Plus/Minus - Let's Build a Fire (2006)

Plus/Minus (aka +/-) is a New York City-based indie-pop trio who surprised me with their great song "Leap Year" that was playing last night in the underground/indie internet-based radio Soma.fm. Their third album - Let's Build a Fire - presents an energetic and inventive set that combines melodic rock with carefully placed electronic touches and occasional stabs of noise (listen the propulsive "Steal the Blueprints"). Both in vocals and overall sound, the ensemble bears notable similarities to the Postal Service, but its guitar-based approach gives Plus/Minus an invitingly warm, fuzzed-out edge.
Grade: A+

Check these other ones:
+ Steal the Blueprints

+ Summer Dress 2 (iodine)

+ Time & Space

++ Myspace Website

Gregg Alexander - Michigan Rain (1989)

This is a SUPER rare CD... From 1989, released by A&M Records, here's "Michigan Rain" by the New Radicals wunderkid Gregg Alexander. Thanks to Gregg's community on Orkut.
+ Check it out!
+ The missing song - Sinner Times Ten

Cosmotone - Cosmotone

In my humble opinion, a good song always gets me for its melody rather than the lyrics. If anything, that's the first impression that "register". Whereas for other ones, music+lyrics share the same importance, for me a good melodic line, or a good riff that sticks out "pays off" the value of a good song.

Cosmotone is a band from my hometown - Fortaleza, Brazil - that I just got introduced by its own bassist - Fabricio Alves - who I recently met and... boy... what a surprise!

Their self-titled debut album (independent release) is full of great pop songs with well-thought arrangements that bring a solid musical consistency throughout the album... The lyrics are permeated of stories about broken relationships, loneliness, uncertainty, forgiveness. Feelings that certainly all of us have once experienced. But perhaps here is where I think they can expand more in a future album - creating a broader palette of themes to match the beautiful of songs they crafted so well in this CD.
Congrats Fabricio and his band for putting out such a great work which impressed me for the quality of its melodic "hooks" - which kept playing over and over in my head...

Grade: A+

+ Lembrança
+ Vazio Lugar

+ Não Faz Mal
+ Todas as Armas

++ MySpace Website

David Gray - The EP's 92-94

Like most of his work pre-White Ladder, Gray's approach here is sparser, often featuring only voice and guitar, and even more akin to the naked poetry of folk soulmates like Van Morrison. Birds Without Wings is just phenomenal!
+ Check it out

VA - Anyone Can Play Radiohead: a Tribute to Radiohead (2001)

1. Fitter Happier - Silent Gray

2. No Surprises - Paige

3. Creep - Aleister Einstein

4. Fake Plastic Trees - October Hill

5. Stop Whispering - Dotfash

6. Exit Music (For A Film) - Miranda Sex Garden

7. Planet Telex - Secret Society

8. Karma Police - Dragon Style

9. Climbing Up The Walls - Diva Destruction

10. Everything In Its Right Place - Meegs

11. Subterranean Homesick Alien - The Illuminati

12. Bulletproof, I Wish I Was - P.M. Project

13. How To Disappear Completely - Lunasect

This compilation brings the best tracks of Pablo Honey, The Bends and the classic OK Computer. Although no big names here, these college/indie bands do deserve some credit for making a very consistent CD overall.
Grade: B+
+ Check it out here