Griff says; Encounter with the shadow - Luna Moth

Tonight we're having an encounter with the shadow. Prosaically, I'd simply like to introduce you to the latest release by long-time Streetlamp favourite's Luna Moth (see 'here' and 'here' previously), entitled 'Shadows Casting Trees'. More fancifully, as befits an album which is mythic in provenance and intent, I use the term to subliminally remind you of the work of CG Jung (for, surely, subliminally is how he'd like to be remembered). I'm thinking here of his concept of individuation - the journey of transformation which is the mystical heart of all spiritual change. What has this got to do with music?, you're probably thinking. Well, let me explain.

Luna Moth is a music/art collective based in Norman, Oklahoma and has been operating since 2003 under the direction of main operative Joey Paz (pictured above with unkown chicken). Prior to this latest album, Luna Moth has recorded 8 albums of material, ranging in sound from minimalist lo-fi folk, to traditional Mexican ballads, to noisy psychedelic garage rock. All of the previous Luna Moth albums are available for free listening and download from the cllct music collective. You can also find them on bandcamp where, if you are inclined to support independent music financially, they can be downloaded on a 'name your price' basis. The Luna Moth bandcamp page is where you will also find this newly released work.

But what has this got to do with Jung and individuation?, the impatient amongst you are, no doubt, already asking. Let us allow Joey to explain:

"Thematically, Shadows Casting Trees is a concept album in which the ancient epic poem 'Metamorphoses' by Ovid is superimposed onto the canvas of the past year of my life, which has been defined largely by the discovery of previously unknown territory of mind through shamanistic plant healing in the Peruvian Amazon and the subsequent recognition of unconditional love. The idea behind Shadows Casting Trees is boundaries and forms shifting, the juxtaposition of sea and sky, the interplay of shadow and light, cosmic paradigms reversing, the simple beauty of all things reverting to their source. 

Aaaaah, now do you see? It's about the journey of transformation which is the mystical heart of all spiritual change. It seems that Joey in his travels arond the Americas and through his political battles closer to home in Oklahoma, "the most ultra-conservative state in the conservative U.S.", has had something of a metamorphosis himself, such that the doors of perception have been not so much opened as flung wide. So, what effect does this have on the Luna Moth music? It's difficult to say, to be honest, the Luna Moth sound has always been so diverse and wide-ranging. I'll setle for saying that, in general, 'Shadows Casting Trees' has a heavier, rockier sound than much of Joey's other work. But that's not the whole picture here. While the pounding drum intro and reverbed, distorted guitars of opening track 'Trees Casting Shadows' create a  fierce and ominous introductory energy, the mood of the album ebbs and flows to allow profound changes in atmosphere and  vitality - as witnessed by the enigmatic, spooky country-music of 'Lupine Blooms Voluminous'. I've embedded both these tracks below to demonstrate:







Lyrically, Joey is tilling in the abstruse soil of symbolism here and it probably helps to be familiar with Metamorphoses. This is a book which has lain untouched on my own bookshelf for quite some time now - probably as a result of having it forced on me at a tender age by an over-enthusiastic teacher. Funnily enough, when I pulled it from the shelf the other night, in order to reaccquaint myself with it, it automatically fell open at the tale of Arachne's tapestry, something which I believe may be referenced in some of the songs. Now, what would old Jung have made of that co-incidence?

I mentioned earlier that Luna Moth is a music/art collective. The striking artwork for this latest album was designed in collaboration with Oklahoma artist Tiffany Nachelle Edwards. The music and visual art are symbiotically connected so that the lyrical themes of the album inspired the creation of the painting that would soon become the cover, and vice versa. Tiffany Nachelle Edwards is also responsible for the other artworks used throughout this piece. You can view much more of her work 'here'.

Enjoy!
Griff
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Griff says; Do We Not Bleed?

