Lazlo, founder of BlowUpRadio.com (an online station based around New Jersey artists), shines a light on some of the many new releases from NJ based musicians each week with this column. This week Lazlo takes a look at releases by woodthrush, Vista Rhymes, Tom Barrett, NOT YER BABY, crry yrslf, and Steam Enginess.
woodthrush - "chh.mp3 / my god! what have you done to her?" [singles] - On the heels of just having released an EP of great shoegaze, folk, emo rock music, woodthrush has 2 new singles of songs that sound different enough from the EP that I see why they were not part of it, but just as entertaining as the EP.
Vista Rhymes - "VR1" - "VR1" is only 2 songs, but I hope this is just a taste of what is to come from Vista Rhymes because I like their sound. "APX" is alt-rock with pop hooks, while "Modern Problems" is alt-rock with more of a punk edge. Looking forward to hearing more from this band.
Tom Barrett - "Hear It Again" [single] - The first single from Tom Barrett's forthcoming album, "You Are And You Always Have Been" is a lovely, contemplative, classic country ballad, that builds both lyrically & musically until the final note.
NOT YER BABY - "Sleeping Well" [single] - Nothing is nothing like a catchy, fun, pop tune that gets caught in your head and rattles round and round until it sinks in that the lyrics are much darker than the music would have you believe. Well done!
crry yrslf - foreword [single] - crry yrslf's new single is a moving piece of bedroom pop.
Steam Enginess - "Lady of the Lake" - Steam Enginess describes their music as, "mostly acoustic music", but I think it would give the wrong impression to simply call them folk. Some of their songs are folk, but others are pop tunes, or artsy, and there are some orchestral epics. This is why I hate describing music other than "good". This is definitely good music. Very good indeed.
That's all for this week.
Remember BlowUpRadio.com, plays these and many other New Jersey based artists on our internet radio station, so please check us out. #SupportGoodMusic - If you like any of the above artists, please purchase their music from their site. And if you would like to part of BlowUpRadio.com's New & Notable, please send downloads or contact Lazlo at Lazlo-at-BlowUpRadio-dot-com