juice and Josef K.

Which band's song New Slang plays on headphones Natalie Portman's character hands over in the film Garden State?

The Shins appear twice on the soundtrack, which won Zach Braff, the film's director and star, a Grammy as its compiler.

Which NME cassette compilation of new indie bands lent its name to a jangly style of guitar pop?

C86 played on the names of blank tapes such as C90, swapping in the year it came out; readers had to send off for it by mail order.

Which band from Stockton, California, led by Stephen Malkmus, debuted in 1992 with Slanted and Enchanted?

Pavement began as a studio project of two guitarists billed only as S.M. and Spiral Stairs, taping at their drummer's home studio.

Which band's 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea drew heavily on Jeff Mangum's reading of Anne Frank's diary?

Neutral Milk Hotel went on hiatus soon afterwards, when Mangum withdrew from touring, and it remained the group's final studio album.

Which band behind the 2004 single Float On took its name from a phrase in a Virginia Woolf short story?

Modest Mouse comes from Woolf's The Mark on the Wall; singer Isaac Brock stressed the group's roots in suburban Issaquah to keep clear of the Seattle scene.

Which act did Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello form to release the 2003 album Give Up?

The Postal Service was named for the way the pair swapped recordings by mail, and in 2003 the real United States Postal Service sent a cease and desist letter over the name.

Which Chicago band streamed a finished album free online in 2001 after its label, Reprise, refused to release it?

Wilco put the whole album on their website, then signed with Nonesuch, a label under the same parent company as Reprise, which sold it in shops in 2002.

Which Scottish band's name traces to a children's television series about a boy and his Pyrenean Mountain Dog?

Belle and Sebastian upset far better-known pop acts to win Best Newcomer at the 1999 Brit Awards, by which time they were on their third album.

Which songwriter announced a plan to make an album for every US state but finished only Michigan and Illinois?

Sufjan Stevens later admitted the Fifty States Project was a promotional gimmick he had never seriously meant to complete.

Which London label, first called Axis, released Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil in the 1980s?

4AD began as an imprint of Beggars Banquet until Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent bought it outright to go it alone.

Which Hoboken trio took its name from an outfielder's shout in a story about the 1962 New York Mets?

Yo La Tengo is Spanish for I have it: Richie Ashburn learned the call to stop colliding with one teammate, then was flattened by another who knew no Spanish.

Which Midwestern city is home to Saddle Creek Records, the label behind Bright Eyes and Cursive?

Omaha's best-known label began in 1993 as a class project on entrepreneurship and is named after a road through the city's midtown.

Which punk band borrowed money from friends and family to press the 1977 EP Spiral Scratch on its own label?

Buzzcocks released it on New Hormones, among the first labels set up by a punk group, and the EP is cited as instrumental in the rise of indie rock.