Tonight's band is my favourite type of 'Griff says' find; i.e. they're totally obscure and have somehow slipped under the music-biz radar to provide us with an amazingly well-produced and emotionally true album's worth of music. The band, a three-piece from Toronto, Canada, are called The Bleed Whites and their stock-in-trade is lo-fi indie-rock, flavoured with a soupçon of surf music and garnished with the occasional folky flourish. If that sounds a little too genre-busting to be useful as a description then I'd say that they remind me a bit of US alternative rock/pop acts like The White Stripes, Modest Mouse or Grandaddy.


I can't tell you much more about them as they keep a fairly low profile on the internet. Anyway, all you really need to know is that yesterday they released their eponymous 12-track debut album and that you should really have a listen to it. The album can be freely downloaded from our old friends at CLLCT and also on the band's bandcamp page.
If you need further convincing then please find embedded below my three favourite tracks from the album. This selection of tracks also has the advantage of showcasing the diversity of The Bleed White's sound.








The cover art for the album and the other band art featured in this article is the work of band member James Lee. If you like it, you can visit his excellent little blog page 'here'.

Enjoy,

Griff
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Griff says; To those who may wonder where wonders do wander

To those who may wonder
where wonders do wander
they wander until wilting away...

It's almost a year now sice The Streetlamp first (ahem) 'burst on to the scene' and interestingly enough my very first post was about the CLLCT musical collective and their wonderful dream of bringing free music straight to your PC. Looking back through the Streetlamp archive, I see that, since that first post, I've written about CLLCT bands a further seven times. Quite a good return for CLLCT, and proof that it has served as a rich source of material for this blog. I'm pleased, then, to bring yet another CLLCT band to your notice tonight. The band is a six-piece called Cream Trees and they hail from Rockford, in far northern Illinois, USA. Last month the band released a six track mini-album, called Wandering Wonders, and made it freely available to dwnload on both their CLLCT page and Reverbnation page. I've been listening to it for the last few weeks now and it just keeps growing on me. On their CLLCT page the band describe their music as experimental pop. Personally, I think it has a strong psychedelic flavour and is more folk than pop; to these ears it's not a million miles away from Streetlamp favourites Luna Moth. So, file under psychedelic folk or, if you prefer, use the band's own rather fuller definition:

"Cream Trees are the perfect soundtrack for the easy hours, after you have changed out of your drab work clothes and are ready to intoxicate your senses. Each note seems to have a place in time, endlessly resonating and delivering immediate aural pleasure. Slow spectral glides evoke feelings of love, indulgence, bliss, and contentment. If you seek melancholy- look elsewhere."

As a tater, here's the opening track 'Here We Are Again', which has the most catchy melody ever and comes on like an adorable, psychedelic Fleet Foxes.




Hope you enjoyed that as much as I did. Now go and check out the other tracks, you won't be disappointed.

Griff
xx

Griff say; Death to Poshlost! Da zdravstvuet Luna Moth!

Avid readers of 'The Streetlamp' will by now have noted Gordon's repeated attempts to shoehorn in references to the European canon of classical literature, and my own oft-expressed wish to include more visual artists/musicians ( à la Colorform and Top Montagne). Happily, today's article hits both targets squarely.
Hopefully, you will remember when I wrote enthusiastically, last year, about El Vagabundo de Quetzalcoátle by Luna Moth? You may also remember that Ray provided two Mexican-themed videos to accompany the piece. That album, released on CLLCT, contained 10 lo-fi, acoustic nuggets, which were heavily influenced by Mexican indigenous and traditional music, in line with where Luna Moth singer-songwriter Joey (pictured) was in his life at the time.



Since then, Joey has maintained his prodigious rate of output and has released the noisy, garage-rock influenced Shamanic Youth album (released last summer but a little raucous for a 'Griff says' piece) and last week gave us the latest Luna Moth album; Russian Novels. As usual, this is exclusively available and, of course, freely downloadable 'here' on CLLCT. Russian Novels is an altogether more restrained affair than Shamanic Youth and Joey says of it:

"I wanted to write something a bit more subdued after the 'Shamanic Youth' freakout, and the result is 'Russian Novels'. These songs came to fruition during the autumn, which was quite conducive to the more introspective and reserved feel that I was going for."



