There's a lot going on in The House Floor's music. The band's epic album, Warship, was recorded in Virginia in the spring of 2009. With just 10 songs, the album clocks in at over an hour, with most songs averaging a good six and a half minutes long. Lead singer and guitarist Alex Tschan's voice is reminiscent of Conor Oberst, and the breathy, quavering vocals make for an almost spoken-word, poetry reading feel.
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Seattle band Slow Skate is fronted by married couple Caitlin Sherman and Jason Goessl, with help from Brian Oppel on drums and Geoff Harper on bass
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Back in 2004, Michael Zadick and Josh Cooper began writing songs together in their hometown of Murfreesboro, Tenn. It wasn't until 2007 when bassist Graeme Morris and pianist Timothy Kenyon joined in that they got their official start as Flora Shakespeare. This past May, they began recording their first full-length record with producer Joel McAnulty (a.k.a. Joel J. Dahl) of the Nashville-based band, De Novo Dahl. The new album is expected for release sometime this October.
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When you listen to Let It Beep, the sophomore release from Knoxville-based quintet Royal Bangs, it's easy to hear why The Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney is a fan. Let It Beep is a confident, propulsive rock record that moves at a breathless but carefully plotted pace, with super crunchy bass lines, blown-out guitars and vintage synths. Patrick Carney discovered Royal Bangs' home-recorded and self-released debut We Breed Champions and reissued it on his own label Audio Eagle Records. The band then recorded Let It Beep at Carney's Tangerine Sound Studios in Akron, OH.
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A "milk tooth" is another name for a baby tooth, or the first tooth a child grows before his or her permanent teeth come in. It's also the name of a band from Nashville that's put out one of the more mesmerizing CDs I've heard in recent months. Milktooth's self-titled debut dabbles in a bit of everything, from noise-rock to glittering indie-pop and gentle folk, all in the span of about 25 minutes. If a single tone or theme ties the songs together, it's a surreal kind of creaky Americana, with spare acoustic instruments and sometimes haunting atmospherics, led by the howling voice of frontman David Condos. The members of Milktooth say they're working on a new batch of songs for release sometime this fall. In the meantime, here's a standout cut from the band's eponymous EP, called "Such Wondrous Light."
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Boca Chica has been a local favorite in the band's hometown of Pittsburgh, Penn. since releasing it's self-titled debut in 2005. In the years since, Boca Chica's principal member, Hallie Pritts, has been trying to reach a larger audience, with her arresting blend of gentle folk and pop. But, as she tells the Tribune Review, "You can do all the right things and never get anywhere. You can (also) do none of the right things and just get lucky." Pritts is doing all of the right things with her music and, hopefully, with Boca Chica's latest album, Lace Up Your Workboots, she'll get a little lucky, too.
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The Swedish band's self-titled release has a pleasant mix of styles, from cosmic psych-rock, to lushly orchestrated baroque pop and breezy acoustic folk. Though the band's members aren't well-known in the U.S., together they're considered a supergroup in Sweden, with members from other prominent groups such as Dungen, Anna Jarvinen, and Sagor & Swing.
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Bahhaj Taherzadeh is a singer-songwriter from Chicago who's just put together a gorgeous EP of spare but emotionally wrenching acoustic songs called Ghostwriter. Taherzadeh, who records and performs under the name We/Or/Me, sings with a wise and slightly weary voice, strolling through delicate melodies and heartbreaking narratives reminiscent of Scottish folk artist Bert Jansch or Leonard Cohen. Taherzadeh keeps the instrumentation to a minimum, adding occasional female harmonies or a simple piano line to gently strummed guitars.
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