Occasionally, someone points you in a certain direction and you find yourself listening to a group that is wise beyond its years. Such is the case with Boyce Avenue, based in Florida.
With a foundation going back to 2000, when these fellows were teenagers, Boyce Avenue has established itself as one of the premier young bands in the U.S. With a lineup composed of Alejandro Manzano: Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano; Fabian Manzano: Guitar, Background Vocals; Daniel Manzano: Bass, Background Vocals; Stephen Hatker: Drums, Percussion, the team puts out crisp guitar chords and some biting lead on “Tonight” from All You’re Meant To Be. “Not Enough” from the same CD strikes me as plaintive – a word not used quite often enough!!
Boyce Avenue will be playing in Orlanda, Tallahassee, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville in November. If you are in the area, it will probably be worth a trip to catch a young group that stays away from screaming and pounding to give the listener quality, intelligent pop/rock songs. The writers in the group have made it into the top level of several songwriting competitions, including the 2007 John Lennon Songwriting Competition and the IAMA songwriting competition. The debut album, titled “All You’re Meant To Be,” was released by Boyce Avenue on March 25, 2008. Give ‘em a listen!
Tags: music, indie, indie music, boyce avenue, independent music
He’s smooth and trending toward jazz. But to put Ben Hammond’s music in that pigeon hole would be too easy and, more important than that, it would be incorrect. Why? Because the beginning of “Let’s Get Alone” (Peliguin Drop Records) is smooth jazz, as is the ending. Somewhere between those sections is a hip-hop sort of effort. Be sure, though, that “Worst Kind of Perfect” is jazz, of a sort. But he markets himself as rock, folk-rock and pop. I might have a hard time buying that characterization.
Hammond is from everywhere, apparently, because he lists his settling places as Sarasota, Florida; Hiram, Maine; and Montreal, Quebec. He isn’t appearing everywhere, though. His gigs from Oct. 22 through Nov. 28 are all in Sarasota, Florida. He does move on to New Hampshire and Maine in the winter! Some like it, I guess.
Players/contributors are: Ben Hammond – vocals, guitars, keyboards, etc.; Nico Dann – drums, backing vocals, percussion; Dan Fortin – bass; Gabe Nespoli – Hammond B3 organ, grand piano, keys. Other musicians are to numerous to mention, really. The touring band for this year includes Danny Berglund, Kevin Warren, Kelly Muse and Mick Mendelsohn. You may hear some different musicians when Hammond and friends are settled in Sarasota. He lists The Beatles, Wilco, Stevie Wonder, Jack Johnson etc. as influences.
Tags: independent music, indie music, indie, ben hammond, music
To take some information straight from the Web site of this French producer/composer – this young artist from the north of France has been a fan of hip hop and a few other genres for most of his 20 years. He had a demo CD in 2006 and now offers Beyond Words (2007).
Be warned – this is instrumental music that the artist/composer himself describes as other. Some reviewers rave that his latest work “shows great musical and artistic maturity.” (Vacarm.net). Matthew Ralph writes, in tangzine.com, that this is the type of music to incorporate into your daily life. There are no words (maybe a few) but this might even qualify as napping music. There are some “droning dance beats” according to Ralph, along with piano and orchestral sounds that are suitable for “contemplative moments.”
This listener does enjoy some ambient or contemplative music. I find Atkins’ work a bit repetitious, but it is soothing, in a way that is hard to describe. Atkins states that he is much influenced by rap and some soul. Al Green is his favorite singer. Good choice! Danger Mouse comes up in discussions with and about Atkins as well. He also loves Kanye West.
Here’s a quote from the guy himself, “Movies influenced me very much for the dynamics of my songs, i’m a huge fan of horror movies and asiatic cinema, so cinema is one more small piece of puzzle that make my music.” [The lack of capitalization is most likely a result of French being this fellow’s native language.]
Aurelien Atkins on MySpace
Tags: indie, independent music, music, aurelien atkins, indie music
Welcome to the world of symphonic techno-rock. From Maine, no less!!
“Band members” Matthew Tardy and Jason Tardy cite such influences as Danny Elfman, Soul Coughing, Fatboy Slim (yes!!), Stevie Wonder, Chemical Brothers….. They even state that they “sound like” some of these performers, then include Blue Man Group as one of the “sound likes.” I guess that’s good enough for most listeners.
Take this from their own marketing/PR info – “AudioBody’s music has been heard all across the planet including on The Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, MythBusters, MSNBC, CNN, and G4TV.”
After listening to a couple of tunes from this pair (Soul Sequence, Going to Michigan and Bass Aquatic) I have to say, as a long-time music “listener” I like the cleanliness of the production and the interesting, understated sounds produced. Not being a dancer or a techno fan I can’t say this is my favorite style. It’s fairly good, though.
The effort goes back to 2004 and has gained strength from the commercial television and video world. TV credits include VH1, The Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Good Morning America, Inside Edition, MythBusters, and G4TV, according to www.audiobody.com. You will also find AudioBody INSIDERS here, to keep up with the techno brothers.
Tags: music, indie music, audio body, indie, independent music
Listeners should prepare themselves for the “industrial” sounds of Lucio, whose myspace.com presence sends the seeker to his Web site. That stop features a large photo that depicts graphically what the CD tile states: For The Drained (Deus Ex Machina).
This listener has never been a great fan of the somewhat-repetitive nature of industrial/straight-beat music of this sort. But “Close Up” is a nice enough tune. Music lovers will like the quality of recording and production. The title tune from the CD “For The Drained” is a piece that draws me mentally into the inner city. I guess the home ground of Lucio, Los Angeles, provides plenty of ingredients for this recipe.
But we should give Lucio his due, and pat him on the back for his professional work and the quality of production, I suppose.
“Kill Me Everyday” starts off beautifully and continues with the steady beat that defines the work of this young producer. Lucio doesn’t climb any new heights vocally, but the mix of atmosphere in this song gets the listener’s attention. Something about it actually frightens me a bit. Check out “Fracture” as well.
For those wondering how he gets to this point, here is a simple explanation:
Band Members: ANTHONY LUCIO Vocals, Music.
Influences: Radiohead, Aphex Twin, Placebo, Smashing Pumpkins,
Bush, The Killers, 30 Seconds to Mars.
Anthony Lucio on MySpace
Tags: music, independent music, anthony lucio, indie, indie music
