Band Name: Radio City
Album Name: Leave the Light On
Best element: A strong, emotive voice.
Genre: Acoustic
Website: www.myspace.com/radiocity31
Label name: Glorious Records
Band e-mail: boysetsfire31@yahoo.com
In being a connoisseur of independent music, I often find a track by an obscure band that I really, really like. I enjoy the song, and then when I go back to find the band later, the band is gone. Vanished. Lost from the face of the internet. It happens way too often. If you know of (or knew of) a punk band named New Society that has (or had) an acoustic song named “Hermosa”, please e-mail me. It’s my favorite song, and I can’t for the life of me find the band that does it.
But there is a point behind all this pleading and pawing. Another of these fatherless tracks is an expansive acoustic song named “For Your Yearbook” by a guy who went by the confusing moniker JCSS. He had an extremely unique voice that caught my attention, and when I lost touch with the band, I thought I had lost the sound forever.
That’s where Radio City comes in. The voice of Sam Polizzi is nearly identical to the voice that JCSS had. It’s low, emotive, and although it can get a bit confrontational (as it does on “Tuck Me In”), it’s a very soothing, hummable voice, as “Color” demonstrates. Both JCSS and Radio City play acoustic songs, furthering the comparisons.Before you groan that it’s an acoustic band, read ahead. The three songs here all have a different feel- “Tuck Me In” is a rollicking car song, “Color” is a ballad, and “So Proud” is a dark confessional backed up with keys, bass, and drums. Not coincidentally, “So Proud” is the best song here, as it ambles along with purpose and clarity for its five-minute duration.
The amount of variation is what I like about Radio City- if he can keep this amount of variation up in a full album, he’ll definitely be one to watch as the underground scrambles for its next big acoustic thing (seeing as Dashboard is gone).
-Stephen Carradini
independentclauses@hotmail.com