It takes a pretty confident band to tour before it’s even released a record. It takes an even more confident band to do so in a foreign country. Modern Rock Diaries is that band. The Oklahoma City act’s confidence comes from the painstaking effort put into its debut EP and the overwhelming light show that […]
Arcade Fire
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Dear Diaries
It takes a pretty confident band to tour before it’s even released a record. It takes an even more confident band to do so in a foreign country. Modern Rock Diaries is that band. The Oklahoma City act’s confidence comes from the painstaking effort put into its debut EP and the overwhelming light show that […]
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M83 — Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
And not just in indie. Released this week, Coldplay’s “Mylo Xyloto” (also see Florence + The Machine, Lady Gaga) is the group’s biggest, brightest, largest-swelling album yet, just as optimistic in tone as its lyrics are complimentary and superficial. Meanwhile, once the biggest, loudest, hardest chest-beaters of the indie-rock scene (just watch them playing “Wake […]
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Name value
Band-to-band comparisons are a necessary evil in the universe of emerging acts. However, media outlets like NPR and Interview take a little of the sting out by making comparisons to Radiohead, Arcade Fire and Bon Iver. “From a musician’s standpoint, you want to be your own thing and not necessarily compared to anyone,” said Kyle […]
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Oh, Deer!
Stillwater’s Deerpeople is most certainly a breed of its very own. Formed in 2009, the indie-rock group may recall bits and pieces of other bands — Modest Mouse’s untamed feel, Arcade Fire’s grandiosity, The Flaming Lips’ general chaos and weirdness — but the music is its own beast. Deerpeople’s stomping grounds seem to play the […]
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Typhoon — A New Kind of House
I’m even more enthused if an acoustic guitar is the primary songwriting instrument for the aforementioned. Typhoon’s “A New Kind of House” EP is all of that and more. The icing on the cake of all that I mentioned is if the band can make the songs beautiful. Music doesn’t have to be beautiful to […]
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Colin Stetson — New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Colin Stetson (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire, TV on the Radio, among others) is of the last category, as his upcoming album, “New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges,” is a cerebral experience unlike any other I’ve heard. It drops Feb. 22. Stetson plays saxophones primarily; there’s one 76-second French horn suite, but the bulk of the […]
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Broken Records — Let Me Come Home
Instead of Frightened Rabbit’s stripped-down rock sound, Broken Records goes for an expansive, “Funeral”-era Arcade Fire sound based as much in pounding piano lines as in charging guitar riffs (although they have their fair share of those, too). They set up their ambitions from the outset, as opener “A Leaving Song” builds to a crescendo […]
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British Sea Power — Valhalla Dancehall
If you didn’t catch them at Norman Music Festival 1, check out their Wikipedia article, which details their antics. Despite their wild stage presence, their music has never been incredibly confrontational or extreme; they’ve more often than not cranked out solid rock music and called it a day (see title and music of previous release, […]