Video: Shortwave- The Sublime

Toronto, Canada's own Shortwave are currently putting the finishing touches on their debut full length album, The Skyline Verses, recorded at Canterbury Studios with producer, Byron Kent Wong. Fusing together elements of indie rock and new wave with nods to classic rock and brit pop, Shortwave have created an album that is contemporary yet classic.

Earlier today, the band uploaded one of the singles from the album, The Sublime. The video for the song is above and you can listen to the single on BandSoup by clicking here.

News: Kid Architect Releases Debut Full Length Album on iTunes

See our past coverage on Kid Architect here.

DMV band Kid Architect gave us some exciting news today-- their first full length album, The Great Pretend, has been released and is now available to purchase digitally on iTunes! To support or stream click here. Physical copies of the album will be made available on CDBaby, Amazon, and by hand come February.

If you are in the DC Metro area, Kid Architect will be having their album release party at Jammin' Java in Vienna, Virginia on Friday, February 11th. For tickets, contact a KA member or click here.

Listen to Kid Architect on BandSoup!

Challenges

When I was growing up, we had great pop-punk bands available to us on the radio-- Rancid, Green Day, Blink 182, Alkaline Trio, The Offspring, Sum41, and more. Bands with Jolt cola like energy that could bring down house parties and were highly accessible to various music tastes and backgrounds. It feels that a lot of those bands from the 90's have disappeared, but a five piece band from Worcester, Massachusetts is here to fill that void.

Challenges is a pop-punk band fronted by lead vocalist and founder Corey Maynard, lead guitarist/backup vocalist Brian Dempsey, guitarist Danny Massei, bassist James Tripaldi, and drummer RJ Sumblin. After forming in 2009, the band quickly hit the studio to record their first demo, Apollo, which was lauded by MySpace and other social media networks, opening up numerous live performance avenues for the band. Solidifying the band's line-up in June 2009 with the addition of Danny Massei on guitar, James Tripaldi on bass, and Ralph Sumblin on drums, the band set out to write and record their debut full length, We Ruined the Neighborhood. The record was written and recorded with steadfast determination from July 2009 to August 2010 and then officially released on November 26th.

We Ruined the Neighborhood is an 11-track debut record full of hyperactive energy and youthful swagger. Corey Maynard's lead vocals are a pop-punk band's dream and the supporting members' musicianship is surprisingly crisp and refined. I guess Challenges ruined the neighborhood in celebration after they found out they are radio ready.

The new album is now available to stream in full on their bandcamp site and the band was generous enough to put a "name your own price" tag on it, but after you hear their efforts I'm willing to bet you'll fork over your pocket change to help support an emerging band that have what it takes to make it big.

For anyone around the age of 30 and below, Challenges will instantly give you bouts of High School nostalgia where, for some, listening to a discman in class with the earphones hidden in your coat sleeve, shooting v-wads, writing lyrics on your Airwalks, and skating away from school security down the hallways reigned supreme.

Challenges make things fun again.

You can listen to Challenges here on BandSoup. To stream the full album or download We Ruined the Neighborhood ($0 - Name Your Own Price), hover over the picture and click "Artist Link."

The Juliets

Fronted by pianist Jeremy Freer and supported by a classical collective made up of violinist Sara Myers, cellist Kaylan Mitchell, bassist Ashton Hopkins, and drummer Jax Phillips, The Juliets are the new pride of Detroit and the emerging Michigan music scene.

After being formed in late 2008, The Juliets began to construct classically influenced pop songs over bottles of red wine. Within the fermented grapes they found truth in sound and began to lay down their debut self titled album. The debut, which was released in February of 2010, is one of the indie pop genre's most slept on albums of the year; a flawless unveiling full of infectious melodies, masterfully designed compositions, and sublime strings. A true masterpiece that is tragically unknown.

What makes The Juliets' self titled album an even more powerful piece of work is its ability to cover every human emotion cohesively. From sweet and hopeful to glum and forlorn; from confident and full of pride to fearful and disgraced; from a place of love to a house of hate-- The Juliets make schizophrenia sound both beautiful and persistent, making the mad houses contained in our brains erupt in joy as the record spins and spins.

What The Juliets have accomplished in their first outing as a band is triumphant. Their gallant and flourishing ornamentations go unmatched throughout the industry and soon enough their brave explorations in sound will be lauded and these baroques with backbone will be adored.

Listen to The Juliets On BandSoup & Click The Artist Link for a Free (or "Name Your Price") Surprise!

Video: Open Mike Eagle- Pissy Transmissions

Los Angeles MC Open Mike Eagle lets loose his latest video from his critically acclaimed 2010 album, Unapologetic Art Rap. Can any of you guess what band was sampled?
Check Out Open Mike Eagle on BandSoup Here!

Industry Article: The New Rock Star Paradigm

OK Go’s Damian Kulash wrote a very interesting article for the Wall Street Journal about success in today’s record business. I’m sure you read at least three of these types of articles a day, but this is one of the best that I’ve read in awhile. It’s full of great insight, quotes, ideas, and examples from highly successful artists.

Music is getting harder to define again. It’s becoming more of an experience and less of an object. Without records as clearly delineated receptacles of value, last century’s rules—both industrial and creative—are out the window. For those who can find an audience or a paycheck outside the traditional system, this can mean blessed freedom from the music industry’s gatekeepers.

Read the Article Here


* Leave your thoughts and comments if you have any. We would love to hear and discuss with both fans and artists.

Kyle Cox

Kyle Cox is an Orlando, Florida based singer/songwriter that recently released his critically acclaimed five track EP, To All My Old Friends, free of charge. The album focuses on various events and emotions in life that have a tendency to make us stumble and fall. 

On the EP, Kyle morphs from sincere to catchy to melancholic while blanketing his infectious pop-folk vocals over streams of classic piano, folk guitar riffs, and moody compositions. Each track carries a different ambience-- ranging from folk and blues to pop-rock and country-- but is cohesive and tactfully put together, giving it a ton of replay value.

What surprised me the most was finding out Cox isn't signed. He is merely a young and humble twenty-something with a deep passion for music that exercises his natural born talents on his free time, not taking his very serious and mature sounding tunes too serious at all. "I never plan on or really want to make sustainable income from the music I write. I love my job here at the church so much that it would be really difficult for me to leave. But I still really enjoy writing, recording, playing my own music, and I don’t think I’ll ever quit doing that." 

Perhaps it is his nonchalance that gives his music that free and organic feel. Void of desperation, visions of fame and fortune, and worries of where he fits in with everyone else, Kyle just has to worry about Kyle. It's these types of artists that make the most heartfelt music and heartfelt music best explains what the young Kyle Cox creates.

You Can Stream the Entire EP on BandSoup.com Here! Free Download Link Available When You Click "Artist Link"!

Here is the video for Come Back Home off the EP:

Insightful

San Diego hip hop producer Insightful has just dropped a gem on BandSoup. His new album, The Flowers in My Mind, is a 28-track instrumental album full of pure electronic energy that slowly scales buildings built of binary code, blows through gardens of fiber optic flowers, and swirls through the back of your eyelids like blessings from Buddha when played.

"Got No Eyes" is a perfect example of what the entire album has to offer. You can stream the track on the main site by clicking here.

Smooth, sleak, and surreal-- this is what 2011 should sound like.

Download: Insightful- The Flowers in My Mind (Click on "Artists Link")