Interestingly, the album was recorded as a collaboration with talented young artist Sarah Capshaw of Norman, Oklahoma, US. Joey had originally approached her to provide the cover art (above) and, not only did she agree to this, but entered so enthusiastically into the project that it became a fully collaborative process in which the songs themselves influenced the artwork and vice versa. Of this, Joey says:

"Sarah was the first person to hear these songs in their embryonic state and the first to hear them upon completion. I was, as well, able to witness the painting as it became ever more layered, complex, and dreamlike throughout its stages of manifestation. It was a very illuminating process, and I felt that it added a welcome new dimension to my own creative process as well."

More of Sarah's artwork can be viewed here and throughout this article. Also, Ray has produced a video ( see below), which showcases the talents of both artist and musician rather nicely.
I asked Sarah how the creative process differed from usual when making visual art in conjunction with a piece of music. She replied:

"I'm unfamiliar with indulging in a creative process without music. Something is almost always playing when I work; in this way it is easier for me to paint, because I can block the distracting, pesky parts of my thinking and typically (hopefully) channel something "pure"... if the music is right."


Obviously, in this case, it was. Russian Novels ranges from gentle, folky pieces like 'Some Birds Sing' to more experimental and intense pieces such as 'Nikolai Gogol'. I asked Sarah what feelings Joey's music evoked for her. She replied:

"Many of Joey's songs made me want to drink tea and go outside and fall in love and nap under a tree, all at once. I think he sings about all of those things in one song, maybe? And some of them are creepy and playful and groovy."

I can understand her difficulty in defining the Luna Moth music as it does encompass a broad range of sounds and emotions. My own personal view is that on Russian Novels, and in particular on 'Nikolai Gogol', Joey occasionally introduces an almost aggressive energy that's quite unlike the feeling his songs usually convey. I asked him where that had come from. He replied:

"I think the tense energy in 'Nikolai' is more vicarious than anything else… I wanted to try writing a song from the perspective of an actual historical figure. Although I’ve probably embellished and mythologized his story quite a bit, If you are familiar with Gogol’s life, it was quite intense. He was a genius and a satirist, and like all truth tellers and exposers of hypocrisy, he was alienated, shunned, and ridiculed by his society and finally exiled by the country that he loved and called home. He ended up burning most of his life’s work , going insane, and starving himself to death. I wanted to convey the sense of impotent frustration that he must have felt in that situation."



I also asked Joey where the interest in Russian literature had come from. He replied:

"My interest in Russian literature is just one facet of a search for something more meaningful and substantial in the intellectual desert of our shallow consumer culture. In their quest for truth, the Russians always seemed willing to dig just a little deeper than most, even to a level of discomfort. They of course felt nonplussed by the hypocrisy of their own society as well, and their words conveyed this in such a way that their intended meaning has retained its moral power to this day. This is what I’m referring to when I sing that ‘Tolstoy is a gold mine’, in 'Pseudo San Francisco'."

Keen readers will recognise the sentiments above as being something with which I can heartily agree. So, if you want to indulge in something more meaningful than the commerce driven pop-pap fed to us by the record industry, I suggest you go to CLLCT and have a listen to, and download, Russian Novels. Also keep an eye out for the work of Sarah Capshaw. Dare I suggest that now might be the time to snap up an 'early work'. To whet your appetite, Ray has provided the following two videos for 'Nikolai Gogol' and 'Charlotte Wears a Scarf' respectively. The images in the 'Nikolai Gogol' video are Marc Chagall's illustrations for 'Dead Souls'. Enjoy!





Griff
xx

Griff says; When she was bad she was better!

