This Tent
Spotify Listen Link: Grouplove – Spotify Sessions
Well, bad news folks - I won't be heading to Bonnaroo this year. The good news, though, is that it's because I won free tickets to The Book of Mormon on the day that I would have been driving down! Trust me, this actually does work out pretty evenly. In the meantime, I'll continue covering as many Roo artists as I can, up until it starts. Then, I'll be switching the festival focus to Firefly Festival down in Delaware - I think that'll be the next one I shoot to head to. There's lots of artists overlapping anyway, so it should be sufficient enough to make up for missing TN this year.
Moving on - GROUPLOVE (that's how it's typed on the app anyway) is said to be somewhere between Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire. They're an LA-based indie rock band who seemed to have forged this musician friendship while in Greece (after two had randomly met in Brooklyn). It wound up working out pretty well back state-side afterall, with an EP release and tour with Florence + the Machine in 2010.
This is the first band I've come across that has done "Spotify Sessions." I don't know what the exact format here will be, but I would imagine it's something along the lines of what the AOL sessions are - largely acoustic and entirely intimate.
"Intro" welcomes us in with a little talking - some introductions, a description of the "hip" space, and hearing the small crowd involved. They talk a little on their living space, and a tiny interview on their start. They met at an artist colony... I want to join an artist colony... Okay, getting sidetracked...
The first actual song is "Cruel and Beautiful World." It's self-described as "a slower one." I kind of adore the simplicity of the music here (again, it's an acoustic session). They certainly use harmonies - it sounds like everyone is involved throughout the whole this vocally. While the song gets a little on the whiny side, it's not so much that we can't kick back and enjoy it. This is the sort of thing we could probably chill at Union Pool and hear for the afternoon.
"Tongue Tied" picks up the pace a bit, which is apparently more their style. Even with the stripped-down line up, you can feel the energy, which is just so much fun. Wait, shit, I know this song! Love finding out about bands that I didn't realize I already loved. "Glee" actually did this song, oddly enough. It's sort of just a lot of fun, and moved with this awesome dance feel throughout. Seems that, theme wise, it's a lot more about friends (or whatever) figuring things out without the stress of figuring things out.
- "Tongue Tied"