A B and The Sea

Album: Just demos for now

Sounds Like: a living room with a warm fire and old friends.

Koley O’Brien sounds subtle at first yet the vocals slowly gain influence to the point where his voice compliments the music almost perfectly. Although at times his voice goes slightly too high, the beat remains catchy as the steady rhythm keeps you relaxed which means A B & The Sea’s tracks never reach a point of annoyance. This is some of the most genuine indie-pop I’ve heard, and although they’re destined to appeal to mainstream listeners, they seem well grounded in their values, their sound, and the message they want to get across. Heck, the band is still inviting strangers over to their house to play gigs. This demo set was recorded only last month and the band is relatively unknown, but I wouldn’t count on that for much longer. I’m anticipating listening to their album in it’s entirety and am interested to see how these guys handle their growing success.

Why They Don’t Suck: When you boil it down these two guys utilize mixed elements of alt-pop and lo-fi goodness to great effect. I’ve gotta add their description just because it’s awesome; “Sounds more like Dawn of the Dead than anything else but such a description can only complimentarily match the scene of mainstream music in the coming days. Millions of the staggering half-brained march to be swallowed by the dissonant sounds of repetition.” -A B & The Sea (Myspace Page)

Three.mp3 (right click to Save As)

Purple Table.mp3 (right click to Save As)

Jupiter Sunrise

Album: Under a Killer Blue Sky

Sounds Like: what you should have been listening to outside on a perfect day when you were still just a kid.

Jupiter Sunrise is one of those bands that has already gained some mainstream momentum and could have already signed with a label by now. But at the time of this album’s release (2004) they hadn’t, and thus it qualifies to be posted on Soundsuck. The band is currently working on a new album which I know little about, but what I do know is even though Under a Killer Blue Sky is a few years old, it still has some cool artwork and a handful of good alternative tracks. There’s nothing groundbreaking about Killer Blue Sky, but as the cover art might suggest, most of the songs hold an intangible quality of “wonder” that we often loose in our grown-up lives while commuting to work, paying taxes, or being dumped.

Why They Don’t Suck: If you can appreciate music from artists who are just getting started but show great promise then you’ll like them. In this first album Jupiter Sunrise sounds like a standard alternative band, but their lyrics are what separate them from your average alternative artist and make this disc worth a listen.

Kaye.mp3

Steal Me.mp3