Support Your Local Unsigned Band

Sixeyes is the Canadian music/MP3 weblog of Alan Williamson headquartered in or around -- I am guessing here from circumstantial evidence -- Toronto.   From that distant outpost, however, comes news of top quality popular music sprouting right here in Los Angeles.

Thanks to Sixeyes' glowing review, and the accompanying MP3 downloads, I was induced to procure The Dutchman's Gold, a 7-song EP from unsigned Angeleno band, The Brokedown.  I am (to paraphrase Babar the elephant) well satisfied with this purchase.  The EP is pure pleasure from its Peter-Max-meets-the-Roadrunner cover art to the lingering steel guitar at the end of the final song.

Alan Williamson's review sums it up musically as "kind of like the early seventies California vibe of The Eagles, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Jackson Browne, and Neil Young crossed with The New Pornographers."  Those are good reference points -- although The Brokedown do not suffer from the Overweening Sense of Their Own Importance that afflicts, particularly, the Eagles.  Influences and echoes of 40 years of pop craft are evident throughout these tunes: Badfinger meets Wilco meets Joe Jackson meets The Cars with a dash of Merseybeat and a recurrent frosting of "Surrender"-era Cheap Trick, and those are just the first few reference points that spring to mind.  The band exudes confidence, enthusiasm and skill throughout the proceedings, which end much too soon. 

Will The Brokedown change your life?  It will not.  And isn't it about time you admitted you are a bit old to have your life changed by a band, f'revvinssake?

Will The Brokedown inject a refreshing blast of joy into a long day or a lazy afternoon?  It most certainly will, and what more can you wish from the power of pop?

Heartily recommended, and obtainable directly from the band here.

~~~

For Further Reading: Earlier in the year, Fenster Moop waxed all enthusiastic over the power pop genre for the benefit of his fellow Blowhards: "The way I see it, power pop is less a genre than a thread, a continuous line that runs between some of the most playful and spirited music of the past thirty or so years."  The Brokedown mingles well in that illustrious company.

Comments

[Cowtown Pattie]

I was in a Browne mood the other day, but tomorrow I may be a'choosin' Green...my music tastes are as varied as the ozone layer in downtown Cowtown in early August.

Thanks for the link, these guys are pretty good!