Monday, May 23, 2011

Spencerwire Radio - Third Edition

Another month has come and gone and the radio shows are stacking up. Radio Show's 4 and 5 collections are completed, though track selection has yet to be decided. It's all about time. This month we will explore some straight forward rock, some interesting instrumentals, a little bit of retro sounds, Salsa flavors, country-rock and much more. Let's start this show rolling!


Combo some grunge, funk, and indie rock, and you get Russian band Snowed Under with the lead off track It's Alright. Indeed it is! This is a party time track. Vocals are nicely out front and the underlying melody is a mental infection. Nicely done, and well worth the listen. You can find Snowed Under on their My Space Page.

Staying with the straight forward rock for a moment, enter the instrumental Solar Smoke from another Russian band KRESoff. For now, you'll just have to find out as much as you can about KRESoff on Jamendo, as there doesn't appear to be much else available out there.

Conway Hambone's track Revolution is almost, but not quite Janis Joplin-esque. It has a delightful blues-rock jam, combined with a gravely vocal from the lead female vocalist, Lucy Dimond. It's all very interesting in a retro-rock sort of way. Conway Hambone and company can be found on My Space as well as Jamendo.

From Rock and Roll, to Jazz. Enter the Salsa flavored (and named) Salsa di Soy from Italian band Boom Boom Beckett. This a great instrumental, with good solo fills on trumpet, sax and guitar. Aside from Jamendo, you can find Boom Boom Becket on their own bi-lingual Blog.

Country-rock styling and almost Dire Straits-like guitar fills, complement the pop-folk For Me by another Italian band, Comfort Farmers. The vocals aren't perfect, but they fit nicely in the polished instrumental portion of the song. For now, Comfort Farmers can be found on Jamendo only.

Folk-poppers, The Postmen bring to the table a wonderful ballad with Pieces of a Past Life. This entire offering is delightful, and I highly recommend listening to the whole thing, if this type of music is your thing. Besides residing on Jamendo.com, you can find The Postmen right Here. The primary language is French, but all of the songs are in English.

Picking up the pace just a bit, wall-of-sound pop group, On Returning hits pretty hard with King and Country. Nothing much out there for this group, except for their My Space Page.

Rhythm and Blues is alive and well with Urtzi Azkue and Ecstasy of Sound. This track instantly reminds you of-just the good parts-the 1970's. Want more? Check them out hereon their own web page.

A totally different style is the nearly minstrel, Celtic styled VĂ¡monos baillar> from a 2007 offering by La Gueta La Runa. This is one of those language-barrier tunes, but even though I can't understand the lyric, it is infectious just the same. You can find more about this amazing group on their web site, but if you need the site in English, you are out of luck. The good news is that good music transcends language.

Jamendo.com prolific folkster Josh Woodward makes his debut on the Radio Show with 20/20. Josh has a plethora of wonderful folk pop available on Jamendo, but you can also find a great deal of information about Josh on his website, including a lot of blog entries on making music for the masses and marketing your band. Check out Josh Woodward now!

One more time with the language barrier firmly in tact, is staccato delivered Ondine Songs in A Minor from, a-hem, Ondine. Unfortunately, I can't find this Ondine anywhere but on Jamendo. So enjoy this track!

Power pop anthem People follows up next from M.i.R. This song gets in your head and moves your whole body. Each verse builds in intensity. The chorus blends flawlessly with the lead vocal-it's just fun music. Unfortunately, nothing much I can find specifically about this band. Their are other bands called M.i.R., but none of them are this one-at least not that I could find. M.i.R. does have one other track on Jamendo.com.

Marc Reeves brings us the folk-crooner I Want Out. It's beautiful and haunting. The guitar work early on is reminiscent of Cat Stevens circa Catch Bull at Four. You can find Marc on his My Space or on his UK web site, just to name two of a host of links available.

As the credits roll, listen to the haunting chill jazz-fusion instrumental from Triplexity called Reflections. Triplexity has a fair amount of music on Jamendo, so check out the rest of their tracks. This is generally not my style of music, but this grabs me. It's very textural and deep. A lot of layers of very impressive musical chops. They've got their own blog, but it's in French.

Finally, no mention of Creative Commons music would be complete without including someone who is trying it on for size for the first time. Delightful singer-songwriter from Nebraska, Leesha Harvey, released her first CD Penny in the Pocket, independently through normal channels. That CD is still available through CD-Baby and well worth the purchase price. This time out, she's released Church Lofts and Basement Corners on her web site for free. Yes, there's a donate link there, and if you donate you'll get a wonderful e-booklet with pictures and other great add-ons. Check it out!

Remember to support all of the music you hear out there, and let the musicians know that you care about them and their music. It's important! Until next month, keep listening and drop me a line if you like or hate something here.