Tired of getting all your music recs from the barely-indie but passionately hipper-than-thou Pitchfork? Check out the Buzz list of great indie music blogs. Each one is guaranteed to make you feel even more out-of-the-loop than ever, but they make up for it by introducing new music you’ve actually never heard of.
3hive – Collecting all the free mp3s out there into one place.
A Post Punk Tumblr – Oi! You! Get your punk history fix here.
Amber Waves of Twang – Fresh roots, alt-country, bluegrass, and other sounds that were indie before there was indie.
Apes for Indie – The rare and elusive indie country music blog.
Aquarium Drunkard – Does every Wilco song have a blog named after it? AD covers indie music in grand L.A. famous style.
Aurgasm – Fresh sounds from all genres “not under the American rock umbrella”-elle-ella. Hey hey.
Awesome Tapes From Africa – Exactly what it sounds like. And wow.
Bowling Stone – Track reviews, with videos and lyrics, mostly from Canada. Oh Canada.
Brooklyn Vegan – Another beast of the indie music blog world, BV focuses mostly on the NYC scene, but can be found talking about pretty much anything.
Crappy Indie Music – Relentless chronicle of Portland’s indie music scene. Regional!
The Culture of Me – And by ‘me,’ they mean ‘you,’ and by ‘you,’ they mean someone super hip. Music! Art! Fashion!
The Daily Growl – Focuses on the indie scene (among other things) in Great Britain.
Deaf Indie Elephants – Venezuelan blog brings you indie music from unexpected corners of the world.
Digital Reggae – Hey! You! Get your reggae education here.
The Fader – Really more of an indie culture site; music, fashion, and a great collection of funny little niche blogs.
Fiddle Freak – Because back in the day, indie music was known as folk music.
The Fluxblog – Self-professed first ever mp3 blog. The school, she is old.
Gorilla vs. Bear – So hip and obscure it hurts to look at it, or it would, if not for the friendly atmosphere and excellent streaming mp3 action.
Hear Ya – Indie album reviews, live session recordings, new mp3s everyday. Music blogzilla!
Heroes of Indie Music – Thoughtful, media-rich posts on indie artists from around the world.
Hip Hop is Read – Quality hip hop reviews, retrospectives, and mixtape recs.
The Hype Machine – An aggregator of indie blog news and mp3 links. Comprehensive, but a bit hard to navigate.
I Am Fuel, You Are Friends – A personal music blog focused on lyric-driven tunes that will inspire you and probably make you cry a little.
Indie Music Finds – A UK-based blog feeding you a steady diet of new music introductions and reviews.
Indie Music Speaker – Promoting new music for people who love to dance and listen to DJs.
Indie Rock Warriors – Pics and vids of indie musicians just givin’ it. Inspiring.
Indieball – Promises to bring your iPod back to life if you’ll give them a month.
IndieMuse – Recommends indie music for people who like that inimitable indie music sound.
Indiescreet – Indie music news, reviews, and tour details.
Kevin Nottingham – All hip hop news and reviews. No links to downloads policy.
Kid City Blog – Tech, house, mixtapes, well, you know how kids these days love their e-lec-tro-nic music.
Live for the Funk – Personal blog showcasing a difficult-to-pinpoint collection that’s not always funk, but is always funky.
MFR – Minneapolis indie music blog makes active effort not to sound like douchebags.
Music For Robots – A special collection of album reviews for special people.
Music is Free Now – Not a review site so much as an exploration of where the industry is headed now that music is, well, free.
Music Like Dirt – A musical map of London, plus sweet mp3s and videos.
The Music Ninja – Features individual tracks, and hits the hip hop scene as often as not.
The Music Slut – While promising to avoid indie snobbery by embracing all types of mainstream, The Music Slut still somehow manages to stay surprisingly chaste.
Musicophilia – Charged with the task of promoting good music, this blog’s best offerings are mixtape retrospectives into some of music’s boogieing-est eras.
Muzzle of Bees – Really wants you to listen to new music, and they do interviews, and they have a great mp3 player.
My Old Kentucky Blog – A king among indie music blog, lots of vids, plus it’s really funny.
NewDust – Introducing new music and to dusty music that’s new to you.
Obscure Sound – Reviews, lots of mp3s, enthusiastic introductions to new music.
Our Iron Lung – Focuses on promoting bands and new music from Lincoln, UK. Hooray for regional blogs!
Pretty Much Amazing – A lot of mainstream stuff here, but the occasional out-of-left field rec will rock your socks.
Said the Gramophone – Mp3s! Track reviews! Nice focus, gang!
Stereogum – Adds celebrity gossip to the standard arsenal of mp3s, videos, and indie music news. Yum!
Tiny Mix Tapes – An epic and constantly updated collection of music reviews. And news. And other cute stuff.
Totally Fuzzy – A music blog – wait for it – about music blogs. Welcome to the matrix.
Turbo City – Ridiculously cool new music, fashion, art, and, ahem, useful links.
We All Want Someone To Shout For – Indie-ish posts leaning more towards a survey of the alternative scene than the truly underground.
We Like It Indie – This blog brings out the occasional gem you won’t find anywhere else, AND they love gossip.
You Ain’t No Picasso – An indie music blog vet with regularly updated videos, album reviews, concert reviews, and interviews.