Audiophiles - The Salvadors

Well, what a huge week for Choose My Music. I am truly humbled by the amount of people reading this site on a regular basis.

Within a week of May this little music ramble of mine has already had over 50% of the total hits for the whole of April.

So I am starting this Audiophiles post with a little thank you for all of you who have seen fit to read, comment and share this site of mine. If you would like to continue doing what you are doing then I won't be stopping you.

There are share buttons knocking about somewhere and there is also a Facebook group. If you are visiting this site for the first time then get involved by following me on Twitter

All that aside, lets get down to business with another band I hope you will like.

The Salvadors

I was introduced to The Salvadors via a new music website called GroopEase.

The site has been made to not only promote new, up and coming bands but also to give its members the opportunity to buy GroopEase's featured bands album at a very stupidly low price for a limited period (usually about a week) with 5% of your money also going to charity.

You may have noticed I used the word members, it is because this site is by invite only - but lucky for you my dear reader - I have a little invite especially for you! Just click here - joining is free and is well worth it.

So, what do I know about The Salvadors....well very little to be honest, apart from they are Australian.

I did contact them via their Myspace to ask if they fancied doing an interview in the same vein as Ortolan Soup last week, but they have not got back to me as yet. 

While having my first listen to the band a couple of months ago, I scouted around the internet and found some half arsed lazy reviews going on about how they would appeal to fans of Arcade Fire. I am not disputing this per say. Fans of the Canadian 8-piece do have great music taste, but to liken the two bands as similar is a little but lazy.  I am sure most female vocalists who try their luck in the next 12 months will have the same issues with depressing chart botherer Adele.

Without taking anything away from The Salvadors, the only likeness is that they have a female in the group who sometimes does vocals. The similarities appear to end there.

What you have got with The Salvadors is a band that could be played at any social event, and you will be sure that someone will say "who's this playing now", thus giving you an awesome musical star rating of 5 amongst your friends.

I am not sure who The Salvadors remind me of, they have aspects of Californian band The Little Ones, if only in summer bounciness as opposed to actual style. They do also remind me a little of last weeks Choose My Music entry Bound Stems.

Really though, they just remind me how great music can be when done right.

You can hear some of The Salvadors below and you can buy their 8 track Misspent Youth album from the Groopease site for just $7 - that is about £4.27 for the Brits among us.

The Salvadors - Eliza Jane by homeandhosed

The Salvadors - Wilson by ObscureSound

4th May 2011 A:B:27 - I've Been Keeping This Family Afloat For Years

This weeks Choose My Music was picked by Dom Walsh, a man I have communicated with on an almost daily basis, collaborated on the A2Z music project with and interviewed on my football website - yet we have never met. Oddly on the couple of occasions he has picked on Choose My Music he has managed to pull out a couple of crackers. This week is no exception and would also qualify as an Audiophile post as this group was relatively unknown before their break up a year or so ago.

In keeping with tradition though, lets get the formalities out of the way. This morning Dom Walsh, at random, picked the combination A:B:27 (Bay A, Row B, CD 27) which lead me to this little gem of an album.

Bound Stems - The Family Afloat

Quite where I first heard this band I am not quite sure. Sadly with the array of music websites filling the internet over the past few years, my memory starts to get a little fuzzy when it comes to more recent purchases.

Looking back it was either on the brilliant Daytrotter website or on Last FM. Considering I do appear to have 6 Bound Stems songs in my Last FM played library and taking into account that due to my recent redundancy, I have a lot of time to watch Columbo, my powers of deduction lead me to the latter as the source on this occasion.

Bound Stems were formed in September 2002 and released a bunch of EPs between 2003 and 2005. By 2006 a full album was recorded and received some very favourable reviews amongst both the indie press and major publications like Rolling Stone and The New York Times. A national tour was booked, including an appearance at Lollapalooza. Things were looking good enough that all the band members decided it was time to quit their day jobs in order to become a fully fledged full time touring band.

12 months later it already became clear to Bound Stems that the lack of a stable income was causing problems. Feeling the need for stability and 'strong roots', they returned to their days jobs and got on to recording The Family Afloat.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how to describe this album. I don't feel exactly safe in my own mind using niche terms like "math rock" (it does exist). Whereas the bog standard 'indie rock" is just a little too vague for my liking too.

What you do have is a really well textured album where every track stands on its own merit. The opening track on its own changes rhythm and direction so much you feel like you have listened to a full album in the first 4 minutes and 20 seconds. My ears and brain tell me is a very good thing.

Often, a lot of the songs follow this pattern. Sometimes it feels like they have managed to merge three or four song ideas into one, yet magically make it sound perfectly natural, which suggests a collaborative approach to writing that many bands could no doubt learn a thing or two from. Oddly, listening to this album as I write I feel the urge to have a bit of an indie boogie....and I hate dancing... luckily no one is home.

The first time I listened to this album I was driving to work. I noticed when I arrived in the car park, that I only had two songs left on the CD so I sat there in my car until every last note was processed by my ears. Like a good book, I just had to know how it all ends.

I actually emailed the band after listening to The Family Afloat for the first time to tell them how much I enjoyed it. I got a lovely email back, then two weeks later, got another one to say they have split up.

If anything this CD demonstrates how difficult it is to break through in this industry. I imagine there are not many people who could not enjoy listening to it. The last track on this album contains the refrain 'I've been keeping this family afloat for years'. Sadly, like most families, the struggle appeared to be too great in this modern age.







On a positive note. Member of Bound Stems now make up the band Like Pioneers and you can listen to them here