Indie rock, much like “alternative,” was a challenge to the mainstream.

It hadn’t been about independent release and distribution for a long time then, but the attitude remained. Indie rock has always been a nebulous term, but the ’00s found indie’s definition broadening. Indie rock going mainstream, and as a result going major label, sort of negated what made it “indie.” Yet the reference points-punk, post-punk, the Our Band Could Be Your Life canon, ’80s-era Athens, Georgia-remained the same. The weird thing about “indie rock” in the ’00s, however, was that it seemed to be a contradiction of itself. And soon enough the phrase “indie rock” was becoming a household name (I remember a boss of mine in college telling me about how she learned about it from her daughter). When The Strokes and Interpol crashed the nu-metal choked shores of alternative radio, the game changed.

Seven years is surely plenty of time to develop nostalgic pangs for a particular era and style of music-if you can say such a thing about indie rock from 2000 to 2009. Vincent…sure enough, we were starting to see the makings of a trend. Yet shortly thereafter more names began to come out of the woodwork with new music to share: Spoon, The New Pornographers, Jens Lekman, Phoenix, Grizzly Bear, Feist, Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Ted Leo, St. After 2016’s series of crushing disappointments, that’s the least we could have hoped for.

The year began with a simple but promising prospect: A new LCD Soundsystem album, their first in seven years to be exact.

Interpol turn on the bright lights zip