"Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art."
Who: Pastoral rockers from Denton, Texas, who first broke through with their 2006 track “Roscoe,” on which the group’s classic-rock-loving frontman Tim Smith sang about life in the 1800s. “I don’t do too well in the present,” he says. “Not that old times were better, but I’m more romantic about the past.”
Sounds Like: The band’s latest disc, The Courage of Others, has a sound influenced by 1960s British acts like Fairport Convention and Pentangle, with Jethro Tull-style flutes and references to maidens and merchant ships.
Vital Stats:
• Smith was a John Coltrane devotee until he reluctantly picked up Radiohead’s OK Computer while at the North Texas College of Music. “I didn’t want to listen to it, because of the name,” he says. “I thought, ‘What’s this, some kind of radio-pop music?’ ”
• Before Midlake embraced chiming guitars and meticulous harmonies, the group was a jazz-funk act. Smith ditched his sax when he joined up with the Texas group, which featured current bandmembers Eric Pulido and Eric Nichelson (guitar), McKenzie Smith (drums) and Paul Alexander (bass).
• Like fellow bearded strummers Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, Midlake recall CSNY and Fleetwood Mac. “You want your music to be ask great as those acts,” says Smith, “But I shouldn’t compare my work with everything that’s ever been done. I mean, you can only do so much before you die.”
Get It Now: Watch the band’s trailer for The Courage of Others up top.
Who: The Shins’ singer-guitarist James Mercer and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), who’ve taken time off from their usual gigs to team for a new self-titled disc of left-field psych-pop. (Read the RS review here.)
Sounds Like: Spooky psychedelia with a British Invasion flavor. Burton outfits Mercer’s beautiful melodies and with analog-synth swooshes, slo-mo kick drums and horn breaks. The mellow punch of “Vaporize” features zippy organ and rolling snare, and Mercer goes for a T-Pained falsetto on the catchy, electro-kicky “The Ghost Inside.”
Vital Stats:
• Recording sessions for Broken Bells resembled a budding bromance. Mercer moved into Burton’s L.A. bachelor pad, and they’d go to the movies, listen to records (Love, the Zombies), drink at dive bars and talk about relationships and life. “We definitely had separate rooms,” Burton tells RS.
• One of the main reasons the two musicians linked up was a search for fun. Mercer says he wondered, ” ‘Do I still have the curiosity and enthusiasm’ ” to be the sole songwriter and frontman for the Shins. Burton felt less like a collaborator than a hired gun on projects with Gorillaz and Beck. With Broken Bells, “I was free to express any idea I had,” the producer says.
• Both Mercer and Burton say they’re focusing on Broken Bells right now, but the status of their day jobs seems a little up in the air. “There’s been no discussion” of another Gnarls Barkley LP, Burton says, and Mercer notes, “I’ll probably, you know, find the time at some point” to make another Shins record.
Who: Nigerian-German artist whose raspy voice, deft rapping and soulful grooves helped her land a Euro club hit with “Heartbeat” last year. Her skills have made fans of Lenny Kravitz and the Roots, who backed her at a New York show.
Sounds Like: Nneka’s U.S. debut Concrete Jungle pits hip-hop beats and Afro-funk grooves against lyrics about racism, colonial powers and slavery. On the roots-reggae cut “Africans” she sings “We use the same hatreds to oppress our own brothers.” “Heartbeat” is a pulsing tribal-funk anthem that doubles as a plea for the world not to ignore Africa’s problems.
Vital Stats:
• Nneka, 29, grew up listening to her dad’s Fela Kuti records in Warri, Nigeria, where “there was a lot of corruption and poverty.” As a result, she’s always been drawn to social-conscience music rather than love songs. “I like songs with a message,” she says. “I’m conscious about making change in this world.”
• At 19, she moved to Hamburg, Germany, to study anthropology and started rapping at open-mike nights. “I wasn’t courageous enough to sing,” she said. “But the German mentality was different than what I was used to, and I felt isolated. Singing became my therapy.”
