Aaron Nazrul

Aaron Nazrul is one of Vancouver's brightest emerging musical talents, a world traveler and folk singer with the voice of a future classic. Aaron's music captures the raw emotion of Ben Harper and the cultural diversity of Manu Chao, with a unifying philosophy inspired by the poet Nazrul: "I don't belong to just this country, this society. I belong to the world."

Aaron first performed his music internationally at the Edinburgh Festival in August 2007, winning critical acclaim and the hearts of fans from all over Europe. He was hailed as "the Golden Voice of the festival" by Festival FM, who frequently invited him to perform songs live on the radio.

Known to his friends as Aaron Ross, Aaron got the nick-name Nazrul when he was living in Montreal for a year as part of his travels. His Bangladeshi friends said he reminded them of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the "Rebel Poet of Bangladesh", so Aaron took it as his singing persona. Click here to learn more about the original Nazrul.

The debut album from Aaron Nazrul, "Butterfly Man", is set for release on December 4th from Lit Fuse Records. Aaron wrote the album while traveling in Southeast Asia, riding his motorbike around Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Thailand. The local flavours and impressions from each culture have been absorbed into the song-writing, creating a record that is deeply personal but also 'of the world', a journal of life's constant metamorphosis. "Butterfly Man" is a slang term in Asia for a restless soul, someone who constantly moves from place to place, or from person to person. The title track says it all: "Today I'm yours, but tomorrow when I'm gone, you'll understand." Check It Out!

Aaron Nazrul - Take These Chains
Aaron Nazrul - Delivered
Aaron Nazrul @ MySpace


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Black Mountain

Black Mountain is an indie-rock band comprised of Stephen McBean, Amber Webber, Matt Camirand, Jeremy Schmidt and Joshua Wells. The band is closely influenced by many past artists, and criticisms often walk the line between praising adept imitation and blasting blatant re-use of old ideas. The band is a psychedelic amalgamation of Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, and Black Sabbath.

Leader Stephen McBean also heads another similarly-named band, Pink Mountaintops, who are the more experimental side of McBean's musical abilities. Black Mountain is the front line band for Black Mountain Army, a collective of musicians, artists and friends in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

By day, three members of the band work for an organization (Insite) that meets the basic living requirements of the chronically poor, drug addicted and mentally ill near Vancouver's infamous Main & Hastings intersection, widely considered to be the heroin capital of Canada, if not North America. The name "Black Mountain" could be a reference to a large pile of hashish.

Black Mountain has released one self-titled LP (2005) and an EP titled Druganaut (2004) on the Jagjaguwar label. A split single with Destroyer was released in Fall 2004 on Spirt of Orr. The "Stormy High" single was released in 2006 on Suicide Squeeze records.

Also, in 2005, the band opened for Coldplay on their Twisted Logic Tour for three weeks, with their final opening in San Diego. Their self-titled album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005. They recently were featured on the soundtrack for the box-office hit movie Spider-Man 3, with their song "Stay Free". A vinyl single was released in April 2007 named "Surrender Sound Session: Unkle vs. Autolux/Black Mountain" with a remix on the B side.

Black Mountain announced the release of their sophomore album. The new album is called "In The Future", and it is coming out on Jagjaguwar in January of 2008. In support of the new album, Black Mountain will start North American tour and expand it later to the UK and Europe. Recommended!

Black Mountain - Tyrants (from In The Future)
Black Mountain - Druganaut (from Black Mountain)
Black Mountain @ MySpace


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The State Of Samuel

Samuel Petersson a.k.a The State Of Samuel grew up in Varberg on the westcoast of Sweden. Frustrated with the people and music climate in hos hometown, he started recording songs on his 4-track machine and in 1996 he came up with the name "the state of Samuel". Several of these early recordings would resurface for his debut cassette "a 141 points average" referring to his personal-best in bowling at the moment(it's way better now!).

