Infinite Shuffle

While looking for a new, permanent site to stream music following the demise of MOG, I decided to use Bandcamp during the interim. It’s a site that has been paying big dividends for me, but one that I’d never taken full advantage of.

Rather than just include a couple of videos for a band, it allows me the ability to embed an entire album stream in my posts. Besides that, I’d used it often to easily listen to full catalogs from bands.

But recently I tried something new on Bandcamp — searching for new acts. After bouncing around the site a bit, I stumbled across the “Fan Spotlight” section and saw this review by Abby Holmes regarding the band Ponychase and its debut album, Parade of Youth:

“Friends” is like a song that plays at the end of an ’80s romantic comedy/drama when the leads rush to each other and do a spin-kiss. And that feeling you get when you see those two characters is exactly the feeling you get while playing this album.

She’s right. But that description would be apt for the whole album, not just its second track.

The vibe is there from the beginning on the opening title track all the way through to closer “Melissa”. It’s like the soundtrack to the teenage years for anyone who had a Brat Pack poster on his or her wall.

Photo credit: Patrick Rodgers (http://instagram.com/p/N5Lxk4Ij0Q/)

And just the like the album, the band itself is jam-packed full of awesome. The Nashville-based quartet is something of a Music City supergroup. It all starts with singer/songwriter Jordan Caress, who honed her skills as a multi-instrumentalist in backing bands for Caitlin Rose, Tristen and others.

Joining Caress are her brother, Alex (Little Bandit), who churns out spot-on nostalgia via the synthesizers, Beth “EG” Cameron (Forget Cassettes) on guitar and Brian Siskind (Fognode, Good Rester) on drums.

On “Resurrected”, another strong track, the opening notes almost mimic those of David Lee Roth’s take on “California Girls”. But it quickly turns in to a slow, shoegazey tune that would fit well on a Lykke Li album.

The sugary sweet sounds belie the melancholic tone of the lyrics that describe the struggle of growing up as an LGBT teenager. Like in “House in the Valley”, where Jordan yearns “to live in a house in the valley, where my parents and my teachers can’t find me” and trying to “heal” her “disease.”

The full-length album came out this past March, and was preceded by a self-titled EP in November 2012 that acts as a great appetizer to the main course.

Besides Bandcamp, Facebook and Twitter, Ponychase don’t seem to have an official website. And it doesn’t appear that they are touring at the moment. But you probably have a decent chance of catching them if you happen to be spending some time in Nashville.

On their 2008 EP, Are We All Forgotten, the band Paper Route exudes a mixture of Coldplay and Band of Horses, with a little Shiny Toy Guns and VHS or Beta thrown in for good measure.

Since forming in 2004, the quartet from Nashville, Tenn., has churned out five EPs — starting with a self-titled one in 2006 — and last year released its first full-length album, Absence.

I first heard about them last year in an issue of Alternative Press. I can’t remember what the blurb in the magazine said about the band, but it intrigued me enough to check out its MySpace page. And I instantly liked what I was hearing.

While several contemporaries stood out in their earlier work, on Absence, Paper Route’s sound had evolved enough to where it became difficult to pick out any certain influences. Instead, they had began to develop their own sound.

Paper Route – Carousel

Some of the bands that Amazon.com links to Paper Route include Mutemath, Phoenix, Keane, Owl City and The Temper Trap. That’s not too surprising, considering how important the electro aspect is to Paper Route’s music.

Here is my favorite song off of Absence:

Paper Route – Last Time