Tonight's artist is another wonderful find from the CLLCT music collective and also a musician with a flair for the visual arts, so she certainly ticks all the 'Griff says' boxes. The artist in question is Megan Biscieglia, from Brooklyn, New York. Megan has always written songs, but unfortunately was always too scared to play them in front of people up until about a year ago. Her early, pre-new-found-confidence, work was released as Sans Ben and a little of this output can still be found on the internet (see here). It's undoubtedly lo-fi, in fact best described as rough and ready, but the keen listener should discern the germ of something great waiting to sprout forth here. And indeed, the flowering of that talent is now upon us with the release of Arrow and Orb, a new 6 song EP, and the first released under the new name of Bad Braids.


The music is difficult to categorise, there's a strong folk element but also a touch of psychedelia, dream-pop and even country music. I suppose it reminds me most of the lo-fi, folk-pop of another Streetlamp favourite, also from the North-east of the US, Lady Lioness. But frankly, who cares how we label it, it's enough just to say that I love it. Since I first came across Arrow and Orb a couple of weeks ago I've listened to it almost every day and still find myself intrigued by its musical twists and turns.
Megan is assisted on the album by Jared Stafford-Hill who provides; organ, piano, mandolin, lap-steel, bass and percussion and Derek David Dobson who supplies vocals on track 3; Oh Righteous One. Megan herself wrote and produced the songs and contributes vocals, guitar, piano, tamborine, whistles and percussion. As if that weren't enough, she has also produced the rather splendid artwork and 'zine which accompany the release. Megan's style; detailed, brightly-coloured ink-drawings combined with collage, reminded me instantly of the work of Henry Darger and I asked if he was much of an influence. Megan told me that she finds Darger's style wonderful but didn't really have him in mind whilst completing the work.
As well as being available on CLLCT the album can also be downloaded at bandcamp where you can also make a donation if you're feeling generous and want to support a talented young artist.
I'm embedding three songs from the album below and I'd like to encourage you to listen to all three to fully appreciate the breadth of Bad Braids musical style. Enjoy!










Griff
xx

Griff says; Who says I'm afraid to rock?

Despite Gordon's impressive efforts (see the preceding article, below) I still don't totally see the attraction of The Butthole Surfers. However, rumours that I am an introverted, folk-loving beardy who is (gasp!) afraid to rock are very much exagerated. In an effort to dispel this rumour, and also to bring some great music to your attention, I have not just one, but two, top-class tunes for you tonight. And not a ukulele or banjo to be heard!

The first song is an amazing little indie-pop number with a real Phil Spectoresque wall-of-sound feel. It also has a rather gory, but humorous nevertheless, video to accompany it. The song is 'Never Come Around' by La Sera. La Sera is the solo project of Katy Goodman of Vivian Girls and All Saints Day. This is the first material from her debut solo album, also called La Sera, which is due for release on the Hardly Art label in February of next year. The MP3 can be downloaded for free at the Hardly Art site or you can go there to purchase the physical single or pre-order the album. Here's the aforementioned video:


The next song I want to mention came out earlier this year on an amazingly good indie rock album by the band Ralpheene (pictured).
If you like the jagged, guitar-driven indie-rock of The Strokes, or the fiery glam-riffing of Placebo, then you'll love this lot. They made two of the songs available as free downloads on both CLLCT and PureVolume and, criminally, I forgot to mention it on the blog at the time. I'd like to remedy that now. The track I'm featuring is one of the free ones, called Lovely, and is from the album Quiet Seems Asleep. This really is excellent.


Ralpheene-Lovely by SadPanda


Griff
xx

Griff says; Come down from the mountain, Top Montagne

I have a nice combination of music and visual arts for you this evening. As you'll hopefully know, I'm rather keen on artist/musician fusion (see Colorform, mkf, entertainment for the braindead) and, as I'd like to begin blogging a little about lo-fi artists, as well as musicians, I admire, I'm confident that this should be an agreeable little taster for you. The band is called Top Montagne (pictured), they come from Paris, France, and remarkably the band line-up contains, not just one, but two excellent visual artists.

