The first two Notable Indie Album Debuts posts received a crazy amount of traffic and love on social.
For this series, there are no restrictions on the release date. All that matters is that the debut is strong enough that it simply deserves to be in this category permanently.
In fact, most of these releases were dropped three, four and five years ago. But that doesn’t matter. They are worthy of this space.
With the radical changes to indie rock in recent years, it’s often we reach back into the past recordings because there are so many terrific ones that never received the exposure and love they deserved.
The debut album is an artist’s or band’s first outing, and often full of songs that have been worked on over a number of years, just waiting to spawn. For many artists, the debut is the culmination of a lifetime of experiences, and a window into the artist’s soul.
The following are artists and bands whose debut albums have touched us in some way and stood up to many spins.
The Heavns – San Diego, California
The Gray Havens – Crystal Lake, Illinois
Dunandunate – New York, New York
Amity Beach – Ontario, Canada
The Heavns – Heavns
San Diego lo-fi musician Vid Glass, who has been recording as The Heavns for six years now, was 22 years old when he released his debut self-titled album.
While it is a lo-fi album, the 10-track recording is chock full of standout tracks; an album that could have been a huge hit with the right exposure. In fact, it is a rare thing to dig almost every song on an LP, but that is, in fact, the case with The Heavns’ debut.
Where does one start when they enjoy almost every – actually every – song on an album. The best advice, in this case, is to encourage the listener to stream the album for herself.
It’s alt. rock. It’s dream-pop. It’s lo-fi, experimental, inspirational, anthemic, and superb. And this reviewer doesn’t throw around such accolades lightly, but they are amplified by the fact that The Heavns was under-the-radar DIY band.
Songs like the romping alt. rock opener, “What I Have”; the longing of “Find Me”; the melodic, emotive slow rocker, “Sapphire,” featuring a mean guitar riff; the warm waves of “Heartbreak Kids”; the mysterious closer, “I Found a Woman,” complete with a classic bluesy and dark rock edge. This Glass dude has serious talents.
There are other memorable songs like “Sweet Nothing,” “Those Were The Days” and “Shadow in the Shade.” Oh, and it cannot go without noting songs like “Waste Away.” We should just say every song on the album.
It may be six years since Glass dropped his self-titled debut, but rest assured, it’s not going anywhere.
In fact, it is one of those types of releases that are so truly indie and DIY – almost like a secret treasure – that we come back to it every once as an example of solid under-the-radar debuts.
In describing his debut not long after its release, Glass wrote to IRC, “I ended up here in Tijuana by myself and I took advantage to write and record as many demos as possible.”
“I found 10 songs that felt like they fit together very well and I decided to drop the debut while I continued working on new music,” Glass said back in 2014. “I usually write several ‘song skeletons’ a day, and choose the best ones to develop and then record a demo.”
“The story behind the name [of my moniker] is a simple one; a few years ago I thought that ’The Heavns’ would be an awesome name for a band. After I begun putting up my demos online, I decided I liked the name and started to use it.”
Thankfully, The Heavns continues to drop new releases right up until last year.
The Gray Havens – Where Eyes Don’t Go
When we were first turned on to The Gray Havens a few years ago, the indie craze of the mid and late 2000s was starting to fade, and indie was starting to, somehow, become more mainstream.
If the band’s debut album, Where Eyes Don’t Go had dropped five years earlier, it probably would have made the band an indie band to watch across the board, with appearances on Jimmy Kimmel and who knows where else.
That said, you can see from the support the album received on Bandcamp just how good – and popular – of an under-the-radar release it was, and remains to be today.
We must have played the duo’s singles, “Train Station” and “Silver,” a dozen times here in the cafe. “Train Station” was also featured as a Song of the Day via IRC’s Twitter and Facebook.
The Crystal Lake, Illinois husband and wife duo, Dave and Licia Radford successfully funded its 2013 debut album via Kickstarter. The album was recorded in Nashville, TN at ZodLounge Studios.
The Gray Havens creatively use lyrical imagery set to catchy indie and folk-pop melodies. It is the couple’s deep and thoughtful lyrics and stories that shore up this debut as notable, without question, and as it shows on Bandcamp, and elsewhere, many others agree.
