There are so many indie bands out there. It’s impossible to keep track of them all and give them the credit they deserve. One of these bands is Grandaddy, and their 2000 release, “The Sophtware Slump,” floated right by listeners everywhere.

The album’s single, “The Crystal Lake,” boasted an excellent music video featuring the band, dressed like woodsman, floating around in a log cabin until it crashes in the heart of a major city. The men navigate the city by canoe, looking with curiosity at what a real society is like, longing to be back home in the woods next to their crystal lake.

(The crystal lake/ it only laughs/ it knows you’re just a modern man/ it’s shining like the chandelier/ shining somewhere far away from here/ I’ve gotta get outta here.)

Grandaddy sounds like the perfect combination of Radiohead and The Flaming Lips. In fact, Grandaddy singer/guitarist Jason Lytle sounds almost exactly like the Lips’ singer Wayne Coyne. Grandaddy blends the style of early Radiohead albums like “The Bends” with the humorously strange lyrics of The Flaming Lips. If you want proof, listen to “Broken Household Appliance National Forrest.”

(The refrigerators house the frogs/ The conduit is the hollow logs.)

The songs are heavily guitar-oriented, especially the short little ditty, “Chartsengrafs.” That of course is with the exception of the album’s final track, “So You’ll Aim Toward the Sky,” which is a beautiful yet melancholy orchestration with hopeful lyrics, perhaps referring to a character we met earlier in the album.

(So you’ll aim toward the sky/ and then you’ll rise/ high today/ fly away.)

“The Sophtware Slump” was one of the best albums that you never heard in 2000, and that makes it a hidden gem where I come from. The band has a new album coming out this April, so if this article interested you, check out “The Slump” first, and then keep your eyes peeled in the coming months.