Info: Here's some more electronica. HeyHiHello! is a pretty sweet new act from Canton, Ohio. Their tunes are marked with catchy pop spiels and feel-good melodies. All in all, it's a pretty enjoyable easy-listening package.
Sounds Like: hellogoodbye, nickasaur!, and a bit like Owl City.
Bio: From their MySpace page: "HeyHiHello! is the alias of musician Jakub Andrew, who fronts the upcoming indie/pop solo act from Canton, Ohio. The live band consists on 3 total members; Jakub, along with bassist Evan Davis and drummer Josh Arnold. HeyHiHello! is currently unsigned and released their first debut EP on August 10, 2009."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: Everyone loves some electronica, right? And with sounds akin to acts as successful as hellogoodbye and Owl City, HeyHiHello! will probably go far.
Links:
MySpace
PureVolume
last.fm
Twitter
Facebook
iTunes
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Next Elvis #8: The Joy Formidable
Info: These rockers hail from London. They lace their indie rock with some sweet synths and vocals, and pretty much just jam.
Sounds Like: Sky Larkin, The Answering Machine, and Johnny Foreigner.
Bio: From their last.fm page: "With Matt Thomas on drums, a conjoint surrealist and raw, forceful drummer The Joy Formidable have thrived on the live front. Soundscape layers are spiked by the nakedness of a 3-piece; gargantuan, clamorous bass and guitars come in waves, Ritzy seething and cooing in equal measure."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: They just have super great vibes, and I think they have a winning touch. They have also garnered a fair amount of media attention around the UK, giving them a fairly good foundation, at least locally. We'll see what happens internationally.
Video:
Links:
Website
MySpace
last.fm
Facebook
YouTube
Music Glue
Twitter
Sounds Like: Sky Larkin, The Answering Machine, and Johnny Foreigner.
Bio: From their last.fm page: "With Matt Thomas on drums, a conjoint surrealist and raw, forceful drummer The Joy Formidable have thrived on the live front. Soundscape layers are spiked by the nakedness of a 3-piece; gargantuan, clamorous bass and guitars come in waves, Ritzy seething and cooing in equal measure."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: They just have super great vibes, and I think they have a winning touch. They have also garnered a fair amount of media attention around the UK, giving them a fairly good foundation, at least locally. We'll see what happens internationally.
Video:
Links:
Website
MySpace
last.fm
YouTube
Music Glue
Monday, December 28, 2009
Next Elvis #7: Explosions in the Sky
Info: So they're been around for ten years, but they earned a spot on this blog because I had never heard of them before a few weeks ago, when a friend of mine mentioned that she was really into them. I checked them out, and they are incredible. EITS is from Austin, Texas, and they basically do an intriguing combination of experimental, almost ambient indie, and lyricless post-rock.
Sounds Like: Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Dirty Three.
Bio: From their MySpace page: "In February 1999, three longtime friends from West Texas went to a pizza place in Austin, Texas, for a prearranged meeting with a young man from Illinois. The Illinoisan had just moved to Austin, and he had put up a flyer that caught the interest of the others. They ate pizza and discussed movies and arcana. They also decided to meet the next day with their various instruments (two guitars, bass, and drums). This happened, and over the coming months they picked a band name, then picked a better band name, then wrote and recorded an album. That album, called How Strange, Innocence, was largely out of tune, but the band members didn't really notice at the time. They optimistically printed 300 copies, and gave most of them away. It turned out they really liked playing together, so they kept doing so. A friend of theirs sent a recording of one of their live shows to a record label in Baltimore, and that label offered to put out albums for the band. The band agreed. A year later they put out a second album (Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever). They began to tour often, all over the world. In 2003 another album came (The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place), and in 2007 they put out their most recent, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. They are shocked to see that their 10-year anniversary is on the horizon."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: EITS is simply one of the best things I have ever heard, plus they have a huge base of connections, performances, albums, and just plain time together.