The duo’s musical influences include Katie Herzig, The Civil Wars, Jamie Cullum, Regina Spektor, and Jenny and Tyler.
Dunandunate – The Art and Science of Existence
As a professional musician and multi-instrumentalist, New York artist Rob Benny takes instrumental music to new heights with his unconventional approach to recording. The results are dazzling.
Dunandunate is Benny’s all-instrumental project that he describes as “built on texture-based music with cinematic, atmospheric, and heavily syncopated sensibilities.” We’d have to agree whole-heartedly.
Formed in 2016, Dunandunate’s debut album, The Art and Science of Existence, is an impressive instrumental work from the opening track to the closer. It’s a spectacular ride; it’s not every week that we hear something as intricate and beautiful as this debut.
The project was formed by Benny to create “music that is vivid, enlightening, inspirational, and intriguing.”
From the uplifting opening track, “A Late Night in November,” and the funk-R&B inspired “Alone in a Crowd of 1,000 Acquaintances” to the unforgettable, “Idyllic Moonlight” (video above); the soft, upbeat jazzy, “Driving Through A Thunderstorm,” and the inspirational, “As Summer Comes to a Sullen Conclusion,” not to mention the standout closer, “Epiphany,” this album is definitely not elevator new age music for yoga. Not in the least.
Spurred and informed by an eclectic taste in music from the past and present, and mixing many genres from his kit of sounds, Benny captures various core elements of atmospheric rock, pop, prog, psych, and cinematic post-rock and bakes them into one compelling and distinct collection of songs. Without being cheesey.
His musical influences include The Cure, Tears For Fears, Anathema, Lights & Motion, Marillion, Peter Gabriel.
Amity Beach – Bonfire Etiquette
Based in Ontario, Canada, the teenage (at the time) indie pop band, Amity Beach, have somehow escaped the kind of popularity that their music deserves, especially after the release of their debut LP, Bonfire Etiquette, in 2013.
With flourishes of jangly guitars, sunny keyboards, and bright synth riffs, uptempo, thumping bass and energetic drumming on tracks like “Crown Victoria” and the summertime anthem of “Sunday Nights To Infinity,” with its embracing of 1960s-style pop rock, even if they don’t necessarily realize it.
As purveyors of infectious indie dance beats and big, sweeping orchestral pop melodies, the members of Amity Beach hit it out of the park with its fantastic debut. And like many orchestral indie pop bands, the band also makes use of instruments such as the glockenspiel, bari sax, trumpet and French horn throughout the EP.
Other standout songs include the exuberant “Crown Victoria”; the inviting, driving beats, bari sax and twinkling glockenspiel of the unforgettable “Avalanches”; the wonder and guitar jamming of “Born in the Daylight,” and an exhilarating cover version of “Right Back Where We Started From,” written by J. Vincent Edwards and Pierre Tubbs, and made popular in 1976 by Maxine Nightingale.
There really is not a song on Bonfire Etiquette that we don’t like. If you listen to this album a few times over a couple of weeks, you may realize how under the radar Amity Beach has been since 2013 – when the band could have been riding high on the indie orchestral pop wave craze.
According to the band, the P is “an exploration of the perils, pitfalls, and pleasures of juvenescence.” We have actually listened to, and enjoyed, this album a number of times over the years.
The talented band members include Geoff Baillie (lead vocals, guitar, glockenspiel, bari sax); Andrew Gill (backing vocals, guitar, trumpet, French horn); Fraser Moore (bass); Jordan Hansen (drums); and Grayson Homuth (keyboards, synthesizer).
Guest performances included appearances by the band First Rate People and artist Mikey Chuck Rivers. The album was produced by Matt Weston (Broken Teeth, Icewater) and mastered by Noah Mintz (The National, Broken Social Scene).
Amity Beach has previously opened for bands like Dinosaur Bones, The Balconies, Les Stroud, and The Walkervilles, with top musical influences including The Talking Heads, R.E.M. and Modest Mouse.
Sadly, the band has not released an album since Bonfire Etiquette and the last post on their Facebook page is from 2014.
https://amitybeach.bandcamp.com/album/bonfire-etiquette
