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The origins of the Blakes are rooted somewhere in the backwoods of central Maine, where in the latter half of the nineties Garnet Keim and his younger brother Snow acted upon a shared ambition to deviate from their seemingly inevitable fates as lifelong paper mill employees (or something of that nature), and try their hands at music. In fact, they had been raised in a fairly musical environment by a family best categorized as true swamp Yankees, and were taught how to harmonize with the Everlys at sing-a-longs from childhood onwards. At some point during adolescence they taught themselves how to write simple little garage rock songs on guitar and bass, and they eventually gigged around bars in Maine with a drummer. In an early display of the Keims' notable brotherly symbiosis, Snow - upon graduation from high school - convinced Garnet to drop out of University of Maine Farmington a year from his degree and follow him to Kansas City, where they hoped to expand upon their (grossly naïve) musical ambitions in a larger market. Unfortunately, they never got off the ground in KC, although they did manage to further hone their songwriting skills in between tokes of ditch weed and stints as human guinea pigs for experimental pharmaceuticals.
Getting nowhere in the Midwest, the brothers accepted an offer from Phil Collins' son Simon – who was dating their cousin Elvira – to record with him at his home studio in British Columbia. Much partying and a few recordings of a pop-electronic variety ensued, but the Keims were eventually forced to leave Canada when they proved unable to obtain work visas.

Tomorrow Tomorrow is a new project centered around singer Meredith DiMenna, who recently made waves as featured vocalist on "Legend in My Own Mind" by The Stepkids (http://youtu.be/B3ahYMQA8TY). The music on their upcoming debut album, GENTLEMEN GO, is a swelling, organ-drenched time capsule of '60s studio craftsmanship, conjured up with Bridgeport based producer Chris Sanchez of Gold Coast Recorders. Songs were carefully chosen from the catalogues of both DiMenna and Sanchez as well as some of their songwriting friends and peers. The result is a riveting collection of psychedelic-country-torch songs: everything from the Jack White-era Loretta Lynn of "Bible Code" to the avant-gospel of "Can't See My Sun" and the death-blues of "Grey Haired Girl". The album features appearances from members of The Stepkids, Mates of State, The Fever, The Shivers, Moonraker, and Caravan of Thieves.

It also achieves the seemingly impossible, stretching the chameleonic DiMenna vocally from primitive warbler to beguiling torch songstress.

Bend Sinister is a rock band from Vancouver and consists of Dan Moxon (Vocals/Keys/Guitar), Joseph Blood (Guitars), Jason Dana (Drums/Percussion) and Joel Myers (Bass).

Thursday, February 26, 2009. 10am: Ryan McNally and Kyle Cashen sit in a fort made of cardboard boxes, scrap lumber, thrift store bed sheets and chicken-wire. Among the second-hand lamps, rugs, and video game consoles the two have come together for an art exhibition about the dark days of winter. The theme resonates with everyone who experiences the chill of winter in Canada, but is particularly poignant in the band’s birthplace of Whitehorse, Yukon.

Old Time Machine started here as the art-show contribution of a bluesman and a bedroom-musician. The unlikely duo works to blend McNally’s studies of finger style traditional blues with Cashen's experience crafting ethereal soundscapes to create familiar but distinctly original music.

Their work started when Ryan put forward a handful of songs departing from his solo writing. Kyle eagerly filled spaces with reverb-soaked vocals and backbeats. With a handful of songs and a mountain of stringed instruments, analog machines and effects, drums, and mics, between them, McNally and Cashen began combining traditional sounding folk structures with ghostly harmonies and vintage electronics.

The Oats are an indie rock band, formed in 2008. The band consists of Andrés Mora (Guitar & Vocals), Alfonso Rodríguez (Bass), Oscar Brena(Drums) and Armando Vega (Guitar & Vocals). Via Myspace they released some songs that caught the attention of their producer arm4ndo (Niña, Quiero Club, Chicote).
Together they just have finished the recording of their first EP titled "Smokin Smokings". It was recorded in Mexico by arm4ndo, mixed in Los Angeles by Carlos Castro and arm4ndo (Molotov, Brian "Head" Welch) and mastered in New York by Howie Weinberg (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins) in 2010.
Listening to The Oats you can clearly hear their influences, such as The Libertines, Arctic Monkeys, Blur, Kasabian and Travis, for example.

