A few bands I discovered recently that deserve a broader listen:
When I Wake Up – Wintergreen
Wintergreen is a nice little Midwestern guitar-based indie-pop band. This track is a particularly great example of that genre. It’s a song about being confused, finding someone, losing someone, and generally not knowing what in the world is going on. In short, just about every depressing-yet-strangely-happy song in existence. For example: “You are leaving everything that we share behind / It doesn’t make sense / But it makes no difference / The way you looked at me made it feel alright.”
One thing that’s interesting about the song – they produced a very funny video about the ET game for Atari (described as “the worst Atari game ever”). Millions of copies were produced and almost universally reviled, returned, and eliminated from circulation. So the video follows the band to a landfill where they dig up hundreds of copies. I’m not sure about the historical truth (I think the excess games were actually destroyed, not just thrown away), but it doesn’t really matter. For a song about disappointment, what better way to demonstrate the point than to focus on a terrible video game rush-produced to follow-up on a great movie?
They only have an EP out right now, though they’re working on a full album. The EP can be purchased at their myspace page. Unfortunately, no one in the band (as far as I can tell) is named Yossarian.
Another band I ran into today is Penny Century, from Sweden. Somehow, there are actually two different bands named Penny Century, both from Sweden. This one plays sweet, melodious songs to buck up a sad heart. Yes, I know it seems like we’re already inundated with Swedish pop bands, but they do it better than most. For a taste, check out Tangled Up in My Sheets. It’s sugary, bouncy, and so on. If you like Swedish pop, you’ll like it. If not, then you, like the terrorists, hate freedom.
Airport – Like Honey
What’s that you say? You want MORE Swedish pop? I guess I could scrounge up a little more. Like Honey is on the Hybris label, which has a number of other interesting bands (their website seems to be down right now due to bandwidth problems, but I was there a day or two ago and it was working fine). You can also check out their myspace page. This song is more of the same great Swedish pop – buoyant, and with a singer who sounds like a Swedish Juliana Hatfield.