Music and Reviews

Man, this group is very quickly becoming prolific! It seems like every week they’reshelling out another track. And it’s wonderful. The newest released track, “Blue,” takes a slightly different musical route from the other tracks. You still have that sorrowful strain that goes along with the pathos of it all – that systemic and biological angst from a confusing situation, enshrined in song – but it’s not as “lost in the woods”-y. This track’s a bit more upbeat. Keys are introduced, and even the lyrics seem to push more toward a hopeful love song than a sorrowful, remorseful track.

Perhaps it’s all part of their ultimate goal for when an LP is finalized. Maybe it’s this concept of loss and gain, released through music. All I know is that, whenever this album is released, I’m going to get it as soon as possible. Young Excursion is incredible and oh so talented.

Check this track out on their bandcamp, and feel free to download all their demo tracks. Help fund the artist, too!

Similar to: Local Natives, The Tallest Man On Earth

Enjoy!

I posted about this new group out of Nashville and Boston a few months ago, and I hope you’re following them as closely as I am. They just pumped out a new track, made free for download on their bandcamp, titled “No Rooms.” Follow these guys. Keep them in the back of your mind. One of these days, they’re going to be big, and you’re going to be happy you picked them up before they came out with their most famous stuff. After all, bragging rights are the reason anyone gets into new music, right?

A month ago, I had the opportunity to see Young Excursion play an acoustic show in a small cafe outside of Boston. The combination of multiple guitars each playing slightly different rhythm and lead parts at alternating times made for a very complex and impressive atmosphere. Tactically, it was brilliant. You can feel the emotion pouring out of every lyric expressed. Young Excursion has the unique ability to capture that sense of being empty in the woods, left with only your lonely faults and thoughts, just longing for anyone to relieve your pain and sorrow. For that, I commend and respect them. If you’re in the Boston area and have the chance to see them, go. You won’t be disappointed.

Seriously, listen to this track. Download their stuff, and enjoy the beauty that is Young Excursion.

Just click Play below and enjoy!

Oh my, this band. Town Hall is a band out of NYU, and they’re just absolutely incredible. I’ve been listening to this album pretty much nonstop over the past week. If there’s one album you get linked to from TGLR that you actually pay for this year, let it be this. Seriously, you will not be disappointed.

This is the band’s debut album, and you can just tell that they’re going to be big. It’s difficult to draw a parallel to their music without bringing up their unique qualities that differ them from every other act out there today. Again, and I can’t say it enough, this group is incredible. The musicality meshes perfectly with the style of song; the lyrics are smart but snarky at times, with no loss on the sad, heartstrung tunes.

Usually, you’ll get bands like these that simply lack when it comes to production skill – after all, they’re not nearly able to get their hands on the expensive production equipment needed to make something like what’s normally listened to in the ways of pop-rock. But Town Hall doesn’t lack in that respect either. Somehow, everything’s produced perfectly, orchestrated perfectly, and composed perfectly. How they do it I’ll always wonder. But please, please, please, listen to this album, buy it, give Town Hall the funds to keep making incredible music. Or at least just check out their bandcamp and look at what else they have (their first EP is completely FREE!).

Top Tracks: “Mary A. Longden,” “Swim Team,” “The Strongest of Hands”

Similar to: The Decemberists, Belle & Sebastian, The New Pornographers, Andrew Bird, The Magnetic Fields.

Enjoy!

Remember that video I posted about a while back? That one with that up-and-coming rapper with sick lines and metaphors so creative that Shakespeare would’ve collapsed in shame? Remember how he was about to release a mixtape? Well BOOM! Here it is, and it is insane (and free!). Adding remixing and freestyles over some tracks, as well as a few tracks with some really nice jazz undertones and original beats, Still Learning does a lot more than originally anticipated. Somewhat reminiscent of Us3 – that group from the 90s with influential lyrics and even more influential instrumentation – Telly impresses continually. Imagine the heartfelt, self-effacing and virtú-embedded lyrics of Shad or Tupac, and mix that with some of the most intuitive and intelligent rhymes in music today and you get Telly. Again, one of the best parallels can be drawn between Telly and Us3 – very similar style of elocution. But shit, Telly is insane.

Check this out. The dude can spit, and spit well. Still Learning is definitely an homage to the roots of hip-hop, while staying grounded in the present of the style and looking to the future in innovation. Download the mixtape, and take a listen to this up-and-comer, the future of hip-hop. Out of Washington, DC, this is Telly.

Telly can also be found at his Twitter @tellybambaataa.

Cheers!