5 Contemporary Indie Rock Albums That Every Classic Rock Fan Should Own

We're not all LedHeads, MotorMouths and Kiss Army cadets!

By Fred McNamara /

There€™s a terrible misconception about classic rock fans. It€™s that they hate change. They hate anything form of music that doesn€™t boast a swaggering riff and a singer who€™s hair reaches groin. People think that whenever a new band comes on the radio, classic rock fans are only allowed to give two responses, one is as follows: €œThis sucks, it doesn€™t sound anything like the old school bands!€, the other is €œThis sounds far too much like the old school bands, play something new!€. But in general, nothing could be further than the truth. Indeed, classic rock fans can be a rabid bunch, but they're passionate about diversity as well. After all, the 1960€™s/70€™s gave us Pink Floyd, The Sex Pistols, and Fairport Convention €“ how could you not call that diverse? Classic rock is the era that spawned blues, punk, metal, glam, folk, jazz-fusion, prog, and pop rock, amongst many other Dr. Frankfurter-esque fusion genres. As they are, unbelievably, actually open to the idea of change, they love other music as well. They love the blues, they love jazz, and they love folk €“ all those pre-war genres that lent a hand in forming the works of Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison and David Bowie. They also love what came after classic rock. Music is a constant evolution, and they€™d be dumb not to at least taste a sampler of what came after 1979. So let€™s take a look at five thoroughly modern rock albums that, for the basis of this article, fall under that overly-used word €˜indie€™, and that every classic rock fan should own with pride alongside all their Rolling Stones and Jethro Tull records.