In 2002 while working on his forthcoming CD "Mutiny on Mercury", Sam was contacted by Japanese label Escalator about releasing a "best-of" compilation with songs from the 7" and tape releases so far. "Swedish Metal Aid"(named after the swedish hairmetal charity supergroup for africa), a CD/LP with 25 songs saw the light of day in July 2002. This month also saw the release of the self-titled busy band debut EP.

"Mutiny on Mercury", the first "real" state of Samuel fullength was released in 2003 on Strings of Nashville(Sweden) and Humblebee recordings(Canada). December 2004 also saw the release of another affiliated release: The Estate of Samuel »Fast Love« on bedroom recordings. In april 2005 Kittridge Records released the compilation Homemade Hits vol.2 which featured the song "Square Roots". This was the first release in over 2 years from the state of Samuel.

Forthcoming record "Here come the Floods" was finally finished in 2006 and released in October 2007. Current line-up includes Isak Klasson(bass), Amanda Aldervall(guitar), Peter Eriksson(drums) and Samuel Petersson(guitar, vocals). Recommended!

The State Of Samuel - The Residents Of Gloom
The State Of Samuel - Square Roots
The State Of Samuel @ MySpace


The State Of Samuel - I Still Love You



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Deer Tick

Deer Tick began as the songwriting project of John McCauley, a singer/songwriter based out of Providence, Rhode Island. Thanks to the help of Brendon "Viking Moses" Massei, McCauley has been ferociously zig-zagging across the United States, hitting all the sparsely attended basement shows, smoky bars, upscale joints, small to medium size festivals, and everything in between, since April of 2005. At 21 years of age, McCauley has worked very hard to get his homemade CD's in players across the country, and has no plans to stop any time soon.

In addition to his own musical endeavors, McCauley has also collaborated with notable contemporary musicians such as Viking Moses, Jana Hunter, Nat Baldwin, and Jason Anderson.

Deer Tick's first official release will come out on September 4th, 2007 through Houston's Feow! Records. Entitled "War Elephant", the album represents the fearlessness of a young man who will play a set at a New England sports bar while a Red Sox championship game is on the tube. But more than that, the album celebrates the art of songwriting and the songs that have advanced McCauley in his career and made him a unique figure on the face of music for the past two or three years.

McCauley takes his cues from legendary songwriters such as Townes Van Zant, Neil Young and Ritchie Valens, and big stage personalities like Sammy Davis Jr., and Tony Bennett. His influences are something that sets his live shows apart from most other acts. The Deer Tick experience is something that can be fun and heart wrenching at the same time. The performance is usually riddled with jokes, but always with a genuine and serious message that is delivered sincerely to the listener. You might just have to go and see it to fully understand it.

New to Deer Tick is drummer Dennis Ryan and bassist Chris Ryan (no relation). Dennis and Chris are the second and third official members of the band, next to McCauley. Chris Ryan won't admit it, he says he can't commit. Dennis is definitely in it for the long haul. Check It Out!

Deer Tick - Diamond Rings 2007
Deer tick - Art Isn't Real
Deer Tick @ MySpace


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The Whitsundays

The Whitsundays certainly have a knack for writing yellowed, reverb-wrapped pop music, borrowing from the grand tradition of English psychedelia, garage, and vintage organ rock. With reverent nods to the flower-picking whimsy of the Zombies, the red-faced bluster of the Animals, and the delightful inanity of Syd Barrett, the Whitsundays' self-titled debut is a vintage gem, and a charming hodgepodge of '60s musical ephemera.

The main Whit, Paul Arnusch -- who also logs time with starry post-rock supernauts Faunts and post-punk reduxers the Floor -- called on his ever-expanding collection of vintage gear (from archaic guitars to Rhodes and Wurlitzers) to document a loose, passionate love letter to the past 40 years of "timeless music." Of course, none of this backward-glancing praise is to say that Arnusch's first offering with the Whitsundays sounds all that old. On the contrary, he manages to transport the antiqued sounds of the '60s -- walls of dreamy harmonies, straight-away drumming, boney guitars, whirring organs -- across the same updated palates employed by bands like Dressy Bessy, Apples in Stereo, The Shins, and Belle & Sebastian.

