There’s not an acoustic strum, hoot or holler to be found in the EP’s five offerings; instead, you’ll find cavernous ’80s synth landscapes, glitzy guitar hooks and an obvious penchant for catchy melodies, covering the full axis of electro-bent pop artists in the process. Standout track “Something to Outrun” does bear a striking resemblance to […]
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Progress in Color — Get Well
The trio has gone from emo poppers with New Wave underpinnings to the inverse, and it suits the band well, as evidenced by the slick Get Well EP. The cover of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” the quintessential post-punk ballad, is a good clue as to the direction in which Progress in Color […]
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Sun rises
Ska music might have fallen out of the public eye since its mid-’90s heyday when The Mighty Mighty Bosstones briefly flirted with mainstream success and No Doubt’s ska-adjacent songs dominated radio, but Oklahoma City outfit Sunny Side Up is working to make sure the last horn hasn’t sounded. While the sextet started out simply trying […]
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Various artists — Never Give Up: Celebrating 10 Years of The Postal Service
With the 10th anniversary of Give Up — being celebrated with a re-release, festival headlining gigs and the first tour in nearly a decade, The Postal Service is right back at the forefront of indie music, so there’s no better time to pay tribute. Music blog Independent Clauses wrangled 22 different artists wanting to do […]
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Code 22 — Going Soft: The Acoustic Album!
But after listening to the third track, “Nerdgasm,” I realized they’re not a Christian band at all — just four goofy, kinda nerdy, likable dudes. And we do need those in the world, including for romantic montages on flashback episodes of The Big Bang Theory. With the lyrics “I get to fight the girl of […]
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Norman Music Festival 6: Day 3
Best Time Warp: JD McPherson For about an hour, Norman wasn’t in the year 2013, but instead 1953. Broken Arrow native JD McPherson has turned the success of his debut, Signs & Signifiers, into spots on Conan and more, and Norman got a chance to see just what it is NPR and the like have […]
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Prettyboy — Dejvická
Abello long has been one of the most talented pure vocalists the state has to offer, but after dabbling in indie folk for a few years (and Christian music in his teens), he’s fully embraced what is an obvious penchant for ’80s-soaked pop tunes. It suits him well. Recorded in the Czech Republic, the two-track […]
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Horse Thief — Grow Deep, Grow Wild
Horse Thief is not a psychedelic folk band, like its members want you to believe; the Oklahoma City quintet plays trendy indie pop with some earthy guitar tones and lyrics that occasionally make mention of geography. Self-affixed or otherwise, labels aren’t necessarily indicative of artistic worth, yet framework and context are crucial in determining whether […]
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Tony Romanello and the Black Jackets — Pleased to Meet Us
Sure, Romanello doesn’t have the gravitas of a Westerberg and Stinson, but he doesn’t need to. Those guys have already paved the road; let’s just let Tony and the Black Jackets drive on it. “The Way It Goes” is a good intro to the group, and a song I’m sure kills live, with its intonations […]
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Portraiture — Real as Ritual
From the gorgeous guitar on the instrumental “Miami Weiss (Part I)” (coming off like The Cure’s poppiest song to date) to “I Studied for the Drug Test” (with such biting observations, I’m sure it’s what Morrissey would sound like if raised on an Okie diet of steak and potatoes), Siler’s solo debut is unique to […]