Vol. 5 Issue 48 December 2009
It is the end of the year here at BRM. We're all very excited for Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa and a whole host of industry parties that we mainly won't be attending. In the meantime, December will bring you six albums that you probably haven't heard of. But, don't let that scare you... So, check out Jesse B Marchant, Systems Officer (the dude from Pinback), and the best party album of the year Music Go Music. See you in 2010!
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Current Releases
- Click to see:
- Temporary Residence
- Jesse B Marchant
- Quannum Projects
Temporary Residence
temporaryresidence.com/
Systems Officer
"Underslept"
Armistead Burwell Smith IV of Pinback and Three Mile Pilot spent his spare time over the last five years recording a solo album under the name Systems Officer (Temporary Residence). With an easy emotional approach akin to Death Cab For Cutie, the guitars ring and drums thud in familiar Pinback fashion, but he definitely carves his own niche. Check out the song “Shape Shifter,” it’s like an 80’s b-side missing from the soundtrack to The Lost Boys. That’s what separates it from his band work, there are layers upon layers of keyboards and vocals that don’t exist on Pinback albums. He really seems to let his pop sensibilities shine through on Underslept. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t take him five years to follow this beauty up. Check out "Shape Shifter".
Jesse B Marchant
www.jbm-music.com/
Jesse B Marchant
"Not Even In July"
Slow, airy guitars and brooding, dramatic melodies seamlessly wind into each other to create the ghost town soundtrack that is Jesse B Marchant’s Not Even In July. Get ready to slow it down, because we’re going almost all acoustic on this one, with slides and reverb mixed in for eeriness’s sake, and Jesse’s vocals take center stage as he wraps poetry tightly in tune. He’s a Canada-boy who moved to NYC, and he’s chosen Brooklyn as his musical haven (after a bitter stint in LA; a stint he wrote the song “Ambitions and War” about). There are spooky toe-tappers, pulsing ballads, and plenty of exciting string plucking, just in time for the cold months, and Bank Robber Music is proud to make it available! Check out “Friends For Fireworks”.
Quannum Projects
www.quannum.com/
Kat 010
"Natural Phenomenon"
Nothing warms us up here at Bank Robber quite like kickin’ it to solid trip-hop beats, and we found just the gal to help generate that heat: Kat O1O (Ouano), the Berklee degree boasting beat-maker who can usually be found sewing songs with her band of organic hip-hoppers, Crown City Rockers, is, at long last (and with the help of Quannum Projects), massively releasing her electro-jazz solo debut, Natural Phenomenon. Kat’s background is in competitive classical piano, but, somewhere through years of educational, improvisational and experimental work, she learned to harness her talents to craft clean, groovy instrumental compositions that could knock anyone off their feet whether they’re Mozart or Morrissey. Sometimes funky, sometimes fluid, Natural Phenomenon has a song for every frame of mind. Check out “Nebulous”.
- Click to see:
- Team Love
- Secretly Canadian
- Numero Group
Team Love
team-love.com/
Midnight Masses
"Rapture Ready, I Gazed At The Body"
Our super smart friends over at Team Love have quite the collective eye for bands with awesome potential. This time they’ve teamed up with Collect Records to release the first EP by Midnight Masses, Rapture Ready, I Gazed at the Body, a conceptual beauty with guest appearances from Jaleel Bunton (TV on the Radio), Peter Hale (Here We Go Magic), and half of Trail of Dead. Indie powerhouse? Most definitely. A host of vocalists and subtle, persistent guitars create a melodic ambiance that is so well-crafted, it will be hard for anyone to stop listening. This transformational EP, despite being a mere four tracks, is an expansive and dramatic winter epic that’s sure to turn heads as this indie-soaked year come to a close. Check out “Walk On Water”.
Secretly Canadian
www.secretlycanadian.com/
Music Go Music
"Expressions"
The members of the band Music Go Music met each other at a party, and from the sound of their debut album Expressions (Secretly Canadian), the party never stopped. Their paranoid future disco sound is quite a shindig! “I Walk Alone”, the opening track, is a darkly dancable ditty that is just a taste of what the rest of the album has to offer. “Light Of Love” is like a great lost ELO track from Xanadu. Elsewhere they sound vaguely like ABBA and Queen, at the same time! That is a difficult feat indeed, but they pull it off. According to the band, they dream of playing to a “bevy of Middle-aged dancing women.” I hope the cougars leave room on the dance floor for the rest of us. Check out "Goodbye Everybody".
Numero Group
www.numerogroup.com/
Various
"Wayfaring Strangers: Lonesome Heroes"
A few months ago, the terrifyingly terrific Monsters of Folk bombarded the indie music world with the gargantuan impact their beastly moniker inferred, but it’s time for the monsters to meet the masters. Numero Group has assembled a compilation of folk singer-songwriters from the salad days of the post-60s troubadour movement, the newest addition to their Wayfaring Strangers collection, Lonesome Heroes. Seventeen tracks have been excavated and packaged in a meditative dedication to some of Americana’s best kept secrets (except for the UK’s Kieran White , whose song, “Hummingbird” is a spectacular contribution), so, if you fancy yourself a connoisseur of the raspy balladeer, you may want to check this album for missed treasures. Everyone else: get ready for a crash course. Even at BRM, we were surprised to discover quite a few “new” favorites. Check out “Before” by Jim Schoenfeld.