Music To Which You Should Be Listening
I've been toying with the idea of making this blog a little more directed. It has always been (for the last nine years I've had it, sweet clattering mackerels) a mixture of "this is what I did today," and "here's something amusing to read." I will probably still use it for the "so today work sucked but then I ate a sandwich it was pretty good" variety of posts, but I feel that an emphasis on more article-like entries will force me to focus on my writing more. That's always a good thing.
And so, gentle readers, I bring you the first installment of
Music To Which You Should Be Listening
or
I know better than you, so shut up and buy this
Band O' The Day: Act of Congress
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
In ten words or less: Pop-inspired nouveau bluegrass with a heavy dose of Nickel Creek
Let's get this out of the way right now: Act of Congress loves Nickel Creek. It's stamped all over nearly every one of their songs. In my preview of their show in Brick Weekly (linked below), I said, "Would someone please check on [Nickel Creek's] Chris Thile? I think Act of Congress’ mandolin player Adam Wright may have killed him and eaten his brain in order to gain his powers. Or something similar." They even look a bit alike, and there's a vocal similarity as well. It's...it's kind of creepy.
However, I've decided to forgive them their slight crutch, and you should give them a chance to change your mind too. These kids, to put it briefly, sound fantastic. The young quartet has taken the sacred combination of mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and bass, and blended in indie-pop creativity built on a solid singer/songwriter foundation. Particularly in the light of both Nickel Creek's untimely demise and Chris Thile's recent penchant for artsy-fartsy classical crossovers, Act of Congress is the best thing going for nouveau bluegrass that I've heard yet.
Their first album, Declaration, is currently only available on iTunes, but when they release a physical edition I will be on that in one and a half shakes of a lamb's tail. The songs they have for sampling on their MySpace show a variety of musical styles and fairly strong songwriting that I imagine will only grow as they go on. If you don't mind the similarities and can stand the occasional Jesus reference, you'd do right to give them a try.
Currently they're only touring around their area, but I can only imagine they're fantastic live. If I am very good and eat all my vegetables, perhaps they'll come northerly in the near future.
Official: http://www.actofcongressmusic.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/actofcongress
My other review: http://www.brickweekly.com/index.php/events/article/do_it/
And so, gentle readers, I bring you the first installment of
Music To Which You Should Be Listening
or
I know better than you, so shut up and buy this
Band O' The Day: Act of Congress
Location: Birmingham, Alabama
In ten words or less: Pop-inspired nouveau bluegrass with a heavy dose of Nickel Creek
Let's get this out of the way right now: Act of Congress loves Nickel Creek. It's stamped all over nearly every one of their songs. In my preview of their show in Brick Weekly (linked below), I said, "Would someone please check on [Nickel Creek's] Chris Thile? I think Act of Congress’ mandolin player Adam Wright may have killed him and eaten his brain in order to gain his powers. Or something similar." They even look a bit alike, and there's a vocal similarity as well. It's...it's kind of creepy.
However, I've decided to forgive them their slight crutch, and you should give them a chance to change your mind too. These kids, to put it briefly, sound fantastic. The young quartet has taken the sacred combination of mandolin, fiddle, guitar, and bass, and blended in indie-pop creativity built on a solid singer/songwriter foundation. Particularly in the light of both Nickel Creek's untimely demise and Chris Thile's recent penchant for artsy-fartsy classical crossovers, Act of Congress is the best thing going for nouveau bluegrass that I've heard yet.
Their first album, Declaration, is currently only available on iTunes, but when they release a physical edition I will be on that in one and a half shakes of a lamb's tail. The songs they have for sampling on their MySpace show a variety of musical styles and fairly strong songwriting that I imagine will only grow as they go on. If you don't mind the similarities and can stand the occasional Jesus reference, you'd do right to give them a try.
Currently they're only touring around their area, but I can only imagine they're fantastic live. If I am very good and eat all my vegetables, perhaps they'll come northerly in the near future.
Official: http://www.actofcongressmusic.com/
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/actofcongress
My other review: http://www.brickweekly.com/index.php/events/article/do_it/