20 November 2006

Don't You (Forget About Me)

The following list covers all of the recent (meaning Sept/Oct of 2006) artists/bands featured on EAR FARM through the end of October 2006. This excludes the weekly features (such 8+, Weekend Live Music) and is more about bands that have gotten a band-specific write-up on EF. The quotes are from EAR FARM write-ups about the band and should help give you a mini-notion of what each artist is all about and should also clue you in as to why they've been featured on this site. Click the (+) to visit a previous EF posting about any of these bands and click the band name to go to their site.

New York based bands:
The Fatales (+) - what I hear in The Fatales is something more like early U2/later Pulp.
The Gritty Midi Gang (+) - some very promising catchy electro-pop sounding tunes
The Midnight Hours (+) - obvious love for southern tinged rock (which is amazingly refreshing to hear amidst all of the NYC indie-scene bands)...a bit of John Frusciante and George Harrison in the guitar work
Mistakes (+) - as if they formed their band by placing 15 different music genres in a hat and picked a few at random...rock, prog, ska, dance punk, pop-rock, grebo, experimental rock, etc etc.
O'Death (+) - not really "bluegrass" per se but more like a rock take on traditional American music. In fact I'd go so far as to call these guys the US version of The Pogues.
Proud Simon (+) - a band whose sound fits very comfortably alongside contemporaries such as Sufjan Stevens, The Magnetic Fields, and The Decemberists yet Proud Simon has managed to carve their own little niche within this seemingly overpopulated genre
The Shapes (+) - a bit of Franz Ferdinand in their guitar chops and some garage grunge in their pop melodies
The Vandelles (+) - don't sound strictly surf-revivalist like, say, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet but rather take things upward and outward along the lines of Man or Astroman? mixed with Happy Mondays

Bands from elsewhere:
Katy Bowser (+) - you're really going to come back for more because of Katy's candied sweet voice and because her songs can't help but inspire smiles
Femme Generation (+) - Streamers, confetti, a trombone, the 'woo oh oh oh oh ooohs' in "Semper Fi, Little Guy", and this certain je ne sais quoi that made me think of Jane's Addiction (not their sound, but just something) and late '80s LA fun
The Floor Is Made Of Lava (+) - a sound that centers around strutting guitar work and danceable beats
Law (+) - They bring the electric piano and bass lines and drum beats but their true aim is to hit you right between the eyes with their low-fi groovy garage pop
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin (+) - somewhere along the lines of early Of Montreal and Beulah if fronted by Rivers Cuomo
Trials & Errors (+) - this is the sound of a pensive cinematic moment and reminds me of the life I never lived hopping from town to town in the province of Castellón

To see the entire list of bands/artists that have been featured on EAR FARM click HERE.

No comments: