Myspace surprise: The Quit

It's happened again. A band that I've never heard of found me on myspace, and I totally dig what they're doing. The band is The Quit, and they have a show on November 27 at the Crocodile. If the live tracks on their myspace page are any indication, it's a show worth catching!

A good day on Myspace

I got a few myspace friend requests today from interesting bands. So, go check out the following:

The Candystrippers from Portland

Karuna from Seattle

Bashful from Seattle

Good stuff on all three pages.

Myspace surprise: EXIT TO MAINe

It's happened once again. I get these occasional myspace friend requests from bands that I've never heard, but that really interest me. This time it's a group called EXIT TO MAINe (yes, that seems to be how they use capitalization).

It's another example of me not knowing every band in town, even though I try! in this instance, their songs are labeled 2005 (although the myspace page was only created in October 2006). So, I'm not sure how long they've been around. In fact, I'm having a hard time parsing out their bio on sonicbids. Are they really in Seattle now? I have no idea. Read for yourself:

Jason moved here from Rockford, IL (aka suburbia) with more than seventy songs. Ray and Tony were friends who'd played together in Seattle for a couple of years. The band's rapid progress was benefited by a series of happy coincidences--From the first jam the three locked into what would come to be a definitive hybrid synthesis of modern and classic sounds.

The difficulty is they don't define what "here" means in the first sentence, and the Seattle reference sounds kind of past tense. But, their myspace page does say Seattle. So, for now, I'm treating them like they're from here.

[Blogger update: After reading this post, they've updated their bio so as to make their story a bit more clear.]

And I dig what I see and hear on their myspace page. Here's a video to sample. Kinda sounds like The Knack meets Devo to me.

Myspace surprise: Electric Tape

Occasionally I get a myspace friend request from a Seattle band that I have never heard before, but really like what I find on their page. I've had this happen on a few other occasions -- with The Universe and The Knast specifically. And I like to think of these moments as a "myspace surprise."

Well, I got my latest "myspace surprise" over the weekend via a band called Electric Tape. There's only one tune on their myspace page, a track called "Wake Me." But, I really dig it.

They list the following bands as influences: The Police, The Rentals, Elvis Costello, Mates Of State, Death Cab For Cutie, Stars, Weezer

That's a mix of bands that would keep me happy for days. On this first recording, they seem to fall closer to the indiepop side of the world than the powerpop side. But, who cares. Good pop music gets its hooks in me, and this is good pop music. Their site says they're planning shows for the summer and releasing an EP next month. So, I'll look forward to hearing more from them soon.


Electric Tape

Myspace surprise: The Knast

Wading through the tons of gambling, porn and international heavy metal bands that request to be myspace friends with the blog can be somewhat tiring. But, occasionally something breaks through that is genuinely good, and on a really good day that group is also from Seattle.

Well, today is a really good day. I received a friend request from The Knast which seems to be a relatively new group (their myspace page was just created back in October). I can't say I know a thing about them (no bio on the site). But, I'm thrilled they found me.

They're a little bit garage, and little bit 60s pop, and a little bit mod/R&B (in the same way that The Small Change is). The one tune they have on their page, "sittin' in my tree," is one toe-tappin', head-bobbin' number that I've listened to three times straight. Head over and take a listen.

"myspace surprise" of the week

I'm always getting random friend request or randomly finding bands via myspace that, for whatever reason, I haven't heard before. The pleasant surprise from myspace this week is The Universe. This is another one of those bands that I have the sense that I should have known by now, but didn't -- afterall, they created their myspace page on 6/21/2004! So, I'm glad they found me.

Their myspace page has demos that are rough, but tasty -- they describe them as "Nothing ready for prime-time yet (just a coupla quick-n-dirty demos)." I hear some Elephant 6 influence (the song "on a limb"), and also some Tobin Sprout in there (the song "plans"). I'm looking forward to seeing where they head with their sound.

One of their members also has one of the craziest suits I've ever laid eyes on. But, I'm going to try to not hold that against them.