Best of Myspace Music
I can never seem to sleep in enough to catch up but this extra hour helped. I have alot to blog about this week-some experimental bands, Birdmonster, and Xiu Xiu which means I’ll be busy editing photos today. Also, I’ve been getting band requests still but strangely not as many as usual and I’m afraid the ones I have gotten are just not my thing. But, if you’re in a band reading this, feel free to send me a friend request. Here are my picks for this week:
I saw Renee recently at Logan Square Auditorium on Friday night opening up for Xiu Xiu. She was dressed up as a thief and played with six dogs. Unfortunately, she said she didn’t have enough money to burn her music to cds but she did bring homeade cat pins to sell. She plays a variety of instruments and has a tumutuous sort of feel to her music (listen to “Lorazopam” for example) and vocals that make you sense someone whose really lived through alot and felt deeply as they swing into different octaves. Not surprisingly, on her myspace page she talks mentions how her songs were inspired by time she spent in a mental health facility in New Zealand. Her myspace page also has her as livingin Chicago now and if that’s accurate then we’re lucky to have her. She cites some great musicians that she likes under influences: Elliot Smith, Sigur Ros, Grandaddy and more, though I’ll say that at times her vocals actually remind me of Emily Haines of Metric fame (listen to “Asylum Escape Song”)
One thing is for sure, she doesn’t sound like Jewel.
View the complete photo set with The Dirty Projectors and Xiu Xiu on flickr
2. Days
Although I go on alot about France, I also have a not so secret love for Sweden. Oh Sweden, how I love you! Your lingonberries are delicious and you are the home to many a favorite band like The Concretes, Jens Lekman, and José González. Oh dear dear Sweden how I long to visit you someday. Hmmm….I think I got a little sidetracked there.
Chicago doesn’t just have great bands but we also have excellent music blogger fanatics like Bill of Poor Ditching Boy fame who posts reviews about his favorite albums, both very current albums and old favorites. Days is a band I could really grow to love. They have the indie pop sing songy ness that reminds one of Scotland’s The Trashcan Sinatras. It also has a real sugary sweet vocal quality like some of the best Neil Finn songs do.
3. Devastations
Aparently, these are three Australian musicians based out of Berlin and on a North American tour. They will be in Chicago on Monday November 6th at the Empty Bottle. Friends with the brilliant The Liars, their music actually reminds me more of another Australian favorite of mine, Nick Cave. Very melodic and dark even though their myspace page only lists guitar, bass, and drums as instruments, you can clearly hear the sounds of violin on some of their songs and piano as well on “Coal.” The vocals on this track also remind me just a touch of Jarvis Cocker in his more subdued moments.
4. Rivulets
I wouldn’t have known about Rivulets if not for my friend Matthew. I had heard the name before many times but just hadn’t gotten the chance to check out their music. Rivulets appears to be the work mainly of one person, Nathan Amundson, whose songs are fragile in a way that recalls to me the music of The Doleful Lions. It’s very soft but not too over-emotional. Even “Cutter” which talks about doing oneself harm is sung without any pretentiously emo undertones. It just seems very real and melancholy.
5. Only Son
I missed Only Son recently when he came to open up for Regina Spektor because I was at a different show that same night. This is indie pop with some electronic touches. I prefer “My Museum” and “Brand New Broken Heart” to the almost cheesy electro beats of “Long Live the Future” and I hope that Jack Dishel goes on to create more songs like these two in the future. I can relate to this NYC musician quite a bit, actually, in the sense that I’m an only daughter and that in Chicago, umbrellas tend to end up looking like the one he is holding on his myspace photo. We have a little thing here called wind.