And while this is quite the departure for Arnusch, who is more used to pounding out labyrinthine experiments behind the kit for Faunts and 80's-minded melodrama with the Floor than such lovely sock-hop simplicity, his experimental sensibilities still peek through on the Whitsundays' self-titled debut album. In fact, these curiosities and quirks are perhaps the album's strongest suit, tugging a set of super-sweet diner pop through the ages, and somehow updating it along the way.

Sharing two members with the ever-popular Shout Out Out Out Out and hailing from Edmonton, Alberta this heavily 60's influenced psych-pop band will be releasing their debut January 22nd, 2008 through Friendly Fire in the US and Pop Echo Records in Canada. Recommended!

The Whitsundays - Sorry James
The Whitsundays - It Must Be Me
The Whitsundays @ MySpace


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Zillionaire

In 2004, Heath Dupras stepped from behind the drums of The Washdown (Lookout! Records) to front his own band with ex-Phgoh drummer Keith Ulrey.

The two built Tampa, FL's Zillionaire around songs Dupras had written himself during his post-Washdown downtime. Dupras and Ulreay originally envisioned the project as a guitar-and-drums duo, but the layered, dynamic nature of the material quickly revealed a need to bring others into the fold. Enter longtime friends and fellow ex-Washdown band mates, Michael Waksman (guitar, vocals) and Bryan Bates (bass).

With the line-up complete and the additional songwriting skills of Waksman on board, the goal of the band became apparent...to make music on their own terms and at their own pace. Drawing influences from such mid-90's indie-rock acts as Versus, Seam, Polvo, and Codeine, Zillionaire took their time (a year and a half to be exact) and culminated the debut they set out to make.

Zillionaire's debut, The Street Lights Have Been Turned Down, which harkens back to the halcyon indie rock days of Versus and Bedhead, will arrive in stores on January 15, 2008. Recommended!

Zillionaire - The Gardener
Zillionaire - No Contest
Zillionaire @ MySpace


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R.F. Maston

In the small town of Thousand Oaks, California- nestled in the shadows of the Santa Monica mountain range, lives R.F. Maston.

With his debut album, “The Future”, R.F. Maston greatly defies his age with a focused collection of timeless songs, hauntingly familiar melodies, and sparse instrumentation- all serving as a springboard for his unique lyrical voice. Combining dreamy bedroom folk with jangly indie pop, R.F. Maston has cultivated an original sound all his own.

Self taught, Maston began experimenting with writing and recording early on. He spent his teenage years honing his songwriting, and came out of them with a true gift for crafting beautiful, instantly recognizable folk/pop gems.

“The Future” was recorded and mixed entirely by R.F. Maston, who also accompanies himself on every instrument. “The Future” stands as solid statement of R.F. Maston’s vision- lyrics steeped in naturalism and the uncertainty of the future, perfectly blended with the sounds of the past.

He will be playing select dates along the west coast this winter/spring.

R.F. Maston is an abbreviation of Robert Francis Maston.

The new album, the Future, will be self-released at December 15th. Recommended!

R.F. Maston - The Future
R.F. Maston - Two Eyes
R.F. Maston - Space & Time
R.F. Maston - Where There's Smoke There's Fire
R.F. Maston - Mercury
R.F. Maston @ MySpace


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Wisely

Wisely began his musical journey smitten with Neil Young, Simon & Garfunkel and The Beatles, all of whom are so distinctive in their sound that Wisely began a career long quest to sound like no one else. Eventually self-releasing numerous cassettes (now savored by collectors) to an eager fan base in Minneapolis, Wisely took to the road touring the Midwest in the tradition of his fellow hometown heroes The Replacements, Husker Du, and The Jayhawks. With his band, the Willie Wisely Trio, he played 150 dates a year and released his first nationally distributed CD on Chicago's Pravda Records.

