Here's the 10-6!
10. Hopewell
Still know very little about this band except they were amazing on KEXP last Monday and lived up to my own last minute hype at the Cake Shop to kick off CMJ for me. Thanks to eMusic, I now know their album is pretty solid as well. Can't wait to see them again. Maybe at a venue without a slope...
9. The Changes
I just see big things for these boys. Their sound is too smooth for them to slide under the radar much longer.
8. Pela
I must have missed these guys play a dozen times over the last 4 months. They seemed to be everywhere this summer and I always told myself I'd just catch them the next time. Live, they reminded me of a less attractive Stellastarr*. Which is no real knock on them since they all seem like pretty good looking dudes, but more of a realization on how unrealistically good looking Stellastarr* is. Anyway, I'm told it's all about the music anyway, so these guys should be fine.
7. Devendra Banhart
I told myself after the last time I saw Devendra play that I would have been bored out of my mind at one of his shows if I hadn't been literally sitting on the stage at Tonic while he and a bunch of his friends jammed out. I dunno what happened between then and now, but all of a sudden this dude's a rockstar. He was tight and focused at Bowery in a way I didn't think he was capable of and his band actually complemented him, rather than acting as a distraction. Keep it up! That Webster Hall show doesn't seem so absurd all of a sudden.
6. Voxtrot
It's no secret that Voxtrot has been one of my favorite bands for a while now. Their Saturday afternoon show in the unnecessarily pitch dark Rothko was pure fun. What I think is so remarkable is that every time I see them, they play new songs I hadn't heard before, and they are all as perfect as the ones I've been listening to since January. At some point these guys HAVE to write a stinker, right? I mean, nobody can be this consistently catchy.
The top 5 should be up tomorrow morning.
hopewell is excellent.
and put on a great live show.
Posted by: katie | September 20, 2005 at 08:28 AM