Even for a pathological depressive like me, today has been a good day. The United States have crushed Spain in the Confederations Cup (that right there is a week’s worth of good news); I have spent most of the day listening to God Help the Girl, Belle & Sebastian, and Bjork; I found an article on frontal lobe development co-authored by Natalie Portman online; and I read Hamlet during my lunch break. All of these things and more have combined to blot most of the negative aspects of young-adulthood from my cosciousness, even the corrupt and shallow FHM 100 sexiest women list released today, which unfairly favors women with long hair (OK, so maybe I’m still bitter about some things). But I am content enough to at least make an attempt at a #faibw post today.
Alright, let’s see. Here’s a nice one for you. Sun Airway, from Philadelphia. Very chill (an adjective I hate to use, because it is not an adjective) and I like that. All of their music that I have heard today has a distinct air of familiarity and I cannot figure out why. I am pretty sure I’ve never actually heard any of this before. I suppose it sort of reminds me of the Postal Service (Oh, no! Was that a Death Cab reference?), but with better vocals and (upon first listening, I would say) slightly more rhythmical complexity. You should really check this out. Also, you can download their EP, Oh, Naoko here. (Coincidentally, I have a little bit of a crush on Naoko Mori and an even bigger crush on her character from Torchwood.)
I can’t believe we haven’t had a Swiss band on here yet (I don’t think). Well, we do now. According to their MySpace, CHOO CHOO are from Bern. They have an organist in their band and she is a girl. Two points! (A friend of mine who is an organist visited me at work today, another good thing about today.) I love their fusion of 60s rock and contemporary garage, aaaaand they list The Monkees amongst the bands they listen to, and where would we be without Davy Jones and Mike Nesmith’s mother? (For starters, we’d be short two Pirates movies and about a billion gallons of Liquid Paper.) So give them a listen, I am really digging “Safe & Warm” [see video below].
Inlight have the sort of sound that I’m pretty sure can only come from Britain. You know, that pop/rock quality that lands just to the left of epic, but in a good way. There’s a slight thread of Pink Floydiness that runs through these songs, many of which can be downloaded for free under the “audio” tab on their website, and great relentless, non-annoying drumming persists through “Icarus” (one of two tracks making titular allusions to classical mythology, which is awesome). Also, they’ve opened for Alphabeat, and, yes, I love Alphabeat. One thing I don’t like about Inlight: they are now band number 472 on the list of “Bands I Am Not Likely To See Live Any Time Soon Because They Live In Places I Am Too Poor To Visit”. (My BIANLTSLATSBTLIPIATPTV list is getting really long and that is beginning to cloud my positive opinion of today’s events.)
The Indie Handbook 