In this age of the Coronavirus, many of us are stuck at home, isolated with only TV screens and the glow of laptops and phones to keep us connected. In other words, there isn’t much to do.
Videos by American Songwriter
However, one thing that is available to us all is the wide world of recorded music. And now is as good a time as ever to get to know some bands you may not yet know but that you will most assuredly enjoy, dear reader.
So, buckle up and get ready for a digital ride around Seattle, Vancouver (BC), Anchorage, Austin and Bristol (U.K.).
BEARAXE, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” Seattle
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This Emerald City quartet opens its collective mouth and streams of power spew forth. If you were to squint, the whole enterprise might seem like a handful of lightening bolts bouncing and ricocheting off one another in some giant anthemic blaze. In other words, BEARAXE is a force of nature, evidenced by their live Led Belly cover here, originally made famous by local hero Kurt Cobain. Vocalist Shaina Shepherd attacks the mic like it looked at her the wrong way. That’s how stars do.
Jody Glenham, “Mood Rock,” Vancouver
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What kind of music do you think computers like? If a Sega Genesis were alive when every human was asleep, what music would it put on to chill out? Questions like these arise when enjoying the soundscape created by ethereal, pensive songwriter Jody Glenham. It’s as if she composes music from the very elements in the air and atmosphere around us, plucking hydrogen and helium from the ether and turning them into G and C chords.
The Jephries, “Color Scheme,” Anchorage
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The Jephries’ front man has a voice like a rumbling avalanche. It plunges and pushes, propels and pops. Equally mesmerizing is the video for their hit, “Color Scheme,” which showcases the pastoral beauty of their hometown, Anchorage, Alaska. It’s easy to imagine that there is a great deal of time to play music in doors in the Frontier State, but maybe all that cold and darkness make for difficult hurdles to overcome. Either way, this screeching trio has achieved a truly unique sound. Kudos to them.
Josie Lockhart, “Like Lightening,” Austin
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At first, you don’t know what to expect. Then the vocals fill the speakers, the room, and your imagination. Josie Lockhart’s voice is classic Americana. It could boom through a crowded concert hall, it could streak through a stadium or it could provide the right kind of accent to a simple, little, homemade quarantine video. His big, beautiful sound is kept afloat by human beings glimmering with discarded stardust.
Jadu Heart, “Another Life,” Bristol
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Want to feel creative? Let the bass line from this banger enter your bones. DoOm-doOm-doOm-doOm-doOm. It drops and falls into the marrow that makes you who you are, and from the musical mire, a new creation blooms. Then that DJ Shadow-like snare snaps in. This is the kind of song that you could listen to on repeat while you write an entire novel. Just get the thing going, and in no-time, 14 hours will have passed, and you’ll have a narrative about a family who lives underneath a deli in midtown hoping to one day find their youngest daughter has become the first woman to walk on the rings of Saturn.
