My wife and I are lately big fans of the parenting blog Sweet Juniper! The writers are Detroiters, they’re friends of 3hiver Jon, and they’re just funny. I even offered Dutch a guest writing gig after checking out his post on hip urban music. Anyway, they’ve got a few music suggestions on the site, very indie stuff for the most part, like Great Lake Swimmers. This up-and-coming Canadian band has a mellow sound full of rootsy influences, two good albums, and handful of music awards heralding them as the next big thing. Sweet! Thanks to the Juniper crew, and hopefully we’ll get them to visit here one day.
Clare Burson
Clare Burson is often compared to Lucinda Williams, so clearly she’s got something good going on. The Nashville-based Burson’s very personal tales, often of searching or longing, are hypnotic and gritty and completely endearing. As evidenced by the number of free downloads, she’s a generous soul as well, offering up for easy access about half the body of her recorded work. My favorites are from her full-length album The In-Between, on which her country roots are most obvious. Like several other 3hive picks, Burson’s music has been used in a hip TV show (Six Degrees on ABC? If it’s not Dora the Explorer I don’t know about it) so we wish her luck in landing a big fat record deal and implore her to remember the good old days of sharing the sharing.
Huma
Huma started out as a duo of New Jerseyites who wanted to counter the smothering influence of malls and suburban sprawl. Their answer: Folktronic pop blessed with a childlike innocence. Score one for the good guys.
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Roger O’Donnell
A man and his Moog. Not just any man mind you, Roger O’Donnell has tickled the ivorys for The Cure and Psychedlic Furs. However, don’t expect his solo album to flash you back to the glitter and glam of the 80s, rather, The Truth in Me is an exercise in limitation. All the music here is composed using one instrument, the Moog Voyager, an analog synthesizer (a few tracks feature vocals by Erin Lang). You’ll hear that what Roger O’Donnell discovers is both warm and chill, human and machine, the collision of opposites that makes truth possible.
Ace Fu Gets Bonked
Josh Ottum
Josh Ottum’s “The Easy Way Out” reminds me of the old joke about the weather in Michigan — if you don’t like it, wait a minute. I lost track of the abrupt tempo changes after about 45 seconds and just let the song play on, digging the cute pop (think Ben Kweller) vibe. The remaining tracks available for free download aren’t quite so schizophrenic, and for me they’re actually more enjoyable. “Who Left the Lights On?” has a great groove, nice simple hooks and a thick sound, while “Freedom” sounds like a synth-ed out video game love song. With all this polished pop, all I want to know is, where are the hand claps?
She, Sir
Austin-based quartet, She, Sir recently built a lovely wall-of-sound EP, stacked with layers upon layers of guitars, modal harmonies, and hushed melodies. With the subtle hooks and deep atmospherics of Who Can’t Say Yes, She, Sir drop pop music to an even vaguer level than Loveless. She, Sir beautifully fractures music for the next generation of dream-pop connoisseurs.
Muggs
I know this one’s a few years old but this is such the un-Muggs album and perfect for this moody time of year. Muggs is best known for the venomous hooks behind all your favorite Cypress Hill and House of Pain joints, as well as collabos with various hip-hop all-stars under the Soul Assassins umbrella. On 2003’s Dust though he pays homage to his less obvious influences such as Pink Floyd and brought in some lesser known vocalists in Amy Trujillo and Josh Todd. Dusted, natch, but broadly accessible.