Freelance Whales — If you love music, read this.

If you only discover one new band this year, hell this decade, make it Freelance Whales. I found these guys yesterday thanks to The Album Project (a site you should be subscribing to if you love good music.)

Now I love most music, and can usually appreciate and enjoy most music even if I’m not exactly crazy about it. But every once in a while I run into a band that absolutely floors me and I can’t stop listening. Freelance Whales has done that.

These guys have a sound that is truly unique and just plain fun. And good. I understand the tendency to equate “creative, fun, unknown band” with “had a cool idea but not much talent.” Trust me, this is quality music that will have you catching yourself closing your eyes and bobbing your head in public places. Add some of the best writing, lyrically, that I’ve heard from a new band in a while, and you’ve got a great album.

How to describe their sound… Imagine if you could combine Modest Mouse (okay, that’s pretty vague I know, think songs like Float On and Missed the Boat) with Death Cab. Yeah, that good.

So go to their MySpace. Do it now. Every song on it is a hit. I mean that. My personal favorite is “Hannah,” and I was tempted to tell you to start there. Don’t do it. “Generator” is one of the best “track 1″s out there, and when you get to the end and finish up with “Great Estates…” Don’t be shocked if you feel a burning need to play it again.

Recession – Keep an Eye Out

Recession is a band I’ve been following for a few years now. Most of the members go or have gone to my college, so I was introduced to them just by simple proximity. The music was good so I started popping down for their shows around Pittsburgh, even got a chance to play with them in a couple fundraiser’s and coffee houses on campus.

Since then I’ve kept up with the band and their sound has really grown into something excellent. It’s original and very rich musically while still being accessible. I’m listening to a demo CD of some of the tracks they’ve newly recorded right now and it’s great, just great. You can hear a few of them on there myspace here:

http://www.myspace.com/recession

I especially love that “Lose Your Head” is finally among the songs available online. It’s one of their older songs now, but it’s always been a favorite of mine at their shows. And the next online track, “Contagious” well… let’s just say you’ll be hitting repeat the second it’s done.

Anyway, I had meant to write a review of the band for an older site that’s no longer really living. Shamefully, it never went up, and now seems like a great time to remedy that, because there’s every indication that the band will be making some major moves soon.

Guitarist Brian Schultz told me recently that they had sent off a few tracks to LA to be mixed and promoted by Bernd Bergdorf, who’s worked with Green Day, Pink, Spearhead, Tom Waits, The Bangles, and even my personal hero’s the Brian Jonestown Massacre.

The name’s they’ve been sharing stage with have gotten increasingly impressive as of late as well. Among the one’s that have stood out to me are Love Drug, Mae, Plain White Ts, and Augustana. (I was lucky enough to make the night with Augustana. That was a hell of a show.)

Also, at the very moment I write this, several major labels are browsing through recessions online catalog and presence. This is a band with a great sound that’s really starting to catch some attention… I can’t help but anticipate big things in the near future. Keep an eye out for these guys.

(Oh, and while you’re on their myspace, feel free to post and tell them that they ought to get a recording of “Meant To Shine” up already. That song kicks.)

Red Star – The New EP from Third Eye Blind

Triumphant Returns

As a self confessed Third Eye Blind fanatic (if I had to choose a favorite band of all time…) and a lover of all things “90s alt rock” I haven’t been on this much of a musical high since the 2006 re-release of Slow Motion with the full lyrics intact.

Third Eye Blind’s new album “Ursa Major” is slated to come out this spring sometime, but 5 days ago (that’s the 18th folks) they release a digital-only EP “Red Star.”  You can stream the album from the band’s MySpace.  It includes the three brand new songs: Red Star, Why Can’t You Be, and NonDairy Creamer.  Music reviews are not my forte, this is not one.  I just felt a need to do a quick little spotlight on this release because it’s got me more excited then I’ve been in a long time.

If I wasn’t excited enough about Ursa Major already, Red Star has done the trick.  Listening to the EP makes me feel like the 90s is coming back.  With so many artists trying to re-invent themselves to keep up with trends today, it’s great to hear 3eb sounding like themselves.  The song Red Star especially takes you back to their first two albums and really embodies they feel that the band has always embraced. 

Why Can’t You Be has the remarkable ability to make me laugh and bring a tear to my eye in the same 5 minute time span.  In part because it’s recorded live for the EP and begins with the deep philosophical words of Stephan Jenkins “…but I’m drunk!” Why Can’t You Be seems at first to have a deceptively light tone.  Then you really start to hear the lyrics and you realize “oh man… any one who’s ever been in a relationship is gonna feel this somewhere deep.”  And suddenly the line “a water massager’s the purest love I’ve ever known” doesn’t just make you laugh… it makes you wonder if it might not hold some truth.

NonDairy Creamer is downright fun to listen to, and is the kind of song I’ll wind up singing in the shower.  It takes a bold stab at some of the issues we deal with in today’s crazy world, treating our media and politicians to heaping helping of satire.  After the song apparently raised some controversy on Stereogum, Stephan Jenkins commented on the song.

“The great thing about music is that it brings all types of people together, and I remain astonished at the capacity of lyrics to move things. Don’t know why 3eb’s lyrics have been so controversial in the past — they are about as racy as your current novel. Most importantly, I continue to be inspired by our audience, which is mostly college kids. While we as a band try to move past politics, I personally had been on the campaign trail in a grass roots fashion for many months supporting Obama, which leads me to this song.

“In regards to “Non-Dairy Creamer,” indeed humor is the intent, both musically and lyrically. I’ve felt provoked and poisoned by our politics and culture in the last few years. I wanted to amplify that provocation with some irony and take a knock at some of these fear-based phrases like “threat level orange.” All kinds of hypocrisy in current headlines then popped into my head and I rhymed em. I meant for it to be a hoot (though I know it has some teeth). Bombastic humor being the balm to move past a pretty nasty period.“

The EP’s been out almost a week now, but even a day after it’s release it had already made it to the ears of countless fans.  Jenkins had this to say on the Third Eye Blind’s MySpace blog:

“I am totally freaked out at how many people are finding and listening to these songs. There’s a line in the song Red Star “the system shut us down now, we find each other in the underground”. There’s also a line in Non-Dairy Creamer that says “I sincerely want to thank you all for listening… I thank you all.” That’s what I have to say today. I’m currently nursing a sore throat which I hope will be gone by this Friday in New Orleans and I’m in the studio today trying to finish songs for Ursa Major. I have tingles going up the back of my neck today, and it came from you guys.“

Again, I can’t even describe how much hearing 3eb back and sounding like themselves puts me on cloud nine.  Can’t wait for Ursa Major.  I’m gonna go rock out to Wounded now.  Peace.