Academy Down – Sedona
Genre: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock
Influences: Dinosaur Jr., Foo Fighters, Superchunk, Archers of Loaf, Pavement, Nirvana
The world of rock music, I think, has changed for the better if you’re one of the people trying to get in. I mean, you’re unlikely to make any money. And, you best forget about what you heard about rockstars and the attention that they’re supposed to receive from possible mates.
No, instead the world of rock music is dominated by geeks and gentle souls who have spent a long time analyzing their favourite records, a mix of classic and obscure. It’s a far stretch from the days of Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, or Chuck Berry, wild men out on the fringes of normal life.
Academy Down is a new group that sounds as if they’ve been preserved by being soaked in 90s alternative rock and television shows from the same era. Sedona is both personal and universal, whiney and powerful. It’s the kind of alternative rock that won’t get you thrown out of school, or into jail, but you may have just found some new friends.
Dream of a Man in a Top Hat – If You Wanted Normal
Genre: Psychedelic Rock, Alternative Rock
Contrary to what your childhood friend who was trying to learn drums so that you two could start a drum together, said, there are no right or wrong ways to make rock music or any form of modern art for that matter. That is the reason why seemingly non-sensical scribblings thrown onto a canvas may be worth millions of euros and are traded as if they are the world’s greatest commodities.
No, as long as you get one single person to agree with what you are doing, it qualifies as real music. The internet has expanded upon this idea, with albums no longer needing to be approved by a department of record execs.
Dream of a Man in a Top Hat issue something of a mission statement with their single If You Wanted Normal. I had to turn the song off four times and inquire who was desperately blowing that car horn before realizing it was part of the orchestration. Bold, cacophonous, and daring you to hate it, this music issues a provocation.
