new music: Five Foot Nine
not feeling so hot again this morning. so what am i going to give you guys? a nice, heavy dose of folky-power-pop-rock, brought to you by a lovely debut artist five foot nine. their representation and image are pretty different from how they end up sounding, so this isn't a case of being able to look at The Little Ones's Sing Song EP and know immediately that they have to sound at least a little like The Shins. as for their band name, i don't know if they know it, but there's an Urban Dictionary entry on it. apparently it's the ideal male height.

the best comparisons i can make to their music are The New Pornographers and, occasionally, this sort of Lennon-wrote-this-one Beatles feel. certainly their best moments are when they stick to this sound, making the first half of the album infinitely better than the second, where they become a little experimental with keyboards ("Jardin Du Luxembourg") and heavy country ("Sugar"). best of all, by far, is when they keep rock their central concern, playing with power-pop tempos (heavy Pornographers) or highlighting boy/girl vocals in a flawlessly-integrated folky feel, like on their single, "Back To The Tunnels." they manage to weave a feeling of importance and earnestness into a compostition which clearly demonstrates, above all, how much frickin' fun they're having. Five Foot Nine works so well because they work so well with each other, showing off a kind of family-ish aspect which comes clear in every track. always willing to try something new -- be it sitar, cowbell, heavy steel, trumpets, synths -- their debut has a little something for everyone.

::::today was such a good day for alt-country folky pop stuff.
five foot nine - Back To The Tunnels
five foot nine - Where Am I?

please, go say hello to them at their myspace, dance around your home singing, and be really, really cheery today. it's friday.  shan  8:03 AM  |  view comments (0)