Day 2: Stars and Sons
Who: Stars and Sons What: Pure indie pop, done up very lush and kind of explody. Where: From Brighton, UK (just a fun coincidence that yesterday’s band was from Brighton, MA) Why: Stars and Sons’ PR...
View ArticleDay 3: Hot Panda
Who: Hot Panda (website, myspace) What: Chaotic indie rock / pop meets punk with a retro 90s vibe. Where: Edmonton, Canada When: Second album, How Come I’m Dead? came out two weeks ago and the band...
View ArticleDay 4: Amanda Merdzan
Who: Amanda Merdzan What: Semi-cutesy indie-folk that’ll definitely put you in mind of Kimya Dawson. Where: Perth, Australia Why: Honestly, I can’t vouch for anything but the song offered below, I...
View ArticleDay 5: Lost In The Trees
Who: Lost In The Trees What: Very large, sweeping indie “orchestral folk” (as described by group founder Ari Picker). Where: Chapel Hill, North Carolina Why:Because this is really something special....
View Article6*: The Black Knights
Who: The Black Knights What: “Voodoo trash blues”, as described by the band themselves. To me, they sound exactly like an unholy union between The Black Keys and Queens Of The Stone Age. Where: From...
View Article7: Kate and After
Who: Kate and After What: Indie pop, in a general sense – boisterous and cheerful, great for dancing about the room and singing along to. Where: Unsurprisingly from Sweden (Gothenburg), apparently the...
View Article8: Ivan & Alyosha
Who: Ivan & Alyosha What: Truly stunning indie-folk Where: From Seattle Why: Oh, so lovely. It’s soaring but feels, at the same time, very earthy. The layered vocals on “Glorify”, at least) are...
View Article9: Jared Mees & the Grown Children
Who: Jared Mees & the Grown Children What: Indie folk with a razor-sharp edge, led by Jared Mees (who’s been recording for several years now), joined by an ever-changing group of musicians...
View Article2010: Artists of my year
I put the emphasis on my because these aren’t going to appear on anyone else’s run-down of 2010. Or two out of three anyway – the artists of my year actually have a lot in common, but release dates...
View ArticleLost In The Trees update
You might remember that I was really, really taken with Lost In The Trees when I first heard them back in November. This is just a little update as we’ve just had news that, because of their 2010...
View ArticleDarren Hayman’s January Songs
We got a mail last week about Darren Hayman’s January Songs project – you know Darren Hayman: “ex-Hefner, godfather of modern indiepop, one of the best songsmiths of the past 15 years, oh you know the...
View ArticleFriday Favorite: Cold War Kids
Cold War Kids – Out Of The Wilderness (official site, buy at emusic)
View ArticleHarlan Pepper, Young and Old
Who: Harlan Pepper What: Indie-folk brought up-to-date with a sense of humor, a blend of styles, and a little more ‘today’ than most. Where: Hamilton, Canada. The Google tells me this is in Ontario....
View ArticleCornershop and The Double ‘O’ Groove Of, featuring Bubbley Kaur
It’s no secret that I love Cornershop. Yeah, I say I’m a big fan of a lot of bands, and it’s always true, but this is special. Like on equal footing with how I feel about the Beatles. One of those...
View ArticleThanks, Colin Meloy!
Listening to a little Björk last night while whipping up some fruit dip (as you do), I started thinking about how I used to really not like Björk. Really, really not. I always thought she was cool,...
View ArticleThe Soup Dragons, Hotwired
Do you remember The Soup Dragons? If you’re from the UK and / or of a certain age (the certain age that means you actually remember buying albums on cassette), you probably do. If not, this band...
View ArticleLow Cut Connie
Any regular / long-term reader of this blog will know that I’m a really big Ladyfingers (aka Adam Weiner) fan; I’ve written about a couple of Ladyfingers albums already and love them so much, I never...
View ArticleLittle Brothers
Who: Little Brothers, who are, apparently, brothers. Whoda thunk? Brothers Michael and Tony Weis team up with their friend Jason Anderson to record in Michael’s basement studio and write awesome songs...
View ArticleThe semi-new 100b, plus The Blueskins
A while ago, I talked about some changes I wanted to make here. To paraphrase myself: I talked about how I pretty much suck at writing about new bands and how I’d ultimately decided not to do that...
View ArticleLen, again
I’ve posted about Len and their 1999 album, You Can’t Stop The Bum Rush once before, but in a different-ish context, so I’m calling it ok to repeat a little now. Even though it’s now 12 (holy crap)...
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More Pages to Explore .....