Yesterday, the debut record from Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells came out. I’ve been loving Crown on the Ground and Tell ‘Em so I’m pretty psyched on listening to this thing through. Luckily that’s well within my reach. The entire album is streaming for the rest of the week on NPR.
I’m normally antagonistic when it comes to the whispy singer songwriter. This guy, Dan Wythoff, I like. I can’t really say why. I don’t have time for the Joshua Radins, Eric Hitchinsons and the William Fitzimmons’ of this world. There’s something that’s almost too easy about them. Dan Wythoff has slightly more upbeat, more “fun” rythyms. Often you can’t tell whether he is guy or girl and that really resonates with me in this ambivalent, gender confused time that we live. All guys go through periods here they can’t figure out if they’re truly male and need to take a peek to make sure. Right…? I’m pretty sure that’s the case.
Listen to this track. If you’re a girl then you’ll probably like him. If you’re a liberal guy you might too. Hell I do, and I’m all man.
Dan Wythoff – Making Room
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Dan Wythoff – Soft Breeze
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Great news! His EP is out now. Better still, it’s free! Download it here.
On a similar note, I’ve added a couple of links to the side of the page. One of the is which is a pretty awesome page. Scope it.
I can’t be bothered retyping what’s already been suitably typed so here it is, in someone else’s words.
There’s a new supergroup brewing that includes members of The Killers, Keane, Mumford and Sons and Noah And The Whale. Known as Mt Desolation, the collaborative effort will release an as-yet untitled album later this year. So far, two song names have sprung up from home-brew demos, ‘Departure’ and ‘Annie Ford’.
The album will apparently have a distinct country sound, although the writing duo behind it admit that “two English men trying to sing like Hank Williams [is] definitely a recipe for disaster”. It sounds interesting, at least.
The project is spearhead by Keane keyboardist Tim Rice-Oxley and occasional Keane bassist Jesse Quin, but will also feature The Killers’ drummer Ronnie Vannucci, Noah And The Whale fiddle player Tom Hobden, Mumford And Sons banjo player Winston Marshall and the Long Winters’ guitarist John Roderick, among others.
– Musicfeeds
Here’s hoping they’ll be half as good as their collective cult following would suggest.
Three part harmonies are crazy in right now so take this opportunity to get involved. You may have missed the boat with Mumford and Sons and now they’re too popular for you to buy their album but it doesn’t have to happen twice.
In truth Local Natives don’t really sound anything like Mumford. Pitchfork says they have a bit of Dodos, a little Fleet Foxes and even some Grizzly Bear and I think that’s all fair. They don’t do anything staggeringly new, but hell, it sounds good.
They also have one of the best Daytrotter sessions I’ve heard so give that a spin too.
Wide Eyes is the first track from Gorilla Manor which came out in November last year so it’s not a new release but it’s something worth listening to if you haven’t already.
Local Natives – Wide Eyes
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Local Natives on Daytrotter
Local Natives on Myspace
Buy this album on iTunes
No preamble, no extended introduction and no off-topic tangeants. Just me (Tommy) telling you (my four man strong readership) that this track is worth a listen.
It’s called ‘Crown on the Ground’ by an artist called Sleigh Bells. I wouldn’t know where to start trying to genre this beast so I just won’t. There’s any number websites where you read the comments of pedantic elitists arguing about it. I will say that it features Derek (formerly of Metalcore giants Poison the Well) and Alexis Krauss who you might know as a school teacher from Brooklyn. It’s a departure from the easy listening/folk I’ve posted so far. A huge, over-amplified, distorted bass line and vocals reminiscent of MIA, Crown on the Ground would make for a gigantic club track.
Anyway, get onto it while you can still score some indie-cred and they’re not a household name. They’ve not got a CD out or even an EP yet the Internet is still frothing at the mouth over them. I guess I can’t disassociate myself from that since I’m writing about them this very second.
Enjoy.
Sleigh Bells – Crown on the Ground
http://sites.google.com/site/sounddoct/player.swf
(Best listened to loudly)
