Indie
Zach Hale
If you were to peruse the “About” section of IndianGiver’s Facebook page, you’ll notice how the instruments attributed to each of the Oklahoma City band’s five members are described with downright flippancy: Dylan Jordan plays “sticks & animal skins,” while Jazzton Rodriguez earns his keep with “shanties & loud noises,” and so on.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
Few indie bands have had the impact on current music that The Postal Service has. Even fewer have done so with only one album.

Indie
Zach Hale
It’s always refreshing to hear music that embraces its own eccentricity, yet presents it in an accessible and meek fashion. Eureeka — the Norman-based duo of Jordan Vargas and Devin Wahl — has tapped into this rarified air on its self-released EP, Polysynthetic Fields.

Indie
Zach Hale
Psychedelic folk isn’t new, but it certainly is increasing in popularity. The surge has brought such weird-minded acts as Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective to the forefront, but the downside to any emerging movement is that it inevitably will seduce those who seek to piggyback on its success.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
Fowler Volkswagen general manager Jonathan Fowler wants Oklahoma to become the indie Christmas-music capital of the world. With three straight stellar Christmas albums Fowler VW has supported (all but the first with Norman’s Blackwatch Studios), that wish feels more like reality.

Indie
Zach Hale
Feathered Rabbit is kind of a throwback band. Unlike most others in the digital age, its increased exposure has come by way of a bedazzling live presence and the ensuing word-of-mouth.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
There really was no way for Animal Collective to match Merriweather Post Pavilion, widely considered the best album of 2009. It’s damn near impossible to bottle lightning twice, especially with the caustic and combustible ingredients the psych-rock band uses to build its ambitious opuses, in which indie electronics meet space rock.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
Arena-ready indie rock sounds like a bit of a contradiction, but with bands like The Black Keys, Muse and Kings of Leon all headlining the biggest venues in town, the weird subspace is here to stay.

Indie
Rod Lott
By all accounts, The Flaming Lips’ all-star Record Store Day release, The Flaming Lips & Heady Fwends, was not intended for general release until fans demanded otherwise. Given all the trouble of rounding up that talent for guest stints, why not go big?

Indie
Joshua Boydston
Being a jamtronica band, Oklahoma City act Montu is at the distinct disadvantage of playing a style of music that simply works better in a live setting than on a recording. Even so, Bloom is a solid effort that never drags — thanks to brilliant pacing any working band should note — and Montu steps over the hump, so to speak, and shows there’s no need to confine its tunes to live consumption only.

Indie
Joshua Boydston

What a beautiful introduction Nothing Proper is to Cusp and the man behind it, Taylor Rapp, who should become a force in Oklahoma music sooner, rather than later.

Indie
Joshua Boydston
With its self-titled debut EP, it’s not hard to see Stillwater rock outfit Admirals wears its influences on its sleeve.

Indie
Matt Carney
You’ve got to admire what they’re up to in the north Midwest these days. That Bon Iver/Gayngs/Megafaun collective is probably the best non-Aaron Rodgers thing to happen to Wisconsin in forever.

Indie
Matt Carney

Norman’s Jake Davidson beautifully reconciles his love for tradition-rich acoustic music with old-school English drum ’n’ bass electronica on his full-length debut, “Dream Familiar,” as recording project Two Suns.

Indie
Jonathan Davis
Its first record in two years, "Fallen Empires" blends Snow Patrol's specific brand of thoughtful pop-rock with some electronic influences.