Lil' Indie Round-Up

War Tapes EP by War Tapes

What Do They Sound Like??: 90s alt rock with a dramatic, deep voiced singer and 80s synth-pop/new wave undertones.

Buy, Meh, Bleh: Meh. War Tapes are a band who remind you of other groups without adding any new touches or finesse of their own. They aren't terrible but the songs on this EP pass by without sinking any real hooks into you.

Music For Dorothy by Topas & Mudphonic

What Do They Sound Like??: Like a bar band combining funk, blues, R&B, and a touch of jazz, boasting downhome grooves and a laid back (but not in a lazy way) vibe.

Buy, Meh, Bleh: You know what?? Buy. If you're into that funky 70s bar band vibe--harmonicas, organs, guitars, and a semi-raspy singer--then you'll love this band. It's good music for hanging out with friends or killing a six pack, but close listening at home leaves something to be desired.

Supersaturated by The Singhs

What Do They Sound Like??: Pretty much like the cover: a super glossy sheen that leaves no impression. Something vaguely glam rock about the whole album, with an immaculate production and polish that robs what is obstensibly rock music of any kind of rocking.

Buy, Meh, Bleh: Bleh. Judging by the way the band looks, The Singhs are an alternate universe version of Guided By Voices in which Robert Pollard and co. never made it and became an oddly faceless and personality-less glam rock/arena rock band who never rock and can't write an interesting song to save their lives. When I listen to Supersaturated it's as though the band keeps the volume and energy level down because they don't want to wake up their wives or something. Imagine some high powered executive, rendered impotent and humor-less by years of cigars and cocaine, lounging in a room with entirely black furniture; this is the music he listens to to unwind. This album is the sort of thing I point to when I write things like "I don't like Rehearsing My Choir by the Fiery Furnaces but sometimes a spectacular, experimental failure is better than a competently produced and played but mediocre album." Mediocrity is worse than flat out sucking in my book.