QUIZ 91

INDIE ROCK

There was a time when indie music was literally defined by its record label – ‘indie’ was short for the ‘independent’ record labels that released it. The term has become abused over time, though, and now suggests any artist with a certain spirit or ethos: acts that perhaps don’t stick to a formula, that have control over their own creative output and that don’t artificially sweeten their music for the commercial market. Here are 30 questions on a wide variety of artists who, however tightly or loosely, fit that billing.

Answers: here

1 Bad Lieutenant was formed by Bernard Sumner and Phil Cunningham during a pause in New Order’s touring and recording commitments. Which member of Blur contributed to their album Never Cry Another Tear? And from where did the band take their name?

2 Who connects the Raconteurs with the Dead Weather? What’s the name of the first album that this artist released under his own name in 2012?

3 Which two acts from the following list have reached the Top 100 of the American albums chart: Manic Street Preachers, Muse, the Stone Roses, Suede, Paul Weller, Robbie Williams?

4 With which band did Shaun Ryder sing while Happy Mondays were on hiatus during the mid/late nineties? And to which track on Gorillaz’ Demon Days did he contribute vocals?

5 Brian Molko and Stefan Oldsal are the two permanent members of which British glam rock band, who emerged during the Britpop era? What’s the illicit title of their third album, released in 2000?

6 Which band comprises the siblings Matthew and Eleanor Friedberger? Eleanor is almost certainly the subject of the song ‘Eleanor, Put Your Boots On’ by which Scottish indie band?

7 Which two modern rock aristocrats released a single together called ‘This Old Town’ in 2007?

8 The 2015 album FFS is a collaboration between which two power pop bands of different vintages?

9 Which band’s studio recordings are largely the work of one man, Kevin Parker? What’s the name of their 2012 second album, which helped launch them into the mainstream?

10 Which New York band’s fourth album, Mosquito (2013), was their most successful to date worldwide? In which country was singer and keyboard player Karen O born?

11 Brothers Alan White and Steve White were both drummers in the British rock scene of the nineties and noughties. With which two artists are they primarily associated?

12 Johanna Bennett co-wrote which Arctic Monkeys hit while she was dating singer Alex Turner? Which rock star did she marry in 2009?

13 What’s the name of the stunning debut album by American indie guitar band the Strokes? In which year was it released?

14 Rapper Ninja provides most of the on-stage vocals for which British band? What’s the name of their Mercury Music Prize-nominated 2004 debut album, featuring the single ‘The Power Is On’?

15 Which song gave the B-52s a surprise hit single in 1989, reaching number three in the US and number two in the UK? Which movie theme song gave them another UK Top 10 hit in 1994?

BONUS TRACKS

16 ‘When this River Rolls over You’ is the 2003 debut single by which highly touted British band? Released the following year, on which album does it appear?

17 Which duo makes up the Stone Roses’ songwriting team?

18 Which album by alt-J topped the British charts in 2014? Which soul classic appears as a hidden track at the end of the album?

19 Which band have been ‘The Drowners’, ‘The Wild Ones’ and ‘Lazy’? With which album did the band return in 2013 after an 11-year break?

20 What was the name of the band formed by the Stone Roses’ guitarist after that band broke up? What’s the title of their one and only album, which shares its title with the second album by Ian Dury & the Blockheads?

21 Which New York band’s most successful single so far has been ‘Evil’, a song about the wife and abettor of serial killer Fred West? ‘Evil’ appears on the band’s second album, Antics – but what was the name of the follow-up album, which reached number two in the UK?

22 Which band consists of the Jarman brothers, Gary, Ross and Ryan? Who joined them on guitar for their 2009 album Ignore the Ignorant?

23 Which nineties band were named after a character from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird? Which 1995 single gave them their biggest hit?

24 In 2006, which Sheffield band set the record for the fastest-selling debut album in UK history? Which single, their first on Domino Records and a UK number one in October 2005, set the ball rolling?

25 Mistaken for Strangers is a 2013 tour documentary focusing on which American band? From which album, the band’s fourth, does the film take its title?

26 What were Champion Versions, The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos del Beta Bandidos?

27 Favouring orchestral arrangements rather than jangly guitars, which band was – and, occasionally, still is – fronted by singer and songwriter Jake Shillingford? Drummer Jason Cooper now plays for which enduring post-punk band?

28 In the gospel according to Alex Turner, who ‘flicks a red hot revelation off the tip of her tongue’? And what may ‘her steady hands have done’?

29 Annie Clark’s fourth album won her a Grammy for Best Alternative Album: under what name does she perform? For whom did she substitute at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2014, singing ‘Lithium’ with the rest of the band?

30 What’s the name of Alex Turner’s side project, which he fronts alongside fellow singer/guitarist Miles Kane? Their producer, James Ford, is a member of which electronic duo?