Click image to download full album Sounds like: Radiohead, Grizzly Bear, Local Natives, Deerhunter, The Middle East "Valar - Silverman" What's so good? When I first decided to dedicate myself to a life of music consumption, Valar was a band that I knew I should investigate, but I never got around to it. Then, I did! And I'm sure glad about it. Valar [...]
BEST OF 2010 : The album isn't dead. But, like the dinosaurs, it may not outlast its smaller, warm-blooded colleagues. In 2010, the EP became something more than a tour curio or a year-end reminder of a band's existence. For bands unable or unwilling to make the artistic and financial investment of a full-length release, the EP became the perfect format: long enough to showcase what a band could do without being too short to pass off as a one-MP3 wonder and just right for self-releasing and giving away free, as so many groups chose to do this year. For [...]
Valar. Live at the House of Prayer from Streetline Media on Vimeo . To follow up yesterday's negativity , here is a band you should absolutely not ignore. Valar is a three-piece Australian act whose tender, straining folk reminds me of a terser Grizzly Bear or a less lo-fi Chad VanGaalen. In the above video, shot by Matt Davis, they play two exquisitely lovely songs, "Don't Hold Back" and "Silverman." (No relation to the Ben Folds album, for better or worse.) Download both performances below and buy their latest EP on Bandcamp [...]