Category: Band of the Week

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Hypernova

Iranian rock band Hypernova have risked their lives to play music. In Iran, simply holding a rock show could mean arrest, large fines or even a public flogging. Hard to believe? The fact that Hypernova have put their lives in danger by playing secret gigs in Iran gives you an adequate indication of their passion for music. It also makes me wonder just how many American bands would do the same.

“The underground scene in Iran is pretty intense,” explains frontman Raam. “There are many amazing musicians driven by a burning passion who are literally putting their lives on the line for their music, just like we did. There’s nothing more beautiful than raw and sincere music.”

The band made their way to the U.S. in 2007 and released their debut album, Through the Chaos this past April. Rock & roll at their core, Hypernova blends gritty guitar and percussion, Raam’s deep vocals and moving lyrics for a truly unique experience. While they have been compared to New Order, Interpol and Franz Ferdinand, the quartet is well on their way to making a name for themselves in the West.

Many tracks off their album sound autobiographical. On “American Dream,” Raam sings, “I know that I’ll never go back home/To the life I had, the life that I had known … All I wanted was the rock & roll/All I wanted was to see the world.” While rock is at their core, tracks like “Universal” and “Viva La Resistance” have an underlying catchy dance vibe. 

A song about living in the moment and not knowing which day could be your last, Hypernova prove their point on “Viva La Resistance.” “The boys, they are shouting and the girls, they are dancing/’Cause it ain’t no fucking crime … So dance like you’ve never danced/Scream like you’ve never screamed/’Cause this one might be your last,” Raam sings with powerful guitar and drums behind him.

First single “Fairy Tales” has garnered much buzz and was recently nominated for mtv U’s “The Freshmen.” With Raam’s baritone vocals and the band’s equally gritty beats, the raw emotion is evident. Hypernova kick off their summer tour tomorrow at Bowery Ballroom in NYC with Kashmir. Be sure to visit  MySpace to hear their music and watch their video for “Fairy Tales” below. You can read more about the band from a recent interview with NPR here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_sxsKBVJDE]

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• Band of the Week: The Spring Standards

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: The Spring Standards

New York trio The Spring Standards offer listeners a diverse experience on their debut full length, Would Things Be Different. Produced by Bryce Goggin (Pavement, Phish, The Apples in Stereo), the release mixes jazz, country and a throwback to 1950s rock & roll. Alternating between James Cleare, James Smith and Heather Robb on lead vocals, each track brings something new and refreshing to the listener.

First track on MySpace, “Halcyon Days” starts things off with light whistling before Smith enters. With soft banjo, string and bell accompaniment, the trio relax the listener. Not for too long, though as “Queen of the Lot” quickly switches gears. With fitting piano introduction, Robb’s airy vocals captivate before horn and percussion pick up the pace. The music suddenly segues into a jazzier sound as Robb belts, “Why not have it all/You’ve every right to take what’s not tied down.”

Known for their impeccable harmonizing, it is not their individual solos that impress, but when the band sings together. Tracks like the energetic “Goodbye Midnight” and “Little Bug” on EP No One Will Know showcase The Spring Standards’ vocal ability best and continues to intrigue the listener.

Standout MySpace track, “Little Bug” takes the listener back to doo-wop days of the 1950s and 60s combined with their seductive electric guitar accompaniment. Bearing resemblance to The Doors and Elvis Presley with their musical build up, it is hard to place The Spring Standards into one genre. This is not a detriment, however. Music fans of every genre can find something to like within The Spring Standards release. After all, isn’t that the dream of every musician?

Watch The Spring Standards perform “Halcyon Days” below. For more, be sure to visit them on MySpace.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ag6D_S3meE0]

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• Band of the Week: 6th Street
• Artist of the Week: Ari Hest
• Band of the Week: Hot Chelle Rae
• Band of the Week: Athlete

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: 6th Street

With catchy melodies and moving ballads, electro pop duo 6th Street offer listeners much diversity throughout their danceable tracks. Whether it’s the beautiful piano based “Angels Falling” or the fast paced “Try and Stop Love,” Mike Miller and Grant Cook capture the listener’s attention.

While their upbeat tracks are club friendly, it is their ballads that leave the biggest impact. “Angels Falling” begins with a delicate piano intro before Miller’s soft vocals enter. A heartbreaking tale of questioning life, love and death, the song strikes a chord.

“Never Gone” follows suit with piano and amps up the energy with additional musical accompaniment providing a strong soundscape to the track. With what sounds like soaring string features and electronic beats in the background, the band bears striking resemblance to Owl City. Miller’s vocals sound vaguely familiar and at times echo that of singer-songwriters Mat Kearney and Matt Nathanson.

