This indie rock songs playlist features indie artists and bands from across the U.S. – from Indiana to New York California to Massachusetts.
In this installment:
Aaron Laughlin – Humboldt, California
Evan Mix – Floyds Knobs, Indiana
Jet Set Future – Plymouth, Massachusetts
Haelphon – Los Angeles, California
Parlors – Brooklyn, New York
Aaron Laughlin – “Sacred and Sweet”
Aaron Laughlin’s music weaves together concurrently expressive instrumentation, such as the mandolin, guitar, and keyboards to create a busy, swirling sound that is also remarkably peaceful and transcendent at the same time on his single, “Sacred and Sweet.”
This is not your ordinary fare indie track. Rather it blends folk, experimental, and acoustic with intriguing melodies, mixing and rhythm.
It feels a bit like walking through the foggy redwood forests that still grace the area where Laughlin lives in Humboldt, California.
I can imagine listening to this song on headphones while walking beneath the sheer majesty of the ancient giant trees of the northern California coast.
It’s not hard to imagine how much the surrounding environment of Humboldt County must inform Laughlin’s music. In addition to guitars and mandolin, he plays keyboards and programs drums. He also mixed and mastered the recording – full-throttle DIY.
The song has a Nick Drake-meets-Michael-Hedges (RIP both) vibe that runs through it. The stop and starts throughout the song give an unpredictability to it that is refreshing.
“‘Sacred and Sweet’ was the first time I picked a mandolin,” he says. “The song developed quickly from there and inspired me to try new things, such as playing keyboards and programming drums.”
As the song developed, he says, it turned in to “an attempt to see if I could completely self-produce a multi-instrumental song.”
Laughlin then began to write and compose songs on different instruments and it changed the way he looked at songwriting.
“Writing on new instruments changed my approach and made me look at songwriting in a new light,” he says.
He continues to work on new material for a complete album planned to drop in 2020.
Jet Set Future – “Vice”
Hailing from the historic town of Plymouth, Massachusetts, the female-fronted five-piece alt rock band Jet Set Future’s new single, “Vice,” features jangling guitars, chugging percussions and the sort of Gwen Stefani-like vocals of singer Meagan Crossman.
The band was originally formed in 2016 by guitarist Mike Kemmett and bassist Ben Ciccone, both former members of the punk band Polaroid Days.
Kemmett also started playing drums until they found a permanent drummer, E.J. Gellar. Subsequently, Gellar recruited his old cover band mate, Crossman, for vocal duties. And then guitarist George Barber joined the band.
Since then, the band’s chemistry has worked out well for all, which is evident in the results. JSF weaves tapestries of beautiful melodies, bumbling bass, thrashing drums, and powerful guitars.
“This release is important to our music direction,” says Kemmet “because it shows you a foreshadowing of what’s to come on our full length.
“We can be poppy and peppy. We can be dark, we can have a feeling like you’re relaxing on a beach, we can also add a sense of classical. “
Although they started out with the band name Summer Street, they decided to scrap that for JSF. The only criticism is that it is hard to find info on the band in Google because everything pops up Jet Set Radio Future (and it could even attract the attention of their corporate office if the band were to get popular).
We tell bands all of the time – think very carefully before you pick a name – if it’s named similar to an already established brand – you’re looking for trouble. We’ve seen plenty of band’s scramble to change their name when they receive that first cease and desist letter from a law firm.
Picking an artist or a band name that is completely unique, not already an established brand, where there are no conflicting results in Google search and where the social media accounts for that moniker are available across the board. Then trademark it. It’s apparent that the band has struggled to find the right name. It really doesn’t matter but it has to be available (and the dotcom domain should also be available).
For example, a band could call itself the Yellow Jelly Belly Brigade – it doesn’t matter. What does matter nowadays are two things – a clear brand and the music itself.
Increasingly, brands are what get people to actually listen to an artist’s music. We tell artists and bands all of the time how important cover art is – it makes – or not – people more likely to take the time to listen to the music if they are drawn in by the cover art, band name and other cues of branding.
