Mark wrote in to tell us about quarterlifeCRISiS, a relatively newly-formed group from Boston.
All four members are refugees from alt-rock group Stronghold in Siam which folded last year. These days, the band is doing a fine line in feelgood pop/rock tunes that are stuffed to bursting with great hooks.
A reader shot us an email this afternoon to share the amazing electro-songwriting talents of Sarah McIntosh. Sarah performs and records under the name of The Good Natured.
So good was the nature of the music (feel free to cringe at the wordplay, folks), that we decided to run an impromptu Recommended post.
Any visit to MySpace is the musical equivalent. You never know if the artist is going to exhilarate you or take away your will to live. Thankfully, The Good Natured are one of those acts that reaffirm our faith in music.
This young woman is big news in Australia. Her name? Missy Higgins.
Unlike the other famous Missy, this one isn’t known for her dirty rapping style, or anything like that.
This Antipodean is gaining a reputation for herself as an amazing singer/songwriter, and has already released two albums, The Sound Of White back in 2004 and this year’s On A Clear Night. And she’s only a tender 24 years old.
She’s won stacks of ARIA awards (that’s the Australian recording industry, fact fans), and her music has been featured on loads of American dramas, like Smallville, Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill.
I got a shout earlier today from a musician called Bradley Boyer, the guy behind a brilliant band called Auto Defiance. I’d all but stopped writing about unsigned bands because of the pitiful quality of acts that emailed me, but Auto Defiance are worth writing about!
Looker are a mostly female pop-punk group from New York City. They tell us that they’re heading for the UK in April of this year.
I sort of hesitate to use the word ’spunky’, but their poppy vocals and raw guitar parts inspire that kind of description. There’s something familiar about the Looker sound, like I’ve heard the style before, but can’t point out a specific band they sound like.
Sometimes good things come out of running a telly blog. A couple of Fridays ago, I got the opportunity to go to Bristol and meet a bunch of participants in the BBC’s Upstaged competition.
One of those folks was Elle Williams, the lead singer with Bristol-based indie band HiFlyer. Now, I’m normally discovering new music via my computer, so it was refreshing to meet up with Elle and have a bit of a chat. It wasn’t until I got home that night that I checked out HiFlyer’s music and was totally blown away. So much that I’m recommending them to you, dear reader…
Rob got in touch to recommend his flatmate Context, a rapper from Norwich.
Rob says “Context calls his type of music ‘Dub Hop’. It’s hip hop in essence because he is an MC, but then his production incorporates dubstep, drum and bass, ‘dance’ etc… It’s for sale in iTunes under ‘Hip Hop’ though for ease of categorisation”
He says that Context is fresh new music – “I am not really a fan of hip hop music myslef, but this stuff is really different. Its ticks so many musical boxes – getting ready to go out, feeling angry, relaxing – the lot!”
I took a listen to his MySpace and was actually blown away by what I heard. Imagine Mike Skinner, but much, much darker. The beats are intense, and there’s a brooding electronic bass sound running through everything that carries a lot of menace.
Check out Context’s MySpace for some sample tunes, and there’s also a link to download his Dialetics EP is you want to take some tracks away on your iPod.
Remember, if you know an act who’s worth shouting about, let us know by recommending them.
One of our readers, Angie wrote in to recommend Argyll-based rockers Maranchez. She says she likes the fact that they write their own music and they sound great live.
Martin emailed me yesterday to let me know about Irish indie band, Dark Room Notes.
The Dublin based quartet are our first recommendation for 2008, and you should go and check out their MySpace (just as soon as you’ve read this page!). They’re really quite excellent.
We haven’t done a recommended by you post in a little while, so here’s a recommendation from Ryan of Ryan’s Smashing Life.
