Olin and the Moon

Music today often feels like it's all about image; the look of a band or how "professional" the album sounds have become dominating priorities when recording and marketing an artist. To hear someone like Olin and the Moon, whose music and lyrics are grounded in earnestly, is a stimulating change of sonic scenery...

Black Sheep Boy Revisited

Album: Black Sheep Boy

With Okkervil River's latest release, The Stage Names, the band has received a fair amount of deserving publicity but I feel their greatest album was the one before this. Black Sheep Boy was a concept album revolving around the song of the same name by folk singer Tim Hardin. Front man Will Sheff wrote what is in my mind one of the greatest concept albums of all time. From start to finish Black Sheep Boy poetically describes the tension we we all live in between unchecked passion and depressing discontent. Like a disenchanted dream the album holds an ethereal weight that only grows as the album continues...

Interview With Ethan Durelle

We're big supporters of the local music scene. Unfortunately there isn't much of a scene in Waco, TX which means when a band like Ethan Durelle showed up on our radar with their debut release in 2003 you can imagine how elated we were. Their introspective lyrics make for a meaningful listen and with their sophomore release, Talks To The Dark, they let everyone know they're here to stay. A few days ago Jordan spoke with lead singer Evan Lecker, here's what he had to say...

Ultra Sonic Edukators

Album: Bad Blood EP

There aren't many bands that have the ability to make songs you instantly repeat after only one listen. In their debut EP Ultra Sonic Edukators are letting us all know they're one of those bands. Expansive sonic landscaping characterizes much of Bad Blood with instruments taking center stage for over half the play time of some songs...

Four Fantastic Music Videos

The greatest songs tell a story and most directors either try to adhere to far too literally or do something so obscure with a music video that it adds no value to a song whatsoever. The best music videos take a moving melody and create something that not only adds to its meaning but also gives the track a breath of new life. Some are old some are new but all of them add an awesome visual twist to already solid songs...

Things Are Gonna Get Messy...

Hey guys just giving you the heads up that we're changing the site up pretty dramatically so for the next few days expect errors on the site, double-vision, and loss of links. Sorry for the mess but we're trying to revamp the site to serve you better.

Hockey Night

Here's a group of guys from Minneapolis who don't seem to take themselves too seriously but they obviously know how to engineer a solid jam. In an unconventional move the band is made up of two guitarists accompanied by dual drummers. While I don't know how much character this lineup adds to Hockey Night's sound, it definitely doesn't hurt...

Become a SoundSuck Contributor

I love listening to music and I love sharing music on this blog. I've had some great help from guys like Jordan and the site's viewer base is growing weekly. As much as I enjoy posting I just can't keep doing it daily so I'm always looking for potential authors to add to the SoundSuck lineup.

If you love new and independent music and think you could contribute a blog post every once in awhile (anywhere from once a week to once a month) please contact me via email: shoook@gmail.com.

Thanks - Ryan

Tycho

Album: Past Is Prologue

Don't you hate it when a band you like always gets compared to a more popular band and is never "as good as fill in the blank." So it is with Tycho, the moniker under which Scott Hansen creates gorgeous IDM/ambient music which is constantly being written off by Boards of Canada fans...

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Sam Amidon

Album: All Is Well

Yesterday Samamidon released this humble folk album and it's one I encourage you to take a look at. Lyrically I like to think he draws from Sufjan Stevens although his musical style is quite different...

The Acorn

Album: Glory Hope Mountain

When I first heard The Acorn's latest album I felt slightly assaulted. I'm usually one who enjoys a fairly predictable song structure, but Glory Hope Mountain kicks off with "Flood Pt. 1" in a bit of discorded chaos...

An Interview With Darcy

A few days ago I caught up with Dustin Aguilar, half of the new band Darcy. I've been keeping tabs on these guys for awhile so I thought what better way to introduce the band than with an interview. I asked them a few questions, let them speak for themselves, and let you decide if they really are SoundSuck material.

Devin Davis

Devin Davis released his debut LP, Lonely People of the World Unite, to a decent amount of fanfare. It got some blog coverage and was featured in some other online publications, but I still feel it didn't get as much publicity as it deserved. Since I didn't have a blog back when it was released, I feel its my delayed duty to share this older album so that you might familiarize yourself with Mr. Davis before the release of his upcoming and currently untitled album due out later this year.

January In Review

Well it's February which means today SoundSuck celebrates its 1st month of existence. We've acquired a few new writers along the way, found some great artists, made a few new friends, and really appreciate the people that have been coming back to the site and who've helped us get this far. We'd also like to thank John Otjen for hosting us.

In celebration of this momentous occasion we're sharing the first SoundSuck Mixtape- a compilation of what we feel are the ten best tracks from the past month:

Download SoundSuck Mixtape 1/08 Now!