If you have never heard of The Shins, please leave my blog now and never come back, seriously. In the case you’re still with me, welcome to yet another ‘Band of the Month’ post. The Shins don’t need another blogpost from an unknown college student radio station deejay to be known, but their newest band member, Eric Johnson, does. Eric joined one of Indie Music’s most royal families, I mean, The Shins, in 2009; but what you may not know is the affiliation he has with the band he founded, and this Mays ‘Band of The Month,’ The Fruit Bats.
The Fruit Bats have found themselves filling the opening act role for other indie bands ever since they started touring in 2002. Unlike the bands they have toured with, like The Shins or Modest Mouse, their musical style has never evolved into allowing them to be the headlining band. It’s certainly not because any lack of talent, but for The Fruit Bats style, both the band and the animal, it wouldn’t fit them. At first listen, they won’t surprise you with any revolutionary style, but after a while, you’ll begin to appreciate the pure craftsmanship in the subtle changes placed in their work. Just like any opening band, they don’t require your full attention, but if you allow them, they can surprise you with a great song.
[The Fruit Bats - When U Love Somebody]
Before I begin talking about this month’s “Band of the Month” I would first like to explain how I came upon this group. Recently I have started training at WUVT, (90.7 Blacksburg) the student run college radio station at Virignia Tech. Every Friday my co-host Roland and I have an hour and half show in the practice studio at WUVT (pronounced Whoo-Vit). By next semester we should have our own shown that will be broadcasting on the air and online. When we have our own live show, we will have full control over what we will be playing but at the moment we do not. Every training DJ is required to play 9 songs from the rotation of the newest albums the station has received. At first I was skeptical about playing music during our show that neither my co-host and I have ever heard of. That was until our first show while we were rushing to find a CD to play we threw in the newest Beach House album and went with track one.
Our first show was honestly a mess, we got to the studio five minutes before we were supposed to start, meaning we never had time to pick out music what we wanted to play. During our show we spent most of our time trying to find more music to play rather than listening to what we were playing. Before we randomly put in the Beach House album to fit our nine rotation albums requirement, Roland and I barely even got to sit down to even listen to our music because we were always rushing to find more. Once we put in Beach House’s new self titled album, everything stopped. The rush of Beach House’s dream-pop musical styles filled our studio and instantly brought peace to the bustle of our show. Somewhere along those lines I believe that’s exactly what Beach House intended their music to be, a mindless escape from the bustle of life. You won’t find any fast paced tracks on any of their albums but what you will find are a pool of slowly developing tracks that will force you to stop whatever you’re doing and simply enjoy the nostalgic of state of mind their music puts you in.
[Beach House - Zebra]
Normally I would write a little review about this months “Band of the Month” but I still can’t decide if I really like Daniel Zott. I’ve listened to his double disc album, one that you can stream for free on his website [ Disc 1 : Disc 2 ], multiple times and I still can’t decide on a verdict. There are points of originality but then songs like “Caught In What You’re Doing” and “Ya Lek Tyn” come on and sound almost exactly like Elliott Smith and Sigur Ros respectively. Who knows, maybe he might be one of those guys I would have to see live to get a full understanding of. I imagine his live shows would be a lot of fun, especially if he plays the acoustic Hip-Hop covers “Low” by Flo Rida and “Crank Dat” by Soulja boy” that are on his Myspace page.
[Daniel Zott - Living A Lie]
While reading the album review for Passion Pit’s debut album “Manners” from Rolling Stone, I found Will Hermes’s description of the progression of the indie music world spot on.
From Animal Collective’s psychedelic collages to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ punk disco, electronic music has been invading the indie-rock world lately, as bands mix dance-floor science with do-it-yourself hooks and histrionics. [Will Hermes - Rolling Stone]
One of my favorite things about indie music is the uniqueness of every band. Unlike music genres like Country or Hip-hop where the majority of artists sound very similar, it is impossible to find two indie bands that sound the same. I am always stumped when my friends ask me to describe bands that I like with the question “Who do they sound like?” Even with the expansion of the indie music world from more folk rock bands like: The Decemberists, Sufjan Stevens, and Andrew Bird to electronic bands like: Phoenix, Peter Bjorn and John, and Crystal Castle. The new wave of bands still carry the essence of indie music in the fact that although they use more electronic styles there is still a large amount uniqueness making each one different. Passion Pit, January’s band of the month, is no exception to the rule.
[Passion Pit - Sleepyhead]
About a year ago I promised that on this blog I would have try to have a “band of the month” deal. After one post the idea faded away until now. What I am basically going to do now is just post one song a month that catches my eye from either one of my favorite indie bands or a new one I discover. This month the band is “Great Lake Swimmers,” I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.
[Great Lake Swimmers - Moving Pictures, Silent Films]
Howdy to all of my 4 readers out there!
Sorry I haven’t written in a while, alot has been going on these days. Those darn college applications and this whole senior year thing keeps taking up all of my free time. But as you can see I am back and hopefully the useless knowledge of my interests will continue to be updated on this webpage on a consistent basis. Anyways off to the post!
One thing that I’ve noticed alot is when people ask me about my taste in music 99.9% people have no idea about who the bands I like are and how amazing they are. So while working on my college applications a genius idea came along to post a new band every month that I like on my blog that needs to be shared with the world around me. All the bands I will be posting are indie bands and are one’s that can’t be found on your local radio station. Anywho for November:
Bon Iver
(link to his myspace music page: http://www.myspace.com/boniver)
it wasn’t planned. The goal was to hibernate.
Justin Vernon moved to a remote cabin in the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin at the onset of winter. Tailing from the swirling breakup of his long time band, he escaped to the property and surrounded himself with simple work, quiet, and space. He lived there alone for three months, filling his days with wood splitting and other chores around the land. This special time slowly began feeding a bold, uninhibited new musical focus.
This slowly evolved into days filled with twelve-hour recording blocks, breaking only for trips on the tractor into the pines to saw and haul firewood, or for frozen sunrises high up a deer stand. All of his personal trouble, lack of perspective, heartache, longing, love, loss and guilt that had been stock piled over the course of the past six years, was suddenly purged into the form of song. The end result is, For Emma, Forever Ago, a nine-song album comprised of what’s been dubbed a striking debut by critics and fans alike… [To continue reading you can go to the source article bio listed on his myspace music page http://www.mysapce.com/boniver]
I heard Bon Iver for the first time on my favorite Sirius Satellite station XMU (Formally Left of Center) channel 26. Normally when I’m listening to Sirius it is when I have no clue what to listen to but when I heard Bon Iver’s song “Skinny Love” it instantly caught my ear and got me interested in the band. You can be the judge for yourself by checking out his myspace music page. Stay tuned for December’s Band of the Month.