Any band that name drops ‘Harper Lee’ in a single has to earn some points right off the bat.
Little Green Cars, an Irish quintet who just released their first full-length album, enjoy the added benefit of comparisons to R.E.M. and Fleetwood Mac, among others.
Folk pop is a favorite genre of mine (and was well before its renaissance courtesy of Mumford and Sons) so Little Green Cars could well be a significant find.
If you were to listen to Iggy Azalea without seeing her, you’d probably guess she was a southern black rapper. Listen while watching one of her videos and you’d move on to southern white rapper.
You’d have to hear her speaking voice to arrive at the fact that she’s Australian. Didn’t see that one coming.
You know you’re into serious indie band territory when you can’t tell which is the song name and which is the band name. ‘The Woodpile’ by Frightened Rabbit, or ‘Frightened Rabbit’ by The Woodpile?
It’s the former, in this case. The Scottish band has released four full-length albums since 2006, the most recent being February’s Pedestrian Verse.
Next up in my series on obscure new(ish) bands that have recently come to my attention one way or another is The Joy Formidable, a British trio that released their second album in January.
They are often described as having a “large” sound (“gargantuan” is the adjective of choice for AllMusic), which reminds me of the line in Spinal Tap when they are described as “one of England’s loudest bands.”
Caveman is an indie band from Brooklyn that has released two albums over the past two years. AllMusic describes their sound as a blend of “experimental rock, post-rock, wistful indie rock, and African music traditions.”
Listening to ‘In the City,’ the single from their self-titled new release, I’m hearing a whole lot of 80s influence — it sounds like a long lost Tears For Fears track. And in my book that’s a very good thing.
