Written by Fense It’s been almost a month since The Lemurs (MySpace) dropped Million Little Bits on us via Thirty Tigers, and it’s already gaining much traction across the country. But that’s no real surprise; The Lemurs’ music is of a very accessible note — it’s catchy, filled with various hooks and packed with riffs…
Category: Features
Frida Hyvönen [Feature Band]
The first track from Silence Is Wild, the latest release by Frida Hyvönen (MySpace), reminisces on Hyvönen’s childhood. Having just discovered her heritage — she’s from Sweden — I think back to my childhood and a young Swedish boy named Peter. He was an exchange student who stayed with my family while I was in…
A.Armada [Feature Band]
Written by Fense In music, it is very rare to create something entirely new. To break ground would be to christen a new instrument, one that does something bizarre, one that sounds like no other. Or to use an instrument in a way that has never been done before. Moments like these have spawned great…
Light Pollution [Feature Band]
Anytime you inject rock music with orchestration, especially when it “rock” is often synonymous for “pop”, the term anthemic comes to mind. That’s what you get with Light Pollution (MySpace) — anthem-like rock music with hints of Arcade Fire’s instrumentation. When it comes to this group’s vocals, however, I’d say they sound a bit more…
Cake On Cake [Feature Band]
Written by Fense One of the first noticeable items about Cake On Cake (MySpace) is the name. It’s a sweet (no pun intended) take on Bob Dylan’s classic Blonde On Blonde. The two, of course, have little, if anything, in common. It’s there; but that’s not really important in the bigger scheme of things, now,…
Western States Motel [Feature Band]
Written by Fense I want to say I’ve heard about The Western States Motel, but I cannot recall with any certainty whether that’s true or not. If I have heard of them prior to receiving their Painted Birds Flying In The Orange Mirror Sun EP in the mail, I can say that I haven’t heard…
The Stowaways [Feature Band]
Written by Fense Lo-fi indie pop with a sweet nature often gets labeled as twee, or at least sounding like twee. And that’s the first thing that comes to mind when listening to The Stowaways, whose style of indie pop features jangle-y guitars and a sweetness in the vocals.
The Republic Tigers [Feature Band]
Written by Fense It wasn’t all that long ago that I first listened to and subsequently covered The Republic Tigers. Their video for “Buildings And Mountains” caught my eye — and my ears — and I was hooked. Looking back, it seems so close, but so much has happened since August 8, the day that…
Ramona Córdova [Feature Band]
Written by Fense Ramona Córdova (MySpace) is a folk artist. But he’s a very nontraditional one. Like my recent post on DZR:P, Ramona tends to favor the falsetto voice, but unlike DZR:P, he tends to not only be in-tune, but he comes off sounding somewhat similar to Visit, the Asian opera singer from this year’s…
Pretty And Nice [Feature Band]
Written by Fense I thought I had them all figured out. Each Hardly Art release since their inception as a label has seen artists that dabble — albeit barely at times — in some form of folk. Sure, it may be obscure, as in the case of Le Loup, but it’s always there. Enter Pretty…
