Memorial Day Round-Up

Hi friends -


so after several days sans a post I am throwing together a mishmash of thoughts on different artists/pieces of information I picked up:

1) This weekend, the NY Times featured an article about possibly the coolest archive I have heard of: Michael Ochs, a former music PR/agent, has a collection of thousands of photographs of rock n' roll musicians. Compiled over the past 30 years, he's got everyone from Gladys Knight at 8 years old to ZZ Top with no beards.

Ochs makes money by licensing these images out - recent ones appear in Gap ads and on CD cases everywhere - but he is pretty adamant that he does it just for the joy of having the archive. I'd like to petition him to making it open to the public one day - although that would probably be the complete demise of my productivity.

Check out the article here.

2) In case you haven't heard, French indie group Phoenix has officially burst onto the scene with their second album (technically third if you don't count their live album, which I don't). Their soft, easy listening pop songs are getting lots of praise from critics and fans alike, and rightfully so as they have a nice blend of pop rock beats, piano melodies, folky guitar influence and easy to sing-along-to lyrics. I hear everyone from Ani DiFranco and Edie Brickell (what's up 90s!?!) to the Violent Femmes and even a little Canadian influences with The Arcade Fire... (I might be pulling this out of nowhere, but I swear these guys have little riffs that come from everywhere)

The first single "Long Distance Call" is on its way to radio play and has a lot of mainstream potential. I'm always a little wary of any indie band that gets this much play on MTV right off the bat - but I think this French foursome has some good potential, and at the very least will appeal to a wide range of music listeners.

Phoenix homepage here.
Myspace page here.

3) For those looking for a band that's a little rougher around the edges check out Hope of the States. These guys are from the U.K. and definitely straddle the bridge between Radiohead and some heavy metal.

Hope of the States homepage here.

I'm back on track for regular posts... More to come!