In 1996 Wisely signed with October Records and released two widely acclaimed records, She and Turbosherbet, both of which were produced by John Fields (Switchfoot, Mandy Moore). Wisely and his band then embarked on a two-year cross-country tour, nightly knocking over audiences across the land with a singular sound rich with diverse influences ranging from 60's garage rock to vintage easy listening, including touches of Bowie, Elvis Costello and XTC-style melodic pop. In addition, Turbosherbet charted nationwide on dozens of AAA and CMJ stations.

Wisely, in January 2006 with producer Linus of Hollywood released Parador (Ella/Not Lame), Wisely's founding work for the musical movement EVOC-POP (evocative pop).

On January 8th 2008, Wisely is set to release an all-new CD entitled Wisely on Oglio Records. The new album is self-titled, because, as the artist relates, "I feel like this is the first record I should have ever made. I finally captured what I hear in my head when I write." Recommended!

Wisely - Through Any Window
Wisely - Cracked World View
Wisely @ MySpace


Wisely - Through Any Window



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Black Tie

After GoMotorCar disbanded in 2004, bassist Roger Apodaca decided to record some songs as a side project. Throughout much of 2004 he recorded his music on his home computer, inviting musicians to lend an ear and take a bit of direction while adding their respective personalities to the individual tracks they would lay down. What started out as a few songs soon grew into an entire album. The project was dubbed Black Tie, and the first album was titled “At Dawn”. The 10 song debut disc featured Apodaca performing much of the instrumentation but also included performances by Ryan Martino (BellyAchers), Dagmar Andrews (GoMotorCar, Skumbaag), Eric Reynolds (Los Brownspots), Paul Newcomb (Los Brownspots), Leonard Apodaca (Scenester, GoMotorCar), Audrey Lee, and Deborah Maldonado. Each musician added their own personal element to the already atmospheric quality of the songs and the end result was an album that was melodic, haunting, and beautiful at the same time.

During much of 2006 and the early part of 2007 Apodaca again hit the studio in the same manor as before with his songs and ideas being expanded upon by various guest musicians; many of which have their own respective well known bands. In working on Black Tie's latest release "Goodbye, Farewell" Apodaca enlisted the help of Ryan Martino in the recording process to help with recording and mixing. Many of the same musicians that appeared on "At Dawn" lend their musical talents to the new project "Goodbye, Farewell". Other musicians that appear on the new album include Ryan Anthony, Sean McCullough, Johnny Cassidy and Justin Ray. The album is set for release July 20, 2007. You can purchace an advance copy on line here.

Fans of GoMotorCar's album "True Tonight" should explore Black Tie as it is a nice follow up to that landmark album. Check It Out!

Black Tie - Wide Open
Black Tie - The Haunting Of Francisco De Goya
Black Tie @ MySpace


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The Draytones

The Draytones are Gabriel Boccazzi (guitar & vocals), Luke Richardson (drums & vocals) and Chris Le Good (bass & vocals).

On a bleak winter's eve in January 2006, 3 lads stand gazing at 60's legend Joe Meek's former North London home. They smile knowingly, shake hands and all agree to henceforth be The Draytones, an Anglo-Argentine psychbeat collective commited to reactivating a sound long lost and feared forgotten.

Gabriel and Luke were brought together in London N7, via Buenas Aires and Grimsby. Fed up with everything on the radio and a life on the breadline, they found Eel Pie Islander Chris and set off to play songs the likes of which had not been heard since the rug-cutting glory days of Syd Barrett, Los Gatos Salvajes, The Kinks, Thee Milkshakes and many more. With a simple drums, bass and guitar setup they wish to play to anyone who will lend an ear, that they too may vibrate in the mind of the one true God whose name is love; grooving as one to the music of yore.

