Sweaty, Slutty, and Covered in Cheap Beer – Indie Sleaze is Back

Ready or not, electroclash has been back for a while. I've put together a playlist of the sleaziest revivalists of the genre.

When I first heard the term “indie sleaze” applied to music, I knew exactly what it meant. Dancing in sweaty basements, drinking PBR, and listening to very, very specific bands: the Rapture, CSS, Death From Above 1979, LCD Soundsystem, Uffie. The nostalgia for this era hits me harder than any other, so making a playlist of new musicians inspired by its sound was not an assignment I took lightly.

The music here won’t sound much like second wave post-punk (Interpol, Arctic Monkeys) or riot grrrl (Le Tigre, Gossip), all of which gets lumped under the same indie sleaze umbrella. “Stuff we danced in basements to in the 2000s” is a perfectly legitimate definition, but I can’t help but feel that we should be leaning harder into the sleaze portion of the term.

So instead of indie rock, this playlist leans heavily into electroclash. It’s (mostly) newer, younger artists making you feel awfully old by taking inspiration from the mid-2000s, American Apparel, bloghouse era of anxious, slutty, two-guys-and-their-synths indie pop. It’s based on a period so recent you didn’t think it could have made a full spin on the trend cycle just yet. But here we are. And it’s time to get sweaty.

First, a few standouts. Then, the goods.

1. Baba Ali

For (former?) fans of: film noir, those Robert Palmer videos where all the ladies in red lipstick sway around a little bit in the background
Sounds kinda like: LCD Soundsystem, Nick Cave, Suicide

2. Model/Actriz

For (former?) fans of: running the garbage disposal, riding the MTA
Sounds kinda like: The Faint, Lightning Bolt

3. The Dare

For (former?) fans of: Sparks, Razrs, The Hipster Handbook, Patrick Bateman
Sounds EXACTLY like: LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture

4. Dream Wife

For (former?) fans of: Y2K cyberpunk movies, wraparound sunglasses, metallic leather, Garbage
Sounds kinda like: Metric, Republica

And the full list:

BONUS: For a little more indie sleaze revival discussion, I pitted The Dare against Master Peace last week over on TikTok…

@meandtimoryNo brat girl summer is complete without an indie sleaze dance party. Both @the dare and @Master Peace are on the New Wave Indie Sleaze playlist on my Spotify.

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…which ruffled a very small amount of feathers (mostly mine) about the difference between indie sleaze and landfill indie:

@meandtimoryReplying to @clochehat this is a subject near and dear to my heart I'm afraid

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