• This summer Nneka will hit the road with the revamped Lilith Fair alongside artists like Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow and Tegan and Sara. “I’m bringing the African vibe, man,” she says.
Get It Now: Check out Nneka’s video for “Heartbeat” up top and more from Concrete Jungle on her MySpace.
Who: Christofer Drew, a 19-year-old Missouri native whose lovelorn tracks, soft, high voice (and Pete Wentz-style skinny jeans) are making underage girls swoon. He was signed by Warner Bros. after being discovered on MySpace and releasing three EPs, and his first disc What Is Love? debuted at Number 24 on the Top 200.
Sounds Like: The tunes on Drew’s full-length (which he cut with producer Butch Walker) blend emo and folk into airy, heartbroken acoustic tracks like “Jane Doe” (where he crushes on pretty waitresses) and “Can’t Stand It” (where he gushes about girls who are “superduper cute”).
Vital Stats:
• Drew’s original aspirations weren’t musical, but athletic: his dad was grooming him to be a tennis pro, but a shoulder injury made him focus on the Bob Dylan tunes his father taught him on guitar. At 14 he wrote his first song after his best friend ditched him for a girl.
• Another heartbreak — his girlfriend cheated on him — set off a rough patch for Drew. He dropped out of high school, got kicked out of his parents’ house and road-tripped across the Midwest playing coffee shops and churches where “There were, like, 20 kids at each show. But I’d make $50 — enough for gas to the next place.”
• Drew says he recently got into Taoism after reading The Tao of Pooh, and he strives to live the simple life. “I like to go to Waffle House and read, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes all day,” he says. “I’m trying to be artistic.”
Get It Now: Click up top to watch Never Shout Never’s video for “What Is Love?”
Who: Surfer Blood, a pack of indie rockers from West Palm Beach, Florida, who in the span of less than a year have traded in their day jobs as waiters for a spot on the bill of the massive Primavera Sound festival alongside artists that inspired them like Pavement and Pixies.
Sounds Like: Despite having a moniker that sounds like G.G. Allin fronting the Beach Boys, on their debut album Astro Coast Surfer Blood revive the spirit of ’90s slack rockers like Built to Spill. First single “Swim” and “Twin Peaks” add flourishes of Weezer’s power-pop and Pixies’ speedy surf-guitar licks to the mix.
Vital Stats:
• Veterans of the South Florida’s close-knit hardcore scene, singer-guitarist JP Pitts and drummer TJ Schwarz first met up with bassist Brian Black and guitarist Thomas Fekete at a party following Miami’s Ultra Music Festival in March 2009. A month later, the nascent Surfer Blood — none of the members surf, by the way — were recording an early version of Astro Blood in a freshman dorm room at the University of Florida.
• While the band’s members cite influences like Motown and the Jesus Lizard, Pitts tells Rolling Stone he’s most inspired by the 1990s indie rock that permeates Surfer Blood’s sound. “I was listening to mostly Pavement, Bedhead, Yo La Tengo,” Pitts says, “And that’s a huge part of what influenced the way I write songs and the way I play guitar.”
• After recording their debut, the band piled into a van and made the 20-hour trek to New York for the CMJ Music Festival last year. If it seemed like Surfer Blood were everywhere during that week-long event, it’s because they probably were. “We did 13 show over the course of seven days at CMJ,” Pitts says. “I don’t understand the point of playing once and just hanging out all week. It got us a lot of attention. I mean, otherwise we wouldn’t have driven over 20 hours to get there.” At the upcoming SXSW fest, Surfer Blood will take it slightly easier: they’ll only play seven shows.
Hear It Now:Astro Coast is out now, and Surfer Blood are currently in the middle of a tour that’ll keep them on the road and out of school clean through April. Up top in our Breaking video, check out the band’s clip for “Swim.”
