Indie Music Universe

SPACE IS THE FACE-THE SCIENCE NONFICTION OF KOKO DOZO

KOKO DOZO are a Global Funktronica Duo from New York City by way of Outer Space!

Polarity/1, multi-instrumentalist/arranger/composer/producer, makes songs without borders and beats for curved dancefloor using REAL SPACE-AGE COMPUTERS! In his laboratory cave he grinds up shards of lost cultural artifacts, barks and growls of ghosts in machines and luminescent sarcastic spaghetti. Then he adds a pinch or two of the house special surreal spice. P/1 has four cult classic CDs of both electro-folk songs and all-instrumental electronica on subTEKst Recordings including one by Audioplasm. He also composes for film and for performances by Battery Dance Company and Quorum Ballet of Lisbon.

Out of this smoking brew flies Inter-Galactic Empress Amy Douglas who vaporizes the earwax of her victims with four and a half octaves worth of nuclear acid lung power. A punky songwriting funk-ette who sharpened her teeth on Earth at downtown NYC legendary music haunts, including the notorious Squeezebox House Band where she played keys and did a whole lot of singing,  she has worked with numerous legends from George Clinton to the late great Illinois Jacquet. From jazz to funk to punk, there is nothing her tongue hasn’t torched.

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Popularity: 16% [?]

Monsters of Folk by Monsters of Folk

Monsters of Folk is a collaboration of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward- three of this generations most critically acclaimed voices and Mike Mogis , one of the most sought after producers working today.

Wild Young Hearts by Noisettes

2009 sophomore album from the British trio. Wild Young Hearts is a set of sleek Pop songs steeped in Soul, dizzy on Disco and harking back to the days of Blues and Jazz greats. From the galloping Funk grooves of first single ‘Don’t Upset The Rhythm’, to the joyous, jazzy title track, the stomping Electro-Rock of ‘Saturday Night’, the glorious `60s-tinged Soul of ‘Never Forget You’ and the sultry, shimmering pop of ‘24 Hours’, in Wild Young Hearts, Noisettes have made what is set to be one of 2009’s most adventurous albums.

A Brief History Of Love by Big Pink

There’s something ultimate about London’s The Big Pink. It’s as though they’ve compressed everything that’s great about post-war music into their sound. They’re as accessible as a pop group, with almost folkishly warm melodies, the spiritual quality of soul and gospel, the rhythmic propulsion of rave, the white noise of punk, the glitchy textures of electronica, and the heavy drones of your favourite New York rock bands past and present.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Beware Fashionable Women (BFW to their friends), collectively are respectable musicians who possess the ability to be the worst celebrities.  They are four guys who look exactly like any other four guys you would find in a local ma and pa music shop or record store. 

No, you won’t find their picture gracing the cover of their album.  Their sweaters hold as much appeal as their faces do.  What you will find however is a collection of songs that cover all the bases of the great potential of indie rock (whatever that means anymore). 

BFW appreciate the irony of They Might Be Giants, the dire lyrical nature of The Eels, and the melodic sweetness of Elvis Costello.  Why must a band only encompass one version of that vague idea that is pop music?  BFW understands that labels, managers, bookers, and indeed the listening public would much prefer a band that stuck to one thing and repeated themselves into oblivion.  This is why BFW is destined for failure.  The inclusion of jazz voicings, Beach Boy harmonies, and Latin rhythms is only a sliver of the variety the band explores to break up the monotony that often defines their genre. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19% [?]

By Kristin Anderson

Greetings you indie gluttons. Get ready to hear my latest obsession. Brooklynites, the Ludlow Lions have stolen the spotlight with the new LP "No Stories," and are quickly marking their territory as Kings of the Indie Forest.

No Stories is a brilliant delivery of sweet and lyrical confessions. Wrapped in a rock-pop sleeve, the album is a storybook in itself. Honestly, it took me a minute to get a hold of the sound, but as the songs played — I was won over. Already having started earning rave reviews from the press, Owl Magazine gave No Stories an excellent rating of 4 1/2. And most recently, they were mentioned on Brooklyn Vegan in connection to Nakatomi Plaza, which Ludlow Lions current bass player Oscar Albis Rodgriguez used to play in before they disbanded.  

