The Real Rock & Roll Underground!

Wanna hear some real rock & roll, like the kind you heard when you were a kid? The kind that peels the paint off the walls and makes you wanna drink, fight and frolic? Don't turn to the radio unless you are in the mood to hear Bad Company for the millionth time or listen to some Nickelback-y belter boring you to tears with his pervy needs. Don't look to major labels to help you because by the time they get ahold of a decent band they'll figure out a way to ruin them. Sorry kid, you need to do some digging. What you need is to get hip to the underground sounds. Follow me past the jump and I'll explain.

See, there are a bunch of small labels around dealing out the rock & roll candy like they were drunk clowns at a Fourth of July parade. To name a few...Captured Tracks has the lo-fi noise, Douchemaster has the kick-ass garage punk, the long-running In the Red has all kinds of incredible rock & roll in its catalog, and Goner has more unhinged wildness going on than you can shake a maraca at. Try any of these labels and it's a sure fact that your hankering for some real rock & roll action will be satisfied. Let's look at a couple of my current favorite labels....

Hozac has released a bunch of warped sounding rock & pop. Right now they have the new album by Idle Times streaming on their site. It's a clattering, energetic indie rock album with plenty of hooks involved. Also be sure to check out the ridiculously teenage sounding Eric & the Happy Thoughts!

Dirtnap has all kinds of great '77 punk and bands like the White Wires, who sound like power pop plugged directly into a wall socket. Check out "Be True to Your School" from their upcoming album WWII: "Be True to Your School"

Over the last little while the Chicago label Trouble in Mind has had an incredible run of single by bands like the mighty Personal & The Pizzas, Hollows, Wounded Lion and Night Beats. The label's first LP is out on Tuesday and they picked a good one to start with. The French band Limiñanas went all bloggy earlier this year with their song "I'm Dead" and the self-titled album lives up to all the "French pop played by the VU and produced by Liam Watson" promise of that song. Here's a video for "Je ne suis pas tres drogue":


I know it's everyone's favorite thing to complain about how all new music sucks, how rock and roll died when Buddy Holly/Jimi Hendrix/Kurt Cobain did, how the internet is ruining music, how nothing is good at all anymore, the end. Just pick a random music video of any genre that's five years or older and the first comment after "Bieber sux" will be "Dang, they don't make jams like this anymore." Um, wrong. Maybe you just don't know where to look.

I've told you some of what I've been listening to rock & roll-wise. Tell me what I've missed in the comments.