I'll begin at the beginning. Back in the days when Myspace was a thriving community for aspiring musicians to meet and share their art, I became friendly with a young musician and graphic artist called Pierre Chandeze. Pierre had attracted my attention as he was a rather fine purveyor of that most evocative, and yet most neglected instrument; the musical saw. Rather infuriatingly, he also seemed to have an almost inhuman work rate and every other week he was playing on someone else's song, or producing their cover art, or designing their website. He also found time to create a distinctive series of art works featuring 'ugly animals' (pictured).




I was rather fond of these and for quite a while the above freaky sea-creature was my pc desktop picture. Anyway, Pierre is still at it and last month one of the bands he plays with, Top Montagne, released their album 'J'aime Pas La Musique'. The album contains 14 brilliant little, quirky, home-produced, folk-pop masterpieces and features those perennial Griff favourite's; the glockenspiel, the melodica and the concertina, but of course, this time with the added bonus of the aforementioned saw to add a bit of whimsical Gallic charm. Naturally, this being Streetlamp, the album is available as a free download but, interestingly, not from one of the usual sites. No, 'J'aime Pas La Musique' is available only on comic book artist David Snug's website. In fact, 'J'aime Pas La Musique' is also, the name of the next David Snug comic book and will include the Top Montagne album inside. Unfortunately, the comic book is not yet completed but, for now, feel free to download the album. So, you're no doubt wondering, who is David Snug? David Snug is the psuedonym of Guillaume, the band's main composer. He also provided the wonderful album cover art as well as other diverse artworks (below) for the band. Like Pierre, he has his own distinctive and idiosyncratic style and his site is well worth a visit.


While it's creditable to laud the band's in-house artists I shouldn't neglect the other band members, so I'll correct that now. The full Top Montagne line-up is: Aude (vocals, glockenspiel, melodica, concertina, flute...), Guillaume (guitar and percussion), Hélène (oboe and backing vocals) and Pierre (guitar, musical saw). I've added two songs from the album to soundcloud so that you can have a listen (below). I think you'll like it!
08 les animaux - Top Montagne by SadPanda

11 c'est pas fait - Top Montagne by SadPanda


I hope you enjoyed that. If you want to hear similar I should also mention that; Guillaume and Pierre also play with the band Quetzalli who have free music available at CLLCT, Guillaume also fronts The David Snug Trio, Pierre is a member of Sean Croft, and finally (phew), Pierre's solo music work goes under the name of Carton Sonore. Carton Sonore's music is free and can be found on last.fm, CLLCT and bandcamp. You may also remember that a Carton Sonore track 'Dérive' was also featured on Daydream Generation No. 9 (along with a sighrens track), which can be downloaded here.
If you liked Pierre's 'ugly animal' art then you might want to buy one of his rather fine self-produced t-shirts or bags from here. As it's getting close to Christmas might I suggest that these would make excellent presents for family and friends. Now, how many music blogs do you know that help with the Christmas shopping? Yes, as always, The Streetlamp likes to go that extra mile.

Salut!

Griff
xx

Griff says; bringen Sie mir meinen Glockenspiel!

I was browsing through the CLLCT website when I noticed that 'A Pile Of Lo-fi!' (featured here previously on Streetlamp) have recently released the latest volume, number 6 since you ask, of their free, lo-fi, indie-music taster series. As always it's well worth a listen and contains a number of previous Streetlamp recommendations such as shalloboi, Wisdom Tooth and Tinyfolk. I also noticed that this volume contains an excellent song, Blue Highways, by the criminally under-rated Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. For those of you who dont know, the group’s principal members are Jasmine Dreame Wagner and Alex Wilson (pictured) who retreated to Wagner’s childhood home in the woods to record chilling lo-fi lullabies and country dream songs. As well as this track for A Pile of Lo-fi, a new album, reportedly to be titled Buttermilk Channel, is also apparently in the offing. We look forward to that and as soon as we know more we'll post it on here. In the meantime, I also noticed that Cabinet of Natural Curiosities have made a sweet, home-made video for their absolutely outstanding song Owllullaby from the Searchlight Needles album. This song has been a firm favourite of mine for a while now and so I need little or no excuse to post the video (below).



