Falling somewhere between the noise-pop of bands like Wavves and Woods and the blissed-out psychedelia of the Beach Boys, Sacramento, CA's Ganglians features Ryan Grubbs, Kyle Hoover, Alex Sowles, and Adrian Comenzind. The band spent much of 2008 recording, and their debut single, a limited-edition split 7" with Eat Skull, appeared in January 2009 on Dulc-i-Tone Records. The band's tours and releases came quickly after that, with an appearance at that year's South by Southwest festival that March and a self-titled EP and a full-length album, Monster Head Room , arriving within weeks of each in May [...]
After moving from coast to coast, and spending two years writing and recording, Wakefield's Ryan Escolopio has finally settled down in Baltimore, MD. Taking his pop punk roots to another level, Ryan broke into the indie rock scene with his new project Fox in the Henhouse - The Fox EP, on iBOT Records. The band's upcoming self-titled album, Fox in the Henhouse, unites his poignant lyrical styling with rollicking guitars to spark a number of crowd pleasers. The album, with standout tracks like "Fears," which appeals to indie rock fans and non-indie rock fans alike, is set [...]
Boosted by a fearless, punch-you-in-the-face positivity that is both rare and refreshing, Abner Trio mash tumbling guitar lines, bewildering arrangements, and idiot-savant-spoken-word into songs that (amazingly) sound a lot like pop music. Beneath the weirdness, the music of Abner Trio contains an unwavering and highly developed pop-sensibility, brought to the forefront by their densely layered and meticulously arranged vocal melodies. Bothering very little with traditional song structures, Abner seems to allow the songs to move where they're supposed to, lilting and bursting along like a feel-good Sebadoh gorged on US Maple. Beginning in 2005, and releasing [...]
The Joy Formidable was conceived by music-obsessed friends Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd when they were both students in Wales. After a brief hiatus, they relocated to London, brought in drummer Matt Thomas, and got down to writing and recording a record. The resulting sound melds the huge expanses of the band members' native Welsh countryside with the hectic nature of their new London home. That sound has won them the praise of the highly influential NME and airplay on the UK's Radio 1. The Joy Formidable has sold out multiple UK tours throughout the past [...]
Founded in late 2007 as means for front man Neil Fridd to yell about his romantic mishaps, The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt! has blossomed into a real juggernaut of epic dance floor revelation. What do they sound like? It's sorta dance-soul music, like synthed out Otis Redding covers on fast forward. Dance music with too many cooks in the kitchen, but in a good way, so not too many cooks, maybe just an above average amount of cooks. That is to say, there are sweet beats: your ass wants to shake, but there's also like four [...]
It can't be easy to be an agnostic when your last name is a religious title, but the world of Gene Priest 's songs is not a very friendly place to begin with. Gene Priest is ordinarily a sideman mainstay in the Knoxville, TN, music scene - manning the drum-kit for indie-rock acts HiLites and Cold Hands and the sludge-metal quartet, Hot Blood - but with equal doses of ego and humility, he has stepped into the footlights with his debut EP, "Living To Die," mixed in Knoxville by Sparklehorse's Scott Minor. Melding [...]
Born of four hopeful rednecks and numerous misconceptions, Athens, GA's Modern Skirts crept onto the scene in 2005 with its debut album, 'Catalogue of Generous Men' . The record was met with both critical praise (landing the 11 spot on Paste Magazines' Top Records of 2005) and several unwanted comparisons (mostly to Ben Folds {avoid coupling male vocals with prominent piano on your band's next record, as this convenient correlation is likely to be drawn}). The band also starred in a video for 'Pasadena', the record's lead single, which received airplay on over 40 different networks. After [...]
Hailing from the ever blooming Athens, GA scene, Twin Tigers are ready to unleash their dynamic sound unto the universe. Along with other elements of the past five decades of rock music, Twin Tigers blend noise textures with pop structure and shoegaze overtones shaping a sound that's all new. Formed by co-workers at the Michael Stipe-owned Grit restaurant, guitarist/vocalist Matthew Rain and bassist Aimee Morris began Twin Tigers as their previous bands dissolved. In February 2008,Curious Faces / Violet Future EP was released to great reviews. The band quickly started building a solid fan base throughout [...]
Peter Wolf Crier are Peter Pisano & Brian Moen. Pisano's is not a new songwriting voice. He is best known for being part of the Wars of 1812, an ascendant Wisconsin-bred quartet. Their first album together, Status Quo Ante Bellum, was more than just an album. It was relocation and aspiration and Pisano's lyrical Eden. As the Wars went on hiatus, Pisano continued to hone his craft, keeping his days full as a teacher at a small private school while fine-tuning, at night, the songs that would soon become Inter-Be . Feeling confident in the songs, Pisano approached [...]
Household Names is a four-piece alternative pop band from Austin, Texas, featuring vocalist and guitarist Jason Garcia, bassist Chris Peters, guitarist Eric Roberts, and drummer Joey Spivey. Songwriter and guitarist/vocalist Jason Garcia released The Trouble With Being Nice as a solo artist in 2000, which drew immediate comparisons to Elvis Costello, Suede, Oasis, the Kinks and Blur. After 2003's home-recorded Hold On Tight! EP, he found the perfect musical foil in bassist/vocalist Chris Peters, and together with drummer CJ Barker they recorded 2006's Picture In My Head, of which The Austin Chronicle raved: "guitarist/vocalist Jason Garcia is [...]
