One thing I’ve seen a lot these days is a sort of rift between average listeners and electronic music, often based on this misperception that it all sounds the same.  You may have friends who claim they’ve heard electronic music and it’s all just oonce-oonce-oonce-oonce and that’s all they needed to hear, that person may even be you.  I would argue the opposite, I’d try to find out what they do enjoy and play them something in that arena that has been done electronically.  While results have been mixed, as the rift is too wide for some to cross, I like to think of these picks as being a mix between rock & pop and electronic.

Grand National is a band from London, I first heard them on a series called City Lounge, which I think I picked up at an airport, on one of their more well-known tracks called “Drink to Moving On.”  This track is a great example of how they mix the two different mediums of rock and electronic music production, with lyrics of a subject matter that should definitely mesh with rock fans.  They give the song a unique personality, battered and rejected, yet determined to pick up and, as the title suggests, move on.

The Sea and Cake is a band that I admit I’ve discovered entirely too late, they’ve been around since the mid 90’s, making electronic-tinged indie rock for over a decade on and off, as the band members, most notably front man Sam Prekop, seem to drift from solo projects to Sea and Cake like waves on the beach.  Many of their songs have an almost geeky (although some call it grown-up) jazz sensibility, sounding at times like Steely Dan.  The thing is, songs like this have such a catchy indie pop ring throughout, it makes me like the tune even more.  That bassline is so catchy, I actually love how repetitive it is, it hops along with the drums and vocals.

is one of my absolute favorite examples of electronic meeting rock/pop, these guys are often referred to as dream pop.  I suppose shoegaze can be considered sort of a natural child of the two– even in it’s purest forms, even the instruments themselves use heavy effects.  While I don’t think Mahogany directly fits into any of the above- rock, pop, electronic, or shoegaze, you can certainly deduce these different sounds when you listen to a song like One Plus One Equals Three Or More.  Gotta love the sound of that Rickenbacker bass.

School of Seven Bells is a three-piece band based in New York City, signed to Ghostly International, composed of former guitarist Benjamin Curtis, and twins Claudia and Alejandra Deheza, formerly of They have a unique sound that combines electronic beats, shoegaze guitars, and the vocal harmonies of the beautiful Deheza sisters.  They also just released a music video for this track, off their album Alpinisms, along with the single Iamundernodisguise, which sports some gorgeous 7″ packaging design.  I am posting just the music video because I don’t have an mp3 version of this for the audio player.  The photo posted up top was taken by me, at their show at the CMJ Music Festival last October.

Grand National – Drink To Moving On

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The Sea And Cake – Sporting Life

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Mahogany – One Plus One Equals Three Or More

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School of Seven Bells – Half Asleep

Posted in Music Posted by Alex on Feb 23 2009 03:00 pm

Tags: CMJ Festival, Electronic, Grand National, Mahogany, Rock/Pop, School of Seven Bells, Shoegaze, The Sea And Cake