I hope you loved that as much as I do. A free MP3 of the song can be downloaded from the band's last.fm page and their official website (where you can also order the band's CDs).

Watching that video with it's cute, baby-blue glockenspiel instantly reminded me of a few other videos by Streetlamp favourites. You see, I own that self same brand and colour of glock and, therefore, I can't help but notice when it pops up on screen. For no other reason than that, I'd like to share some of these videos with you tonight. First of all there's Scotland's own Camera Obscura with their acoustic cover of 'Some Guys Have All The Luck', hastily filmed, and nicely intimate for that, in a camper van at the Connect festival in Inveraray in 2008.



Did you spot the glock? Here it is again, in another charming, low-budget video, this time by Spanish indie-pop darlings Mittens (previously featured here on Streetlamp). On this occasion it is part of a perfectly-performed, synchronised glock display, which is sure to amaze and delight.



Finally, I'm going to feature a video which we've shown before on Streetlamp but which I'm posting again as Ray and I both love it. This time it's Guillermo of Mittens in his other guise of Wild Honey (featured here previously on Streetlamp). This is the fantastic Isabella. Now play that glock!




Griff
xx

Griff says; ¡Viva Luna Moth!

I've got another, largely undiscovered, gem from CLLCT for you all tonight. The band, from Oklahoma in the US, is called Luna Moth and they've been around for a wee while now; at least since the release of their eponymous first album in 2005. The music is a bit folky, a bit psychedelic and has the charming lo-fi bedroom pop feel that is common to most of the bands I champion on this blog.

The reason I want to bring them to your attention now though is that they've recently released an album entitled 'El Vagabundo de Quetzalcoátl' and in my opinion it's by far the best thing they've ever done. The songs were written during a year-long sojourn in southern Mexico, and are heavily influenced by Mexican indigenous and traditional music while still maintaining the folky psychedelia of previous Luna Moth albums.

The album contains 10 tracks, all of which are available as free MP3 downloads. We've taken the liberty of giving our two favourite songs the 'Streetlamp' video treatment to give you a flavour of the 'El Vagabundo' sound. We recommend that you stop what you're doing, sit back and relax, and let the music send you drifting off down the narrow cobblestone streets of a pueblo, resting at last at a shady spot in the plaza under an ancient Bougainvillea, the rich scent of campanilla fragrancing the air. Well, you get the picture!

Griff
xx

Griff Says; It's Colorform - in sound and vision.

What a great month May has been so far for music. I've been so busy that I've neglected to mention Colorform; something that I've been meaning to do for some time and which I intend to remedy now. I came across Colorform on the CLLCT web-site and was immediately impressed by both the quality and the diversity of the songs on offer. I was also intrigued by the complementary visual element, which is part of the complete Colorform experience. You see, the musical component of Colorform comprises of; singer, lyricist, and guitarist Kate Logan, cellist Matt Logan and guitarist Ben Deibert. Seems straight-forward enough, right? However, in addition to the world of aural expression, Colorform also encompasses visual art. At all live performances and in rehearsals, NYC artist Sarah Valeri provides simultaneous live artwork, a process in which the two art forms are mutually inspired. When performing with the band, Sarah tapes a few sheets of drawing paper on the ground and uses pastels to draw on them as the music plays. Depending on the length of the set, she finishes one or two sheets of drawing. Each painting is unique and has a part of the venue in it. The drawings are up for sale after the show. Sarah is very much presented as an integral part of the band and at live shows her name is included in the band member introduction; “Sarah Valeri on colors".

