Most know Adam Green from his Moldy Peaches association. As put off as I was by that, I still opened his new Minor Love album and gave it a chance. After a handful of solo albums he released post Moldy Peaches, Green finally comes into his own on Minor Love. It was not the album I expected.
Today marks the official release of Vampire Weekend's long awaited 2nd album, Contra. Okay, so it has not been that long since their self titled debut. For current Vampire Weekend fans, and all indie fans for that matter, Contra couldn't have come out fast enough.
Ocote Soul Sounds is the combined musical genius of Adrian Quesada and Martin Perna. Both come from big bands, as in bands with lots of members and popularity, while coming from different worlds. Many of you may have seen them live recently with their friends, Thievery Corporation. They’ve played with some of the biggest names and most talented of musicians known and less known. With Coconut Rock, Ocote’s third release, they may have created something unique that holds its own that will make people forget about all of that.
Austin’s own Band of Heathens are a country/Americana tastemaker group of choice. On September 15th, they will be releasing One Foot In The Ether nationwide on BOH Records. After a successful CD release show at the legendary Antone’s in Austin , a great KUT in studio performance and blogger buzz, One Foot In The Ether is sure to propel The Band of Heathens to yet another level in the music world beyond just the country music circles.
Fall Out Boy has had quite the influence on today’s young pop-punk acts. So many bands have been birthed under the Fallout Boy pop punk genre that it gets difficult to weed through them all to get to the good ones. Now more young bands are taking that pop punk sound to new heights with a newly dubbed genre, “pop crunk”. One of the new bands to make that a household genre and pioneer that movement is going to be Let’s Get It. Their new EP, Digital Spaces, is a small sampling of this hybrid genre.
Austin, Texas. What a great city for music. What many outside of Austin fail to realize is in between the madness of South By Southwest and ACL Fest, Austin has a plethora of locally based musical talent playing here on a daily basis. Austin is the city that is home to Spoon, Alejandro Escovedo, Black Joe and The Honeybears, The Sword, The Riverboat Gamblers and Grupo Fantasma just to name a few. Speaking of Grupo Fantasma, its funky little brother and Austin staple, Brownout, is releasing their new album this month. The follow up to Homenaje, the new Aguilas y Cobras album out does its predecessor by leaps and bounds.
I can’t even begin to tell you about the countless country or Americana albums come through my mail box, digital or hardcopy. Most of them sound like your run of the mill “new country” wannabes who would make the country forefathers turn over in their grave. Even as just a casual fan of the genre, I can hear the difference between what’s good and what isn’t. I grew up in the South almost all my life, so country is something you can’t avoid if you tried. Now it is not often I will write about or review anything country(ish), but today I found something worth talking about. Country singer, songwriter, and Texas native Johnny Cooper is worth a listen. His new album, Follow, made it to my iPod.
Goodbye Gadget is a four piece, female fronted pop-punk band from Oakland, California. They just released their new six song EP, Because, I’m Not Myself You See. Before receiving the album, I was completely unfamiliar with Goodbye Gadget. With only six songs to make a judgment from, I can’t tell you whether or not I’m into them or not. I do, however, have some bright spots to share with you as well as some critiques.
Closure For Moscow is an Australian progressive rock band that captures the ear’s attention. Their guitar riffs are all over the place, but seem to be well placed in each song. The drums come at you at the speed of a metal band drummer. The vocals are crisp sounding and clearly understandable. Their latest album, First Temple, was released on Equal Vision records in May. This is the band’s first major label backed attempt at national success stateside. Fans of Circa Survive and The Mars Volta will want to give First Temple a listen.
Bad Veins is two man indie band from Cincinnati, Ohio. Members Ben Davis (vocals, guitar, keys) and Sebastian Schulz (drums) have put together something that will draw them comparisons to the likes of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand. After listening to their upcoming self titled album, it is hard to believe there are only two of them. Their sound is much bigger than I expected after reading their bio.
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