My first taste of the world of indie music started with my family. My Dad and uncle/godfather (as well as the rest of my cousins) were into R.E.M. in the 1990’s when I was born. I loved Michael Stipe’s voice and the fluid nature of their songs. My Mom’s cousin was a big fan of a band called The Dandy Warhol’s who had a prominent rose in the 90’s as well with one of their hits becoming the theme song to Veronica Mars, a show my wife grew up loving. Other bands of the 90’s who are cited as starting the movement such as Pavement, Beck, and others, didn’t enter my sphere until much later. My next big get into the world of indie happened in high school. The two bands that had the biggest impact on me at that time were Death Cab for Cutie and The Shins. Two bands from the pacific northwest, similar in weather to Louisville, and were all over the place in the early aughts. I grew up in a place we called ‘OC’ in Kentucky due to the county name, thinking the connection to The OC and California was novel and furthered mine and my friend’s influence. I became obsessed with Death Cab when I joined an indie band in Freshmen year along with my senior theatre friend. He was obsessed as was I with Ben Gibbard’s voice and writing styles. I memorized both bands' catalogs and learned to play their hits. I went to my first indie concert in 2007. The bill was Death Cab for Cutie at the Louisville Palace. I joined 3 friends from school newspaper staff to the concert in the most beautiful venue in the city. When we arrived, the opener had already begun. I saw a 5-piece band with a violinist and violist on stage and immediately gasped(?) It was a sort of jangly chamber pop that was right up my alley, and I was highly susceptible to new flavors. The band was Ra Ra Riot, who quickly became my next favorite indie band, from Syracuse. The next year or so, new indie exploded everywhere. I suddenly heard and saw Mr. Brightside playing everywhere in the world for an entire two years. I watched Panic! at the Disco blow up on MySpace. I began to follow New York bands for their fuzzy sound and dance beats. I loved The Bravery and Kings of Leon. I decided we should go to another concert. I wanted to see The Killers live. We got tickets to see them on the Day & Age tour, notable for their single at the time “Spaceman” and “Human” and they were playing at the floating casino across the river in Indiana. The crowd was packed at the outdoor stage, and before I knew it, I was watching Ra Ra Riot open again. This time they had a little red synth on stage which I would later purchase myself, and it would become my favorite instrument for years to come. I had overlooked some major New York acts in those days, namely The Strokes and Interpol. In college in 2010, I was able to catch up, and fan-stanned the likes of The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, LCD Soundsystem, Adam Green, The Dodos and many others as Brookyln continued to explode with new talent every week. I was a fan of Harlem Shakes, Grizzly Bear, Santigold, and lots of others in those days as well. But one of my biggest influences on my indie repertoire would come in the form of a roommate from Boulder, CO. His favorite band was a Montreal band by way of Texas called Arcade Fire. We loved all the songs on Funeral and Neon Bible and the world they were creating in their music. He and I would also bond over Radiohead and Ratatat while studying acting in Cincinnati. Then came one of the next wave of big influences with hipster neo-folk arriving all over the country, transplanted from the UK and across Europe. Mumford and Sons, Fleet Foxes, Beirut, and Bombay Bicycle Club stood out from the rest in this regard, but also some singular good bands like Noah and the Whale from Brooklyn, as well as Americana folk: Andrew Bird, Kurt Vile, etc. I began to have full phases of artists. Sufjan Stevens for example was a huge phase, as well as The Antlers. The following summer of 2010 I would adventure to New York to see Brooklyn for myself and attend another Ra Ra Riot show in Prospect Park (Buke and Gase opened for them). I visited the MOMA in my full “everything is fleeting” era, also having heard that Animal Collective had just played there. I of course was deep into ‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’ and, upon my return to Cinci, I jumped into DIY art rock like Dirty Projectors and a local experimental folk band The Happy Maladies. In 2011, I became a synth freak again, and got around to some electronic and disco artists I hadn’t listened to: Phoenix had their hit album ‘Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix’ and I had dub adjacent favorites like MSTRKRFT and James Blake, and Daft Punk was coming back at that time with the resurgence of french house and disco. I enjoyed Four Tet’s atmospheric and cerebral tracks. Anamanguchi and other bands like The Naked and Famous, Yeasayer were doing interesting things with synth at the time, and I chose to follow Grouplove over their doppelgänger Foster the People. Scottish and UK bands jumped on the bandwagon, and I became a CHVRCHES fan