Indie's Magna Carta

It's kinda fey. It's kinda jangly. It's kinda shambling. It's kinda raucous.
Above all, it's ridiculously good. This past weekend I immersed myself in the legendary C86 compilation.
The British music newspaper the New Musical Express gave away the C86 cassette compilation in 1986. The tape compiled songs from some of the top independent rock bands of the day, providing a broad representation of the classic sounds available to music fans outside of the mainstream.
Bands such as The Mighty Lemon Drops and The Pastels trafficked in the jangly pop-rock first fashioned by Orange Juice. Other bands such as Stump and The MacKenzies remained committed to the post-punk ideal of stretching musical boundaries.
Some of the bands went on to bigger and better things -- Primal Scream and The Soup Dragons scored UK hits and the band McCarthy evolved into Stereolab. Others gained their brief fame from their C86 appearance. The bands Mighty Mighty, Close Lobsters and Big Flame probably fit this latter category.
Ultimately, the C86 proved immensely influential, even spawning a sub-genre called "C-86" that featured a lo-fi pop approach. Thousands of bands modeled their sounds on what they heard on the compilation, and even today a close listen to "alternative" radio reveals more than a passing nod to the gems that first surfaced on a 19-year-old cassette.