The 25 Bands/Artists You'll be Hearing About

A sneak preview to an interesting article to appear in the September Issue of Paste

Paste magazine’s “The Best of What’s Next”…

Bon Iver – Eau Claire , WI
Islands – Montreal , Canada
Janelle Monáe – Atlanta , GA
Johnny Flynn – London , England
The Bridges – Oxford , AL
Ben Sollee – Louisville , KY
Jamie Lidell – Berlin , Germany
Wild Sweet Orange – Birmingham , AL
Mugison – Ísafjörur , Iceland
Right Away, Great Captain! – Atlanta , GA
Katie Herzig – Nashville , TN
Brooke Waggoner – Nashville , TN
The Dodos – San Francisco , CA
The Everybodyfields – Knoxville , TN
Amy Macdonald – Glasgow , Scotland
Los Campesinos! – Cardiff , Wales
Slow Runner – Charleston , SC
Black Kids – Jacksonville , FL
White Rabbits – New York (via St. Louis )
Samantha Crain – Shawnee , OK
Langhorne Slim – Langhorne , PA
Joshua James – Provo , UT (via Lincoln , NE )
Liam Finn – Auckland , New Zealand
Wale – Washington , DC
Alela Diane – Portland , OR (via Nevada City , CA )
Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele – Taylor , MS

Under the Radar: Death to Anders & The Hollyfelds

I’ve recently received Submissions from a couple of upstart bands I think are worth a look. They are Death to Anders and The Hollyfelds.

Death to Anders has just released a new album Fictitious Business. Their sound has it’s basis in the L.A. Indie Rock scene but it is also heavily influenced early 90’s Sonic Youth. They have a certain atmosphere and distortion layered around their melodies. The sound strikes a nice balance between Indie Pop tunesmanship and atmosphere.

Stream their music

The Hollyfelds have released their album Saratoga. On their website the band self describes their sound as “a country sound...a neo-traditional country sound (tempered with a hefty dose of folk and Americana and just a touch of bluegrass, all anchored by solid pop hooks).” Well that just about sums it up. Except it fails to mention thet the best thing about the group is the beatific harmony vocals of their dual lead singers, Eryn Hoerig and Kate Grigsby. Further the album was produced by Ric Hordinski (Over the Rhine, Robbie Fulks and David Wilcox.)

Stream on their website.

Under the Radar: Giant Bear

Giant Bear just released there self-titled album on August 14th and it will rank up there with Elliot Randall as one my surprise favorites of the year. They are an Americana outfit with Indie Rock sensibilities. Based in Memphis the Commercial Appeal says they are "somewhere between cowboy noir and the best band to ever play on a front porch." The Source Weekly in Eugene, OR calls it "Orchestral Funk-a-Billy." I call it awesome. These guys could follow Lucero's rise from Memphis to the Alt.Country circuit.

The album starts out with the line "There are no honky tonks left in Nashville" musing about the current state of Music City from the perspective of a guy who "Wants to drink the old time way." The album also has the coolest cover since The Gourds did "Gin 'n Juice." They do a quirky Americana version of "Head Like a Hole" by Nine Inch Nails. Some of the songs are dark like "Devil in the Wall" - "There was blood on your wrist and a Bible on your reading list. I tried to fix you with my towel. You clenched your fist and woke me with a growl." Mostly though, the album is an upbeat good time. Also, Luther Dickinson from North Mississippi All-Stars contributes slide guitar on the album to give it the local Memphis "Street Cred."

The album is streaming for free on: http://redwaxmusic.net/ check it out for sure!

This review also appears on: http://twangville.com

Under The Radar: 8/7/07

Here are a few artists I have come across lately that I think have potential to be much bigger in the future:

The first is Intensive Care an Indie Rock band out of Montreal. They have the atmospherics not uncommon to other Indie bands; but these guys also understand the importance of a good Rock hook as well. Their self released EP is available through iTunes and CDBaby. Check out the MP3s below:
http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/29/1124526/2-Break_Me_Up_Machine.mp3%20http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/29/1124526/3-dls.mp3
Here is a Youtube video


Next is The Mountain Pearls. Their sel-released debut is very lo-fi rough edged Roots Music that sounds like a hillbilly version of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. This is toe tappin' front porch music.

Check them out on EMUGGA:
VISIT
The Mountain Pearls



Also, The Steep Canyon Rangers winner of the IBMA energing artist award for 2006 are coming out with their new record Lovin' Pretty Women on Rebel Records August 14th. If you like traditional Bluegrass you don't want to miss this one. Below is a video biography of the band:

Under the Radar: Elliot Randall

Elliot Randall is gaining notoriety on the West Coast and is becoming a popular act in the San Francisco Bay area. He is also getting love from the California press. Recently, he was featured on legendary Bay area radio station KFOG’s local scene and is going to be appearing at the station’s local scene kickoff party on August 3rd. The national exposure has not come yet. However, he was recently featured on an AmericanaRoots podcast, which is an AWT favorite. Hopefully more exposure like this will come for Randall. He certainly deserves it. Based on my correspondence with Elliot he seems like a heck of a nice guy and I am certainly rooting for him.

Though he lives in the Bay Area, he is originally from Charleston, South Carolina and told me he spent most of his time growing up in the Carolinas. His Southern roots really show as he mixes Roots Rock with a more Classic Rock and Roll sound. He is an excellent songwriter whose musical style has the ability to appeal to a wide audience. On his new album Take the Fall Randall plays mid-tempo songs like “How to Grow Old” as well as full out rockers like “Second Time Around.” Both musically and lyrically Randall’s music is very accessible to the listener. All of the songs on the album show the various influences he has. Whether the listener’s preferences lean more toward Rock or Roots or Singer-Songwriter, this album will satisfy.

MP3 Links Below:

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/29/1124526/01%20How%20To%20Get%20Old.m4a

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/5/29/1124526/03%20Second%20Time%20Around.m4a

This review also appears on: http://twangville.com

Under The Radar: The Wells

When Tom at Twangville gave me The Wells Outcasts Will Make a Strong Nation cd for review, he told me I would like it because it reminded him of X and John Doe and he knows what a big fan I am. He was absolutely right. The harder songs especially have the stripped down punk with a little twang style of X. When using female backing vocals you can definitely visualize John Doe and Exene singing together. Other songs are more roots influenced but still have rock undertones. Lyrically, the album is full of dark and haunting folk tales of people gone astray not unlike characters that have haunted John Doe’s songs over the years.

The stories in the songs on Outcasts are literary in nature, which is not surprising since songwriter Robert Loss has an MFA in creative writing and teaches English in their home base of Columbus, OH, home to other alt-country acts like Two Cow Garage. Talk about anti-heroes, we have characters here that Cormac McCarthy would love to create. We have someone, who murders the Steinbeck folk hero Tom Joad for a loaf of bread and parlays it to a successful political career. We also find a nomadic loser sabotaging a Pentecostal tent revival to keep his girl from getting saved. Is nothing sacred? The answer is no. I hope these guys don’t stay under the radar for too long they deserve to be found. A lot of bands are jumping on the Americana band wagon these days but The Wells definitely deserve attention.

Check out their MySpace page:

http://myspace.com/wellsrock

This review was also posted on: http://twangville.com/