David Vandervelde
We’ve always been big fans of musicians who are the equivalent of baseball’s utility players, those who can play a slew of different instruments, write impressive tunes and record them without anyone’s help. So it should be no surprise that we’re big fans of David Vandervelde. Not only can Vandervelde impress on drums, piano, guitars, bass and various analog synthesizers, he’s also an extremely capable recording engineer and producer. But what this artist does best is write catchy, multi-layered songs such as the ones found on his latest album, Waiting For the Sunrise.
Vandervelde caught my ear back in 2007 when DaveO played me the psychedelic rocker Nothin’ No off of his debut release, The Moonstation House Band. David’s songwriting combines the best elements of ’60s and ’70s rock with a touch of the aughts. Waiting For Sunrise shows off a more mature sound, which makes us think we haven’t seen anything yet.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anrBly4cNKg
Gemma Hayes
Hide your husbands and boyfriends indie ladies, because Gemma Hayes might be the cutest girl in the world. And better yet, she doesn’t act like it in the least. On the contrary, in between her well-structured tunes complete with straightforward verse-chorus guts that often lead to a captivating quiet refrain before building into a sum-is-greater-than-its-parts wailing end segment, Gemma tells funny stories about being the sweatiest member of her band or beating the shit of some kid who kissed her on the playground at age 7 only to entice him to gift her a Michael Jackson tape and a Snickers bar.
When she breaks into one of her acoustic songs, you might think momentarily that this is yet another Sheryl Crow-like crooner, which at times she is, but when she straps on her telecaster and interplays with her band on tranquil harmonies and wailing Pumpkins-esque effected jams, it is easy to see that playing guitar is her first love; the singing is just the day job. Already, a respected and revered singer/songwriter in her native Ireland and in Europe, her album (conveniently) drops on September 30 in the states, so Gemma Hayes will probably take the U.S. by storm before October comes calling.
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeibCS_EEzI
– Rupert
5 Responses
wow. about time somebody over here discovered gemma! she’s awesome!!
That new David Vandervelde album is just terrible. Perhaps I had to high of hopes. I love the first album and saw him a few times after it came out and he was very good. His version of “cocksuker blues” is great but the new album lacks all of the cool Marc Bolan sounds that made the first album so great.
Those guys from the Virgins are at Economy Candy. Great store.