god ... whatever the alternative, definitely not "modern jazz"

The Levellers at Glastonbury - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mVvMopn2os

Modern Jazz at least has the capacity to surprise and perhaps impress you, maybe even outrage you. Indie folk seems to aim for a desperate "authenticity" in a way that usually backfires, in my opinion. A random Modern Jazz performance is more likely to be worthwhile than a random Indie Folk performance.

@Jasbrum Good example - the Levellers were really, really, really, really trying to keep it real there. But the first digideridoo player on earth was probably playing his era's equivalent of modern jazz. I'd have preferred to see that person than the Levellers.

Levellers still going ..... Wow !!

Ever see that thing where the comedian has an arrow through his head? Yeah, that outfit was based on what I would look like after being forced to endure two hurs of live indie folk OR modern jazz. My ears are bleeding sympathtically just typing this.

I won't comment on Jazz v Indie music,
but will offer this on getting tricked into going to an event
I was tricked by a former girlfriend into going to a Womens Country Hockey Carnival
She wanted to go & play and put it on me to drive there with her
so she described it as a "Country Hockey Carnival" and I enthusiastically mused
that I could "scrounge a few games with a local side" and she made supportive
comments.
( I was playing Metropolitan A grade Hockey at the time, field Hockey, not Ice Hockey )
so she helped me pack my sticks & kit & off we went.

I ended up getting roped into Umpiring heaps of games & general Chauffeur duties
However my girlfriend did "reward me" with lots of sex so I accepted my fate.

If only the City of Fredericksburg could reward me after taking up my time...

Granted, Jazz way better quality musicianship on the whole, whereas the soul of Indie Folk (not necessarily "Indie music" MajM) is anarchic and anti-establishment... "kicking against the pricks" - the musicianship is less important than the sentiment...

@KingAtom, please don't tell me you'd feel the same about the Sex Pistols or Stiff Little Fingers?

Chumbawumba... what other kinds of bands have the balls these days to do something like this on the Late Show with David Letterman show?... Free Mumia Abu-Jamal? ps I went out with Jude Abbott for a "bit" ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDkVQvhZx04

You shouldn't compare the two. Both have their positive qualities. Folk music tells the story of the common person (much like the blues used to) where modern jazz explores music for music's sake. Al's descruiption is actually pretty apt. You should just be thankful they didn't bring in some rednieck mega sountry star or something. I'd have to get up and walk out on that.

Music I love:
Classical (the common term, not just the true Classical period) especially Mozart , Vivaldi, Debussy, Beethoven, Barber, Copland, and many many more
Jazz - all types
Classic Rock
Metal
R&B
Blues

I can listen to pretty much anything else including Bluegrass and Western (John Denver) but I don't like modern Country crap and I don't care for rap that is disrespectful to women or cops. I have grown to appreciate some rap though, even harder stuff, especially some older stuff like Gangsta's Paradise by Coolio, Fugees cover of Killing Me Softly, and others, but I couldn't name any current stuff.

But the only way I can listen to modern Country is it has to be sung by a hot female skimpily dressed and I have to be watching it (sort of the same way I can manage to tolerate Britney Spears - with the volume muted and something else on the headphones while I watch her grind).

+1 Draugnar

Cue Miley Cyrus on the Jimmy Kimmel show ;)

Shes another one, but at least she has learned to act and her non-Hannah Montana songs (like The Climb) are actually listenable.

I'm adding Hawkwind and Nirvana to the Indie folk list if no one objects?

Time we left this world today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1VWMq8_DTw

Nirvana isn't Indie Folk. Nirvana is Grunge. And don't know hawkwind. But Nirvana is slick produced commercial music. That doesn't mean it isn't good, but it isn't part of the folk scene. More the teen angst scene.

True... I'm thinking "kinship" like with punk too... possibly?

@Jasbrum: I don't mean to offend, but I can't stand the Sex Pistols and pretty much every other like group. I didn't really like the songs you posted either. Mostly, that's just my preference of music speaking, but I can't really get into any 'down with the system' kind of bands...

If you can't dig the movement, it's hard to get a feel for the tune, you know?

This might be as anarchist as I get:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHhrZgojY1Q

But when the groups I listen to start to stray from singing about women, they usually hit this kind of 'political feel.' (That is, if you can call it political anymore than you can call it a lifestyle choice...):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7ACsUelbuM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ThzF3JtFiE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLiIwM5HeK4

And there's a taste of my taste in music...

@ KingAtom - well, I have to thank you for your posts :-) never came across "Chase" before and very much like them, excellent cover of Handbags and Gladrags, still prefer Stereophonics version though! "Weird Song" sounds a bit Hawkwind to me lol, maybe you should listen to Hawkwind on acid?? I'm posting this BBC4 documentary for a feel of the significance of the band

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zBNQL7Uo9w

Drug taking and nakedness on stage and in the audience... the good old days, oh, I nearly forgot about Janet Jackson in '04... lucky JT :-)

CTA great too... and I'm not ashamed to say "If you leave me now" was one of the first singles I bought as a teenager in '76 Bicentennial year ;) "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols" in '77 was one of my first albums - I had a window cleaning job at the local ICI factory on a Saturday in Carrickfergus so I could afford albums by then.

Thanks, Jasbrum. Very interesting documentary. I'm gonna spend some time checking them out now...

Both are heavily influenced by black music of the 1920's and 1930's.

You better avoid them both, KA

Hell, nearly every (Western) song written since the 1920's has been influenced by the black Creole musicians of the 1880's New Orleans scene...