Introducing: Alice & The Glass Lake

Strikingly beautiful, the music of Alice & The Glass Lake is keenly cinematic. I can feel the wind coming in from far off lands, blowing my hair back as I set off on an adventure that will change my life forever. If the light of the full moon made a sound, it would sound like Alice & The Glass Lake. Her brand of pop music is effortlessly brilliant.



Hailing from Wisconsin, Alice associates the Glass Lake with escaping: "It's the lens through which I live my dreams. It's an escapist place of possibility and heartbreak. And it's a sonic space to become lost and find truth." Her music is just that: audio-escapism.

Check out her music video for "Higher," where she conjures shapes out of the air and pulls you into her world and introduces you to her brand of dream pop.



She recently released a stream of her debut EP, The Evolution, which can be streamed HERE. It's awesome to the max and you shouldn't deny your ears the pleasure of listening to it. You can purchase the EP on iTunes and bandcamp (it's also available on Spotify).

Introducing: Karl X Johan

 Karl X Johan makes a curious kind of music. It clearly falls somewhere in the genre of electropop, but has elements of R&B as well. The most telling comparison I can give them is Hurry Up, We're Dreaming M83. Their most recent release is "Never Leave Me", an impressive pop tune that reminds me of M83's "Reunion".



The music video for their song "Flames" actually won a Swedish Grammy. It's symphonic electropop at its finest. The video itself is full of gorgeous hi-def close-ups.

 

These dudes might not make it in America anytime soon, but hopefully they'll drop an album that gets the kind of study-time attention that Hurry Up, We're Dreaming did a year ago.

Introducing: To Kill A King

I've actually known about To Kill A King for a few months now. I first found them when I stumbled onto this blog called Music vs. Misery ran by Megan Forsyth. She posted this awesome video of To Kill A King and a bunch of their friends (including Bastille, who I love unabashedly) performing a rendition of their song "Choices". This blew me out of the water.



Hearing this version inspired me to check out their then-fresh debut album Cannibals With Cutlery, which I soon found out was pretty much the bee's knees. It's full of fantastically arranged folk tunes with pop sensibilities. Sounds like Typhoon and The National rolled into one. Besides "Choices", you should definitely listen to "Fictional State" with it's huge slightly out of place but massively uplifting crescendo.

 

Also, take the time to check out their cover of Lana Del Rey's "Video Games". I like it more than the original, but that may just be me.

Being good isn't always easy

Since I posted about Roo & The Howl a little over a month ago, she's been quite busy. First, she announced she'd be doing a Daytrotter session (which I'm already hype for). Then, she changed up her website and announced some tour dates. And, just last week, she put up a video of her performing the Dusty Springfield classic "Son Of A Preacher Man."



Like I said last time, this girl is going places. She took a brassy over-the-top number like "Son Of A Preacher Man" and turned it into the soft, reminiscent tune it always should have been. Just for a quick review, here's how you can find all of Roo's stuff:

FACEBOOK
TWITTER
WEBSITE

We must believe in magic.

Lately I've been getting into all sorts of trippy stuff. Learning about the nature of things. How to change the world around you and how to live your life. Reading about love, religion,and magic. It's actually quite serendipitous that I've happened onto Crystal Gale's "We Must Believe In Magic". At it's heart, the song is about learning to accept that not everyone knows where they're going, but, if you believe in magic, in destiny, in God (if you like), in some sort of guiding force in this universe (or multiverse, if you like), you can control your own destiny.

 

We must be out of our minds. 

Still, we are shipmates bound for tomorrow and everyone here's flying blind. 

Oh, we must believe in magic. 

We must believe in the guiding hand. 

If you believe in magic, you'll have the universe at your command.

Gale performed the song on The Muppet Show in 1977. The Muppets were always spouting off little nuggets about love and life and whatnot. And that's because Jim Henson really believed in the power of magic and laughter. If you remember, in the original Muppet Movie, the finale song is all about reaching your aspirations and really believing in yourself:

Life's like a movie, write your own ending.

Keep believing, keep pretending.

To finish this little thing, everyone should listen to Johnny Cash's cover of "We Must Believe In Magic", from his Adventure of Johnny Cash album. It adds depth and poignancy to the already great song.

Introducing: Jackson Breit

I went through a phase with post-R&B where I would scour websites looking for stuff that sounded like smoke, sex, and horns. Too bad I never found Jackson Breit during that phase. I did find him last week though, after seeing a post about him on The Burning Ear. The post was about his new song "It's On Tonight", which wouldn't really be out of place on JT's 20/20 Experience or any Robin Thicke album.



All of Breit's stuff is available for F-R-E-E on his Soundcloud. Some of his tunes lean even more towards alt-R&B, with remixed versions of other artists going underneath his voice, and others still have a more classic soul feel. Him being from New Orleans puts him in an outstanding creative community and allows for him to draw influence from his life for songs like "Sunny Days & Hurricanes". My personal favorite original is "Pistol Girl."



Look into Jackson Breit. You won't be sorry.

Introducing: Houndmouth

Houndmouth has roots in Kentucky and Indiana and, man, do they show. They've managed to perfect a kind of recession rock that's reminiscent of Alabama Shakes, but isn't as bluesy. You'll easily fall in love with these guys if you're a fan of bands like Lumineers, Alabama Shakes, or The Head And The Heart.
Their debut LP "From The Hills Below The City" just dropped yesterday and I picked it up from my local music shop for a test drive around Lexington. It was amazing. An album chock-full of harmony, guitar licks, and americana.
The opening track (and first single released from the album) "On The Road" is easily one of the catchiest tunes on the album and serves well as an introduction for a band that's quickly headed in the right direction.



My favorite song on the album, though, was "Ludlow".



Hop on the Houndmouth train before it's too late. These peeps will be playing a ton of festivals this summer, including Kentucky's own Forecastle Festival. I personally plan to see them play the Belle Of Louisville late night show.