9 years ago
Showing posts with label owl city. Show all posts
Showing posts with label owl city. Show all posts
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Owl City
I'm going to be completely honest and say I like Owl City and was pretty close to deciding to go see him live in Oxford and even though I also like Lights I decided the whole evening would be a little affeminate and now the english have jumped on the bandwagon it all became a little less cool.
I first became aware of him through working on Blalock's Indie Rock playlist and liked a few tracks, firstly the saltwater room ft. Breanne Duren from his first album. And then I downloaded Ocean Eyes in which I'd reccomend downloading Hot air balloon, Hello Seattle and yes, fireflies is a good song but as the western world is if there is anything that does sound nice it will be played to death until you begin to hate it.
If you just have the songs mentioned above you won't be missing out on an incredible amount however the album as a whole is a really nice listen. The only exception being a song called "Dental Care" which is just dreadful, the lyrics are terrible, the tune sounds like it was written for children and the delivery is pathetic and whiney. The latter is something that he skates around a lot of the time but manages to steer ever so, just clear.
Of course his story is exaggerated, it goes along the lines of; aww he turned to music at his parent's house as a result of his insomnia (which i'm assuming is to link people to other meteoric rises in Seattle as in, "curt cobain turned to heroin as a result of his back pain") while working at a coca-cola warehouse. If his parents aren't mega rich and his job working for the world's largest drinks manufacturer was to pay for either tuition or to feed his family then I apologise but I'm thinking this isn't the case.
I'll level with you, his lyrics are FULL of cliches and songs like "on the wing" is just a list of words and phrases that sound nice in pop songs. BUT it's all a very unintrusive listen, it's nice to have on and as you float in and out it probably will make your day a bit better and sometimes that's all music needs to be.
Thursday, 31 December 2009
BBC Sound Tips for 2010 Part II
I'm going to continue with a few acts that you, as I'm assuming you listen to good music if you read this, have probably heard of already this year..
Delphic
Formerly known by the quite fantastic name "Snowfight In The City Centre", Delphic are a four piece indie-rave band in cut from the same cloth as the cure and new order. One of the reasons they're hyped to be big is the stadium potential for tracks like this, reminiscent of klaxons circa golden skans with a major plus that the tone of lead singer James Cook's voice is so much more clear and with actual resonant lyrics rather than sounds that just go with the music. These guys are good.
Counterpoint
The Drums
Comparisons to the beach boys, the first hyped 2010 leak in 2009, the NME tour at the start of the year, pretty much all signs point to yes. With blissed out surfer pop there are drawbacks, a lack of substance (literal substance) being one and that which 2009's "girls" lacked and that 2010's surfer blood seem to have in droves. It would be easy to say that this band are somewhere in between the two and I'm on a tight schedule so there ya go :) bottom line is they're as catchy as any communicable disease you could possibly envisage.
Let's go surfing
Owl City
Pushed this guy on BIRP pretty hard since its inception really and he's gotten huge independant success which is now turning into major success with billboard #1's and shizz! You know this kind of music it's light electro-emo so like in between trees, secret handshake, rocket to the moon. I'm still kiiiiinda surprised at all the attention he's gotten because like i'm a fan of this kind of music and no one has really come close to getting this kind of mainstream press the past couple of years. And yes, it was a bit difficult not to mention the postal service... I like it alot though, it's familiar. I like it. ALOT. I'm really quite impressed with the BBC for this particular tip.
Hot air balloon
Fireflies
Two Door Cinema Club
They played truck last year and are an indefinable qauntity in that they're a great time but also have a great depth. Formidable lyricism and masterful instrumentation mean that TDCC have something to fall back onto but they don't need it because they have great tunes for that. They call themselves "electropop" but then so would the XX (who suck) so i'd like to steer clear of such labelling. You know on the postal service's give up where they underscore JT's music with guitars, hand claps and inventive swirling instrumentation, that is exactly where these guys are at. Oh they're also from bangor which (don't shoot me...) I thiiiink is in wales? and Donaghee which I gotta be honest, sounds made up :p
______________________________________
I'm off to see Frank Turner tonight for the close of the decade. So I've just done a double blog today as i'll be in gloucester tomorrow but I plan on sticking around for the next decade so get ready for some good stuff!
Delphic
Formerly known by the quite fantastic name "Snowfight In The City Centre", Delphic are a four piece indie-rave band in cut from the same cloth as the cure and new order. One of the reasons they're hyped to be big is the stadium potential for tracks like this, reminiscent of klaxons circa golden skans with a major plus that the tone of lead singer James Cook's voice is so much more clear and with actual resonant lyrics rather than sounds that just go with the music. These guys are good.
Counterpoint
The Drums
Comparisons to the beach boys, the first hyped 2010 leak in 2009, the NME tour at the start of the year, pretty much all signs point to yes. With blissed out surfer pop there are drawbacks, a lack of substance (literal substance) being one and that which 2009's "girls" lacked and that 2010's surfer blood seem to have in droves. It would be easy to say that this band are somewhere in between the two and I'm on a tight schedule so there ya go :) bottom line is they're as catchy as any communicable disease you could possibly envisage.
Let's go surfing
Owl City
Pushed this guy on BIRP pretty hard since its inception really and he's gotten huge independant success which is now turning into major success with billboard #1's and shizz! You know this kind of music it's light electro-emo so like in between trees, secret handshake, rocket to the moon. I'm still kiiiiinda surprised at all the attention he's gotten because like i'm a fan of this kind of music and no one has really come close to getting this kind of mainstream press the past couple of years. And yes, it was a bit difficult not to mention the postal service... I like it alot though, it's familiar. I like it. ALOT. I'm really quite impressed with the BBC for this particular tip.
Hot air balloon
Fireflies
Two Door Cinema Club
They played truck last year and are an indefinable qauntity in that they're a great time but also have a great depth. Formidable lyricism and masterful instrumentation mean that TDCC have something to fall back onto but they don't need it because they have great tunes for that. They call themselves "electropop" but then so would the XX (who suck) so i'd like to steer clear of such labelling. You know on the postal service's give up where they underscore JT's music with guitars, hand claps and inventive swirling instrumentation, that is exactly where these guys are at. Oh they're also from bangor which (don't shoot me...) I thiiiink is in wales? and Donaghee which I gotta be honest, sounds made up :p
______________________________________
I'm off to see Frank Turner tonight for the close of the decade. So I've just done a double blog today as i'll be in gloucester tomorrow but I plan on sticking around for the next decade so get ready for some good stuff!
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