Song of the Day

Posts Tagged ‘indie’

Singer Songwriter Jo Hamilton’s music is light, playful, intimate, captivating, and fully featured. Her songs are anything but standard, each one introduces a variety of styles, intros, creative harmonies, instruments, and melodies. Her voice is reminiscent of Annie Lennox and Feist but with the creativity and playfulness of Bjork. One can only appreciate the artfulness of her music video and use of non-traditional instruments.

Jo Hamilton’s debut album “Gown” features this song along with several other journeys in sound and harmony that are sure to pleasantly surprise. Perhaps Jo’s eclectic style can be attributed to her multi-cultural and always traveling up-bringing which took her around the world to places that most people would never imagine could be combined together into one lifetime.

Take a look at this short film which covers the making of her album Gown to get a better feel for who Jo is and get a deeper glimpse into her enchanting world.

Jo’s album was released under the creative audiophile record label Poseidon Records out Birminham UK.

Also find Jo on Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube.

Driving down a psychedelic road through time and space in that place where monks are while deep in meditation Himalaya releases you into their world of sound, passively enveloping you in with a warm welcome and understanding, guiding us through the realm of our minds where all things are known free and at peace.

Himalaya is the name of the musical group out of Brooklyn New York, self classified as psychedelic / rock / shoegaze, which hits the mark. Other bands share the moniker but thankfully this one has the full social media package. Here’s Himalaya on Facebook and Himalaya on Twitter. And the Himalaya MySpace page has a good playlist of their songs waiting.

Just by the look of it, The Kickback is just getting started as evidenced by their advanced songwriting, addictive rhythmic syncopation, and killer vocals. Because a band this good, has these types of humble beginnings for only so long. There’s a time limit on this thing folks, so get in there and get your autographs and front row live show spots while you still can.

These guys, out of South Dakota living in Chicago just released their 2nd EP last year “Great Self Love”, which was preceeded only by their 1st EP “Alliteration, Etc…”. You’ll find their new songs worth setting to repeat via their Official MySpace playlist. I wouldn’t so much classify them as an indie rock band because of their style, which has more of a lazy salsa bar kind ring, spicy and well timed. Although they do classify themselves as Indie, so I’m not that far off, but then they list “Showtunes”, which I’m a little confused about. Maybe the band can email me and expand my mind on that genre. Maybe it means, “The ease with which each song can be inserted into the soundtrack of most films.”, I do not know sir.

Maybe if you like The Kickback on Facebook and comment on their page they’ll tell you all about it.

This playful tune comes from a band that got its humble start in the form of a mix tape for a girl. The band, Throw Me A Statue grew from 2005-2007 on a local Seattle DIY record label Baskerville Hill with a friendly local following of friends attending shows which grew and started getting press. In 2007 the group got picked up by another record label out of Indiana Secretly Canadian and re-released their album in February of 2008 which has led to good reviews and an international tour.

I’ll just copy the rest of their story directly from the space age font on their Official Throw Me The Statue bio page.

In the beginning of 2009 the band began work on the follow-up LP and headed into the studio for the first time. With Phil Ek (The Shins, Built to Spill, Band of Horses) on board as co-producer, the group consisting of Reitherman, Aaron Goldman, Charlie Smith and Jarred Grimes sought to enlarge the scope of TMTS’ lo-fi bedroom pop. The resulting full length record entitled Creaturesque will be released in the US and Europe by Secretly Canadian on August 4th, and soon thereafter in Aus/NZ by PopFrenzy and in Japan by MerryGate Records.

After reading the lyrics for this song and watching the music video a few times I feel like I just had a fruit wonderful smoothie rich in love-sick adolescent hormones and high-school memories, it’s healthy for the body but the sugar high leaves my thoughts a little fuzzy. I can’t quite put my finger on a proper clinical analysis of the whole affair but I found a line here in my notes that seems to sum it all up, “I love this song, stop thinking, just enjoy it”. I guess when you’ve got a Lolita on your brain there’s not much thinking required.

