The Tryout: Freelance Whales
Any other week, the Tryout might have been Los Campesinos' "Romance is Boring" or Soft Pack's self-titled EP.
Unfortunately for them, this is the week that I discovered Freelance Whales and got addicted to their sound. It's a little emo-y but I'm hooked. And how can you not love a group that got its start playing in NYC subways?
This album was my first music purchase of the year and I've listened to it over and over, especially the first two tracks - "Generator ^ First Floor" and "Hannah". Those two songs are pretty much already guaranteed to make my 2010 most listened to list. I probably never would have discovered these guys if it wasn't for amiestreet.com, a pretty cool online music outlet. Besides this album, I got a couple of cool free downloads from Wakey! Wakey! and ent.
Staying on the soft side is another instrumental band, The Album Leaf, whose new album just came out. I wasn't blown away by this one but I'd recommend giving their previous record a listen. A lot of people are raving about Charlotte Gainsbourg's album. I didn't give it a good listen but it didn't really wow me at all.Finally, fans of garage rock might want to give JEFF the Brotherhood a shot.
A pretty good week of music, especially considering the fact that I held out a couple bands who could be Tryout material in the coming weeks.
