Writing yesterday’s post about new bands I “discovered” this past year (yes, the same way Columbus “discovered” America), I debated for a while whether or not to include some bands that weren’t exactly new to me, but that I really got into this year. Ultimately I decided not to include them, but to give them a separate post instead. So here they are:
Aberdeen
Aberdeen — I used to hear “Toy Tambourine” on KXLU back in the mid-90’s and really liked it, but I never picked up anything by the band. A few months ago I picked up a few of their early Sarah singles off eMusic, and have been really enjoying their British-influenced guitar jangle. I wrote a bit about their first single here. MySpace.
Rocketship — This group had a couple songs on the Slumberland comp Why Popstars Can’t Dance that I absolutely loved (the comp was basically my intro to indie pop). I’d always intended to pick up their full-length A Certain Smile, a Certain Sadness, but never got around to it. Having finally picked it up — again, off eMusic — I absolutely love it. One of the cool things about those two Popstars tracks is that, while they’re both basically indie shoegaze, they were really different — “Your New Boyfriend” was awkward, lovelorn indie pop with shoegaze effects layered over it, while “Like A Dream” was a more hypnotic, heavy track that would have fit well on several of the classic early 90’s British shoegaze albums. A Certain Smile follows up on this diversity, swinging between noisy twee and sophisticated, spacey compositions. MySpace.
Blonde Redhead
Blonde Redhead — I actually used to play these guys occasionally on my college radio show in the late 90’s, but I never really thought of them as much other than a Sonic Youth knockoff (and I was never particularly into Sonic Youth). But I picked up 23
