Finding new music

About a month ago, I signed up for a weekly e-mail alert on spooonful.com. Every Tuesday, it sends you an e-mail featuring a certain band. It lists the band's bio, along with what other bands it sounds like, and provides links to where you can listen to a few songs.

I like it. The e-mails don't get annoying, as they're sent only once a week. And so far I've been pretty pleased with the bands they've suggested. They've been a good mix of bands I'm quite familiar with, somewhat familiar with, and some I've never heard of.

This week's e-mail featured the Handsome Furs (a side project of one of the members of Wolf Parade). It pretty much sealed the fact that I'm going to check them out. I have a personal policy in which if I hear a recommendation for a band or album from three separate sources, I check it out. It almost always ends up working out. The spooonful e-mail was the third recommendation of the band that I've seen.

So if you're looking for a way to find new bands without having to do much work, sign up at spooonful.com. It doesn't take long at all.

Anathallo - Canopy Glow

Anathallo came out with a new album today as a follow up from the first album Floating World.

I first saw Anathallo at Lollapalooza 2006 on a side stage, to my surprise I loved them. They have a heavy focus on percussions, piano, horns, and vocals with two members almost always singing together. They hail from Mt. Pleasant Michigan and now reside in Chicago. The band consist of 7 members that can play every instrument under the sun. One of my favorite things listening to this band is the random holes and sometimes off beat songs. Their music never seems to have one direction throughout the song but they still make it work. I think this style rings true in this new album. The highlights on the album for me are "The River", "Bells", "Italo", and "Noni's Field." Now if anyone reading this post listened to Canopy Glow and Floating World and thought I was crazy, I would not be surprised. Some of the songs can be a bit of an acquired taste, but I think it's worth a few more listens. Most of the music I constantly listen to took some time before I called them my top bands.

--JMOC

BECK - Modern Guilt

I just gave a listen to the new Beck that comes out on July 8th to the public. The only thing I have to say negative about this album is the shortness, otherwise I love it. I really felt like Beck just had a great time recording this album. It has steady grooves from beginning to end. I know this is one of those albums I can listen to repeatedly, there is no stand out tracks in my mind, it seems like one long song. This to me is not Beck's best or innovative album by far, but it does share some great beats and harmonies as other albums in the past. I would not categorize this as a "musical forest" as OD did in the last post about the Fleet Foxes, but I would say it's a great album to drink and shoot the shit to. It just makes ya feel good.

Let me know what you think of the new one from Beck.