Indie blood pumps these fellas into sound-making fruition. From the first song, some unspoken familiarity and movement clutches you and gets you right in the mood. Original lyrics, poetic and far from overdone, the dosage is right and the delivery executed with a genuinely unified and familiar sound. Topping my list for favorite tracks, I couldn’t get past "Treasure of the Guerra Madre." Call me a lover of the slow reminiscent Doors, trippin’ in the desert sound, but this song travels through a rise and fall with a guitar clinging to hope, like a sweet prayer of some sort. This song alone solidifies this band as a indie staple. 

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Popularity: 13% [?]

By Kristin Anderson

Hey my festival junkies. Although I am a seasoned professional when it comes to festivals (15 years and going strong), my mom still insists on reminding me how to get back home safe and in one peice. So in an effort to put all moms at ease, I have compiled Mama Maria's list of helpful hints for your festival security.

Thanks mom! ( see I was listening…)

Crowd surfing: What's better than a bunch of strangers holding you up for your favorite band to see. Ladies especially — but guys have junk too — please rememeber that crowd surfing is permission for a lot of strange hands to roam your body in the name of assisting you. This can backfire. In a party environment, people's decision making may be askew. Be careful who's got your back and make sure you have friends around.

Mama Maria says: "What if the people holding you up have dirty hands or pull up your shirt and your special parts end up on tv?"   Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 16% [?]

"Sorry Jill Scott, not so fast Angie Stone, not that we don’t love you ladies, but Mavis SWAN Poole is the clear choice for Midpoint. This street wise, world traveled, diva in the making, can sing anything she wants. Smoky jazz club ballad, neo soul funk fest, low rider speaker shaker, Mavis attacks and conquers any style that comes her way. I wonder if Mavis is the reason Lauryn Hill has gone into hiding." -MIDPOINT MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009, Cincinnati

"Mavis can sing almost anything and has a huge vocal range, both high and low. When I asked her to do "Fly Me To The Moon," she flawlessly skipped up a whole octave at one point, becoming a soprano. She trained her radiant smile on me for the whole tune. I was in love." -LOUIS MARTIN, Editor @ CoastNews.com, San Francisco

"And of what she sang I know not, but her voice touched every chord of my being; something hand alone cannot make. A voice that takes on many shades and colors, and out pours many musical instruments that all come alive from one being ethereal." -the late, great, ULYSSES SLAUGHTER, Vocal stylist, technician, teacher

Crowned “Little Ellla" by the great Curtis Fuller, and guilty of inspiring people to sing because of God-given creativity, Singer/Songwriter/Composer/Bandleader Mavis ‘SWAN’ Poole is stirring up the music scene as we know it. She possesses an unrivaled brilliance of shattering barriers with her rich and smoky sound, undauntedly amalgamating jazz, R&B, soul, funk and hip hop. Swan is a sassy, soulful, fiery SongBird (which is the literal translation of MAVIS) whose music promises to stand the test of time.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

The Visitor by Jim O’Rourke

Jim O’Rourke returns with his first new solo album since 2001. All the classic O’Rourke-isms are here for you musicologist types: percolating banjos smooth electric leads organic kicking drum sounds the flickering of shakers to the left and right mellow but ominous woodwinds sounds that indicate vintage (before turning left and running out the door) sonic jokes sonic tear-jerkers sonic jerkoffs all wrapped in spacious yet subtle left to right placement of everything.

As Good As Gone by Nudge

Nudge returns with a slow burning full-length of sounds perfect for the dying days of the summer’s swelter. The varied stylistic shifts of previous material have garnered their fair share of comments regarding a schizophrenic nature, but here the experimental lean of the group is placed to deliver it’s most cohesive sound to date. Masterfully blurring the music’s entangled live and programmed approaches to the point of imperceptibility, layer upon layer of synth, guitar and vocals are draped over skeletal Pop structures and anchored by Dub basslines born of resin-stained fingers. Covered in an electric blanket of atmosphere that can surely only come from years in outer space memorizing the top of one’s shoes, the gothic trappings reveal themselves as hard-earned circles beneath the eyes as opposed to poorly applied hot topic nail polish. As Good As Gone is a proper album whose arc is intended to be absorbed stem to stern.

