The Rural Alberta Advantage - The Ballad of the RAA -- Hometowns (2009)

Right now I'll be talking a bit about a Canadian band from Toronto with roots in Alberta. They released two full length albums until now and I'll be talking about the debut record back from 2009. Hometowns is an indie rock album that is characterized by very good vocals by Nils Edenloff (also guitar) accompanied with the backing vocals of Amy Cole (Keyboards as well) in some songs. The music is most of the time fast paced and has some folk influences to it as well if you ask me. The trio, besides the previously named two the band also consists of Paul Banwatt on drums, delivered a very well acclaimed debut album with Hometowns and the follow up album Departing was received well too.

The record starts off with a rather slow intro for the band, the first song does contain a very nice build up with awesome drumming combined with keyboards (of Amy) and strong vocals, but yes it is in general pretty slow and calm for the band. The second song Rush Apart contains some of the folk elements I talked about in the intro, it's a bit faster paced that the opening song and especially the guitar adds a folk element to it for me. The third track is a bit harder than the previous two and leans towards an actual (indie) rock song. The rest of the album actually is more and less a mix of these three types of songs. Namely songs that focus on keyboard and drumming with a bit of guitar to support this, songs that have some fast paced folkish sounding music and songs that lean towards actual rock songs. All these songs are accompanied by the awesome vocals of Nils supported by Amy at times. The better known songs on this record are Don't Haunt This Place, Drain The Blood and The Dethbridge in Lethbridge. As well as the song I'm posting here.

The song I chose to post is the Ballad of the RAA, which is basically the ballad of the band since the RAA stands for Rural Alberta Advantage if you didn't know this little fact already. It is the opening track of the album and contains an awesome build up like I said. As well do you immediately fall in love with the lovely vocals of Nils Edenloff. Enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page

Twin Atlantic - What Is Light? Where is Laughter? -- Vivarium (2009)

Right now I'll be posting Twin Atlantic, again an hard(er) rock band, I'm really into the harder material of my library last few days... This time the band is from Scotland, Glasgow to be more exact. They have two albums out already and one ep, the album I'll be talking a bit about right now will be the first one, Vivarium back from 2009 already. The album is short (only containing 8 tracks) but oh so powerful. It's starts off with Lightspeed and it immediately sets the tone for an album full of energy. It never really slows down except for the quite slow Better Wheater outro song.

The music this band creates is quite good if you ask me, but what makes them stand out for me personally are the vocals. The Scottish accent is simply brilliant as well does Sam Mctrusty his voice itself suit the music very well. The record never slows down like I said and if you are new to them I'd advice to check out the song that I'm posting: What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? as well as Lightspeed and You're Turning Into John Wayne songs (which both were singles supporting the album). The second album, Free, is a bit slower but at times they grab back to the energy of the previous material and the vocals still are catchy as fuck and it's definitely worth listening to as well. For me personally Vivarium is slightly better though so i'd advice to check that one out first.

I'm posting What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? and I do this for several reasons. First of all it was the second song I knew by these guys after Lightspeed, secondly it has an official video, thirdly is for this video of them. It's a gig by them at Pukkelpop back in 2010 where Sam falls down (45sec) but just keeps playing like noting has happened which is pretty epic in my opinion. Last but not least this song acts as the title of one of my blogs. To be more exact this one: Where Is Laughter? which is a shared tumblr blog with the earlier mentioned Koen where we basically post anything we consider funny. Anyways enough ranting for today, enjoy the song!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Freelance Whales - Generator ^ First Floor-- Weathervanes (2009)

Right now I'm going to talk about a band hailing from New York, Queens to be more exact. Freelance Whales has been active since 2008 and has two studio albums out already. Diluvia which was released last year and the debut record Weathervanes that I'll be talking about here. The music they produce is a mix of indie, indie pop and folk elements which they do very well. To create the music they do they use a whole range of instruments, something you can see as well in the video I'm posting for you guys. Not only do they use the acoustic, electric, bass guitar and the drums. They add  the harmonium, glockenspiel, banjo, mandolin, synthesizers and so on. This creates a pretty unique and very good sound and makes them one of my favorite bands in the indie pop genre.

The record brings you 13 tracks full of quality, it starts off very slow with the song I'm posting having a very long intro  (in the video it doesn't take as much time as on the record) but at the end of the song you already you know you will absolutely adore the band. after this excellent opener the record continues to bring you catchy melodies with good combined vocals which works very well for the band. If you are one of the few that didn't hear about them yet I would strongly advice you to start listening to them. The indie pop/folk music combined with some more electronic tracks are quite excellent and explain why this album was critically acclaimed well. 

The song I chose is the Generator ^ First Floor track. Few reasons for this, it's the most known song by the band, it's the first song I knew by them few years back. And last but not least the video is absolutely lovely. So enjoy!

Official site

last.fm artist page

Bon Iver - Blood Bank -- Blood Bank ep (2009)

Today I'll be talking about an indie folk band from good old America, Wisconsin to be more exact. Bon Iver (where Iver is pronounced as the french word for winter hiver) is an award winning artist for best alternative album and best new artist recently, although they are already producing music for quite some time. I'm not gonna talk about one of the two full length albums  that came out yet, For Emma Forever Ago (2007/2008) and the self titled one (2011). Instead I'll be talking about my favorite release of the band which is a short 4 tracks ep that came out in 2009 and is a bit less well known than both the albums.

The blood bank ep contains 4 track including my favorite of the band and the one they named the ep after, Blood Bank. As well as a very alternative track Woods (go check it out to know what I mean). Besides these two it contains two very decent indie folk easy to listen to tracks that make you, or at least me, feel good and cheerful. 

Why Bon Iver today, well last night I listened to my music on shuffle and I came along Volcano Choir  which is one of the many other projects of talented singer-songwriter Justin Vernon (Vocals of Bon Iver of course). Which lead to the urge to listen to Bon Iver in general and more specifically the Blood Bank ep. I think the best thing of this ep for me personally is the length of it. Don't get me wrong I like the music I like Bon Iver, Volcano Choir and some of the other projects. But after a few songs I'm starting to get a bit bored so for me it becomes a drag to finish the albums. A problem you don't have when the ep only contains four tracks. Never the less if you are not familiar with anything named in this post go check it out. If you like Bon Iver you'll probably like Volcano Choir, if you like one release you'll probably like the other releases as well...

The song is like I said Blood Bank, special about the video is that it's a live video, not the greatest quality but decent enough to beat a video of the track with a picture on the background! So enjoy!

Official site
last.fm artist page