Posts Tagged ‘indie pop’

An interview with Chairs in the Arno

Chairs in the Arno Chairs in the Arno, a synth-driven indie pop band in the vein of Barcelona, answer a few questions from MusicGeek.org regarding their music, their future, and the reception of their release, File Folder. Chairs in the Arno have previously been the subject of a MusicGeek.org spotlight.

Chairs in the Arno — “Size Thirty” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/chairsinthearno-sizethirty.mp3]

You seem to occupy the same general music area as, say, Barcelona and Sprites. How much affinity do you hold to them, and how influential were they in your musical development as a group?

Jeff Excell and Becca Hsu: We are all really big fans of Barcelona. No other band was making such simple but genius synth-pop music. Their singer, Jason Korzen, who later went onto form the Sprites, basically made it seem “ok” to write lyrics about simple and enjoyable things. I would say they had quite an impact on the making of all our music. A couple years ago, Jason made a comment about how we were his “new favorite band” on MySpace. I think we all freaked out about it and almost peed our pants with excitement. Barcelona and the Sprites are WAY underated.

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Spotlight: Aster

AsterAster, a Texas-based pop group, is good. How good? That’s a hard question to answer for any group, but their song “Attempting to Multiply” is interminably pop-ridden and on the cusp of catchiness. The sounds of some sort of keyboard are omnipresent through the track, and we see that Aster has a very keen sense of crafting something enjoyable. “Some Things Seldom Heard Of,” the title track from their album being released today, is likewise good, though a little more downbeat. The breathy vocals and spacey demeanor utilized on both tracks, posted below, make for a nice experience that evokes some musical greats; it’s clear that Aster is on the right sort of path.

Aster — “Attempting to Multiply” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/aster-attemptingtomultiply.mp3]

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Spotlight: Say Hi

Say Hi To Your MomSay Hi (previously Say Hi To Your Mom,) a newly Seattle-based (they previously called home Brooklyn, N.Y.,) indie outfit, plays a catchy-but-not-too-upbeat style inflected with a bit of synthesizer and flare (two things that, for some reason, tend to be associated with each other, for better or worse.) Their upcoming album, The Wishes and The Glitch, is due to be released on Feb. 5 on Euphobia Records. The Wishes and The Glitch, the fifth from the indie pop-rock band, features contributions from both David Bazan, best known for Pedro the Lion and Headphones, but also notable for his solo work, and John Roderick, head of Barsuk-released fellow Seattle indie-popsters, The Long Winters.

Say Hi — “Northwestern Girls” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/sayhi_northwesterngirls.mp3]

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Spotlight: Chairs in the Arno

Chairs in the ArnoChairs in the Arno, a synthesizer-packed indie pop band in the vein of notable acts Barcelona and Sprites, released their debut File Folder in October 2007. The synth-styled release, which found its home on Mushpot Records, is interminably exciting in those peculiar ways only indie pop can be — and particularly only in ways such nerd-rock-inflected styles can be (see The Rentals, Barcelona, and Sprites for excellent examples).

Chairs in the Arno — “Winter Song” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/chairsinthearno-wintersong.mp3]

Chairs in the Arno — “Size Thirty” | download
[audio:http://www.musicgeek.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/chairsinthearno-sizethirty.mp3]

Antarctica Takes It! – The Penguin League

Antarctica Takes It!, from Santa Cruz, California, is a fairly easy group to figure out — a true indie pop project, they put their sound up for examination with their first — and self-released — album, The Penguin League.

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An interview with Half-Handed Cloud

What’s your biggest influence in writing music?

In general, The Beatles have had the biggest influence, but as far as this album goes… I just thought of this–there?s something that happened fairly recently that could?ve had an influence on it. About a year-and-a-half ago, my friends and I got to visit an old mechanical band organ museum in San Francisco. They?re the coin-operated kind that read rolls of paper, and have an entire little orchestra within this large wooden cabinet: pipe organ, triangle, piano, snare drum, xylophone, bass drum, tambourine, etc. They?re so magical. The arrangements are incredibly inventive. This trip was just before I started writing songs on the Omnichord for what would become Halos & Lassos. Yeah, the album is sort of similar I guess — you press the ‘on’ button, and it sort of begins with a sputter, and just goes. I bet that subconsciously, as I was trying-out this new instrument, I was also picking-up on memories of that band organ museum. I feel that maybe there’s something a little ‘organically mechanical’ about Halos & Lassos. I know that the Omnichord instrument itself influenced the way that everything was written and presented.

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Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit

From the word “go,” The Life Pursuit, latest release from famed Scottish group, Belle and Sebastian, is a pop explosion. Replete with the expected qualities — jangly guitars, heartfelt lyrics, and a solid rhythm — The Life Pursuit, the band voted Scotland’s greatest’s seventh studio album, manages to, at the very least, meet listeners’ expectations.

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