Detroit’s Empty Houses are full of soul(s)

Felipe — Thu, 28 Jul 2016 16:36:14 +0000

This trio of Detroit natives sadly pay homage to their hometown through their band name. Thanks to the auto-manufacturing crisis, the poisoned-water crisis, the housing crisis, the employment crisis, The Detroit Lions crisis (ooh sick burn!), the bankruptcy crisis, and recently the education crisis, we have a Motor City band named “Empty Houses”… womp womp. Back in 1940, FDR gave a famous speech where he included Detroit in what was known as the “arsenal of democracy” (a group of industrial cities that were key in the manufacture of weapons in support of the Allies during WWII). Detroit was once the wealthiest city in America and the fourth largest (currently in a population decline free-fall); now an example of how everything can go down the toilet real fast if we let it. Some say a leopard cannot change its spots. Well maybe it’s time for this (Detroit) Tiger to take note of some fellow pop-punkers and change their stripes. Empty Houses is comprised of a couple members of the pop punk outfit Fireworks after they went on hiatus last year who have evolved in to something wonderfully new, while at the same time, old and fresh: a poppy retro-soul indie Motown feel. Basically they did exactly what Sonny Moore did when he evolved (like Squirtle to Blastoise) from punk outfit From First To Last and became Skrillex – although Empty Houses went to a lively and airy Motown sound while Skrillex became the audible version of assault and battery.

Empty Houses has their debut album Daydream out now and it’s really nice. Here’s some examples.

Feli Says go squat in some Empty Houses

Scott Helman – Tikka

Felipe — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 13:00:17 +0000

19 year-old Canuck, Scott Helman, was signed by Warner at 15 (not too shabby, pretty sure at 15 I had braces and was still spiking my hair up, not signing record deals or doing anything creative whatsoever besides doodling dicks on my math books) and went full-on music once graduating from high school. Now he’s got an album and I have a blog… ugh. It’s definitely “pop”, but like, sounds better than plain ole pop – especially on tracks like Tikka throwing in serious retro/indie flare. You can tell by tracks like these that his main influences are Bob Dylan, Neil Young, maybe even some Paul Simon (a la Graceland) for that matter. Either way, it’s nice to listen to happy music during the summer. So ya. That’s basically my only reason for choosing this. Ok bye bye now.

Feli Says Summer Forever (for one week) #wwfs

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Detroit’s Empty Houses are full of soul(s)

Scott Helman – Tikka