As much as I love sharing what I consider great music that many people may not know, I also love discovering great music that I'm certain hardly anyone knows. Because let's be honest: most of the artists that I listen to have been famous already, in some form, some place, or some time. Today, however, I'm excited to introduce a group of young musicians that are yet to be discovered outside their immediate circle. They are called Could Be Stars, which I'm kinda certain it's bound to happen sooner or later.
Thank You Hive!
It all started in the comment section of a post I recently published about Bob Dylan, where one of our Hive bloggers told me about her nephew, who is not only a talented singer and songwriter, but has his own band. So sure enough I checked them out. The obvious first recommendation was looking them up on Spotify, which I had to skip since I never bothered to sign up to it. Instead I went to Bandcamp, where I could listen to their tunes without having an account. I'm so glad I did! Over the following days I found myself going back to that page, just so I could hear their tunes again, so it was only a matter of time before I actually bought one of their albums, something I haven't done in many years...
Teenage, Garage, a Bit Raw, but Full of Passion
So first of all, I should mention that I don't know anything about this group, except for what my fellow blogger told me. It's a teenage band with a good amount of original material. Nice! According to the info on Bandcamp about Everything I Love, the album I purchased, I deduced the main artist behind their music is Asher Benson, who is credited with guitar, vocals, bass, even drums on the bonus tracks, as well as production, writing, and recording.
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The tags describing the music are alternative, alt rock, indie rock all of which could mean a whole range of things. Clearly, they are from Australia, and apparently it is music for, of, and by cool people which I simply love, ambiguous as it may be. In my words I would describe their music as soft and dreamy, but with rough torn edges. Melancholy but unpolished, rooted firmly in the ground. (Yeah, I know, I'm being not any less ambiguous!) And now I'm going to risk walking on pretty thin ice, by trying to relate it to whatever skewed impressions my own mind came up with. And I can already see the rolling eyes, so please forgive my imperfect comparisons!
A Strong Reminder of my own Teenage Musical Taste
When I was sixteen and someone asked me about my favorite music, I would respond Nirvana without thinking. Not surprisingly, Kurt Cobain had killed himself a couple of years before, and his music seemed to be more present than ever before. However, it was by far not the only music I liked. The Smashing Pumpkins were also high up there, as was Weezer, which in time managed to conquer a much more special place in my heart. Listening to Could Be Stars I was reminded of all these bands, along with maybe a bit of Beirut and Neutral Milk Hotel, though by the time those two groups appeared on my musical radar, my teenage years were long behind me. Oh, and then there was another band that came up in my memory, one that I had actually almost forgotten: It's also an alternative rock group from Australia called Silverchair.
And ... of course that's not all. There is this certain something I can feel, but can't place my finger upon. But I'm sure I'll remember right away once someone points it out to me. Sure, this can be a convenient excuse for completely misplacing the style of the sound of this great group. So please don't hesitate with your criticism. After a productive back and forth with sufficient listeners we may be able to collectively describe what Could be Stars actually sounds like, and hopefully spread their fame a bit more... if that's what the band members actually want.
Three Tunes to Share
So for this week's #ThreeTuneTuesday challenge, I decided to share the music of Could be Stars. Most of their music (three albums, plus some singles, demos and covers) can be found on Bandcamp and Spotify, but there are a few on YouTube as well. Just enough to give you a nice impression, and satisfy the three tunes for the challenge. By the way, #TTT seems to be alive and well, as I can tell by the most recent prompt post. Thanks to 