Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Leigh Nash, Astronaut Pushers (Sixpence revisited)


OK, so if you've been reading this (or Unfound Bloom proper, not that it's updated much anymore) for any amount of time, you know that I'm a huge fan of Sixpence None the Richer. Well, I've heard from four former band members in the past three months, and I'm ready for some of their new projects. OK, so you've already heard me profess my love for Tess Wiley's latest album, but I'm guessing you haven't heard the new Astronaut Pushers EP. You can download two songs at that link though. AP is the band that Matt Slocum (guitarist/cellist/lyricist for Sixpence) is in now. Sam Ashworth (Yeah, that guy I meant to review the concert of that I saw last June) is also in Astronaut Pushers, alongside Lindsey Jamieson and Superdrag's John Davis. It's a cute little supergroup. I know though, most people around here remember Sixpence's vocals more than anything - well, I happen to know where you can listen to solo material for Leigh Nash's upcoming (early '06) album.

Just because I can, I feel like bragging that I got an e-mail from The Fatherless and the Widow-era Sixpence bassist T.J. Behling the other day. That's in addition to the Sixpence mailing list getting a visit from Leigh and of course, our buddy Dale Baker is always over there.

I guess it's time to mention that I'm going to be moving to a place not too far from where Dale lives soon. I'm planning on doing the whole "groupie" thing. I'm sure that'll help keep this blog (and possibly the regular part of the site too) exciting for the months to come. Heck, maybe I'll even get around to writing something about it sometime too.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Schizophreniac


I recently came upon treasure trove of rarities by the band Earthsuit. You've probably never heard of them - they're a little-known genre-hybrid that many people just can't handle. They were discovered at the Cornerstone festival several years back - when a guy from a then-unknown band called P.O.D. decided to announce to his fans that he loved these guys and would make an appearance during their set. Shortly afterwards, they were signed to the normally-boring Christian pop record label Sparrow, where they released one hell of an album - Kaleidoscope Superior. The album was a bizarre mix of rap, pop, rock, techno, and a few other genres on some of the songs (hints of trance, hip-hop, jazz, folk, celtic music, and other unexpected twists were in several of the songs). It's almost funny to think that the album came out in 2000 - before Linkin Park and P.O.D. made their take on the rap/pop/rock sound famous. These guys are better than either of those bands - but they only released one proper album. To be fair, there are two newer bands that were started by Earthsuit's old members - MuteMath and Macrosick. Anyway, you can listen to a good deal of Earthsuit live material, indie material, and rare material at this site. Share the love, buy their CD.