Monday, August 3, 2009

New To Know:Mando Diao + River City Extension + Mark Mallman

Mando Diao
I have quickly become addicted to this posse of Swedish lads. They create a punchy pop sound that over the course of their existence have smartened up and acquired a wee hint of Motown rhythm countered with a skotch of southern edge. There are quite a few delectable tracks , The Wildfire or You Can't Steal My Love. Its the kind of music you put on when you have some intense ya-ya's needing to be danced out. You can hear bits of their next album, Give Me Fire, on here but the Gloria, employs some early wall of soundesque lady background vocal. I Wanna Dance With Somebody makes you want to do just that. Go acquire any and all Mando Diao you can get your hands on and try to spread the love so that they may stray in their extensive European touring to come state side.



River City Extension
This is another group that immediately left a big impression on me. I wrote about them briefly a few weeks ago after their lead singer played a moving solo set with Dinosaur Feathers. Then... I listened to their album Nautical Sabbatical. This entire album is a pleasure to listen to. They cover some good genre ground from the soundtrack friendly Its No Ha Ha to the banjo picking awesomeness of Clever & Quickness its layer upon layer of rollicking good music. There are a whole slew of folks who contribute their skills to build RCE's layers, which means there are more opportunities than usual for things to get messy; however, it stays within the lines to push its way into your heart and keep yers feets a stompin. I'm beyond anxious to take in their live show, which of course I'll report back to you diligently.

Mark Mallman

When I first saw Mark Mallman live I was a sophomore in college and he was insane. He screams he is in your face and at times I thought I was witnessing a breakdown. I saw him many more times over the course of my college career (he is a Twin Cities artist and they love to play the Cave) and after a while I realized there was definite method to his madness and my fandom was cemented. He popped into the main stream when his side project Ruby Isle released their full length album last year to wide praise. But his solo work deserves as much, if not more attention. He has an album coming out so he will be doing a whole bunch of touring [including PHILLY!!!! on Sept. 22nd] it is now your duty to go out and experience the whirl wind that is Mark Mallman. For your enjoyment here is the video for Invincible Criminal,a single of his new album, as well as one of my fav. older tracks Knockout on 22nd

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