My indie music extravaganza continues on Emusic.  Here are a couple more standouts.

fun.

Yes, that is the name of this band, complete with the period at the end and a lowercase f.  Nothing says indie band like punctuation in the name.  And nothing says 70’s nostalgia throwback like a 7:51 minute song with melodic choruses and instrumental breaks and anthemic interludes and piano accompaniment.  Take Your Time (Coming Home) is an epic homage to the lighter side of classic rock, evoking Queen, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison and others in such an enjoyable way that I actually feel like I’m listening to an incredibly satisfying final track on a rock opera LP on the inadequate turntable in my childhood bedroom.  (And for the record, that’s even more impressive since I was never really a big fan of 70s rock even in the 80s when it was still relatively new.)  But that’s skipping way ahead.  The album, Aim and Ignite, opens with Be Calm.  This is also a mishmash of influences.  It starts with strings that echo Pachelbel’s Canon (really) and then turns into Eleanor Rigby before finally morphing into the Dresden Dolls (and some Ben Folds thrown in for good measure).  Yup, it’s that odd — and that mesmerizing.  Between these most interesting bookends, you’ll find eight more solid tracks of mix-and-match rock.  I Wanna Be The One is ska-tinged Joe Jackson.  At Least I’m Not As Sad (As I Used To Be) takes a little piano from Billy Joel, the horns from old Chicago, a vocal melody from The Jackson Five’s ABC and, here’s where I thought I had lost my mind, a touch of Harry Belafonte.  OK, there comes a point where making comparisons starts to get silly.  Particularly when I can layer them on as deep as with this album (and trust me these are just the beginning).  Most of all, however, these songs are just, yes I’m going to say it, fun.  I love it when a band that I’ve never heard of, not even in passing, turns out an album that I really enjoy.  If you’re looking for just one track to sample, grab the infectious All The Pretty Girls.  I’m not going to compare it to anything else despite the obvious nod to … oh never mind ….

Vampire Weekend

I spent a long time avoiding Vampire Weekend.  Unlike fun., Vampire Weekend seemed to be popping up everywhere a few months ago.  I had never heard any of their songs, yet they had enough buzz that I was pretty sure I didn’t like them.  (This happens to me sometimes, and then I need time to get some distance from the breathless fawning of the music press before I can give a band a chance, though once I do give the band a chance, I usually see what the fuss was about, such as with the Arcade Fire, and then I feel like a sheep, but a happy sheep listening to good music.)  So, with Vampire Weekend, I had pretty much decided to ignore them.  Then, I saw Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, which featured their song Ottoman prominently.  It’s a great song.  And time had passed.  So I downloaded their eponymous album.  Hello, my favorite new band (which is an often shifting target).  It is a little tough for me to find comparisons to make here.  Vampire Weekend has a truly unique sound.  It shouldn’t work.  Take the song One (Blake’s Got a New Face) — the title alone is a creepy sentiment.  If I was to consider the chorus uncharitably, I could describe it as, well, squalling.  And yet, it gets in your head and you want to walk around shouting, “Blake’s! Gotta new face!”  (Of course, the Bobby McFerrin vocal break in the middle is also cool — and that’s the last musical reference, I promise.)  Album highlights include Oxford Comma and I Stand Corrected, which both manage to bounce along amiably without feeling conventional or derivative.  And then there is M79, which appears to start out on a harpsichord.  You gotta love that.  Anyway, this album has me thinking that next time I see an overhyped band, I should jump on the bandwagon a bit sooner.