Tuesday Tunes--October 6, 2015
Shaun Cordingley
Welcome back for the second week of Tuesday Tunes here at theguysfrom.com. We hope that you enjoyed the first five tracks last week, and here are five "new" songs we think deserve your attention this week.
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any of these songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new and different music, or re-expose them to things they may have forgotten about.
At the top of each section, will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website, so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.
'Fineshrine' - Purity Ring
Is this 2012 release still the Edmonton electronic-pop duo's most popular song? Probably (and according to iTunes as of writing this, yes), however I am still surprised when I mention Purity Ring and get blank stares. 'Fineshrine' is one of those earworm songs that will get into your head and stay there forever; Megan James' soft and lyrical voice cutting across the asynchronous sample-cut rhythm (a hallmark of Purity Ring producer, and other half of the duo, Corin Roddick).
Purity Ring is another one of those bands which is just simmering below wide recognition, having worked with other artists like Danny Brown and Angel Haze, even releasing a remix of Lady Gaga's 'Applause' for said songs' digital remix EP.
'Fineshrine' remains a standout future-pop track worthy of a few minutes of your time.
'Getting Away (feat. Mack)'- Vindata
Vindata is a name that will probably not mean much to those who are not paying attention to the EDM scene; band members Branden Ratcliff and Jared Poythress started in 2010, producing hip hop and r&b songs before beginning to experiment with ODESZA style EDM tracks of their own. 'Getting Away (feat. Mack) is an excellent jumping in point for anyone looking for multi-layered, organic beats flowing through deep percussion sections and beautiful lyrics.
If you scrolled past this one the second you saw 'EDM' that would be a mistake; Vindata takes their hip hop/R&B sensibilities, and infuses them with a very natural sounding indie dance pop vibe, heavily inspired by the new, more listener friendly EDM, like Justice and the aforementioned ODESZA.
'Kiss This' & 'Could Have Been Me'-The Struts
So...do you miss glam rock? How about the glory days of singable arena rock? Early Rolling Stones?
Well then it might be time for you to start paying attention to Derby, England's The Struts, who have been making their name touring through England and France (including opening for The Rolling Stones in front of 80,000 in Paris). They are already building a following based on their charismatic and high energy live performances, retro-glam costumes (including lead singer Luke Spiller's outfit for the Isle of Wright Festival designed by Zandra Rhodes, who used to design for Freddie Mercury...) and old-school guitar stylings of Adam Slack.
This is unapologetically late 70s, early 80s...so if that's not your bag, then I get it...but these guys are probably the closest thing there is to old school arena/glam rock, that have the singer AND the band to back it up. At the moment, they are not relying on gimmicky, The Darkness style nonsense, actually proving themselves beyond one song (which would be why I felt you deserved two different songs here (plus this second video is trying a bit too hard...if you don't want to watch the band wake up, skip to about the 1:20 mark):
'Can You Get to That' - Funkadelic
Figured we should end on a classic: this is probably my favourite funk song of all time, which I first came across due to the sampling of the song by Sleigh Bells (a band I am sure will probably pop up on one of these lists at some point) for their song 'Rill Rill'. This 1971 classic by George Clinton's sister band to The Parliaments/Parliament. Staying away from all of the record company shenanigans, shifting band rosters, and problems, let's just rest with the fact that this is one of those tracks that will stop me cold (regardless of what I am doing) so I can crank it up and groove for about three minutes.
You'll also know all of the lyrics about halfway through the song, as it's not so much about that, as it is about the blending of funk, acoustic rock and some bitter reminiscences of relationships past and karma.
Thanks to the proliferation of streaming services, these five songs are readily accessible throughout the web, but we do encourage you to purchase any music that fits into your groove. Believe us when we say artists cannot be expected to produce work for free; most are willing to spend 5$ on a cup of coffee, maybe chuck 1$ or (*gasp*) 10$ at an artist--the Struts' EP is literally less than a cup of coffee right now...just sayin'...
See you again next Tuesday with 5 more tracks.