They played their 1st gig in March with The Hoosiers, followed by supports slots with The Strawbs, The Downliners Sect and The View - at which point they were transported back to 1965 - just like they had allways dreamed!

In 2007, the Draytones released a 6 songs EP, Forever On, for 1965 Records. Highly Recommended!

The Draytones @ MySpace


The Draytones - Keep Loving Me



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Friska Viljor

Friska Viljor is an indie rock band from Stockholm, Sweden, founded by two close friends Daniel Johansson and Joakim Sveningsson.

It was January, in the year of grace 2005. Two broken relationships had led two
very good friends down the path to the strikingly untidy rehearsalstudio. A decision was made. A decision that may well change these lost souls lives forever. A decision that was based on the numerous nights of toxic discussions between the two. The one topic that was always brought to life these nights, ever so confusing, was love.

It haunted them so badly that they´d now decided to put it aside. At least the love
dedicated to your lover. All the energy given and recieved would now be focused
elsewhere. At what you may think? Music? No, not music, butlife, joy, playfulness and the freedom to do whatever you want.

So now, there you are, maybe with a little circular plastic piece lying in front of you. Or maybe you have just recently heard of this band and you are now looking at their story on a shiny screen. Anyhow you may not believe it, but that little plastic piece combined with a stereo, or clicking on a sound link on this screen, volume cranked up of course, brings all that life, joy, playfulness and freedom to You, with all the energy that once was dedicated to a now lost love.

In 2006 Friska Viljor released their debut album Bravo! for Sweden and in 2007 for the rest of Europe. Alike many other Swedish bands who copy each other trying to become new Oasis, Friska Viljor has to offer something very different. Inventively combining folk and pop, using different instruments, humorous lyrics and catchy melodies, they succeed to deliver one of the most exciting records in 2007. Highly Recommended!

Friska Viljor - Shotgun Sister
Friska Viljor - Oh Oh
Friska Viljor - Gold
Friska Viljor @ MySpace


Friska Viljor - Shotgun Sister (Live)



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The Wombats

The Wombats are a three-piece band from Liverpool, England. They comprise of Matthew Murphy (vocals, guitar and keyboards) and Dan Haggis (drums and backing vocals) - both from Liverpool - along with Tord Øverland-Knudsen (bass and occasional vocals) a Norwegian who now lives there. They have international trips planned to France and Malawi.

Their single "Let's Dance To Joy Division" was released in October 2007, to promote their UK debut album, entitled The Wombats Proudly Present: A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation which was released on 5 November 2007. The song entered the HMV singles chart at number 9 after regular radio play time. The song refers to the band Joy Division and their most popular song, Love Will Tear Us Apart, is mentioned in the lyrics. Joy Division were a popular, influential and doom laden band whose vocalist, Ian Curtis, committed suicide. The theme of the Wombats' song is that even when everything is going wrong you should be happy regardless and show this by dancing to a depressing song and celebrating the irony. Highly Recommended!

The Wombats - Kill The Director
The Wombats - Kenneth Clark's Beard (live at BBC)
The Wombats @ MySpace


The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division



The Wombats - Backfire At The Disco



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The Hype: Foals

Foals are a dance-punk band from Oxford. The five-piece group are known through extensive live playing around Great Britain for its mix of indie with elements from techno and math rock. The band has signed with Transgressive Records, and played a number of shows at the 2007 SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.

Jack and Yannis were previously in a math rock band named The Edmund Fitzgerald but this was disbanded after they claimed that things had become "too serious" and they wanted to have more "fun making their music."

Jimmy Smith was previously a student at the University of Hull and graduated in Geography. He played with several small Hull bands during his time at university.

