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Many "indie" bands are seeking the same type of critical acclaim that made Animal Collective's Sung Tongs a darling, thus they try and reproduce some of the same vocal stylings, adding their own particular twist.
Feel free to disagree all you want, but Brooklyn is the musical hotbed of the world right now, and artists looking for material are jumping on that bandwagon.
Before that, Athens, GA bands were the standard-bearer with the Elephant 6 scene. And many, many "indie" and "psych-folk" bands are also still farming that same territory. In fact, Elephant 6 pretty much popularized the whole notion of the "collective" line-up. And do please note that I'm not stating that the Elephant 6 bands were the first to form rotating "collectives." That is not my point at all. What I'm writing, and it's very much the case, is that Elephant 6 bands popularized the notion of the collective; and without question, they did. On a side note, I suppose I should have never played or talked so passionately about Pet Sounds with many of the key figures.
I feel Stereolab from London should also be mentioned because even today they are an oft-aped band as well. Not that they were completely all that original themselves really. Their electronic bleeps were molded into compositions via a largely Krautrock-inspired sensibility.
And before that, of course, the place was Seattle, WA with the grunge/Sub Pop scene. As anyone not living under a rock knows, many, many, many bands got on that particular gravy train.
It's amusing that "indie" is synonymous with "unoriginal" just about as often as pop music is.
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