New Music: Novillero + The Consumer Goods

Thanks to Trent for hooking me up with these two bands. Novillero and The Consumer Goods are from Winnipeg, Manitoba, and both are relatively unknown. Novillero is very upbeat, and features plenty of piano. I definitely see similarities between them and Spoon, as Rod Slaughter (lead vocalist for Novillero) has a voice quite like Britt Daniel and the harmonies are very much like Spoon's. "Hypothesist", my favorite single off of Novillero's 2005 release, Aim Right for the Holes in Their Lives, has a very upbeat dirty rock club feel. It's the kind of music I want to dance to in a poorly lit club while drinking a shitty beer at 3am. Not to mention the fact that at around the 2 minute point of the song, there is a clapping bridge. Nothing is more danceable than claps. The fast-paced guitars and claps of "Hypothesist" are traded in for melodious piano lines and smoky vocals on the groups second single "Aptitude", though the dirty guitars return for the climax of the song, which builds up quite nicely. I know I haven't really written a bad review for any group yet (Note: I'm too afraid to) but believe me, these guys are actually worth a listen. You can choose whether or not you like them, but I think you should at least give them a try. Novillero - Hypothesist [download or die] Novillero - Aptitude Check their website and be their myspace friend. The Consumer Goods are another group that my boy Trent introduced me to. I haven't given them a good long listen, but after hearing their four tracks available for download on myspace and reading their biography, I'm excited to sit down and have a real listen. According to their bio, The Consumer Goods can be described as: "Against a backdrop of shimmering, jangling and sometimes raging guitars and lush, full keys and rhythms, Shipley's vocals range from rich, smoky textures to soaring, powerful melodies and demonstrate the wide variety of emotions that are depicted in this musical call-to-arms." As my good friend Derek would say, color me intrigued. I recommend "Babylong Song" and "Revolution", in my opinion their two strongest tracks. Since they made their songs available for download on their myspace, and since we are running out of room on our ezarchive, I am not posting songs, but here is the link to their myspace page where you can grab all the songs. Also, I will be out of town starting tommorow (Tuesday) until the 14th (next Monday). I'm visiting my ladyfriend Claire and adorkable GWFAS mastermind Derek in Martha's Vineyard. Look for some updates from Adrian, and pray that Austin, Alex, Ryan, or Everett gets their damn shit together and writes SOMETHING. I might be able to get in an update from the Vineyard, but if not, then goodbye for a week. I'll miss you all dearly. -Zack