Video:
Links:
Website
Message Board
MySpace
Facebook
last.fm
Rectangular
Temporary Residence
Allmusic
eMusic
Amazon
iTunes
Sounds Like: Mogwai, Sigur Ros, and Dirty Three.
Bio: From their MySpace page: "In February 1999, three longtime friends from West Texas went to a pizza place in Austin, Texas, for a prearranged meeting with a young man from Illinois. The Illinoisan had just moved to Austin, and he had put up a flyer that caught the interest of the others. They ate pizza and discussed movies and arcana. They also decided to meet the next day with their various instruments (two guitars, bass, and drums). This happened, and over the coming months they picked a band name, then picked a better band name, then wrote and recorded an album. That album, called How Strange, Innocence, was largely out of tune, but the band members didn't really notice at the time. They optimistically printed 300 copies, and gave most of them away. It turned out they really liked playing together, so they kept doing so. A friend of theirs sent a recording of one of their live shows to a record label in Baltimore, and that label offered to put out albums for the band. The band agreed. A year later they put out a second album (Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever). They began to tour often, all over the world. In 2003 another album came (The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place), and in 2007 they put out their most recent, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone. They are shocked to see that their 10-year anniversary is on the horizon."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: EITS is simply one of the best things I have ever heard, plus they have a huge base of connections, performances, albums, and just plain time together.
Video:
Links:
Website
Message Board
MySpace
last.fm
Rectangular
Temporary Residence
Allmusic
eMusic
Amazon
iTunes
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Album Review: "This Is War"
Disclaimer:
I know that 30 Seconds to Mars is already very well established as a band, and they have many devoted fans and an absolute hurricane of money surrounding anything they do, but I recently purchased "This Is War," and I felt that this blog could use a post focusing on a successfully established band.
Review:
After nearly innumerable delays, disputes with EMI, and what must have been countless hundreds of hours of labor, this massive project is finally available for the world to hear, and with much less laud than I would have expected. I only knew it was released because I wondered how close 30STM was to release, and so I checked it out, only to find that it had already been released on December 8.
"This Is War" is an outstandingly good album. It combines deep, heavy, meaningful melodies with layer upon layer of sonic atmosphere. It is quite experimental as well, however, with an assembled crowd of fans singing or chanting on several tracks, and many other artistic elements and effects heavily layered throughout. If you haven't heard anything from this album yet, I implore you to check out the links below and give it a listen before you do anything else today. If progressive, alternative, or experimental is your thing, I assure you this will strike a chord.
Throughout the album, 30STM keeps changing their sound. From "Kings and Queens" (the first single from the album) to "Vox Populi" (an epic call to arms) to "Hurricane" (a complete re-inventing of the band's sound, with vintage synth leads and a hip-hop-esque beat) to the title track "This Is War" itself, this project keeps the listener on their toes by constantly bringing new formulae and epic motifs into the mix.
Now, the album isn't perfect by any means. I do think that there are quite a few "lost" moments, where it is difficult for the listener to grasp what is going on within the overarching thematic feel of the piece, and some of the aforementioned crowd participation segments get a bit away from themselves, and are used a bit too often.
Regardless of some minor flaws in thematic development and crowd participation, "This Is War" is a stunning album. It combines some of the greatest aspects of progressive 21st century rock into a hugely ambitious piece of audible goodness. 30 Seconds to Mars have reinvented themselves again, incorporating elements so vast and varied that the musical landscapes conveyed here can take a listener around the world.
Video:
Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings + Queens - HD
30 Seconds to Mars | MySpace Music Videos
Links:
MySpace
Official Site
last.fm
Twitter
PureVolume
"This Is War" on iTunes
I know that 30 Seconds to Mars is already very well established as a band, and they have many devoted fans and an absolute hurricane of money surrounding anything they do, but I recently purchased "This Is War," and I felt that this blog could use a post focusing on a successfully established band.