Ever since he left an early lineup of Black Dice ten years ago, Sebastian Blanck has made his way as a painter in New York City, all the while quietly, almost secretly, writing warm, personal pop songs away from view. That changed in 2007, when Sebastian's brother Toby died in a drowning accident thousands of miles away. It was also the year that Sebastian's first son, Hudson, was born. Toby had talked of starting a label to release Sebastian's songs. Robbed of his brother and co-conspirator, Sebastian suddenly found a new urgency to writing and recording, [...]
Fun. Simply put, The True Jacqueline is a fun band and their music is a testimony to it. With charming twee vocals, unexpected time changes, and a solid indie-rock backbone, band members Noah Stevralia (vocals, guitar), Zach Farrell (vocals, keyboards), Kate Niemczyk (vocals, bass) and Andrew Huffman (drums) reinterpret ideas from bands like Superchunk, Built to Spill, Mates of State, and early New Pornographers and spin it into their own sound. Based in Northampton, Massachusetts, The True Jacqueline's debut full-length release Nice Bird set for release on June 22, presents indie-rock twists, breakdowns, and unusual arrangements [...]
Like a hybrid SUV landing on Plymouth Rock, See Green's vibrant alternative pop is grounded in the past, but very much of the present. Bursting with richly textured arrangements and unique instrumentation, See Green mastermind/frontwoman/tunesmit h Courtenay Green's songs toss elements from a host of different influences and eras into a giant musical blender. The resulting cocktail is both singular and delicious, doses of sophisticated writing that go down easy thanks to catchy hooks, clever lyrics, and quirky interludes. Using her skills as a drummer, guitarist, pianist, percussionist, trumpet player, and dabbler in a host of other instrument categories, [...]
Birmingham UK's Deluka are on the fast track toward stardom. Fronted by lead singer Ellie Innocenti, whose power-strut vocals and bullet-proof cool are undeniably seductive, Deluka's charged blend of jagged guitars, fluid beats and addictive melodies are garnering praise and buzz from a wide range of pop gate-keepers. The video for Deluka's infectious single from their debut EP , "Cascade," is directed by famed fashion photographer Antoine Verglas and filmed at Brooklyn's Knitting Factory, was premiered on AOL Spinner, and has recently been picked up by numerous video programs nationwide, including VH1, Logo, [...]
Brooklyn's Fan-Tan formed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 2006 when Indonesian expatriates Kuki and Sandee Kooks joined forces with Ryan Lee Dunlap. Intent on diverging from the college rock scene of the area, the band drew on influence of the Manchester, England music scene circa 1983. After adding Mike Walter on synthesizers, the group decided on the name Fan-Tan, an ancient Chinese gambling game that was repeatedly mentioned in much of the history of the American west due to the many Chinese immigrant laborers in area during that time, creating an "east meets west" connection similar to [...]
Fang Island began, oddly enough, as an art school project while the band members were attending the prodigious Rhode Island School of Design (also the foundation for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Les Savvy Fav, Six Finger Satellite, Lightning Bolt and some band called the Talking Heads.) According to guitarist Jason Bartell, the goal was to "make music for people who like music." That is, music without irony that harnesses its uplifting qualities. Just like a classic rock song or classical symphony can stir us emotionally, Fang Island exists to unlock that spirit. Fang Island is guitarist Jason Bartell, [...]
New Roman Times are Daniel Owens (guitars, vocals), Josie Fluri (bass, vocals), Mike Allen (drums) and Harris Thurmond (guitars, synths). It's said that much can be drawn by observing the company someone keeps. So what does being consistently hand-picked to perform with artists like Death Cab for Cutie, The Bravery, Cursive, The Rapture and Ted Leo & the Pharmacists say about New Roman Times? It shows that they're the next generation in the great American indie rock tradition. Drawn from an emotional plane where pain and liberation are interchangeable, their nocturnal music moves from crashing [...]
Ben Barnett is a musician who has, all his life, documented experiences through song. After releasing eight albums, six singles and five splits as Kind of Like Spitting over the course of a decade, retiring the moniker and reinventing himself as Music Director of Seattle's Paul Green School of Rock, Barnett has now emerged triumphant with a new band, Blunt Mechanic , and said band's debut full-length, World Record. Both band and album tip heavy on the riffaged hooks and light on the darkness; big on the thumbs up--no time for the thumbs down. It [...]
Local Natives make soaring, sky-scraping harmonies, dreamy orchestral melodies, and throbbing tribal beats that bash their way into your soul. Theirs are songs you can dance to almost as well as you can swoon to them. Drawing a line from the vocal stylings of Crosby Stills Nash & Young and the Zombies through the more esoteric edges of post-punk and Afro-beat, this California five piece have communally crafted a brand of indie rock all their own. One of SXSW 2009's biggest success stories, the band drove for two days to get from Los Angeles to Austin [...]
Nearly 12 years ago, Allison Moorer made an unforgettable introduction with her contribution of the thoughtful ballad, "A Soft Place to Fall," to the soundtrack to the Robert Redford-directed drama, The Horse Whisperer, which later earned her an Academy Award nomination. From there, Moorer went on to carefully craft a long-lasting career with her impressive debut LP, Alabama Song, while challenging herself to always look inward for an even deeper meaning -- which she certainly explored on Miss Fortune (2002) and The Duel (2004). In 2007, Moorer received a Grammy nomination for Best Country Collaboration with [...]
Indie Surfer Blog
Check Out: d’Eon – “Transparency pt. II”
the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
