The Most Definitely » The Most Definitely | » Folk

Kaleo: and i thought Iceland was all hot springs and metal

Felipe — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:43:12 +0000

In honor of the Euro 2016 soccer championship going on, and Iceland’s stunning winner yesterday, and the fact that 10% of the entire nation of Iceland has gone to France for the tournament (granted Iceland is tiny, but that’s still an awesome math fact), and their pending match vs. France (!), is Kaleo, a folksy southern blues-sounding band from…? you guessed it! Iceland! Home of enough metal bands that they needed to distinguish themselves between black metal and death metal. And if your wondering, “wtf mate?! There’s a difference? … oh dear, this is where Feli is gonna explain musical genres to us, isn’t it?” Ummm… ya. Basically they are super similar, but black metal has some more shrieking vocals while death metal is more growling and screams; they both play with tremolo picking (really fast back and forth picking of the same string), but black metal uses low tuned distorted guitars and lo-fi recording while death metal has powerful drumming and palm muting (resting your picking hand on the base of the strings). Oh ya, they both talk about super dark stuff (although “talk” isn’t really the word), black metal artists tend to appear in corpse paint and use fake names while deathers just sing about stuff that goes down in the Saw movies or The Purge. That said, this Icelandic foursome, Kaleo, is NOT a metal band. Go Iceland!

So said Feli

Sprinting in to 2016 with Hop Along

Felipe — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 16:59:37 +0000

Indie-folker-foursome from Philly, Hop Along, began as a solo acoustic project known as Hop Along, Queen Ansleis when the lead was just a senior in high school. Several new band members and a few identity iterations later, Hop Along began gathering positive buzz on the interwebs, then released in 2015 their third full length, Painted Shut, and it’s pretty dope. We’ve been featuring a lot of this kinda tune lately: kinda gritty, kinda shredded female vocals, exposed indie rock. With an 87 on Metacritic, seems a bunch of music peeps’ best kept secret is out of the bag as they’ve grown strictly through word of mouf (kinda like Ludacris…). With ringing endorsements from Rivers Cuomo and Mark Hoppus (Weezer and Blink 182, respectively, obvi), Hop Along are doin’ something right.

2016 Resolution: LISTEN to ALL the things

Bhi Bhiman: Rhythm & Reason LP (no relation to Willie)

Felipe — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 19:39:46 +0000

“I would like to clear the air, that I am not, and have never been, related to Steamin’ Willie Beaman.” – Bhi Bhiman.

Bhi Bhiman is a fellow St. Louisian who creates very nice to listen to Americana folk rock. The culturally Sri Lankan compared his upbringing to a “sort of Brown Norman Rockwell existence – playing in creeks and baseball and stuff.” At 13 he got hurt in a baseball tournament in Paducah, KY (I’ve actually been there and it’s horrible. For real. So racist. They also thought me and my buddy Matt were boyfriend and boyfriend. The employees at Hardee’s were NOT pleased) which led to some down time and the discovery of his musical sensibility. Sounds like BB decided to quit playing baseball and hanging out with all the honeys so he could get swirlies and beat up a lot… Lucky for us, he wasn’t dissuaded and made some real chill jams for our earholes.

Listening to this would be doing exactly as Feli Says

BØRNS – 10,000 Emerald Pools

Chelsea — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 17:11:04 +0000

If you’re a fan of good indie-pop, be prepared to love all things BØRNS. Although we don’t know much about this “tree-house dwelling LA transplant,” as described on his Soundcloud, his first official release “10,000 Emerald Pools” will do for now.

His dreamy blend of folk and electro rock sounds, as well as his angelic voice, makes for the perfect, LA inspired track. This guy has come out of nowhere but it’s clear that he’s got something good going on. I have a feeling that we will be hearing a lot more from the Michigan native in the next few months.

Blondfire – Waves

Tim — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 20:33:56 +0000

I’m thoroughly enjoying this track. Particularly the acoustic guitar and the folk vibe that I’m picking up. Blondfire comes to us from Los Angeles. A brother and sister duo Bruce and Erica Driscoll are bringing back the sounds of San Francisco. This track is a solid blend of old and new. A seamless marriage of past and present.