I know it’s out of season, but I love the movie Elf. I also know that it’s meant for 6-year-olds, but I can’t help myself. Something about it’s enchanting storyline and magical memories leave me with that unmistakable Christmas-y feeling every year. Or maybe it’s just Will Ferrel prancing around like a 6-year-old and me having the humor of a small child. It doesn’t take much for me.
But the other great part about the movie Elf is Will Ferrel’s love interest, Jovie. At the time, I was unfamiliar with actress Zooey Deschanel. In the movie, she steals the stage in the moments she decides to spread the Christmas cheer with her voice. Usually in these situations, one would think she is most certainly lip syncing. At first I thought the same thing. But the unique jazzy, flowing tone of the voice made me dig deeper to find out the truth. And the truth is, Zooey Deschanel can sing. For real.
It wasn’t long before I discovered her band, along with songwriter M. Ward, She & Him. The indie folk duo brings back the roots with a genuinely old-fashioned sound that’s relaxing and clean. Rhythmic piano, melodic guitar and light drums compliment Deschanel’s unique voice in such a pleasant way, it’s a guaranteed feel-good album. Check out both volumes and expect more to come. These guys are on the ups.
Check out the video for “In The Sun”
Buy Volume Two:
I’ve been a fan of Arcade Fire for quite some time now. I was first introduced to them during my formidable years in college when my young mind was being shaped for greatness in the real world. They were probably the first jump I made towards what I would understand to be Indie music (I was young then.) At the time, I never had the chance to read into the band’s history, which it turns out is a shame because their history is actually very interesting.
To start, the band is fronted by husband and wife duo Win Butler and Régine Chassagne. Like REAL husband and wife duo. Not like White Stripes husband and wife duo. It’s like you can hear the love in every one of their songs. It’s quite magical. Secondly, Chassagne used to sing jazz and played the recorder in a pre-Renaissance medieval band. I also used to play the recorder, but not as professionally as him. I’m still training. Thirdly, Butler’s grandfather is legendary swing-era musician Alvino Rey who is credited as being the father of the pedal steel guitar. Crazy right?
The thing that really drew me to this band in the first place is the plethora of sounds you’ll find throughout the albums. In their latest, Suburbs, you’ll find piano, guitar, violin, organ, synthesizer, accordion, washboard, spoons and the jug. Ok, maybe not ALL of those instruments are on the album, but they might play the others in their free time. You don’t know.
Buy The Suburbs:
With the World Cup finally at a close and Spain with a victory in-hand, I find it only fitting to draw your attention to one of my new favorite bands: Barcelona. Ok, maybe the mere fact that the name of the band coincides with a city in Spain isn’t enough to relate it to the World Cup, but I’m the one writing the post and I do what I want.
Barcelona is actually from Seattle, WA and has nothing to do with Spain. But don’t fret, this band is just as 1st rate as the Spanish World Cup team. Again, not related but trust me they are worth it. I first came across these guys after hearing the song “Come Back When You Can” in a video I was watching online. In the end, I was more concerned about the song than I was the video (sorry guy that made the video), and it brought me right to their debut big label release: Absolutes.
My personal favorites lean heavily towards their slower songs: “Get Up”, “Please Don’t Go” and “First Floor People.” These guys definitely have a knack for creating simple, emotionally-driven songs that you can’t help but listen to over and over again. Like “Baby Beluga” for a 3-year-old. Kids just can’t get enough Raffi. It’s like a well-known fact.
Unfortunately, I didn’t see a lot of tour dates out there for these guys, so if you fall in love with them (which you will) you’ll just have to wait a little while to see the real thing. It’s ok though because it’ll just build up the anticipation while you listen to Absolutes over and over again. I’ve listened to it almost 40 times in three days (actually about 3 times, but that’s pretty close to 40) and the anticipation is killing me (softly of course.)
Buy Absolutes:
I always enjoy good compilation albums. It really says something when artists come together to create an album that really connects with a number of different fan bases. Sort of like a “Now That’s What I Call Music!” CD except without all of the, you know, suck. And sometimes, you get an album that surpasses the occasional “Various Artists” Christmas Album or the “We Are The World” compilation that rocked the ripe year of 1985. Maybe Dark Night of the Soul isn’t the earth-shattering compilation to overtake “We Are the World”, but it’s pretty damn good.
The album is written by Danger Mouse, of The Grey Album fame that mixed Jay-Z’s The Black Album with The Beatles’ The White Album. He also formed Gnarls Barkley with Cee-Lo producing both albums as well as producing other projects for the likes of Beck and Gorillaz. Dark Night of the Soul is also written by the band Sparklehorse.
The whole project is a compilation of different artists that lend their talents to the album including Iggy Pop, James Mercer of The Shins, The Flaming Lips, Julian Casablancas of The Strokes and Nina Persson of The Cardigans. Of course there are more, but you’ll just have to check out the album for the whole scoop. Will there be someone else? Is your favorite artist on the album? Listen and find out! That’s what we call a cliff hanger.
Buy Dark Night of the Soul:
I’ve been pouring through these Indie Music Playlists looking for talented bands that we could feature on site, and I’ve started to notice something pretty disconcerting about the genre: most of it is really, really bad.
Indie artists have, for the most part, started indie bands because they don’t want to fit into the tidy formulas of regular pop and rock, and while there’s a certain level of credibility to such a mission statement, the end result often ends up overly-experimental and—let’s face it—kinda weird.
But once in a while there’s an indie band that not only manages a hot song, but several hot songs and even complete hot albums. They experiment, and they strive to do something different, yet they also don’t sound like trash-can banging modern performance art. Rogue Wave is one of the indie bands that does it right.
In fact, they do it so right that I hardly even consider them indie. The first two tracks on their new album, “Permalight,” are both energetic, interesting, and most importantly, identifiably musical. “Solitary Gun” sounds like something Zach Braff would pick out for his next screenplay, and “Good Morning” has a stronger drumbeat and techno edge that absolutely makes it radio-worthy.
The entire record is painted with songs as colorful as the gorgeous album cover, and while it definitely makes strong efforts to do the whole indie thing, it’s not at all offensive to those of us who aren’t exactly gung-ho about some of the goofier stuff in the genre. We’ll give Rogue Wave a full endorsement for fans of rock, alternative, pop, and electronica. It’s not kinda weird. Just good.
Check out “Good Morning” here:
