sound of the suburbs

Sometime back I created a Sound of the Suburbs e mail address that I placed on the side bar enabling those of you that don't wish to leave public comments to contact me as well as labels and bands to send me their latest wares. Of course this letter box receives a lot more junk mail than interesting mail. Concerning the bands, the labels and the promotion companies that have sent me musical links I do eventually listen to all of them at least once, and as is to be expected the majority are not to my liking and don't spend much time on my hard drive. There have been a few that have been the exception, almost a revelation and have been posted almost immediately. And there are others that have gone into a dossier named Blog Possibles, due to lack of time this has got bigger and bigger, so the other day I decided it was time for action and gave each of the artists a second listen, this meant that some of them were to be destined for the scrap heap, and as for the others, well they make up the back bone of today's post. For the majority of the artists I know nothing or little but we don't need to know the singer or the band to enjoy the music do we?

1. Ist are a real mystery to me, I think they are American, but this is all I know about them, who sent me the mail I don't remember, a Google search has come up with nothing and so I'm starting to wonder do they exist? Their song that grabbed my attention was the compact 60 seconds of 'I Am Jesus And You're Not' rockabilly trash with breakneck speed vocals.

2. Sir Salvatore hail from San Francisco and are are a relatively new band though as is often the case these boys are no newcomers to the world of music making. The band will be releasing a six track cd entitled 'Those Men Are Not Astronauts' at the beginning of May, 'Hooray The Projector' is a fine guitar led indie pop song and 'Publickley' is a much more atmospheric affair both songs can be found on the cd and show a certain promise, a band to watch.

3. The Dealership are also from America and have been together since 1995 when they got together while studying at UC Berkeley. They have released three albums. 'California' from 2001's 'TV Highway to the Stars' displays a healthy baggy influence without the more dance element, there are definite shades of The Stone Roses and The Charlatans here. If you like this there are a whole load of other tracks to download from the band's site.

4. Winterpills have been labeled as Americana and have just released their second album 'The Light Divides'. From the evidence of the two available tracks, the female led 'Hankerchiefs' and the more upbeat 'Broken Arm' I would say an album well worth checking out.

5. Von Südenfed is the name given to a project between Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner from Mouse on Mars and Mr Mystery himself Mark E Smith better known as the Fall's ringmaster. Their album 'Tromatic Reflexxions' has been picked up by Domino and is due for June release. 'The Rhinohead' could almost be signed the Fall and displays a welcome pop edge whereas 'Flooded' is another beast altogether with Smith rapping over some heavy mechanical funk.

6. The Basement probably need little introduction for many of you though for me me they were a recent discovery, I would describe them as being somewhere between an Irish Showband, Bob Dylan and the Waterboys! 'Close The Door' is a pleasant enough piano led romp with it's vocals and harmonies owing more than a little to the Beatles, 'Bringing Out The Dead' an instrumental, is wacky enough and loose enough that it charms you through it's 2 minutes 21 and you don't even miss the vocals.

As they say that's all folks!