Monday Morning Music Shuflle – Gift Horse Mouth Mix

I hope you had a great Record Store Day and got out and supported your local brick and mortar record emporium.  It was a cold, kind of dreary day in Nashville.  Grimey’s New and Pre-loved Music had their annual shin-dig.  I provide a full review of my experience, but suffice it to say everyone seemed to be having a great time.

This year, Ear to the Ground had our own unofficial RSD release in the form of a 14 song compilation available as a free download.  I will be adding the download to the sidebar, but until then, here is the link.

Today’s (Random) Shuffle is from the compilation and includes some of the hardest rocking songs on the compilation. 

 2011 Band of the Year, The Mobbs are represented by the stand out track, Better the Devil You Know from It’s…the Mobbs.

 

Angry Bird expert, Adam Bird and company, Those Mockingbirds are up next with Coast to Coast – a hard rocking track from the band’s Fa Sol La album.

 

Brooklyn New York duo, The End Men are up next with the title track off their brilliant EP called Build It Up.  

And finally, December Band of the Month, In Cages are up with Queen Bee   from their debut The Hillsdale EP. Grab the full album here.

We’ll have more on this compilation in the days to come.  Enjoy.  

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Affiliated Links:

In Cages – Our First Ever Band of the Month (December 2011)

Voting is now closed and In Cages staged an 11th hour rally to capture the title of Band of the Month.  All these bands are great so no matter who you voted for or even if you didn’t get to vote be sure to check out The Dead Exs, Jesse Payne and Spencer Walters.

But hats off to In Cages.  Here’s some tunes.  The band will be celebrating their win on the 21st when they play The Loop Lounge in Passaic, NJ.  If you are in the area, check them out.

In Cages will now go one to compete in the Second Annual Band of the Year Competition which will take place in early December 2012.  Stay tuned.

http://cache.reverbnation.com/widgets/swf/40/pro_widget.swf?id=artist_2074947&posted_by=&skin_id=PWAS1005&background_color=EEEEEE&border_color=000000&auto_play=false&shuffle=false

Band of the Week: Year 2 Week 2 – In Cages

In Cages are based in New Jersey.  By my count that makes them the fourth New Jersey band in a row to earn a spot as Band of the Week.  Coincidence or self-fulfilling prophesy or something else… Don’t know, but by my way of thinking New Jersey seems to have a burgeoning music scene.  Those Mockingbirds, Don Ryan, Dead Exs and now In Cages, and those are just the ones I have become aware of so far. 


About In Cages, well a few days ago we recommended them in our first ever Ear to the Ground Recommends post. 


Musically, they are play hard rock with an alternative edge and the unique sound of the cello. Dirty Water has a grungy quality. Although they are a relatively new band, the members are all experienced players and that fact comes across in the tight sound and strong vocals. Queen Bee has a sweet cello solo.  Listen for yourself below.


What we can gather about the band from their official bio:


James Mercer is a wooden puppet whose played music in the Southeast, New Orleans, and a New York.  His goal is to be a real boy.  He plays the guitar.


Filomena Jack plays a super bad-ass 5-string cello, like cartoons and learned the cello to get out of gym class.  


Lionnel Mascarenhas (vox and bass) may or may not have a long-held interest musically 


musical music.  




Chris Trempath plays Bang-n-Play drums from K-Mart…wait, no he makes his own drums 


out of paint cans and such or something like that… He also sings.




Oh and I think maybe someone named William Blake may or may not be associated with 


the band in some way.  Your just going to have to check them out for yourself.

To get you started here are some songs:

http://cache.reverbnation.com/widgets/swf/19/tuneWidget.swf?twID=artist_2074947&shuffle=&autoPlay=false&blogBuzz=buzz

Here’s how to find them:  Website, Facebook, Twitter (new), MySpace and ReverbNation

Scatterlings – Ear to the Ground Recommends

Since I started this blog back in May, I’ve offered up a Band of the Week post. Basically, there have been one maybe two bands that have come to my attention weekly who really stood out. If two, it hasn’t been a big deal to feature one band one week and another the next.  Due to the recent (gratifying) attention we’ve gotten, the number of worthwhile bands/artists has increased. As is my want, I’ve been obsessing over how to feature more music without either diluting the impact of the Band of the Week designation or seeming to imply that a featured band is less than worthy to be Band of the Week.
I finally decided to introduce a new feature called Ear to the Ground recommends.  In this space, which will be run on an as needed basis, I will introduce some great bands and artists to Ear to the Ground readers.  I will still run a weekly Band of the Week feature and any or all of the recommended bands could be named Band of the Week either in the same week they were recommended or afterwards.
Okay – after way too much exposition, I proudly present the first of many Ear to the Ground Recommends:

In Cages is a new band featuring veteren New York musician James Mercer.  In Cages plays alternative rock, and features the stock rock and roll line-up for guitar, bass, drums and cello. Great sound. They have three songs out which you can listen to here: http://cache.reverbnation.com/widgets/swf/40/pro_widget.swf?id=artist_2074947&posted_by=&skin_id=PWAS1005&background_color=EEEEEE&border_color=000000&auto_play=false&shuffle=false
Carly Maicher is a Canadian singer/songwriter who hails from Manitoba, but can currently be found hiding in New Brunswick.  She has a brand new album out which features a beautifully, unique voice and some great songs.  It’s called Hiding – take a listen: 

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=1522663695/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

 Jesse Payne is plays real music and hails from Birmingham, Alabama. Here you can check out his latest release called Buffalo:

http://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/v=2/album=3059097780/size=venti/bgcol=FFFFFF/linkcol=4285BB/

Last up for this post – Dan Banks is a singer/songwriter. In his music I hear strong songwriting and a smooth sound.  He’s recently relocated to Nashville via SW Florida. And, he’s got a sampler you can pick up via Noisetrade:
http://noisetrade.com/service/sharewidget/?id=bd16ea05-0bb5-4967-bb41-301e9f1cf93f
So that’s it for now, check out these artists and stay tuned for more to come.
Remember, if you keep both feet firmly planted on the ground, you will find it next to impossible to put your pants on.