MORNING BRIDE: "REPLICA" AND "TIME DELAY"

Mark and Amity of Morning Bride

Morning Bride combines the vocal stylings of Amity Dunn (whose voice sounds quite often a lot like Holly Golightly's) and Mark Pearce, a bluesy and Brit poppy, jangly little alt-country-tinged affair to remember. I came across this awhile ago on MySpace (hooray for pleasant surprises) and meant to write something about these guys, but forgot until coming across again them on Last.Fm in my post-Additional Moog Brit-Americana fervor. Guess I've got all my Internet bases covered, and it's a good thing too. Lea Valley Delta Blues could just be one of the more interesting releases of the year from a band on an (real) independent label.

LISTEN:
"Replica" [MP3] from Lea Valley Delta Blues
"Time Delay" [MP3] from Lea Valley Delta Blues

ON THE WEB:
Morning Bride's website
Morning Bride on MySpace

Aaron Schroeder - Black & Gold

While listening to Aaron Schroeder 's latest album, Black & Gold, I started out trying to pinpoint a genre, as I do when I listen to any album for the first time. Alt-country, I say to myself, while listening to "The Mississippi Line" (not to mention a track titled "Emmylou"). Nope, it's piano-driven pop, I decide, as "Fake Crimes" begins to play. I give up in delighted frustration. This isn't to say the album lacks cohesion -- quite the opposite, really. The 22-year-old, a native of Washington, is amazingly adept at smoothly fitting together a number of influences and genres, and he's got a voice as good as any of his well-established contemporaries and is a talented songwriter (sample lyrics: "When she smiles, says 'I missed you like the snow misses salt'"). This makes for a really strong album full of infectiously catchy, generally upbeat songs (i.e. the album's killer opening pop song, "What We Don't Know") that you'll appreciate more and more each time you play it. And you will play it more than once.

We'll keep you posted -- once the album is out, a west coast tour may be in the works.

LISTEN:
"What We Don't Know" [MP3]
"Call Out To Me" [MP3]

ON THE WEB:
Aaron Schroeder's website
Aaron Schroeder's MySpace
Letterbox Records' MySpace

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