Alberta & The Dead Eyes – Lil Bird
Genre: Americana
The majority of us live in fear or some form of confusion throughout most of our lives. We engage in various activities, oftentimes, merely to forget our troubles. Many of the things we do are simply a quick fix. Some of them can threaten to destroy a lot of things for us if left unsupervised.
We’re complex creatures with anxiety wired into us, regardless of our status, our ambition, and even our quality of life. Finding those things to keep us on the straight and narrow, to get us through the night, or even help us smile and move ahead, gets harder every day.
Bluesy rock n’ roll guitars for many people across the world are one of those sources of comfort. The men that tell stories in this way are heroes. It’s a comfort that instantaneous doesn’t get you fat, drunk, or spending your last paycheck. Alberta and the Dead eyes’ Lil Bird might get you a bit high though, but it’s only the colors shining inside your mind.
Shaylee – Ophelia
Genre: Power Pop, Indie Rock, Indie Pop
There’s an undercurrent of smugness when it comes to critics who love experimental music projects. They love to talk about how those artists love to create art that does not use common song structures, themes used throughout the pop idiom, or even techniques that boring dad-rock groups tend to implement.
What about the melodies, or the catchy riffs? Oh, those are things that only hacks that want to get on the radio implement. That’s what they’ll answer. Good music is merely a trick being played on the people who don’t know any better.
Thankfully, not everyone is buying it. Shaylee pays tribute to the great power-pop records of old with the single Ophelia. There are even traces of Elliott Smith indulging his love of The Beatles. Trust me, most musicians would like to write music like this.