Continuing to showcase their talent and ability as musicians by combining energetic beats with emotional vocals, 6th street give a new definition to the ballad. Hard to place into one genre, the duo provide a unique music experience.

Back from a recent stint of showcases at SXSW, the LA-based band will perform two New York shows this week. Tomorrow night, at Kenny’s Castaways and Saturday at Arlene’s Grocery. I have two tickets to giveaway for Saturday’s show thanks to AMP3 PR. You can be in the running by adding the band on Facebook and Twitter and RT this blog post.

Just tweet, “@yousingiwrite I want to attend @6thstreetmusic’s concert Saturday. http://bit.ly/d2eIuc.”

I’ll pick a winner Thursday. Good luck!

Recommended: For fans of Owl City, The Postal Service, Mat Kearney, Matt Nathanson.

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• Band of the Week: Murder By Death

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Hot Chelle Rae

With energetic, danceable tracks Nashville-based Hot Chelle Rae are bound to convince even the most shy wallflower to make their way to the dance floor. Combining pop rock and radio friendly choruses, their debut release Lovesick Electric grabs the listener’s attention on the first track.

Forming in 2005, Hot Chelle Rae’s name was inspired by one of the group’s most devoted female fans. Having toured with Third Eye Blind, The Rocket Summer, Sherwood, Black Gold and Reece, the band has been perfecting their stage show. With a catchy sound that is reminiscent to fellow pop rockers Boys Like Girls and killer guitar riffs it is hard to believe this is their debut release.

Tracks like “I Like to Dance” (listen here) and “Never Have I Ever” have an unfaltering energy while beautiful ballad “Bleed” show the band can switch things up and be more serious. A love song that holds striking resemblance to Boys Like Girls’ “Two Is Better Than One,” all Hot Chelle Rae need is their Taylor Swift duet. “I bleed my heart out on this paper for you/So you can see what I can’t say/I’m dying here/’Cause I can’t say what I want to/I bleed my heart out just for you,” frontman Ryan Keith Follese sings with soaring musical accompaniment.

Watch Hot Chelle Rae’s latest music video for “Bleed” below.

Recommended: For fans of Boys Like Girls, Metro Station, Fall Out Boy, The Killers.

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• Band of the Week: Murder By Death
• Band of the Week: The Young Things
• Band of the Week: The Bloodsugars

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Athlete

UK-based band Athlete‘s latest release, Black Swan is a beautiful, emotion-filled album with soaring melodies and musical accompaniment. With songs that detail the highs and lows of life — everything from embracing youth to failed marriage and death, Athlete impress and leave a lasting impact on the listener.

Released earlier this month, the band took a different approach to recording. After their split with EMI, Athlete recorded and financed the album with money they raised on their own. Due to lack of funds, they were forced to travel to America without drummer Stephen Roberts and played acoustically while on tour with Switchfoot.

“We were playing to 5,000 people a night, without a drummer,” frontman Joel Pott said. “It wasn’t an easy experience, but it was a real positive to see what captivates people when you’re playing to them totally stripped down. You really get a feel for which are the strongest songs.”

Night after night, the crowd’s loudest cheers were reserved for first single, “The Getaway”, a stirring tale of infidelity and communication breakdown, their press release states.

“That reaction was a real boost,” keyboardist Tim Wanstall said. “And it totally focused the idea that the whole record needed to be packed with the kind of songs you can sing along to at the top of your voice.”

When Athlete returned to England, they decided they wouldn’t record the new songs until they’d been properly road-tested.

“A lot of people talk about us being a great live band, but we didn’t think we’d ever quite captured that on record. We wanted it to sound like it was just us, playing together in a room. So before we recorded the songs, we did a tour of really small venues in the UK, to get us to the point where we were playing them well. And it really worked. By the time we got back to the studio, we knew the songs inside out,” Pott said. 

Blending electro indie-pop, their fourth LP, Black Swan, offers listeners much diversity. The upbeat “Superhuman Touch” kicks off the album with airy vocals from Pott and electric musical accompaniment. With heavy bass and percussion beats, Pott’s singing style produces a striking blend. “Sparks flying out in every direction/There’s more of this to come/I think it must be heaven/Burnin the sun with just a wave of your hand,” he sings.

Next track and first single, “The Getaway” has a softer and intriguing innocence despite the song’s tale of infidelity. With Pott’s emotional vocals and light percussion and guitar accompaniment, the band switches gears from the fast-paced and energetic “Superhuman Touch” to a beautiful ballad, showcasing their versatility. With the soaring singing style of Coldplay’s Chris Martin combined with their musical prowess, “The Getaway” is one of the record’s stand-out tracks.

“Light the Way” begins with nearly two minutes of instrumental before Pott comes in. Where on previous tracks his voice and sing-along choruses evoked the most attention, it is Athlete’s rich musicality that resonates with the listener.

