Bands under The Radar - Part 2

Written By: Trisha Hanudel

4 Guns again (this is a seriously good website!!)

If you haven’t heard about Bands Under the Radar by now, get going! It’s a great concept that delivers 100 songs for just $10 right to your email, in 20-song chunks. Check out the review of Playlist #37. Now we’re going for the next 20-song chunk, Playlist #38, streaming now on the Bands Under the Radar.com.

Playlist #38 starts with a powerful bang from Hawksley Workman’s “When You Gonna Flower.” I don’t know what the title means, but it’s the perfect song to dance around to with a hairbrush for a microphone – it’s that kind of song. Halfway through Workman’s lesser song, “Goodbye to Radio”, something cool happened in the player that I didn’t catch before –it starts rolling through the cover art and pictures of each artist on the playlist. In this post-mortem time of the radio star, that kind of visual information really helps you feel like you know these artists you’ve never heard of.

The next couple songs were low-key. The Daylights’ “Ahh” was a particularly interesting sound, opening up with a reverb-heavy vocal chorus reminiscent of the headiest head trip of the psychedelic ‘60s, and leading into a chunky, fuzzy wall of guitars heard in bands like Muse. Because this is a playlist, not an album, the transitions can be a bit odd, so while I appreciate the effort of the Delta Generators, they really just served to distract me with thoughts of the Allman Brothers.

But Jen Gloeckner brought it back. If you swoon over Stevie Nicks, crush over the Sneaker Pimps’ Kelly Ali, and melt to the vibe of Portishead, Jen Gloeckner is your new leading lady. Rarely do I get chills from a first-time listen, but Gloeckner’s smooth, plain-spoken and honest voice and Nick Cave-ish lyrics pulled me in and my world just stopped. Understatedly intense is the only way to describe it – Jen Gloeckner is the must-listen of this playlist. (Her album is “Mouth of Mars” – go find it now!)

Gloeckner led into a run of fairly forgettable songs that gave way to the driving powerhouse of The Duke Spirit, with “Lassoo”, and next up is….my old college roommate Dawn Landes?!?!? Playing poppier, happier tunes than I remember, she’s the voice for fans of Cat Power and Suzanne Vega, and she still toys with melodies from classic American folk standards. Playlist #38 is like #37, chock full of great new music – some great hits and a few misses – but Bands Under the Radar proves to be the source for some of the best undiscovered artists.

Read Part 1 here.