NEW BANDS - NEW MUSIC: Triple Play
After months of silence I am finally back, and I’ve got 3 very different, yet very talented artists with rocking debut albums. I’ve taken each band and broken down their new album along with their overall sound to give you an idea of what they’re all about. Please make sure to visit the bands myspace pages and give them a listen if any (or all) of the 3 sound remotely interesting.

Owl City – Ocean Eyes
This is one artist that even I’m surprised to find in my iTunes. Just releasing their 3rd album (first with a Major Record label) Owl City has finally begun to receive the recognition they deserve. Owl City is a young grandchild of the pioneer artist The Postal Service, which feature simple and calm electronic beats with soft vocals. (The Postal Service features lead singer Ben Gibbard from Death Cab For Cutie) Adam Young, the one and only member of Owl City has evolved the Postal Services style of dark and quiet electronica into a much happier, brighter and more symphonic style. Their latest album, Ocean Eyes features 14 tracks of upbeat electronic keyboard along with a countless number of other effects. There are a number of tracks that I find myself skipping but there are a small number that I just can’t get enough of. Owl City’s first single off the album “Fireflies” is by far the best song out of the 14. It starts off quiet and simple as he reels you in and then soon after the 2nd verse the chorus swells and it carries the rest of the song to its magnificent end. Other songs like “Vanilla Twilight”, “Hello Seattle” and “The Bird and the Worm” are ones that will have you listening again and again. “Vanilla Twilight” (my 2nd favorite on this disc) features a lyric that I could not go without mentioning, that goes “The silence isn’t so bad, though I looks at my hands and feel sad, cause the spaces between my fingers are right where yours fit perfectly”. Throughout the whole disc, his soft vocals and unique lyrics just float along with the symphonic sound that is Owl City. When I first heard the disc it seemed a lot stronger than it does now but please understand, it’s still a good disc. Other singles have been released by Owl City and one worth mentioning is “Hot Air Balloon”. This song is an upbeat, bubbly adventure of two people who build their own hot air balloon and then take it out for an afternoon ride. The song features a xylophone and quite a few other effects that carry this happy tune from front to back. For a style of music such as this one you cannot have a better voice that fits. Adam Young’s soft and ethereal vocals float calmly above the poppy beats, creating beautiful melodies that easy repeat themselves in your mind. This unique sound of electronic mixed with alternative pop is something that Owl City has mastered to a “t”. If you’re looking for something to brighten you mood take one listen to Owl City and he’ll have you smiling in no time (unless you’re a grump, then take a few more listens). I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

Parachute – Losing Sleep

There is reason that I am hesitant to buy a CD on impulse, when I have no idea what they are going to sound like. When I walked into San Luis Obispo’s Cheap Thrill’s music store a few months ago I had no idea I would be leaving with a CD like this. I took a look at the cover and thought “cool cover, wonder what they sound like?” They had a listening station and after a few listens (two or three songs) I decided that I’d get it. Good choice. This euphoric rock band has released their debut album, Losing Sleep with Island Records, and for a fresh and new band, they are off to a really good start. With being signed, the group changed their name from Sparky’s Flaw to the much friendlier Parachute. One listen at this disc and I’d hope you’d be convinced as I was, these guys are good. Parachute is a 5 piece that draws sounds from bands like Augustana, and Rocket Summer along with artists like Gavin DeGraw and Eric Hutchison. Almost every song features romantic lyrics of heartbreak and love, which brings reminders of Jack’s Mannequin and Mayday Parade into the mix. Parachute is a group that really knows what they are doing (with writing and performing) when it comes to melodramatic alternative rock, with just a hint of pop. They combine happy, but powerful vocals with a soft type of alternative rock that swells with rolling piano and high rising guitar. Their first single “Under Control” was featured as the iTunes free single of the week, but their latest single “She Is Love” is the song creating a lot of fuss for them (both fantastic). Rarely do I find that I have to skip a song out of the 11 that make up the disc. Out of the 11 there are 1, maybe 2 that I rather not listen to. My favorite song is track one, “All That I Am” which starts as a rock ballad and right at the end of the chorus come the most magnificent swell of deep bass, piano and reeling guitar, singing “Just take me away from all that I am”. Other songs like “She (For Liz)”, “The Mess I’ve Made”, and “The New Year” all shine bright on this fantastic disc. This day in age it is really hard for young, new alternative rock bands to get a start on a major level, but once you take a listen you will realize why this group deserves all of the attention. I hope to see much more from Parachute in years to come, and if the albums are anything like Losing Sleep then I’ll be satisfied. I give this disc 8.5 out of 10 stars


The Parlor Mob – And You Were A Crow
I don’t know if any of you have heard of Slacker Online Radio, but if you haven’t then you should really go check it out. You input all of your favorite artists and then Slacker radio creates a free, online radio station for you (very similar to Pandora). The coolest thing about these online radio services is that they will recommend new artists to you that you might like, and every once in awhile you hear a song that really catches your ear. So is the case with The Parlor Mob and their single “Can’t Keep No Good Boy Down”. I heard this song and was immediately interested, and a few months later I found their debut album, And You Were A Crow and did not hesitate to buy it. The verdict: the rest of the disc was totally worth it. The Parlor Mob is an hard-alternative rock group that reminds us of the classics but throws a few curve balls in of modern style with every song. With classic rock influences of Led Zeppelin and The Who along with a number of modern rock influences, including The Raconteurs and Jet, this bands style is something familiar. But, they have found an incredible middle ground between classic rock and modern alternative. A big reason I dropped Zeppelin in the list of influences is because lead singer of the group has a voice that you could mistake for Mr. Robert Plants. His vocals are sharp and high pitched but they truly control each songs direction as it progresses, like Plant’s with each Zeppelin song. This band brings hard guitar, running base lines, and banging drums together with a hint of twang (that is sometimes easier to hear depending on the song) that sends the sound a bit south. This individually of twang is most visible in their single and my personal favorite “Can’t Keep No Good Boy Down”, the song that turned me onto the group. It starts with some quiet talking and tambourine, and slowly a twangy southern guitar and a slightly out of tune piano brings the song to its beginning. As the song progresses clapping and large groups singing choruses together brings reminders of slave songs that were sung in the cotton fields. In all 12 of the tracks there is only one song I find myself skipping, which is “Angry Young Girl”. The majority of the songs on the disc feature fast, hard rocking beats with harsh, but awesome vocals that’ll really get your head banging. Songs like “Hard Times”, “Dead Wrong” and “Bullet” are fast paced and pure rock n’ roll from start to finish, where others like “You Were An Orphan”, “Everything You’re Breathing For”, and the 8 minute blues riff “Tide of Tears” start off quiet and build themselves into a grand finale of killer sound. Like I said, 11 out of the 12 tracks are fantastic and each deserves a good long listen. The Parlor Mob is a group that in this time of such similarity between bands has mastered this sound we’ve heard before and made it their own. I give this disc 9 out of 10 stars.