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!

Boyce Avenue on MySpace

Tags: music, boyce avenue, indie, independent music, indie 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.

Ben Hammond on MySpace

Tags: independent music, music, ben hammond, indie, indie music

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: music, indie, indie music, independent music, aurelien atkins

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.

Audio Body on MySpace

Tags: independent music, indie music, indie, music, audio body

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, indie music, anthony lucio, independent music, indie

Any Irish rock/alternative is a favorite type of music, for this listener. “Ask John” is a good vehicle to highlight the unusual voice and phrasing of Aine Duffy. Guitar work is also very strong in the Aine Duffy band. I was particularly drawn in by the “feel” of No Conscience at All.” It’s even a bit creepy; maybe a bit closer look at the people on the streets. Ditto for “Some Mother’s Son.” The latter tune may be the best of the three. I don’t know. What do you think?

Aine Duffy is from Cork, Ireland and has been playing since she was a teenager. Known not only for her voice, but also her stage presence, Duffy adds a lot with her guitar. She notes that there can be, at any one time, a few changes in her band lineup. But it generally includes Duffy on guitars/vocals, Dave Coughlan, Jason Seger, Jason Brown, Nori and Yutaka, according to her PR material. She reportedly has “a following from LA to Belgium, Spain to Dubai etc. In LA she met with many a successful musician, and jammed and played with the best in many a great venue.”

Duffy and her band will be in Los Angeles, Dublin and New York in the next few weeks. I’d like to catch this musical performer somewhere in the U.S.

Aine Duffy on MySpace

Tags: aine duffy, independent music, indie, music, indie music

Apparently, this music gathering has several key parts: 35 bands, 5 stages and indie-roots music foundation. Not bad. They’ve held this event for 10 years on the Pendarvis farm near Portland. Musicians attending included Jolie Holland, Bad Livers, The Gourds, Langhorne Slim, and many more. Some were enamored of Loch Lomond. From what I’ve heard of them, it’s not a surprise. I might actually consider traveling out there next year to hear the music.

I liked the one photo I saw on the Web, that shows the light, airy atmosphere of the central festival grounds. No heavy, 40-year-old canvas tents here. In addition to great independent music and some fine acoustic pickin’ this festival features a lot of workshops too! If you didn’t want to listen to Cross-Eyed Rosie, you could take a Yoga class or learn something about songwriting. This event is held in early August. Put it on the calendar.

Who Went to Pickathon? on MySpace

Tags: indie, music, who went to pickathon, indie music, independent music

In the movie, “Trading Places” the street-wise Mr. Valentine (played by Eddie Murphy) says the way to hurt rich people is to make them poor. Of course that’s a paraphrase of the actual line, but you get the idea.

It seems that is one of the priorities of true independent music, as well. Perhaps the goal is not to make people poor, but to spread the wealth by getting good musicians recorded and heard without giving into the handful of large, corporate giants who think first of the bottom line.

At earBuzz.com, there is something even more exciting taking place. Billed as “supporting artists 100%,” this Web site and the folks behind it are trying to make sure that the artist earns a true 100% of the proceeds from CD sales and downloads.

The site states, “earBuzz.com and BandsOfTheBay.com formed a partnership, announced to the world this morning, that is unprecedented in music and media.” The day referred as “this morning” is August 28. So, this is new, and exciting, stuff that may have great benefits for the up-and-coming artist.

Here’s how it works, according to the organizers: “Sign up to BOTB and you’ll have option to sign up to earBuzz to sell your music there. Once processed, encoding, etc.. your music will appear to the world on both sites. Current artists can sign up to BOTB free and have their player on the BOTB page as long as they’re at the $5/mo. level with their earBuzz membership.

“BandsOfTheBay is a property of Bay Area News Group, with media properties that include the Contra Costa Times, San Jose Mercury News, Marin Independent Journal, Oakland Tribune, 19 other daily newspapers, and websites that command over 7 million unique visitors each month.”

BandsOfTheBay.com started in April, while the founding of earBuzz.com goes back to 1999. There’s a lot more to it. The site contains a wealth of good information, testimonials from true believers and so on. In addition, the search and listen functions seem very clear and easy to use.

Check it out!

What’s The Buzz? on MySpace

Tags: indie, what’s the buzz, independent music, music, indie music

Already I like this music. I know it’s only a few bars of “Testing II” from The Pom Poms (unsigned) but this tune is the sort of understated effort I enjoy. Good voices, interesting choice of “words.” The tune, “Buggin” is pretty good too, with that childish but important sound that we oldsters heard on songs such as “Winchester Cathedral” and some of the ’60s guys like Donovan. But the horns on this song bring it to a different level.

For now, you will find this group on MySpace, because, as their marketing information states, the band Web site is “not ready yet.”

The Pom Poms, from Santa Barbara, California, consists of: Rob Kuznia: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric bass, trumpet, production; Edgar Oliveira: drums, backing vocals, production; Shane McKillop, bass (live); Per Danzl, lead guitar (live); Justin Dullum: backing vocals (on recording), electric guitar on Mephastophiles, CD mastering; Alta Peterson: backing vocals, half-lead on “Fool,” cover art.

Here’s a nice description from the The Santa Barbara Independent, “Despite its rather rough conception (the album was recorded in a series of garages and dining rooms) and quaint, all-in-the-family backstory (Kuznia’s girlfriend and The Sympathetics band mates all provided backing vocals and instrumentation), the end result is a splendid, whimsical record that could easily replace all those Belle and Sebastian CDs I’ve long outplayed.”

After all, if you list among your influences Mozart, Modest Mouse and Willie Nelson, how bad can it be?

The Pom Poms on MySpace

Tags: indie music, independent music, music, indie, the pom poms

“Something’s Wrong” Brace 2008 does have a bit of that early Brit pop sound. It may even be a bit punk. Some have billed them as sounding like Manchester natives of the early ‘80s. That’s part of it too. But this listener hears some David Byrne, some techno, some sharply cut rhythm that was key to a few bands in the past 20 years.

Whatever the reality, Sam Tyndall, Oliver Edsforth, Nate Lithgow-bass, Adam De Rosa-guitar, and Michael Chap Resnick are The Kiss Off. They state that they sound like or may be influenced by Echo & The Bunnymen, Bowie, Wire, Nine Inch Nails, Peter Gabriel, Bauhaus, King Crimson, Kate Bush, YYY’s, Celebration. De Rosa and Lithgow take credit for the start of this venture. By the way, they hail from Brooklyn. Nice, huh?

I particularly like “Laying Dead.” Something reaches me individually, with both that pop sound mentioned earlier and then some ‘60s fun as well. This is one of the really good songs on the CD. Try out “Amplify” if you think you’ve heard all the recent music you wanted to hear. You’ll wait awhile on this tune if you are seeking poetry. It’s sound and rhythm with some meaning.

The Kiss Off will be at Blender Theater in New York City on November 17. Look for these players elsewhere as well.

The Kiss Off on MySpace

Tags: music, independent music, the kiss off, indie music, indie