Get Color by Health

GET COLOR is the highly-anticipated second album from Los Angeles noise-wonders HEALTH. After two solid years touring with the likes of Nine Inch Nails, Of Montreal, Crystal Castles, etc., and releasing their much-loved self-titled debut and bangin’ HEALTH//DISCO remix record, the band convened in in an especially gnarly part of Lincoln Heights, L.A to record GET COLOR. The record is an exuberant proclamation of noise, rock and electronic splendor. It’s a celebration of sound; pretty, harsh, soft and basked in a blanket of ethereal vocals.
 

Popularity: 13% [?]

Mungus is a progressive rock four-piece that heralds from Louisville, KY. Classically trained vocalist Adam Lamb and guitarist Stephen Phillips were joined in the fall of 2006 by bassist G. Benjamin Ensor, a former classical violist.  In 2008 the band found the powerhouse drummer they had been searching for in Ricky Muzick, an award winning artist from Ohio.

Their music has been compared most frequently to the bands Tool (Michael Powell of LEO Weekly went so far as to write, “Tool’s latest album, Liminal, is certainly the type of thick, melodically heavy body of work fans have come to expect with each release…. Wait, this isn’t the new Tool record?”), A Perfect Circle, Muse, and Porcupine Tree.  Their first full-length album Liminal, released in May 2009, has received much critical acclaim and has been described as, “a dense and challenging record that rewards repeated listenings.” 

While they list Tool as one of their influences, the similarities in sound are organic in nature and unintentional.  Indeed, included along with Tool as major influences for the band are such diverse groups as Rush, King Crimson, Buckethead, Peter Gabriel, Muse, Ween, and Primus.  Lamb’s experience as a cantor in the Catholic Church; Phillips’s technical precision and, as reviewer Jake Lawson describes it, “liquid guitar work”; Ensor’s funk influenced lyrical bass lines; and Muzick’s speed, strength, and adaptability all mesh together to make Mungus its own unique animal.  As well reviewed as the album as been, the live show, complete with projected video and a steam punk aesthetic, is by far the more dynamic experience.  The band is currently writing material in order to capture this energy and sound on their second studio album.

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Popularity: 19% [?]

By Kristin Anderson

Brace yourself my little indie music monkeys. In a defiant search for authenticity and a passionate attempt at leaving a real mark, SUDDYN has graced us with some real indie gold. This band most certainly means to stay around by connecting with its audience and proving its dedication by delivering a sound from the depths of their rocker souls.

I got the pleasure of listening to the EP "Dark Lights," which was recorded in Grouse Lodge (an exceptional residential studio which has been home to some amazing artists like Snow Patrol, Muse, REM and Michael Jackson to name a few!). “Dark Lights" was mastered by John Davis, whose clients include Snow Patrol, Artic Monkeys, REM and Led Zeppelin.

These two Montauk brothers and two Irish childhood friends came together and SUDDYN was born. Combining a emotionally driven sound with style and intensity that infuses the music with a deep sense of drama, these artists have not forfeited true passion in exchange for the security of a stamped out pop sound. With influences like Radiohead, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, U2, Muse, Queen, ELO, Remy Zero, Led Zepplin, Harry Chapin, Gordon Lightfoot, The Guess Who, T. Rex, Beck, Bowie, Spacehog, etc…. it is no surprise that SUDDYN has drawn on the influences of the talent in our music roots to initiate a sound worthy of rock anthems.

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Popularity: 17% [?]

Tim Lacy and The Cherubs are back with the best one to date. Two years in the making, "BLISTERENE" captures the sound of a world gone a bit too far. This newer version of TMC has Mike Sciotto (Jefferson Starship, Marty Balin, Sun Red Sun W/ Ray Gillen, John McCoy) taking the drum slot. "I went back into my past to see who would be best suited to take this to the next level. I contacted Mike Sciotto, a long time friend who goes back to when we were teens. Mike has been living and breathing drums for as long as I can remember. We both have the same tastes and a high regard for production value. It makes a great match."

The new CD also features some scorching guitar work by Guitar God Nick Moroch (David Sanborn,Vanessa Williams,David Bowie). "It’s just great to have your friends come over and lay down some tracks. Nicky is one fantastic player. I’m proud to have laid down some work with him side by side! He did some amazing work on this CD."

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Popularity: 20% [?]