Three Songs with More of a Traditional Rock Guitar Approach

     Yesterday, the focus of the blog entry was upon powerful female vocals. Today’s focus is on a driving rock guitar.

      Outfit is a preparing for an August 12^th release of the LP “Performance.” Only yesterday, the first single was made available on SoundCloud. We liked “House of Fire” immediately. The lead-up and the execution of the screaming guitar at the 2:33 mark of the song remind us of what made Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper” a classic. In “House on Fire,” the lead-up starts when the vocals stop at 2:00 and the emphasis moves to percussion. There are tastes of the upcoming guitar during the lead-up, but the explosion doesn’t occur until 2:33.

     Outfit is a Liverpool band and its members are Thomas Gorton, Nicholas Hunt, Christopher Hutchinson, David Berger and Andrew Hunt.

     "House on Fire" by Outfit

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/outfitoutfitoutfit

     The Dirty Rivers is another Liverpool-based band. The band has a style that is similar to that of Jane’s Addiction, but we like The Dirty Rivers more. The song “The Kid” arrived on SoundCloud about three months ago. Its qualifications as a song that fits within the theme of this blog entry are apparent from the first few seconds of “The Kid.”

     The members of The Dirty Rivers are Mike Ellis (Vocals), Jay Roberts (Guitar), Lloyd Shearer (Bass), Ryan Ellis (Guitar), and Ben Robinson (Drums).

     "The Kid" by The Dirty Rivers

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedirtyrivers

     Getting away from Liverpool, the third song is “Lazy Bones,” which is a guitar-heavy track by the San Francisco group Wooden Shjips. The members are Dusty Jermier (trumpet and bass), Omar Ahsanuddin (drims), Nash Whalen (organ), and Ripley Johnson (guitar and vocals).

     "Lazy Bones" by Wooden Shjips

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Wooden-Shjips/44944152975

Website: http://www.woodenshjips.com/

Female Vocals Dominate – Part III

     In the blog entry of March 29^th, we featured three songs with strong female voices. That March entry can be accessed by CLICKING HERE. The theme was repeated on April 29^th (accessible by CLICKING HERE).

     It is time for a third round of songs in which there is a heavy reliance on the female voice. But this time there will be more than three songs, since the post will include songs we have featured in the past.

HAERTS

     Indie Obsessive is obsessed with the song “All the Days” by HAERTS, which is a band based in New York, but includes members which hail from Germany, England and the United States. The five members are Nini Fabi, Ben Gebert, Garrett Ienner, Derek McWilliams, and Jonathan Schmidt.

      “All the Days” by HAERTS

Natalie McCool

     Natalie McCool is from Liverpool. Her debut album was released on April 15, 2013. The song favored by us is “Black Sun.”

Hero Fisher

     As we said only a few days ago, Hero Fishers's "Fear Not Victorious” begins with very little to distract the listener from her story. An acoustic guitar is present, but the guitar work is simple and the mixing makes certain that the focus is on the voice. But toward the end of song, the story has been told and the vocals get out of the way of the driving instruments, until a quiet finish occurs. Between the beginning portion with the focus on the story and the end portion with the focus on the instruments, there are transitions in which of the two dominates. But starting at the 4:14 mark of the song, there is a portion in which neither dominates, but instead the vocals and the iinstruments cooperate in raising the energy and the emotion. That is our favorite portion of "Fear Not Victorious."

Night VI

      "Thinking of You" was featured by us in June, but it desires a return. The Night VI is a six-member group with ties to the U.K. and France. The lead voice is that of Sophie-Rose Harper, but there are a number of features to enjoy. How many bands feature a harp?

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNightVI

Website: http://www.thenightvi.com/

Astrid Williamson

     It is two years old, but we were only recently introduced to “Pour” by Astrid Williamson.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Astrid-Williamson/54352119938

Website: http://astridwilliamson.co.uk/

It’s the Ides of July – Music Alliance Pact (MAP)

          As noted in previous blog entries, on the fifteenth (the "Ides") of each month the Music Alliance Pact (MAP) makes a collection of songs available for free and legal download. MAP is a collective of 29 blogs (at least) in an equal number of countries.  Each blog chooses a song by an artist from its home country for the monthly post.  Approval from each artist is a requirement. This month, there are 29 songs in the MAP collection.

                There are three options:

     1. You can merely listen to the 29 songs at one of the MAP authorized sites. For example, the Scottish participant is The Pop Cop, and the MAP page is accessed by CLICKING HERE.  

     2. You can selectively download the songs by going to one of the MAP authorized sites and using the "Save as" capability of your web browser.

     3. You can download all 29 in a ZIP file at CLICK HERE.

     We look forward to each collection of tracks from MAP, because of the promise of discovery. With certain songs on our personal playlists of favored music, we can identify a single instance that brought awareness of the song. That is, if not for a specific blog, concert or television program, it’s possible that we would be unaware of the song. More than once, the awareness stems from the MAP monthly offerings.

     Unfortunately, the July collection is smaller than normal and contains only a few tracks that seem blog-worthy after only one or two listens. Looking at it optimistically, the July MAP collection may be “chock full” of songs that can be appreciated only after multiple listens.

     Trials and Ways (the contribution from the United States) is a band we have seen in concert twice this year. We only reviewed one, but both concerts were very favorable experiences. The band hales from Oakland, California, and associates itself with the dreampop genre. The MAP contribution is “Como Te Vas.” The SoundCloud stream indicates that the song is available for free download, which it is, but through MAP and not Soundcloud. A second Trails and Ways song is included, but it is not available for free download from either SoundCloud or MAP – we just like it.

     "Como Te Vas" by Trails and Ways

     "Border Crosser" by Trails and Ways (this one is not a MAP offering)

      Noiserv (the contribution from Portugal) is David Santos. Santos is one of the better artists of the growing number of multi-instrument solo musicians.

     “Today Is The Same As Yesterday, But Yesterday Is Not Today” by Noiserv (this is not currently available on SoundCloud)

     Air Marshal Landing is the source of the Canadian contribution. We owe these guys an apology. They sent us emails that invited us to be one of the first blogs to introduce them, but we missed the boat. My Bad.
     "Move with You" by Air Marshal Landing


     The contribution from Italy is “Sixteen” by Wolther Goes Stranger. But it has been censored by Indie Obsessive.

     Kins is the source of the contribution from Australia. It is synth-pop heavy, which that may be a “plus” for some of our readers.

     "Aimless" by Kins