instantly. My two favorite synth acts though had to have been MGMT and strfkr, who seemed to only produce hits, and later followed by Empire of the Sun. I played their catalogs on repeat and yearned for as much of their music as I could get. I ended up learning most of their songs and playing them on my Alesis, the red synth I noted earlier on here. In 2012, we got the huge bomb that was Arcade Fire’s ‘The Suburbs’, a record that went on to win the Grammy that year while I was home having my psychotic break. I listened to and loved that album so much and it was a big staple of my college music experience. I gravitated towards similar acts that felt right in the sticks or ‘burbs where I was living. Ariel Pink and Deerhunter, coupled with Odd Future rappers. That fall I left school and moved back to my hometown. I distinctly remember setting up a base camp in my parents’ basement with a rug and my iMac. Alt_J dropped ‘An Awesome Wave’ and it took all my attention at that time, as well as Animal Collective’s album of undercurrents ‘Centipede Hz’. It was near or around that time I guess I started going back into things I’d missed. I forgot to mention the brief Vampire Weekend ‘Contra’ era I experienced back when it came out, my roommate and I stealing from Urban Outfitters and getting caught. When ‘Modern Vampires of the City’ came out, I was working at the local Starbucks and bought the CD from my work. It instantly clicked – the piano, the lyrics, the vibe, and I was a VW head suddenly. I should mention between the years of 2013-2014 I was not only in a pop rock band but was still theatre acting and did a music video for a prominent metalcore band. I also saw Arcade Fire perform at the KFC Yum! Center – aka The Bucket. I began collecting vinyl in this home era and was all about remixes and one-off releases. I began to follow more of my local scene, including My Morning Jacket. Going to free shows at the waterfront in Louisville led me to my fourth and free Ra Ra Riot show, where I met Wes Miles formally afterward for the first time. I also saw Surfer Blood and Dan Deacon, separately, during this time at a small club I love called Zanzabar. I decided it was my time to see as many good shows of my favorite bands as I possibly could. I met my wife in 2015 before moving into Speed House across the street from her New Year’s Day of 2016. At this time, I was fulfilling my dream of living in the city of Louisville, and the Highlands was always were I wanted to live in my youth. I went to several shows that year, including Passion Pit with a roommate, a bucket lister for sure. I also saw Local Natives that year with another friend and musician from the house. I moved in with Hannah in 2016. I soon bought tickets to see her favorite band Dawes live at the palace, and we saw another favorite of hers, The Lone Bellow, at a free show on the waterfront. For Halloween, I convinced her to see Baio at Z-bar and she won the costume contest. Then Trump got elected. For my birthday in 2017 I asked for tickets to see Spoon with Grizzly Bear in Cincinnati and took a friend from college to the show. The next year we got married, and the only show I went to was to see Unknown Mortal Orchestra at Mercury Ballroom. Once we were living in our new house, I finally tried to see more local shows – jam bands and folk acts around Louisville and southern Indiana. I didn’t see any shows for the next two years as the Covid pandemic swept the world. Shows were being broadcast online as people were unable to go anywhere. Venues closed and everyone was concerned for the industry. In 2021, after the pandemic had seemingly receded, shows started again, and I decided to get tickets to see Animal Collective finally in Lexington at an outdoor venue called The Burl. Post-pandemic I began churning through the music apps. I was listening to lots of Phoebe Bridgers and shoegaze bands like Nothing, Superheaven, etc. It felt like music was in some kind of post-industry flux at that point. Everything was back to being online. It was this year that Vampire Weekend released ‘Father of the Bride’, and I had been closely following the band via the Time Crisis radio show since 2015. I happened upon a free ticket to see them in Cinci from a friend and thought the show truly magical and invigorating. In 2022, emo and punk bands began to make comebacks and reunions. Some had never stopped, but the neo-emo phase kicked into full swing with the new When We Were Young festival. We bought tickets to the Las Vegas festival, but Hannah has just received a new chronic illness diagnosis, so we ended up selling them to my friend. The next show I would attend would not be until 2024 when Vampire Weekend released their fifth album ‘Only God Was Above Us’ and took Ra Ra Riot on tour with them. A friend from my youth had just gotten back in town, and we travelled to Chicago to see the once-in-a-lifetime show at Northerly Island, where Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band opened with a stellar performance. I bought a vinyl copy of Ra Ra Riot’s fifth and latest album ‘Superbloom’ signed by the band.