Jams: They’re a Ladies Band Named after Pickpockets
Sometimes as the party winds down (or winds up…), you need some tempered jams like School of Seven Bells’s late 2008 release “Alpinisms” – top indie music that has a softer side that won’t drown conversation or overwhelm mood while keeping the smiles coming. Key to this borderline-oblique subgenre of party city is synthesizer-heavy indie pop categorized by the indie rock media’s endless attempts to adjectivize it:” dream-pop,” “guitar-led ambiance,” ” insidiously catchy,” “amalgams of progressive soundscapes” and so forth. Feel free to file this subset of indie music under “Brooklyn’s Necessary Evil.”
If you’re stuck on the internet searching for perpetually hopeless terms like “best indie music” for just this type of occasion, look no further than the School of Seven Bells single ‘”Half Asleep.”The song is a near-ideal mix of melodic vocals, distorted guitars, and the Wall of Sound background tracks. The song starts with the tease of a few measures of loud sound seemingly cut form the middle of the track but goes back to meek silence. Afterward it is poppy at first, the song draws listners to a satisfying but not explosive climax.
Personally, we find ourselves not often and/or not entirely drawn to female led bands, but the musical talent, stylish mixing, and varied sounds of “Alpinisms” keeps us both interested and entertained top to bottom. Admittedly, it helps that the two girls in the band are attractive, but since we listen to music more than we watch music, we hope SOSB takes it as a compliment that we bought the album the old fashioned legal way on iTunes. Lastly, we saw SOSB open for M83 last fall and were pretty impressed with their slightly subdued but faithful to the complicated sound live show.
Alpinisms – available on Amazon, DRM free
Side note: we made it through this entire post without a misplaced reference to Bilinda Butcher. In your face dedicated indie music blogs.
Tags: best indie music, best new music, best party music, best party music 2009, brooklyn bands, half asleep, handsome jams, handsome music, indie dance music, indie music, indie music blog, indie music video, indie rock, music recommendations, music reviews, music video, school of seven bells, school of seven bells half asleep, school of seven bells music video, top indie music
eeyun posted on March 2, 2009:
Thanks for the recommendation Dirty. Picked up the album and am enjoying it immensely!
Chris posted on March 7, 2009:
You’re killing it. I love what you’re doing here. Great work.