This Week on BandSoup (3/5-3/19)

Another week in the books and yet another week of great uploads here on BandSoup! Here are a few of the bands that you must hear according to an unanimous vote from the BandSoup blog team. Remember, new bands pop up on the site 1-5 times per day, so check back in with us. You might be missing out on your new favorite band!

* Click the band's name to hear their music.

We had a SXSW week last week, so here is a post with two weeks worth of our best new uploads.

Typhoon (Indie Rock)--  Check out our recent blog post for more info and videos. Typhoon's music has always been marked by complicated arrangements and careful orchestration. Live performances routinely involve 12 or more band members playing at once. "The group masterfully combines indie rock instrumentals and vocals with violins, percussion, hand claps, xylophone, horns and a choir of other instruments, making for inspiring and catchy songs." 

This Means Nothing in Mexico (Indie Rock/Pop)--  Vancouver trio that dares you not to groove to their single "Spirits" off of their brand new unveiling, Year of Thunder, now available as a free download.

Rogue Sounds (Instrumental Rock)-- Formed in the summer of 2008 to create more accessible instrumental music. The band currently resides in Anaheim, CA and has released 2 EP's, 2640 & Transmission. Most of 2011 was spent writing & recording 'Jupiter And Beyond The Infinite' which was released for free download/no minimum donation March 10th 2012.

Max & The Moon (Indie Rock/Pop)-- Max & The Moon's "Out of My Head" was our Soup of the Week last night. Check out the blog post and get your free download!

Coast Jumper (Indie Rock)-- Songs from their debut album, which is currently available as a "name your own price" download.

Literature (Indie Rock)-- Songs from the debut LP from Austin TX power pop madmen. Purchase here.

Tokyo Raid (Garage/Psych Rock)-- Serving up a ferocious, fuzzy, Rohyphenol-laced cocktail that fuels the bloody collision of neo-psychedelia, garage, post-punk and glam, San Francisco’s mercurial Tokyo Raid effortlessly pull off the difficult trick of being simultaneously iconic and fresh.

Equals (Instrumental Rock)-- "The densely layered songs all have their distinctive storyboard of moods and textures, each one a lovely surprise yet all five somehow melding together to form a cohesive, cinematic whole." Click here for a free download of their self titled EP.

Planet Asia (Hip Hop)-- New music from underground hip hop legend Planet Asia's latest record, Black Belt Theatre.

More awesome new bands/solo artists on the flip side!

Hot One of the Week: Friends Edition!

This week has been a busy one and now I am set to take on another semester here at school. Music is a huge part of my life and I thought I would let you guys get to know me a bit more. In order to help you understand me, this week’s edition of I Can Feel A Hot One will showcase a few of my friends who you can hear on BandSoup!

First, I would love to introduce an indie-prog-rock band that began playing together last year at the University of New Haven. Vitamin Sun, a 4-piece consisting of sophomore music students, takes influence from The Mars Volta, Local Natives, and Sufjan Stevens among many others. With Kyle Hamel on vox/guitar, Wyatt Simard on guitar, Chris Restaino on bass/vox, and Josh Merhar on drums, these guys tear through some intricate time signatures and let the creativity of their music flow. Within one song they can be both insanely technical and passionately groovy. They have so much potential and will continue to grow with time. I strongly suggest finding them on BandSoup and giving them a try!

Listen to Vitamin Sun on BandSoup

Another friend of mine who deserves some recognition and attention, which she is already getting, is Samantha Frost. Quite frankly, her voice is the opposite of her last name. Her smooth, jazzy voice is easily adapted for jazz, blues, Broadway, and pop. Her warm timbre will make you feel as if you are sitting in front of a fireplace listening to the radio as if in the days of old. Check out her version of “Nobody’s Fault” on BandSoup, it’s one of her first recordings. She is a lovely young voice and will do great things soon enough. Check out her website here.

Listen to Samantha Frost on BandSoup 

Thanks and have a great week!

-Doug Foley

The Redneck Manifesto

The Redneck Manifesto is a five piece instrumental rock band from Dublin, Ireland made up of Mervyn Craig (drums), Richard Egan (bass), Niall Byrne (guitar), Matthew Bolger (guitar) and Neil O'Connor (keyboards). Since their formation in 1998, the band has become one of Ireland's most sought after live acts and popular bands and have proudly achieved this status strictly through their own DIY means, promotion, and releasing records on their own label.

Video for "We Still Got It" off their 2004 I am Brazil album.

Since 2001, the band has released four touted albums, the most recent being Friendship (2010), which they recently shared some songs from on our website. It has been six years since their last record and the excitement and urgency is instantly heard on the opening song "Black Apple" which bursts from the core at breakneck speed into a haphazard and seamlessly cluttered math-rock exhibition. The beautiful disaster continues with upbeat explosions of sound, transitions, funked out grooves, and rousing riffs.

Listen to The Redneck Manifesto on BandSoup

The Ireland press is already calling the album one of the band's most complete, refined, and best albums to date and claim that fans will instantly form a bond to the album's friendly and optimistic sound. To sum things up in once setence: if you like instrumental rock, meet you new best friend.

In Case You Missed Them: Rx Bandits

This Week: Rx Bandits
 

There are many words that could describe the sound of Rx Bandits (aka The Pharmaceutical Bandits): ska, reggae, punk, progressive rock, alternative rock. And all of these genres would be spot on descriptions of this multifaceted Southern California based band. Formed in 1995 in Orange County, the Rx Bandits have rocked stages on the Vans Warped tour, Bonnaroo, Coachella, and The Bamboozle Fest.

Originally known as The Pharmaceutical Bandits, the band began their career by participating in the third wave ska revival of the 1990s. In 1997, they released Those Damn Bandits, which featured guest appearances by Jimmy the Robot of the Aquabats and Chris Colonnier of Jeffries Fan Club and The Forces of Evil. Noting the Bandits' potential, a Los Angeles Times review of the album said "Now comes a young, talented ska band, the Pharmaceutical Bandits. It would be OK with me if the Grinch spared them but swiped their ska records and left a shelf of Who, Clash, Bob Marley, Elvis Costello and Neil Young."[1] Matt Embree attended Los Alamitos High School, which was an incubator for other third wave ska bands such as Reel Big Fish, Save Ferris, and The Scholars.

 After 7 full length albums and years of touring, the band decided to give fans a proper send off in the form of a farewell tour. Their final shows, consisting of 36 performances spanning from May 4^th to August 7^th was announced in April of this year. Although this was announced as their “last tour,” the band has not officially announced a break up. However, if you ask any true RX fan, the RX Bandits have ended their legacy.

Guitarist Steve Choi said: "To clarify, we’re not breaking up. We’re just doing our last tour. What we’re gonna do in the future, we’re not quite sure. That’s a big question because it involves what we’re going to do collectively and what we’re going to do individually. Despite popular belief, we don’t live together, sleep together or eat together. Those days have passed. We all have our own lives to tend to. When we’re not full time touring or playing shows, we gotta handle business…"

Here are a few BandSoup Bands In the Same Vein:

Finish Ticket

The Sharks
El Dog
Floral Terrace
Odette