Friday, October 23, 2009

Owls Under the Radar


In a comment to my last post, Mark from our PR 317, asked me where I find new music and to list my top five bands.

Before I proceed I should address the shock your expereincing at reading the Oort Cloud use the first person. True. It's easier and I reserve the right to switch to my Oort Cloud voice whenever I like. It's my blog.

But remember, like the great and powerful Oz who keeps talking in his great and powerful voice after Dorothy has drawn back the curtain, revealing himself to be a clown, I ... ahem ... the Oort Cloud ... still has lots of great and powerful wisdom.

The Oort Cloud is located a great distance from this tiny place you call earth. But there's a great deal of musical variety on your busy planet, some of which can be heard clearly at the edge of the solar system. The trouble is, the good stuff is sometimes hard to find without a navigator.

Despite the fact that corporate music still dominates the traditional airwaves, there's a great variety of music nowadays. Together with online distribution methods and options for listers to access it, the choices can be overwhelming. The Oort Cloud is a friendly guide.

The Oort Cloud has recently picked up strong signals -- that's how I find new music -- from a Minneapolis band called The Owls. You can listen to their album "Daughter and Suns" on MySpace.

Not every song is as radiantly quirky as "Isaac Bashevis Singer" or "Peppermint Patty." But if the album had only one song, "Channel," it would be enough to satisfy The Oort Cloud. It's timely in an abstract way, and at the same time very specific about the abstract truth it celebrates and commands: "channel the will to find."

I agree. And I will.

There's actually a lot of great songs, lovely voices and harmonies, Kinks- and Velvet Underground-style melodies and intrumentation. What more could you ask for?
A couple less mopey songs, I suppose. But ff you channel the will to find, the mopey songs will escape your notice.

5 comments:

  1. Wow! They are really good. I like the piano in the songs, it makes me happy. Thanks for the tip. Oh and I love the CD cover, it's really cute. :D

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  2. Cute is a good word to describe them, though not in the trivial sense.

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  3. Indeed. It's cute in a refreshing and original kind of way.

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  4. I think I found my "peaceful place." Listening to The Owls was definitely a first -- first of listening to Indie music that is. I enjoyed the laid back feel and story that came across the songs I heard.

    You know, I always thought I had a good idea of the different types of music out there...until I moved to Austin. Looks like I'm adding a new genre to music I like!

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  5. I went to the Myspace link and listened to a few of the tracks. I can definitely hear some Velvet Underground influence! Thanks for letting me know about a new band!

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