Traindodge had one of the earliest slots at the Norman Music Festival, and the opening slot at the Red Room venue. Having reviewed their album On a Lake of Dead Trees at the very beginning of Independent Clauses, I was interested to see what Traindodge had morphed into over the six years since I...
Read more »
Archive for April, 2009
Norman Music Festival Features: Traindodge
Photons Are Glorious
Photons have got some serious talent, if Glory! EP is any indication. Even with only four songs, the album displays a depth of talent and songwriting that most bands never develop, and this is just their first effort. Their sound is entrancing, mixing dream-like instrumentals with punchy hits and wailing lyrics. “Waves and Gamma...
Read more »
Citizen 5′s Circles: Super Globalized Yet Super Indie
Citizen 5, out of Norman, OK, is a band of many roots, musically and geographically. Musically, they range from pop country of the lead singer Jimmilea Manley to the Latin influences of keyboardist Ricardo Sasaki to the heavy rock of guitarist Scott Sunderman to the indie influences of bassist Jason Long. They come from...
Read more »
Norman Music Festival
I’m hitting up the Norman Music Festival today. I’ll be tweeting things as I go. I’ll be posting full reviews with some pictures throughout this upcoming week. This does pre-empt some of our scheduled coverage, but we’ll jump right back on track on Wednesday or Thursday. Bands most excited to see: Uglysuit, Man Man,...
Read more »
For the Love of Pop
Marc Sirdoreus, aka Marc with a C, is a giving person. The entirety of his newest album, Losing Salt, is available for download on his website. In fact, he has done this with all of his albums, and there are nine of them. If your first reaction to this is “say whaaat?” then don’t...
Read more »
Mesmerized by Cryptacize
There are some artists who don’t do anything more than retread familiar tones and grooves, and others who go so far out of their way to “challenge your perception of music” that the product becomes distinctly unenjoyable. In between those two extremes is a territory where musicians find a happy balance between the two...
Read more »
John Calvin’s debut EP impresses and confuses
Charlie Brown once uttered, “There is no heavier burden than great potential.” I kept coming back to this thought as I repeatedly listened to John Calvin‘s debut EP The Walls of the City. Calvin delivers several instances of remarkable pop/folk songwriting throughout the EP, but it seems that there are just as many puzzling...
Read more »
Ringer T refines their Midwestern sound to a T
For those of you who have never heard Ringer T, Hello, Goodbye is the perfect introduction to their folk-laden, Americana rock sound. Unfortunately, the things that make this album such a good primer also bring up some potential problems for the future. There are few bands that sound more genuinely American than Ringer T....
Read more »
What’s this gospel doing in my indie?
I freely admit it – I’m not very qualified to review a gospel album. I love Elvis’s His Hand in Mine, but that’s probably not a very fair comparison to make. (That’d be like comparing a local painter to Michelangelo.) I’m also a big Ray Charles fan, but his music is only gospel-influenced –...
Read more »
Hopes and Dreams dashed on the rocks
In a world full of Fall Out Boys, emo bands and imitators, the first several measures of Faster Faster’s Hopes and Dreams show that this band has done next to nothing to change that world. Faster Faster brings nothing new or interesting to the table of bubble gum pop rock. This is everything you...
Read more »