A few things you need to know about Jason Brody, the mind and voice behind At Sea: He’s a native New Yorker who everyone assumes is from California. He spent years battling stage fright (though now you’d never know it). And he once killed himself to make better music—figuratively. More on that in a minute.

All of those aspects, and many more, play a role in At Sea. Listening to the Brooklyn band, you’ll hear both the familiar and the unexpected. It’s melodic, equal parts moody electronics and big guitars, with lyrics both personal and quietly political. The music conjures up everyone from the likes of Jeff Buckley to Doves to Death Cab for Cutie, without really sounding like any of them.

“I like the idea of songs having a lot of dynamics,” says Brody, At Sea’s songwriter and frontman. “These songs have peaks and valleys, and they rise and fall on their own. I think there’s a dramatic vibe to the music that people will respond to.

The name “At Sea” implies an ongoing journey. Brody’s trek, like his music, has its own dynamic twists and turns. The son of two deaf parents, Brody spent his youth taking piano lessons foisted on him by his grandmother. In his teens, he insisted on switching to the guitar. He also started sneaking into New York clubs, dramatically redefining and expanding his musical palette. Early on, he battled acute stage fright, even when fronting a band in high school (he refused to sing in public—a condition he now admits he’s dealt with, to which any recent live At Sea show can attest). But by 18, he was playing guitar in an experimental noise band.

“That was weird,” he says. “I naturally gravitate toward melody, but I really wanted to be challenged and taken out of my comfort zone.”

Still, after deciding he “didn’t want to be a guitarist in another person’s band,” Brody went solo. As a “singer-songwriter,” (a term that continues to baffle him) he released a record under his own name and developed a local following, earning more than a few (appropriate) Jeff Buckley comparisons. But the singer found his success musically limiting. “I was getting inspired by things like The Postal Service, Muse, and even The Shins, and I wanted to add electronic elements and a little rock ’n’ roll swagger to my sound,” he explains. “But you hear ‘guitar-playing male singer-songwriter,’ and right away you have a preconceived idea about what that entails.” His solution? “Kill” his persona and rename his project The Death of Jason Brody. It was a clever idea, but ultimately too confusing for both him and his audience. Thus, At Sea was born.

While still part of his ongoing musical quest, At Sea finds Brody both finding his voice and exploring new sounds—and also solidifying a strong new lineup, one that now includes Berklee alum and ex-Phenomenal Handclap Band bassist Pier Paolo Pappalardo, and Italian-born drummer Stefano Baldasseroni, who has toured the world many times over, playing with The Grandmothers, (successor to Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention), the renowned actor Giancarlo Giannini, and many others. Tracks like “Everything Looks Better in the Dark” amp up the guitars and tempo, while “They Won’t Find Us (Panic Room)” (which the singer literally wrote while taking the train over the Williamsburg Bridge) explores the singer’s new fascination with synths and keyboards. “I think we toe the line between the familiar—in a nice way—and stepping into other textures,” Brody says.

Lyrically, the songs feature an apocalyptic undertone, inspired by the recent spate of natural disasters, the Occupy Wall Street movement (on tracks like “A New Machine”), and the continued whitewashing of New York’s culture. It’s Brody’s attempt to inject a little substance into the modern musical climate. “Now there's so much music out there and it’s so easy to get to,” he says. “But it’s also easy to forget that any music we make and listen to was inspired by music that was made from a more political and reactionary point of view. There was an intent behind it all that’s no longer there.”

Interestingly, At Sea sometimes finds itself at odds with its own hometown. “People hear us and think we’re from the West Coast. We’re sort of outsiders in the ‘scene’ here, at least as far as finding like-minded bands or music venues,” Brody admits. “I remember the last time we played at one of our favorite regular venues in Brooklyn, we played before an instrumental-only band wearing Chinese rice-picking hats that rocked out on keytars. That’s really not our thing/vibe at all.”

“But that’s ok,” he adds. “If there’s anything I’ve learned, there’s room for everyone here. You just have to chart your own course.”