# Artists of the Week: Virginia’s Dream Cop and Brooklyn’s Grandpa Was A Lion

- Link: https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/
- Published: 2010-07-08T21:07:40-04:00
- Author: Max Hammer

We’ve been listening to a lot of great music that has come to us in dee mail lately,
and discovering dozens and dozens of really talented and promising artists in the
process (a bunch that we’re still preparing to publish on the site). We picked two
artists for this week’s artist of the week instead of the usual one because there’s
so many potential artists and bands of the week, month, and so on that it feels 
stupid, and too conventional, to be restricted to choosing only one artist or band
of the week. We couldn’t make up our minds, ok? (hehe, j/k folks).

No, but, seriously each of the two artists featured below are relatively unknown,
they are both one-man bands, and their music would fall somewhere in the so-called
glo-fil, or chillwave, movement that is clearly one of the most popular sub-genres
in 2010, around the world, as evidenced by the success of bands like **[Animal Collective](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/=animal+collective),
[Surfer Blood](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/=surfer+blood&x=12&y=10),
[Wavves](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/=wavves&x=14&y=9),
[Local Natives](https://indierockcafe.com?s=local+natives&x=0&y=0), [Neon Indian](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/=neon+indian&x=0&y=0),
[Washed Out](https://indierockcafe.com/2010/07/artists-ofthe-week-dreamcop-grandpawasalion/=washed+out&x=0&y=0)**
and many others.

The first artist of the week is poised to explode in popularity in coming months
if enough of the right people hear his music. **Dream Cop** is the moniker of 21-
year-old student **Tommy Davidson**. His music delighted our ears from the get-go,
and has just gotten better with subsequent listening sessions. Dipped in uplifting**
Beach Boys**‘ -influenced harmonies and mixed with electronica beats, lo-fi instrumentation,
spaced out shoegaze elements and layers of voice tracking, Dream Cop’s got down 
the recipe for synthy, warm, hazy vibes perfect summer lounging on a hot dog day
afternoon.

Related Post:  One Man Bands: Jumpiter, Blake McKibben, Old Lights, Levek, and Galapaghost

Interestingly, Davidson is friends with one of our favorite new bands of 2010, Blacksburg’s
very own **Wild Nothing**. Trust us, if you haven’t heard their debut LP, you’re
really missing out on a spectacular record.  Davidson and the members of Wild Nothing
met as students at **Virginia Tech University**. Now that Wild Nothing have enjoyed
moderate success in the indie world in the past six months or so, we think it is
time that Dream Cop gets some of the limelight.

Dream Cop’s debut releases, both digital and vinyl have only tentative release dates
of late August or early September. “The **Output Noise Records** digital only release
will include two tape/electronic original songs with remixes from **Million Young**
and **Outputmessage**“, Davidson told IRC. In addition, he will release a separate
vinyl-only album with **Tough Love Records** “including four original tracks”, and
three or four remixes from artists still to be determined. Both releases are not
yet titled.

“Beach City/Carol I Know” – **Dream Cop** from TBA (2010)

“Marooned” – **Dream Cop** from TBA (2010)

[“Daily Mirage”](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/Dream-Cop-Daily-Mirage.mp3)–**
Dream Cop** from TBA (2010)

_[Dream Cop on MySpace](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/onabuemoon)_

![](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/l_1b255cf487b844949694c9d5303ed1a4.
jpg "grandpawasalion")

As with Dream Cop, it only took a couple of minutes to realize that Brooklyn one
man band **Justin D’Onofrio**, or **Grandpa Was A Lion**, is a ‘chillwave’ (or glo-
fi) artist that more fans of the popular glo-fi movement should hear.  Again, like
a broken record, we’ll repeat our common refrain – some of the best artists we hear,
year after year, are those who are rarely heard, barely known, and yet to “break
through”. As with most of the under the radar artists and bands we feature on IRC,
we think Justin D’Onofrio will naturally get more press and fans in the coming months.

Related Post:  Artist of the Week - The Hot Dark

[“Flying Birds”](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/Flying%20Birds%202%202.mp3)–**
Grandpa Was A Lion**

[“London”](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/London%20-%20Justin%20D%27Onofrio.mp3)–**
Grandpa Was A Lion**

[“Hello FromThe Farm”](https://indierockcafe.com/wp-content/uploads/Hello%20from%20the%20Farm%20-%20Justin%20D%27Onofrio.mp3)–**
Grandpa Was A Lion**

_Grandpa Was A Lion_**