Lead singer of Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies (now Youthmovies), Andrew Mears, originally formed the band, playing as a guitarist and the lead singer. He was around for their first single release on Try Harder Records, Try This On Your Piano, where they had more of a math rock sound, but left after a few months so he could concentrate on Youthmovies. He was replaced by Edwin, who plays keyboards.

The band has been noted for its high level of technical ability, and their penchant for playing house parties. Unlike other bands, Foals have notably been quite guarded about their demos. Erratic quality control in the songwriting process has left the band hesitant to parade them in front of a wider audience. They have not widely distributed them and have instead opted for their tracks to be streamed only from their Myspace site, except for a free download of "Mathletics" from their live EP.

Foals recently appeared on the Channel 4 music program Transmission. A full length album is due for release for the latter half of 2007, to be produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio. Foals are scheduled to tour extensively throughout Great Britain through the summer and autumn, including several dates backing up Bloc Party in December.

In August 2007, the band appeared in a mini episode of Skins, which aired exclusively on Myspace. The episode mimicked their tendency to play house parties.

The band recently announced that the singles 'Hummer' and 'Mathletics' will not be included on the debut album. Highly Recommended!

Foals - Hummer
Foals - Mathletics
Foals - Cassius
Foals @ MySpace


Foals - Hummer



Foals - Mathletics



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Maia Hirasawa

We're heading for Glasgow, in October, to a noisy bar where everyone had a bit too much to drink, and the band on stage this particular evening, the Scottish band “the Poems” with members from the Bluebells, can’t really get the audience's attention.

A completely unknown Maia Hirasawa enters the stage, with a guitar, a crappy keyboard and pretty bad sound. Everyone becomes silent.

"Though I’m Just Me", is the name of Maia Hirasawa’s solo debut album.

It is a logical name for the album, originally a phrase from one of the songs that didn’t make the cut, because this album is Maia Hirasawa, all the way.

She didn’t just write all the songs by herself, she also produced, arranged and recorded them in a terrace house in Sollentuna and in a cottage in Skåne. Maia thought long and hard about with whom she wanted to record her debut album, before she realized that the most logical choice was to do it on her own. She had to teach herself how to record in the midst of the process of recording but already had a flair for arranging. Miss Li, Anders Göransson, Josefine Lindstrand from the Danish grammy winners “Sekten”, members from “Loney Dear” and “Vapnet” and the string duo Linnea Ohlsson and Hanna Ekstrand are friends of hers that helped out. And the Hirasawa family contributed with handclap.

The result is the finest of pop, but “with quite a lot of stage musical influences, perhaps a bit like Björn and Benny”, a vague feeling of classical music and melodies you love the first time you hear them and that you’ll never grow bored of. She’s “always” been writing, but:

– Earlier I always had too high demands on myself, to play well technically. But this year I realized that you don’t have to be best piano or guitar player in Sweden to be entitled to play it.

Maia plays most of the instruments on the album

Maia Hirasawa has been singing in a million different bands – we most recently recognize her as the backing vocalist and multi instrumentalist in Hello Saferide, but she also played support to HS the entire of last year and sold every copy of her demo that she had the energy to burn on her Macbook. She won the Roland/Sami price for the best un-signed act of 2006. She’s in fact a skilled jazz singer, has a background as a brit-popper and listens to Loney Dear and Rufus Wainright, but not to Regina Spektor, simply cause everyone says that they bear resemblance. She is half Japanese. You have to go and see her play live.

Though, I’m just me. Here it is, it’s yours to keep. It will hit you right in the heart. Highly Recommended!

Maia Hirasawa - Still June
Maia Hirasawa @ MySpace


Maia Hirasawa - And I Found This Boy



Maia Hirasawa - Gothenburg



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Free Album: Hanging By A Name - S/T

Narrow and labyrinthic streets which flow into centenary courtyards. That's Coimbra, inspiring city that after fado and blues has now something different to offer to the world.

Hanging By A Name's hypnotizing trip takes place on those same streets, urban music full of atmosferic landscapes followed by complex rhythmic signatures, in a collective effort to capture the intensity of the stories told.

