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Sounds like: Fiona Apple, Jewel, Ani DiFranco

Song: Jenn Grinels - Good As New [download here]

Jenn Grinels packed her bags and didn’t look back.  After releasing her debut album Little Words in 2007, the singer-songwriter has been touring non-stop across the country and blogging about her nomadic life, steadily growing a fanbase in anticipation of her next album. Her voice is killer, rich and full-bodied like a fine Bordeaux, and it slinks around the fabric of her acoustic guitar with heartfelt blues.

She nails it on her driving rock songs like “No Better” and “Treason,” but even on her more playful numbers like “Misery” and “I Know Your Heart”, her vocal performance is arresting.  It also helps when you write emotionally charged songs about relationship crutches, rough patches, and the bittersweet pain of love at a distance.

Buy her album and make your way to one of her shows.  Or even better yet, book her for a house concert through www.concertsinyourhome.com and invite the neighborhood.

1. Original post: Jenn Grinels – Little Words

2. Posted in: female vocalist, folk-rock, acoustic

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]>

Visit Indie Shuffle to download.

Sounds like: Fiona Apple, Jewel, Ani DiFranco

Song: Jenn Grinels - Good As New [download here]

Jenn Grinels packed her bags and didn’t look back.  After releasing her debut album Little Words in 2007, the singer-songwriter has been touring non-stop across the country and blogging about her nomadic life, steadily growing a fanbase in anticipation of her next album. Her voice is killer, rich and full-bodied like a fine Bordeaux, and it slinks around the fabric of her acoustic guitar with heartfelt blues.

She nails it on her driving rock songs like “No Better” and “Treason,” but even on her more playful numbers like “Misery” and “I Know Your Heart”, her vocal performance is arresting.  It also helps when you write emotionally charged songs about relationship crutches, rough patches, and the bittersweet pain of love at a distance.

Buy her album and make your way to one of her shows.  Or even better yet, book her for a house concert through www.concertsinyourhome.com and invite the neighborhood.

1. Original post: Jenn Grinels – Little Words

2. Posted in: female vocalist, folk-rock, acoustic

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/jenn-grinels-little-words/feed/ 4 http://www.indieshuffle.com/cibelle-the-shine-of-dried-electric-leaves/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/cibelle-the-shine-of-dried-electric-leaves/#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 19:06:50 +0000 Tony Smith http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=10078

Visit Indie Shuffle to download.

Sounds like: Bebel Gilberto, Ceu, Ottmar Liebert, Devendra Banhart

Song: Cibelle - Frankenstein [download here]

Though taking an autumn stroll down a cobblestone lane in old world Europe may have been Cibelle Cavalli‘s inspiration for the song “London London” on her genre-bending album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, the song takes on a much larger life in its execution, weaving a delightful cacophony of electronic blips, bleeps, and whirs around a Brazilian acoustic guitar and the wonderful chemistry between Cibelle and Devendra Banhart.

Just when you’re settling into Cibelle’s sensuous bossa nova vocals, Banhart gently steps in with the sophisticated swagger of Johnny Depp meets Michael Bublé.  The playful song builds up with increasing echo delays and eventually disintegrates as if to say that not even this magical song can sustain such an idealized vision of city life longer than four minutes.

Cibelle obliquely asks: “Which is more alien in this song, the flying saucers in the sky or the urbanites hurrying by peacefully?”  If the extraterrestrials sing and write like Cibelle and Banhart, beam me up, por favor.

This post was originally published on blog.boyfriendacademy.com.

1. Original post: Cibelle – The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves

2. Posted in: female vocalist, acoustic, folktronica, world music

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]>

Visit Indie Shuffle to download.

Sounds like: Bebel Gilberto, Ceu, Ottmar Liebert, Devendra Banhart

Song: Cibelle - Frankenstein [download here]

Though taking an autumn stroll down a cobblestone lane in old world Europe may have been Cibelle Cavalli‘s inspiration for the song “London London” on her genre-bending album The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves, the song takes on a much larger life in its execution, weaving a delightful cacophony of electronic blips, bleeps, and whirs around a Brazilian acoustic guitar and the wonderful chemistry between Cibelle and Devendra Banhart.

Just when you’re settling into Cibelle’s sensuous bossa nova vocals, Banhart gently steps in with the sophisticated swagger of Johnny Depp meets Michael Bublé.  The playful song builds up with increasing echo delays and eventually disintegrates as if to say that not even this magical song can sustain such an idealized vision of city life longer than four minutes.

Cibelle obliquely asks: “Which is more alien in this song, the flying saucers in the sky or the urbanites hurrying by peacefully?”  If the extraterrestrials sing and write like Cibelle and Banhart, beam me up, por favor.

This post was originally published on blog.boyfriendacademy.com.

1. Original post: Cibelle – The Shine of Dried Electric Leaves

2. Posted in: female vocalist, acoustic, folktronica, world music

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/cibelle-the-shine-of-dried-electric-leaves/feed/ 7 http://www.indieshuffle.com/cougar-law/ http://www.indieshuffle.com/cougar-law/#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:17:30 +0000 Tony Smith http://www.indieshuffle.com/?p=10043

Visit Indie Shuffle to download.

Sounds like: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Don Caballero, The Mars Volta

Song: Cougar - Strict Scrutiny (Guerz Refix) [download here]

If the song “Pulse Conditioner” were a screenplay, here’s the elevator pitch: Short and sparse percussive intro leads into a deep groove.  The crescendo climbs, then retreats; guitar melodies gradually build up in layers over a steady beat, then retreat again. The stroking percussion from the intro returns and then finally, like the tension released from tectonic plates, the song splashes into pure electronica-latin-trip-hop-rock bliss.

A synth string on top of a solid bass foundation take the forefront as the groove locks into place and the rhythm percussion explodes all around like artillery in stereo. It feels so good you don’t want it to end, but it must, and abruptly everything falls silent… leaving the last bass note humming alone, a solo sine wave, the receding tide.

This is Cougar, a group of young and talented gents from Madison, Wisconsin.  And this is only their debut album.

This post was originally published on blog.boyfriendacademy.com.

1. Original post: Cougar – Law

2. Posted in: instrumental, post-rock, the books

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]>

Visit Indie Shuffle to download.

Sounds like: Godspeed You Black Emperor, Don Caballero, The Mars Volta

Song: Cougar - Strict Scrutiny (Guerz Refix) [download here]

If the song “Pulse Conditioner” were a screenplay, here’s the elevator pitch: Short and sparse percussive intro leads into a deep groove.  The crescendo climbs, then retreats; guitar melodies gradually build up in layers over a steady beat, then retreat again. The stroking percussion from the intro returns and then finally, like the tension released from tectonic plates, the song splashes into pure electronica-latin-trip-hop-rock bliss.

A synth string on top of a solid bass foundation take the forefront as the groove locks into place and the rhythm percussion explodes all around like artillery in stereo. It feels so good you don’t want it to end, but it must, and abruptly everything falls silent… leaving the last bass note humming alone, a solo sine wave, the receding tide.

This is Cougar, a group of young and talented gents from Madison, Wisconsin.  And this is only their debut album.

This post was originally published on blog.boyfriendacademy.com.

1. Original post: Cougar – Law

2. Posted in: instrumental, post-rock, the books

3. Find more music on Indie Shuffle's Indie Music Blog. ]]> http://www.indieshuffle.com/cougar-law/feed/ 3