Title track, “Black Swan Song” is a powerful and moving number about the death of Pott’s grandfather. With a somber and laid-back almost Caribbean feel at the start, Athlete’s heartfelt lyrics transcend in the stripped down track. “I’ve been racing the clock and I’ve run out of steam/I am ready for my final symphony/Oh, my body is weak but my soul is still strong/I am ready to rest in your arms/Though many battles I have won/I lost too many friends I could count on/And I know they’ll be the first to welcome me/When I parachute into eternity,” Pott sings.

The delicate “Rubik’s Cube” fittingly closes the album. It is a song Pott has said sums up everything. “It’s about puzzling through life, working it out as you go along and having to deal with its uncertainties. That’s the magic of life, really.”

It is no question Athlete have had years struggling to survive and find their rightful place within the music industry. As with anything, these hurdles provided material that only strengthened their impeccable  release, Black Swan.

“After everything we’ve been through in the last couple of years, it feels like we’re starting again with this record,” Pott said. “We made it without a label, without any pressure and without really having anything to lose. That’s exactly how it felt when we first got together. In a lot of ways, Black Swan, is like our second debut album. That’s a pretty exciting feeling.”

Watch Athlete perform “The Getaway” live at the VEVO Playlist Party at SXSW 2010 below. For more on the band, be sure to visit them on MySpace.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYRhc_JeLNs]

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Murder By Death

I have yet to hear an album as versatile and powerful as Murder By Death‘s upcoming release, Good Morning, Magpie. Of the LP, singer-songwriter Adam Turla said, “Good Morning, Magpie is some of the darkest and brightest material we have ever written. While it’s not a concept album, it embodies the struggle between light and dark that has defined our previous work.”

This struggle can be heard throughout many of the tracks. In fact, it is Turla’s vocals that demand the listener to take notice. “I traveled so long/I traveled so long til I was cold, cold as stone/My whiskers are gray they reach to the ground” he sings emotionally on “King of the Gutters, Prince of the Dogs.” It is perhaps no surprise then, that Turla wrote most of the new material during two weeks spent alone deep in the woods of Appalachia with just “a tent, a fishing pole, a guitar, and a lot of paper.”

Their biography describes Murder By Death perfectly. “Theirs is a world where Old West murder ballads mingle with rock-injected Western classicism; where an album’s sequencing can take listeners from a haunted back alley in rural Mexico to a raucous Irish pub. All of which is to say, Murder by Death albums don’t just string together songs; they create experiences.”

I couldn’t have written it more succinctly. Their fifth album release, Good Morning, Magpie, continues to bring listeners on a journey. Combining powerful haunting string interludes, horn accompaniment and percussion features, the band’s music leaves just as much a lasting impact as Turla’s vocals. First single, “Foxglove” is a beautiful love song with moving string accompaniment. With that classic Johnny Cash feel, you can easily picture Johnny singing “It was always you” to June Carter Cash.

Whether it’s a love ballad or drinking away the pain on, “As Long As There Is Whiskey In The World,” (“For as long as there is whiskey in the world we can drink away the heartache/We can drink away the girls”), Murder By Death manage to keep the listener intrigued and wondering what will come next.

Due out April 6, Good Morning, Magpie is one record to buy this spring. I can only imagine how Murder By Death sound live. Be sure to visit Murder By Death on MySpace for songs and upcoming tour dates.

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Band of the Week

Band to Watch: Avi Buffalo

Photo Credit: Jon Klemm courtesy of Bumpershine.com

Whether it was their heart-thumping experimental bass and drum beats or shared vocals between frontman Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg and keyboardist Rebecca Coleman, Avi Buffalo impressed concertgoers. While many of their songs can be easily pictured being heard in indie films, it was their stage presence and interaction with the audience left the greatest impact.

For my complete live review and photos, visit Bumpershine.com.

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: The Young Things

Those that think rock & roll is dead obviously haven’t heard of The Young Things. With music that transports the listener back to the 1960s, it’s easy to envision the Brooklyn-based band opening for the likes of The Beatles and The Beach Boys.

Having just released EP, …is the Killer, the 15 minute, six track album is not nearly enough to satisfy. After just one listen, The Young Things leave music lovers wanting more.

“Uptown” starts off the EP with gritty guitar and percussion instrumentals before the vocals enter. “Callin’ my girl/We’re gonna meet uptown/I gotta hurry/She doesn’t wait around,” The Young Things sing with spot-on precision. A solid and energetic start to …is the Killer, “Uptown” and second track, the tongue in cheek “Case of the Mundanes,” bear familiarity to that of The Beatles’ and their 1965 hit single, “Ticket To Ride.”