On their first year of existence, Duarte Feliciano (vocals and guitar), Adílio Sousa (bass) and João Santiago (drums) make their debut, homonymous by right, in a language made of tiny pieces of music, cinema, literature and photography.

"Hanging By A Name", divided into eight plays, will make you cough. Convulsively.

The Portuguese band made a decent album, the intensity is present form the first to the last song and the instruments and the vocals are on a very high level. If you like alternative/progressive sound then don't miss it. Recommended!

Hanging By A Name - Hanging By A Name (free album download)
Hanging By A Name @ MySpace


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Golden Animals

Golden Animals came together in a fittingly bold and magical way when Linda Beecroft (SWE) was stopped by Tommy Eisner (US) in the middle of the night while passing on a Brooklyn sidewalk. Though their music has elements of what is today being called freak folk, there is nothing precious or quiet about it. In fact, it is developing into a more explosive and dynamic sound than your average 4-piece rock band.

The idea of a guitar and drum duo is a relatively new one in the evolution of rock & roll, so the possibilities of what can be achieved by this minimalist approach, is in its waking. Bands like The White Stripes and The Black Keys have declared to the world that the rock duo is vital if not the new chapter in the rock & roll story. Indeed, Golden Animals are emerging at the forefront of young bands exploring the possibilities of the minimalist rock & roll duo. And people are taking note, they have already shared the stage with the likes of Entrance, Beach House, Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart to name a few.

They are entering the studio in San Francisco with producer-extraordinaire Chris Coady (Blonde Redhead, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, T.V On The Radio) in late October. Their first full-length album, being released by HappyParts Recordings, will be among the first out in '08 (which speaks highly of the year to come). Their album's release will be followed by a year of heavy touring in the US and Europe soon thereafter. There is a limited edition EP that can be ordered here.

It's no easy task to find a sentence to sum up their music, so we'll leave it to a young lady who came up to the duo after a recent show and remarked, "It makes me feel like I'm on a carousal twirling in a color filled sea of lights."...Well yeah, something like that. Highly Recommended!

Golden Animals - Do The Roar
Golden Animals @ MySpace


Golden Animals - Big Red Rose



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The Treats

The Treats are a dynamic rock & roll trio who formed in 2000, shortly after brothers/songwriters Andrew and Don Isham moved next door to bass player Tim Payne. After enduring several weeks of his new neighbors’ late night bassless jams, Tim had heard enough. So one night he staggered over next-door, bass in hand, and the Treats were born.

The Treats sound is driven by Andrew's vocal melodies and raw guitar combined with the limber rhythm swing of drummer Don and bassist Tim. The Madison, WI trio's music draws heavily from traditional rock & roll and pop, as well as incorporating elements of hard rock, blues, punk, and psychedelia. The result is an excitingly diverse sound with songs ranging anywhere from brash and swaggering rockers and high-octane blues numbers to wistful ballads and dreamy pop tunes.

In 2003 the Treats released self-titled EP that can be downloaded from their internet site. At September 7th, 2007, the band released it's second album Reservoir Tales, follower to 2004 debut Paint Your Blood. All tracks from the album were recorded in Standing Water Studios in Madison, WI. The album contains 18 tracks of well crafted rock music that on the moments sounds so dramatic as it's made for a movie or a musical. The influences of country, blues and grunge are frequently present in their music but they never distance too far from their traditional rock roots. The songs as Second Hand Reserve or Eve's Playground show the full rock potential of the Treats. Slow acoustic song Blind and Undying is another highlight of the album. The only problem with this album is that it's too long. Somehow, 18 songs on the album seem to be too much, but regardless of that, Reservoir Tales is a decent rock album worth listening. Recommended!

The Treats - Cuchillo
The Treats - Eves Playground
The Treats - Blind And Undying
The Treats @ MySpace


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