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1) Houses is an anonymous lo-fi electronic duo out of Chicago, Illinois. They are signed to Lefse Records.

That’s all Last.fm has to say about this band. But you can find out a lot about them on official Houses website, like that they recorded a lot of the original material for the album while living in a tiny tree cabin in a remote part of the jungle near Hilo Hawaii without any running water or electricity. That they moved back to Chicago when they ran out of money and now have the album out and were blessed to have a great director duo for their music video Nik Harper, Lamar High, and Nicholas Owen aka Lamar+Nik. The male and female pair that makes up the indie music group Houses is apparently anonymous as they blurred out the face of the girl in the video. I would venture so say this means that the two value their own privacy, and also understand quite well the dangers of fame in the world of entertainment. So I’ll further conclude that the couple is also very intelligent as they are not doing something that is common among music artists, which is to reject the idea of self branding of your own music, although this can be argued. But at the bottom line they at least didn’t jump into the “look at me, I’m cool” wagon that a lot of music artists choose to take as a way to promote their own music through “I want to be like that cool person” associative thought which fans tend to have (idolatry). So good for them! I hope they make more music.

You can buy their CD or LP, Houses “All Night” which is for sale on Lefse Records.

James Delay ‘Howl’ on Vimeo.

James Delay is an emerging electronic music artist out of London England whose debut on Russell Club Records is most likely making steady electronic pulses through the digital ether as we speak. His music is calm calculated and powerful like an unconscious force moving the energy of the world across the grid lines of our cities. The music builds and creeps, like a slow rising tide or stream of clouds rolling by, influencing your perception whether you realize it or not. It’s like a new emergent property, slowly assembling itself out of the bits and pieces of our electronic world, coming together, forming something new and powerful. And deep inside the heart of the machine there’s something very smart and very aware that knows exactly what it’s doing.

Check out the full description of this music video on Vimeo.

Read the RUSSEL CLUB RECORDS bio on James Delay too.

James is also working with Jamie Blanco in a project/group called Figures, listen to & watch the music video to their new song Velo, hot off the press!

And don’t let the music stop with you, pay if forward to your friends. Just click the social links below or in the upper right corner of this webpage.

Photographs by Hotter LAter

This alternative indie band has been around since at least 2009, and has just released a new EP. You can hear all their tracks on their SoundCloud page. Hotter Later (or Hotter LAter) appears to be the brainchild of Sturgis Adams from Los Angeles, California. Their sound is a casual mix of synth, well harmonized vocals, and steady drum guitar rhythms. The tone reminds me of the honest humility of Guster but with bigger rocks falling from the sky.

I believe I came found Hotter LAter on Twitter and after listening to this track decided to share the love on Song of the Day here. Although there isn’t much information about these guys online yet. Last.fm and BandCamp would be my next recommendations for them.

Pop rocks, sweet & satisfying but spicy and mean enough to make you say ouch. Cults are genuine. Rock’n popp’n and tastalicious! Ok, I realize what I’m writing gives you basically no information about the band. And since they’re hard to google and even Last.fm has two different bands listed under the name Cults, why don’t I add some more links with info on them.

Pitchfork’s Review of Cults

The Cults +++ Official Website ++++ LOL

Listen to Cults Music on BandCamp

Oh yeah!!!!!

This is what I’m talking about! Rich, deep, subtle but strong, creates memories as it moves through you, and makes you shutter as it leaps. And if that’s just how I feel about my coffee in the mornings, imagine how I feel about this song! Kudos to Freelance Whales for their excellent new single and for all their hard work playing in subways, or at least posing for photos with all their stuff in subways. Also, much love for any band that openly gives away some of their best songs for free, like Freelance Whales are!

So I encourage you to go take advantage and go to their page at Green Label Sound. I believe they’re giving away this track and another one for free! BONKERS!!!! What more can I say? They’re from Queens, New York… you can sample more of their stuff on their Last.fm page…. I’d love to see them live. Yep, that’s it for now.