Quick Before it Melts

Wednesday 25 February 2009

I’m not foolin’

When I look back on the posts so far this yer, it strikes me that so many of them have been about already established artists.  There haven’t been too many new artists in the bunch, but that’s about to change when I introduce you to North Elementary from Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  I’m all for down-home, unassuming pop that rocks.  North Elementary have that in spades; their songs are bursting with delicious hooks and infectious melodies, but the real treat is the way the band creates a sonic palette that goes beyond just guitars, bass, and drums.  At the start of “Decade Stylin” there’s an odd little toy keyboard riff that unexpectedly leads to a power pop jam.  On paper it doesn’t sound like it should work but it’s these endearing little moments that make raise North Elementary above the fray of their like-minded contemporaries.

John Harrison is the principal songwriter in the band, that actually isn’t all that new.  Harrison has been writing and recording music on his own since the early 90s and was part of The Comas up until 2002 when he turned his attention to those early recording experiments.  North Elementray have been releasing albums and singles that have flown under my radar, at least, until now.  There new album, Not For Everyone, Just For You, came out this week on Eskimo Kiss Records, after sitting collecting dust for two years, according to their press release.  Harrison says that the songs on this album are “80 percent of what I hear in my head, which in the music world is like 100 percent.”  You can’t ask for much better than that, can you?

MP3: North Elementary “Decade Stylin”
MP3: North Elementary “Golden Tigers”
Video: North Elementary “Golden Tigers”
Myspace: North Elementary

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by J. Di Gioia | Comments Off

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.