Review:
After nearly innumerable delays, disputes with EMI, and what must have been countless hundreds of hours of labor, this massive project is finally available for the world to hear, and with much less laud than I would have expected. I only knew it was released because I wondered how close 30STM was to release, and so I checked it out, only to find that it had already been released on December 8.
"This Is War" is an outstandingly good album. It combines deep, heavy, meaningful melodies with layer upon layer of sonic atmosphere. It is quite experimental as well, however, with an assembled crowd of fans singing or chanting on several tracks, and many other artistic elements and effects heavily layered throughout. If you haven't heard anything from this album yet, I implore you to check out the links below and give it a listen before you do anything else today. If progressive, alternative, or experimental is your thing, I assure you this will strike a chord.
Throughout the album, 30STM keeps changing their sound. From "Kings and Queens" (the first single from the album) to "Vox Populi" (an epic call to arms) to "Hurricane" (a complete re-inventing of the band's sound, with vintage synth leads and a hip-hop-esque beat) to the title track "This Is War" itself, this project keeps the listener on their toes by constantly bringing new formulae and epic motifs into the mix.
Now, the album isn't perfect by any means. I do think that there are quite a few "lost" moments, where it is difficult for the listener to grasp what is going on within the overarching thematic feel of the piece, and some of the aforementioned crowd participation segments get a bit away from themselves, and are used a bit too often.
Regardless of some minor flaws in thematic development and crowd participation, "This Is War" is a stunning album. It combines some of the greatest aspects of progressive 21st century rock into a hugely ambitious piece of audible goodness. 30 Seconds to Mars have reinvented themselves again, incorporating elements so vast and varied that the musical landscapes conveyed here can take a listener around the world.
Video:
Thirty Seconds To Mars - Kings + Queens - HD
30 Seconds to Mars | MySpace Music Videos
Links:
MySpace
Official Site
last.fm
PureVolume
"This Is War" on iTunes
Friday, December 18, 2009
Next Elvis #6: Romance on a Rocketship
Info: Romance on a Rocketship is Kasey Smith, who does electronic pop. It's pretty sweet, and he's been churning out singles and EPs here and there for a little while now. I really like what I've been hearing, so I hope he keeps making music. Plus, along with Owl City and Unicorn Kid, he uses the same synth as me!
Sounds Like: hellogoodbye and nickasaur!
Bio: From his last.fm page: "Romance On A Rocketship is a side-project by Kasey Smith, Based in Lebanon, Missouri, United States, who previously was a band member of Here I Come Falling but soon after it split up in 2008, he joined another band called Agraceful which he subsequently left in 2009. Kasey is currently focusing on his own solo electro-pop side project Romance On A Rocketship."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: Smith's vocals and inventive style are refreshing to the genre, and, while not signed, he keeps churning out good material. Someone is bound to take notice sooner or later.
Video:
Links:
MySpace
PureVolume
last.fm
Facebook
Sounds Like: hellogoodbye and nickasaur!
Bio: From his last.fm page: "Romance On A Rocketship is a side-project by Kasey Smith, Based in Lebanon, Missouri, United States, who previously was a band member of Here I Come Falling but soon after it split up in 2008, he joined another band called Agraceful which he subsequently left in 2009. Kasey is currently focusing on his own solo electro-pop side project Romance On A Rocketship."
Why it's going to be the next Elvis: Smith's vocals and inventive style are refreshing to the genre, and, while not signed, he keeps churning out good material. Someone is bound to take notice sooner or later.
Video:
Links:
MySpace
PureVolume
last.fm
Friday, December 11, 2009
Honorable Mention: Michael Gregory
Info: While not the deepest of material, Michael Gregory's music is intensely catchy. At least the one good song I've heard by him: We Left the Atmosphere Behind.
Video:
Links:
MySpace
Video:
Links:
MySpace
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Honorable Mention: Scarzy
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