Guitar heavy “6 1/2 Stone” portrays a darker sound for the band with fitting percussion. The track slows down midway to the fadeout and is fueled by plenty of guitar fuzz and seductive singing. The EP is rounded out by quirky “All My Friends Are Junkies,” fast paced “The Well” and “Boy You’re Lookin’ Pale.” Complete with slapstick lyrics, “All My Friends Are Junkies,” offers humor to the listener while “Boy You’re Lookin’ Pale” provides seemingly important life lessons (to some, perhaps): “The world may not look half as bad/Through an empty whiskey glass.”

A glimpse of what is to come from the band, …is the Killer takes it back to the 60s where The Beatles and The Beach Boys ruled the music scene. While The Beatles influence can be easily heard throughout much of the rhythm and musical accompaniment within the six-tracks, the vocal harmonies of The Beach Boys are also ever present. All in all, The Young Things satisfy those pining for classic rock & roll. While no group can ever replace The Beatles’ influence, it is refreshing to hear a band that embraces such classics and bring their own flavor to the table.

Having just played the famed Viper Room in California, The Young Things will perform at New York’s Rockwood next month. For more information, visit them on MySpace.

Recommended: For fans of The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Gaslight Anthem.

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: The Bloodsugars

Brooklyn-based band The Bloodsugars craft catchy synth-pop melodies that are bound to have every listener dancing along. Having been compared to Phoenix and Neon Indian, the band is quickly making a name for themselves. While numerous critics rave about their “pop sensibilities” it doesn’t hurt that single, “The Pedestrian Boogie” was featured as NPR Song Of The Day in January.

Frontman Jason Rabinowitz and keyboardist Matt Katz met in college, where they “bonded over music and emotion,” listening to records in their dorm rooms. The duo began making music and soon after, Brendan O’Grady and Kenneth Salters joined, filling out the group as it is known today. “Each member brings something essential to the music,” Katz said.

He wasn’t lying. The Bloodsugars’ combined knowledge of jazz, soul, Turkish garage, French house and pop give them their distinct sound. Whether it’s their hand clapping stomp throughout “The Pedestrian Boogie” or Rabinowitz’s hypnotic singing style and “woah-oh-oh’s” on “Self Control,” the band’s feel good electro pop just makes you want to dance.

Debut full-length album, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, sets them apart from the numerous up-and-coming indie bands out there. The Bloodsugars’ keyboard infused tracks and spot-on percussion and bass beats keep the listener intrigued. According to Rabinowitz, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On is “a modern prom playlist.” Interwoven with tales questioning life, love and the loss of self control, the band gets their point across creatively.

A press release states that the album was written during a time of personal difficulty for the band. As a result, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On is about remembering there is always something to celebrate, even in the face of major adversity. After listening closely, this is evident to the listener. Lucky for us, it’s bands like The Bloodsugars that provide a much needed escape. One can only wonder what their next album will conquer.

Be on the lookout for The Bloodsugars in March at South By Southwest. For more on the band, visit them on MySpace and listen to a stream of “Light at the End of the Tunnel” here.

Recommended: For fans of Phoenix, Neon Indian, Owl City.

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Band of the Week

Band of the Week: Nikki & Rich

Yesterday, a friend invited me to see Nikki & Rich‘s set at Highline Ballroom. Unfortunately, I couldn’t make the trek to NYC, but I gave the band a listen on MySpace and was impressed with what I heard. While they’ve been dubbed retro pop, the band describes their sound as “Lauryn Hill meets The Supremes while hanging out with Alicia Keys listening to Outkast ‘Hey Yah.'” Clever, and pretty accurate. What do you think?

With a soulful 1960s vibe, the duo blends American Bandstand-era pop music with addictive vocals and catchy percussion beats. “Cat and Mouse” is just a glimpse into what is sure to be a successful future for Nikki & Rich. Beginning with music and lyrics from the Shangri-Las’ 1965 hit, “Give Him A Great Big Kiss,” Nikki Leonti’s powerful voice brings to mind Diana Ross’ classic singing-style as well as that of contemporary singer-songwriter Duffy.

Singing of her “man-eating game” on “Next Best Thing,” Leonti seduces the listener with her deep vocals. “Do you know the reason why I left/I was bored/I’m sorry but it just takes a little more to hold my attention,” she sings introducing the song. A tale of not settling and breaking hearts, the story involves a girl who has been scorned. “Nice girls always finish last/A guy wants a bitch so they feel like the man.”

The band’s music has been featured on Entourage and have critics and fans alike raving. I think we’ll be hearing a lot more from this duo in the near future. Take a listen to them on MySpace and watch the videos below to learn more on Nikki & Rich. Keep your ears pealed for an album release later this year.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZeZ_7fwZxc]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbmE_FwOywM]

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