Caroline Polachek Quotes

When my first record came out, it was in the middle of the real Muse, Keane, British thing, and that beat-driven thing wasn't really that cool at the moment.

I always thought of indie-rock as being rock music by bands that were on independent labels, and that's a great thing.

But, then again, I wouldn't call myself an indie-rock supporter even if there are some really good bands out there and there will always be some real good new bands.

The first music I ever got into was the '80s alternative bands that my brother listened to, like The Cure and The Smiths and R.E.M. and Fugazi. I can remember specifically saying The Cure was my favorite band back in second grade.

It's just like music when you reckon it up. It's like listening to Pavement it's just The Fall in 1985, isn't it? They haven't got an original idea in their heads.

There are bands like Imagine Dragon, Grouplove, and fun. who have come along and shifted the way that rock can sound.

The bands that we've found we have something in common with are bands like The National or Tegan And Sara, and I feel like that's because all three of us come from more alternative rock backgrounds.

Authentic rock and roll is a sound that I've always been drawn to with bands like Brand New and Jimmy Eat World.

I've always been indie.

I love music, particularly Radiohead, TV on the Radio, The XX and Tribes - they're a great new band from Camden and well worth a look at.

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

I love 'Wowee Zowee.' That was the first Pavement record I bought.

I guess my music taste is pretty predictable: I like new indie rock stuff, older stuff.

There's a whole apparatus for indie bands now, but back in the eighties it was just getting built. The early people really took it on the chin.

The Strokes are one of my favorite bands... And there's this band called Future Islands that I love.

In the early and mid 1990s, every musician I knew was obsessed with Helium. The 'Pirate Prude' EP and 'Pat's Trick' played on repeat at nearly every gathering I attended. And we didn't just listen to these records - we discussed them, the worlds they opened, novelistic and strange.

For all its reverb and defiant noise, the sound of Black Tambourine barely reached past the borders of Washington, D.C., in the early '90s.

The word 'indie' is meaningless now. It's so over-used that people think it simply means green hair.

When I was in college in Philly, there was a lot of post-punks... hardcore... like, rock. Sixties, retro, proto-Strokes kind of bands.

I think it's really cool, but Jimmy Eat World and Gin Blossoms did it better than anyone. People don't realize just how awesome the Arizona history is, especially for alternative music. Growing up, that's all I ever wanted to be was those two bands.

I think the B-52's were a huge influence on Sleater-Kinney. The way that there'd be a really interesting guitar line that'd be really melodic and kind of simplistic, I really related to that. The sense of melody is really intense and fun. It's not just traditional song structures, but it's very melodic and draws you in, in kind of an immediate way.

Between the Dinosaur Jr. albums and his recent solo albums, 'Several Shades of Why' and 'Heavy Blanket,' J Mascis is emerging as one of the last men from all that '80s indie madness, still writing songs that you want to listen to over and over.

I think in the world of indie music there's this sort of false modesty.

No, I'm sure that there's a lot of L.A. bands out there.

I don't really listen to the radio anymore, but some of the more contemporary people I like are Stereolab, Spiritualize, Yo La Tengo and Bedhead. There are other things too, like Pavement. They're a great band, with really good lyrics. But generally, I'm not overwhelmed by the state of indie-rock.