An announcement will arrive later today, but for now, here you have our band proposals!
Little Green Cars. A very young quintet from Dublin, formed in 2008, from the ashes of combo The Revolts. A sextet initially, they debuted that year with "Volume I" EP, followed by "Volume II" in 2009, while achieving some buzz thanks to their UK and US tours. In September 2012 "The John Wayne" single came out, with "Harper Lee" EP coming next in January 2013, anticipating their first album, "Absolute Zero", out since May. Fear not my friends, this are not another boring imitators of Mumford & Sons depressing success. Think more on Robin Pecknold high on vitamins, or Neil Young trying to go pop without losing his edge. Folk-rock with muscle, melody, impressive vocals and promise.
English Singles. Second stop in Sacramento, CA, with a combo that is some sort of a local DIY pop/punk supergroup, leaded by Scott Miller. Although Miller declares they have been a band since late 2006, English Singles got some attention last year thanks to their first 7" singles on infallible Slumberland Records, "Disaster" and "Backstreet Pages". This 2013 they are back with "Ordinary Girls" EP, out now on Slumberland. Scratchy punk-pop? Home-made power-pop? You decide how to label their music, what is clear is that this are infectious, energetic and ridiculously catchy tunes. Fun guaranteed!
The Tuts. And more punk-pop to end our weekly proposals, this time with a female trio -Nadia, Beverly and Amy, from Hayes, West London. Co-founded by Nadia and Beverly on high school, they were joined in 2011 by Harriet Doveton (now replaced by Amy) of Colour Me Wednesday, releasing their S/T debut EP a year later, a collection of their earlier tracks. The single "Tut Tut Tut" came out this 2013, a release which has given them the chance of supporting Kate Nash on her UK tour, and play this year's Indietracks. Urgent, chaotic and vital pop tunes infused on punk attitude. Want more!
Helplessness Blues- Fleet Foxes
With few exceptions (including the pretty brutal review from Gavin Haines on NME, which should start a serious debate about what do we call music journalism) the second album of the Seattle indie folk band is receiving the universal acclaim from critics around the globe, certifying the privileged status the band has achieved.
In my opinion, after having the album on repeat for a long time (my enthusiasm for them has grown a lot since I saw them at Primavera Sound Festival), "Helplessness Blues", is a fair follow-up of their beloved predecessor. That's a reason to be happy, but also to raise a question mark. Let's go step by step.
On one hand, half of the album is simply gorgeous. Their craftsmanship talent cannot be more than overtly acclaimed in front of songs like opener "Montezuma", the humming "Battery Kinzie", the Arabic vibe of "Bedouin Dress", the medieval "Sim Sala Bim", the homonym epic of "Helplessness Blues" or the sublime waltsy, fingerpicking style of "Lorelai". Robin Pecknold's voice shimmers, the arrangements and melodies soar, and one has to wonder if critics like Haines are just haters (maybe he hates folk) or people with a serious problem on the ears.
But compared to their debut something is missing. Some tunes, like "Blue Spotted Tail", "Someone You'd Admire" or "Grown Ocean" pass unnoticed. And then we have the two "slashed" songs, "The Plains/Bitter Dancer" and "The Shrine/An Argument", which could be qualified as interesting folk experiments, but where the sections doesn't really fit together.
And having in mind these disparities on the interest/entity of the songs (just my opinion of course), some needed diversity is also lacking on the album to avoid that feeling of getting tiring towards the end of it. Their first album had a slightly different approach to Americana in each song, from the rootsiness of Crosby, Still, Nash and Young, to the pop vocal harmonies and cheerfulness of The Beach Boys. Instead, "Heplessness Blues" is dominated by a publicly recognized embrace of the sixties folk boom. And more importantly, is dominated entirely by Pecknold (we could say the same about the lyrics), who sometimes seems to be almost alone in the task. Yes, intimacy and self-restraint could be excellent choices, but I have the feeling the record misses some foot-stomping or more electric guitars (almost absent except on the experimental/instrumental sections of the aforementioned "slashed" songs), particularly in its final part.
Maybe my opinion of the album has to do more with the terrific impression they gave after seeing them live. On stage, their music was not only beautiful, it was genuinely alive. During half of "Helpnessness Blues" I had that mesmerizing, contagious sensation again. But it didn't last the whole album.
Little Green Cars. A very young quintet from Dublin, formed in 2008, from the ashes of combo The Revolts. A sextet initially, they debuted that year with "Volume I" EP, followed by "Volume II" in 2009, while achieving some buzz thanks to their UK and US tours. In September 2012 "The John Wayne" single came out, with "Harper Lee" EP coming next in January 2013, anticipating their first album, "Absolute Zero", out since May. Fear not my friends, this are not another boring imitators of Mumford & Sons depressing success. Think more on Robin Pecknold high on vitamins, or Neil Young trying to go pop without losing his edge. Folk-rock with muscle, melody, impressive vocals and promise.