Therefore, branding from all angles and right from the start is critical to a band’s visibility and success (and to stay out of legal scrambles, real or possible). That starts with picking the right name and really researching it. Afterall it’s almost as important as naming a first baby.
https://www.facebook.com/jetsetfuture/
Evan Mix – “Does Anyone Like January?”
For years we’ve been following the interesting and unconventional – sometimes outright strange – music career of Indiana experimental artist Evan Mix. His music is fitting in ways too.
Afterall, what would we expect from an artist born and raised in a small farming town called Floyds Knobs.
Recently Mix released his fifth studio album, Described With Adjectives, which will be included in IRC’s year-end Best DIY Albums of 2019 series.
In the meantime, we wanted to present one of the tracks from the album, “Does Anyone Like January?” The song is fragmented musically with stuttering instrumentation from a piano and vibraphone together with Mix’s original vocal delivery, which is more like a conversation than a song. And that’s refreshing. Not the same old boring thing.
If you like or are intrigued by the song enough to want to hear the rest of the album, we encourage you to do so, especially if you are a fan of avant-garde, minimalism, experimental, and/or lo-fi indie.
His friend and sometimes producer, only ever known as Kaiser, edited and mixed this one track.
“In the original demo for the song, both the piano and vibraphone played straight through from beginning to end,” Mix says.
“Kaiser was able to listen to the arrangement and decide when to mute either part so it wouldn’t clash with the other sounds. He also made helpful recommendations on the phrasing of the vocals in this song.”
Kaiser was the producer of Mix’s underground mini-hit album, Chips Forboy, and which we reviewed here on IRC enthusiastically.
In regards to his latest album, Mix says: “it’s homemade pop music that represents the heart of Southern Indiana.”
Maybe one of these days the real Dr. Demento, who is still doing his radio show 40 years later, will play some of Evan Mix’s music. It’s the perfect venue.
Listen to the album on Soundcloud
Haelphon – “Mixed Emotions”
A few weeks ago the debut album from Boston electro musician Haelphon dropped. The album is engaging, personal and thought-provoking on songs like “Mixed Emotions” and “Make Up Your Mind.”
His music can definitely be called ‘mood’ music with its musically and lyrically deep and emotive songs throughout the album.
The lead track, in our opinion, “Mixed Emotions,” almost has a classic rock opera feel to it with wide ranges in the agonized vocal deliveries from Haelphon, while “Make Up Your Mind” leans towards the more reflective side of the spectrum.
His writing style leans literary with stories of his youth told through the vignettes of carefully arranged compositions.
Early on in his career, Haelphon was heavily influenced by progressive electro artists like Avicii and Swedish House Mafia. Over time he began to add tropical influences inspired by artists like Kygo. He has had his music licensed for a series of commercials and films over the years.
His first examples of electronic music production were combined with the talents of featured vocalists around the world, but as the lyrics began to reflect more personal moments, he decided to begin singing them himself.
Parlors – “Stucco”
Following years of recording demos and changing band names, New York City indie band Parlors entered the studio last year to record the final takes on a set of songs they felt were ready for their debut album.
After many months of working to hone in on the sound they were striving for, the band entered the studio last year during a hot New York summer.
Some months later, they emerged with a fully baked debut. One of the standout tracks on the album, and their newest single, is the grooving number “Stucco.”
The song has a solid backbeat and bass with decidedly pop/singer-songwriter feel, complex guitar work, cool vocals, and intricate melodies.
As the band contends, their music is more “apt to soundtrack the twilight hours of an autumn evening.” “Stucco” achieves that effect.
The band’s debut single, “State Lines,” released earlier this year, was featured on the show Kings of A&R.
The band describes the song as a “concoction that might have otherwise required the Eagles of 1972 to abandon their acoustic guitars and invite Queens of the Stone Age for a ride east to meet The Strokes in an East Village studio.”
The band members are Matt Fullam (vocals, guitar); Hart Mechlin (lead guitarist); Dan Fullam (drums) and Matt DaSilva (bass).