I have plans to do a whole series of posts about the artists I’ve found using Pandora, but I did manage to discover a new artist (new to me) by a different method. The band is called ‘Dowsing‘, and they are based out of Chicago (like Katie Todd) and their music is indie, emo, and pop. And apparently they are pretty good at playing Monopoly.
While working on the post for Katie Todd’s Changing Faces, I came across bandcamp.com, and now I have a new way to find indie music. Bandcamp allows artists to sell directly to the fans, and for the fans to discover new music much like Pandora but in a different way. While Pandora uses a much more defined and targeted approach, band camp allows you to search using many different genres, newer or more popular offerings, and such and so on.
The good news: it’s not all that bad. The bad news: A lot of it is. Like I wrote before, a lot of indie music is ‘indie’ because the major audience for it simply does not exist. Still, I was sure that some of it had to appeal to me, I mean I really enjoyed Changing Faces and it is on bandcamp, but was I into ‘screamo’ or ’emo’? I didn’t think so, but I got to looking around and found something that was pretty good , a chicago band called Dowsing. The music is catchy and the album sounds tight.
It’s not entirely terrible, despite the title.
I actually liked it just a bit at first, and more and more often I find myself playing a song or two to pass the time.
I think this album is growing on me.
– Moby
Sometimes music has to grow on you, like an acquired taste. My first recommendation was lukewarm, but Dowsing has grown on me as I listened to it more. Speaking of more; it seems they should be recording their second album any day now, based on posts on their Facebook and tumblr pages, and I’ll be looking forward to it.
I have really enjoyed a few tracks from their 3 releases so far; an Ep, a split 7″, and an album. The Ep is called All I Could Find Was You (available as a free download), and the split 7″ has 2 tracks including an alternate version of Somerset which I thought better (more upbeat) than the one that made it on the album, It’s Still Pretty Terrible.
A sample of Moby’s favorites from It’s Still Pretty Terrible:
Wired For Success
What Did You Ever Do?
Not bad, eh? It’s Still Pretty Terrible is also available as a vinyl LP (mustard yellow only, black sold out) for those interested in old school audio media. The LP comes with a download code so you can start listening to the album immediately. If your interested in finding out more about Dowsing, try these links below, and be sure to buy a track or two if you can. A little support goes a long way.
http://dowsingband.tumblr.com/
http://dowsing.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.last.fm/music/Dowsing
The music on this blog is for promotional uses only.
Post updated 30/29/13: Ok, they are better than I first thought. Now the post says it too.
