Posted on

ASMW — Alexa Ray Joel

I completely stumbled onto Alexa Ray Joel, and liked what I was hearing, before it started to dawn on me exactly *who* I was hearing. I have a feeling that this is the kind of thing she would prefer from new fans.

This is the first single from her second album, her first featured her own artwork, and sampled herwide range from folk/country to alt-pop, and into jazz. This track would sit gingerly in the pop-jazz area. Reminiscient of Corrine Bailey Rae and Billie Holiday, The writing has strong hooks and the arrangements are balanced.

As stated above, I got into the track for a while before finding out more about who she is. The tipoff to some of you would have been the Joel surname. She’s the daughter of Billy Joel and Christie Brinkley.

Posted on

ASMW – Earthbound

Last week, I found Earthbound when looking for some funky soul music after seeing a local soul band that really struck me (another post in the making). Earthbound has a really comfortable feel. The percussion never feels rushed, and there is a sense of place and balance between the brass and the percussion. Kira’s lyrics are always upbeat and mature, and her voice is both energetic and calming. I don’t think they will be coming to Atlanta any time soon, as they are base in Canada… pity.
Earthbound
Besides hearing the full track of “Find Yourself” featured here, be sure to check out the tracks “Open Up Your Arms” and “Letting Go”. At the time of this writing, both albums are still free. Of course, as tracks become more popular on Amie Street, the price goes up, so get up on it!

 

Posted on

ASMW – Cubicle

“We’re gonna make millions, millions I say!”

This week’s band is a high-powered post-punk group from California called Cubicle. The first thing that got my attention while browsing new albums at Amie Street was the album cover, an obvious throwback to the old DRI (Dirty Rotten Imbeciles) logo from back in the late, late 80’s skate punk days, but with an update: a briefcase and cellphone. I immediately popped open the player for a few samples and found a band with a lot of energy who find humor in our everyday grind, poke fun at the corporate way of life, the slag, and the slack. Their Myspace page points more toward a “must-see” live show.
“It’s imperative to know how to get scheduled in.”
Be sure to check out “Cooking the Books” and “Corporate Card”.

Posted on

ASMW – Les Savy Fav

This week’s entry is for a band known as Les Savy Fav. This New York band got its start at university in Rhode Island and has an interesting way with both instrumentation and lyrics that keeps me coming back to their tracks. Checking out their discography, I’ve noticed that they always seem to be looking to add more to their sound, but at the same time, never lose themselves. The current album, “Let’s Stay Friends,” has a few tracks with guest vocalists, specifically “Kiss Kiss is Getting Old” and “Comes and Goes”. The lyrics are well-rooted in academia and sometimes are twitch-muttered in syncopation and on other tracks are shout-blasted over grunge-fuzz and high-distortion guitar licks. I hope these guys come to Atlanta for a live show someday soon.
The track I’ve highlighted here, “Rage in the Plague Age” went all too well with my recent addiction to the Knighthood game on FaceBook, which I blame entirely on Tsani and Kimberly, and even includes a temporally-shifted call to rock-n’-roll arms:

Draw up the drawbridge, draw down the blinds / everyone inside is getting high tonight, waiting for the plague to move on/ nobody’s getting sober till the liquor’s gone!

Posted on

ASMW — Kintama

This week, I have discovered a Norwegian band called Kintama. This four-peice band is inspired by Kurosawa films, and their album “The Silencer” tells the tale of a fictional video game filled with underground Tokyo, samurai, ninjas, and mob lords.
The song I’m featuring here, “She Likes it Vindaloo” is track seven, after the initial character development, and into the action of the story.
Kintama has a sound like American hard alternative rock, like the Foo Fighters.

Posted on

Thanks, Amie Street!

A little while back, I got a comment from Zane over at AmieStreet.com which kicked off an email conversation about this whole Amie Street Music Wednesday meme. Apparently, The crew over at AmieStreet have been noticing a difference in sales and traffic from this bit of blogger activity, and wanted to show some love by sending a slick tee shirt. It is a gray American Apparel Tee with an awesome pinball table theme in pink featuring a bunch of terms used in the amie street community and on the site in general. I really dig it a lot!
Since a post like this is “nothing without pics,” I have a few shots here in my back pocket. (just ignore the pocket lint and empty gum wrapper):
Detail of Tee design with my library on I hear some 80's synth-pop coming up...extreme camera angles!

They were out of my size, so this one is really huge now. I’m hoping that it shrinks up a bit when I launder it the first time.
The meme was thought up by Mark over at Mouseclone after some discussions about all the new music we were finding regularly on the AmieStreet website. After putting together the original tracker, he was able to get in touch with some of the development team, who helped in providing the embedded player with the “skinning” options, and then Mark’s work on the WordPress plugin started to really take shape.

I’m glad to see the sites doing well, and have found amiestreet to be a great place as a music consumer to find new and interesting bands, and see it as a hot spot for independent artists to promote and sell their tracks, find new fans, and to connect with the community.

Posted on

ASMW – Simon Wilcox

I’ve been holding the cards long enough on Simon Wilcox, and really wanted to share her tracks with you. She’s a singer and songwriter, and *yes* she has a guy name. If any of you were fans of The Kooks, the voice will sound familiar. I really like the fresh intensity of the “Eyes On You” track, and find that this is a good collection of tracks to have for driving or to listen to while indulging the right-brain, whether that be drawing, painting, photoshop work, or creative writing.

Amie St. Music Wednesday

Why Amie St. Wednesday? Music is in everyones lives. It surrounds us even when we don.t it. This is a way to discover new artist, and share the artist that you enjoy listening to on AmieStreet.com. If you enjoy the music please support the artist. Amie St. Music Wednesday has no affiliation with AmieStreet.com and the opinion about the music and/or artist is the that of the postie.

Posted on

ASMW – 0N3S & Z3R0S

This week, I am talking about a band called “ones and zeroes”, or more exactly, 0N3S & Z3R0S. This three-peice is from Northern California, and has a unique sound, melding the sounds of electronica loops and effects with traditional instrumentation and alt-grunge vocals. After you sample “Mind Run Free”, Click on the “more by this artist” button and make sure to hit “Nothing Left” and “Rose” while you are checking out the 0N3S & Z3R0S.