I’m a big fan of Adam Sharp‘s Songs for the Day, a blog that surfaces amazing talent literally every. single. day. (Needless to say, he’s a more diligent blogger than I am.) I asked him to compile some of the artists he bets will break this year—or, at the very least, will make 2013 sound pretty darn pleasant. Read on to hear more…
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Below are 5 artists you may or may not know already, but who will all be, by my estimation, heavily involved in the soundtrack to your life in the coming year. Let’s see what your year is going to sound like, shall we?
Alejandro Rose-Garcia doesn’t make music that sounds like the stuff other folks are making. Not many people are rolling around the back roads playing their guitar and briefcase drum set while singing about things like gunslingers, women, convicts, booze and wary roaming (sometimes all in one tune). The music of Shakey Graves is at once fresh, familiar, unique and memorable, full of deep truths and wisdom under its cowboy exterior.
There aren’t a lot of artists that would dare start their debut full-length album with an a capella tune, but then again Winston Yellen isn’t most artists. In Country Sleep, the debut album from Night Beds, Yellen has created a stunningly personal, vulnerable and brave piece of work from beginning to end. It’s an album that packs quite the painful punch under the surface of its uniquely gorgeous arrangements, Yellen’s tales of lost love, loneliness, pain and depression always lurking below the strums and strings, armed and ready to reach up and shake you.
Led by the powerhouse vocals of Galen Disston, Pickwick makes the kind of music that will simultaneously stop you dead in your tracks and force you to dance when it starts coming through your speakers. Combining equal parts soul, indie rock and psychedelic rock, this Seattle sextet is producing some of my favorite music being made today. Get your weird dancing shoes ready, kids- when Pickwick blows through town you’re gonna want to be there, and you’re surely going need said shoes.
You could use a lot of words to describe the music that Daughter makes (I know, I’ve used most of them), but the only one you truly need is ‘haunting’. The dark stories of love, loss and alienation being woven in Elena Torna’s songs are haunting. The arrangements that build and burst throughout are haunting. And Torna’s voice, sometimes confident and strong, other times frail and apprehensive, is haunting. Daughter makes music that sticks with you long after the notes fade away.
There are two versions of Noah Gundersen: the one on tape and the one who plays live. There’s the songwriter just realizing his potential, penning stunning songs full of words that cut deep and raising questions that need answers. Then there’s the performer, the one who, with his sister Abby at his side, possesses a power that hushes a crowd from first note to last. You need both of versions of Noah Gundersen in your life in 2013.
Red Said 