I'm exclusively indie rock. You're a bit softer in taste than I, but there's some overlap. The Arcade Fire is one of the best bands playing right now. Their live show is astoundingly good...best I've seen in years.
My faves are: Spoon, Midlake, Fugazi, Death from Above 1979, Voxtrot, Mission of Burma, Cat Power, The Lemonheads.
When I'm working I'm most productive with things that have no lyrics or illegible lyrics, but are familiar. Jesu, The Fucking Champs, and electronica like Booka Shade and Apparat. Embarrassingly, perhaps, I'm totally loving working to old school metal lately--some from before my time, actually, but I like it anyway--Judas Priest, in particular. Also stuff I liked in high school and college: Carcass, Godflesh, Neurosis.
I made a list of my favorite tracks at emusic a while back (need to update it with Arcade Fire and a few other recent faves):
My faves are: Spoon, Midlake, Fugazi, Death from Above 1979, Voxtrot, Mission of Burma, Cat Power, The Lemonheads.
When I'm working I'm most productive with things that have no lyrics or illegible lyrics, but are familiar. Jesu, The Fucking Champs, and electronica like Booka Shade and Apparat. Embarrassingly, perhaps, I'm totally loving working to old school metal lately--some from before my time, actually, but I like it anyway--Judas Priest, in particular. Also stuff I liked in high school and college: Carcass, Godflesh, Neurosis.
I made a list of my favorite tracks at emusic a while back (need to update it with Arcade Fire and a few other recent faves):
http://www.emusic.com/lists/showlist.html?lid=564452&p=1
You can't beat emusic if you like indie music. It's cheap, non-DRM, and they've got nearly all of the best bands and labels.