As I've already mentioned , you can see Sarah's artwork, listen to the music and even download it for free at their CLLCT web-site. So why should you? Well, for those of you who need further convincing, we here at 'Streetlamp' have decided to give you a small taster of Colorform's unique brand of independent expression. We've provided two sample videos (below), which attempt to showcase the Colorform audio-visual experience. One of the things that has impressed me most about Colorform is that the band don't fall into the popular music cliche of using bowed strings as an afterthought to provide a superficial touch of classical sophistication. On the contrary, Matt's cello is absolutely central to the sound, and demonstrates an astonishing breadth of tone and expression. Possibly because of this, it can be difficult to describe the Colorform sound. On some songs, I think I can hear something akin to the stylish dream-pop of The Sundays, while on others their is an angrier almost aggressive vibe at work. If that sounds contradictory then have a listen and make your own mind up.

Hope you enjoyed those. The band can also be found on facebook, myspace and virb.

Griff
xx

Griff says; 'Check out CLLCT! Do it now!

So, where do we begin? With introductions I suppose. It seems rather formal but we'd like you to know who we are and what we're about and, who knows, perhaps in time you'll grow to love us. So far there are three of us involved in 'the streetlamp doesn't cast her shadow anymore'. There's Griff and Gordon who are lo-fi musicians involved in the indie-folk band 'sighrens' and there's Ray an amateur film-maker. We'll all be involved in producing content for this blog and we'll each of us occupy a special niche. Ray will obviously be responsible for the video content. Gordon will be sharing his love and encyclopaedic knowledge of Indie-pop. In particular he'll be featuring music in the Twee, Shambling, C-86 and Cuddlecore genres. Griff's special areas of interest are Lo-fi, Acoustic indie-folk, Bedroom-pop and Outsider music. Hopefully, there'll be something for anyone with an interest in genuine independent music.
Why are we doing this? Simple, we love music and we love the freedom of the internet as a forum for obscure, over-looked and unsigned bands to get their work into the public domain. At one time both myspace and last.fm were wonderful resources for small independent artists and labels to do just that. It now seems that the corporate types who run music as an industry don't like it when artists remain independent and allow the music to be freely available to all. Changes to these sites has had the effect of further marginalising and squeezing out these small independents. We intend to give them some room here.
Given the above, it seems fitting then that my first post is about the wonderful CLLCT website.

CLLCT is the abbreviated name for 'The Collective Family'. Basically, this is a group of artists loosely amalgamated around the CLLCT website all of whom are happily prepared to just give their music away. A noble idea, I'm sure you'll agree. CLLCT features some well-known lo-fi indie bands such as 'Madeline Ava' 'Tinyfolk' and 'Wisdom Tooth'.
However, a dig around in the lesser known reaches of the site will bring its own rewards. The true indie enthusiast with time on his/her hands and a zeal for the thrill of the new will soon unearth many under-rated and criminally unknown acts of genuine quality. It's the ultimate indie-snobs dream site. Give it a visit and soon you'll be dropping the names of your own private discoveries into pub/work/student halls conversations in the true spirit of indie one-upmanship.

A Secret Owl, who runs the site, sums up his philosophy rather nicely in this excerpt from the CLLCT myspace page:

"The Collective is me and some other friends and neat musicians, and we put up music for free.

Yeah, I know, you want to make money. It's not a crime, don't be ashamed (...okay, never mind, you're not). You have to do some thinking, though. If nobody knows who you are, is some random dude who stumbles upon your myspace (or, okay, maybe you added him, whatever) going to buy a CD or a shirt or something? Pshht, you already know, but HELL NO.

The hard fact is: you're probably not ever going to make much money. BUT WHO FUCKING CARES? Shit, if I wanted to make money, I'd become a fucking lawyer or a doctor or something. I make music because I love it, and you should be the same way.

So, submit your music to the collective, and lots of people will download it. And they'll listen. And you'll be on their playlists, on their iPods, and on their mixed CDs. They'll listen to you when they drive to work, when they go to school, when they drive to the grocery store. Younglings will hear your music, and when they grow older, you'll influence the music they make.
Can you feel that? "


I don't think we need add anything further other than to say; If you're an indie fan check it out and if you're in a band then what are you waiting for? Get submitting!


Griff
xx