LimeWire Music Blog

Looking for some new music? LimeWire Store recently teamed up with Seattle-based newspaper The Stranger to release a free mp3 sampler, showcasing Seattle’s hottest emerging bands. Eric Grandy, The Stranger’s music editor, handpicked his local favorites:

• Throw Me the Statue
• The Pica Beats
• Common Market
• Cancer Rising
• The Saturday Knights
• Truckasauras
• Sleepy Eyes of Death
• Past Lives
• Pleasureboaters

The free sampler is available for your downloading pleasure over at the LimeWire Store. Under the cut, you can read up on all of the featured bands.

Throw Me the Statue
“Throw Me the Statue started as Scott
Reitherman’s solo project, but has since grown into a five-piece band
boasting four-part harmonies, melodica, and glockenspiel on top of the
regular combo of guitars and drums. Their bright sound has hints of Of
Montreal, the Microphones, and the Promise Ring, and they’re fast
becoming known for energetic live shows where band members play musical
chairs—each taking a turn at various instruments throughout the set.”
(Eric Grandy, The Stranger)

The Pica Beats
“The Pica Beats accent their sweet, twee songs with prerecorded percussion and live sitar.” (Eric Grandy, The Stranger)

“Their
tight compositions of Neutral Milk Hotel–inspired orchestras are sure
to make you feel warm, even if they cater slightly to a more melancholy
state.” (Megan Seling, The Stranger)

Common Market
“For
Common Market, RA Scion’s lyrical delivery hangs and shuffles with an
even, clean, and weaving pentameter. The beats and raps pontificate on
and navigate through a hedge maze of political, religious, and
philosophical pleadings. Listening to enough Common Market could make
you do something like vote or study or read the paper or do good.”
(Trent Moorman, The Stranger)

Cancer Rising
“Featuring
DJ TilesOne and MCs Judas and Gatsby, the veteran crew spans the
spectrum of NW styles but keeps it cohesive. A little angry, a little
goofy, hard-rocking, deep-funking—Cancer Rising has one foot in the
scene’s roots and the other somewhere totally original.” (Jonathan
Zwickel, The Stranger)

The Saturday Knights
“The
Saturday Knights aren’t just any kinda hip hop act; they’re a party
band that specializes in hip hop, among other things. Combining banging
drum samples and big, loud riffs with garage rock trashiness and the
old-school desire to slam dunk the hooks, the group is loose enough to
get laughs and slick enough to slide between genres.” (Jennifer Maerz,
The Stranger)

Truckasauras
“Truckasauras craft
compelling yet playful techno tracks armed with an arsenal of
electronic noisemakers—vintage Roland drum machines, synthesizers, a
first-generation Game Boy. The band’s sense of humor comes through
during the live set when they perform in front of projections of
classic WWF matches and monster-truck rallies.” (Eric Grandy, The
Stranger)

Sleepy Eyes of Death
“Sleepy Eyes of Death
are as much a visual experience as they are an aural one. At live
shows, carefully placed spotlights fade in and out of glowing red,
blue, and yellow, while two smoke machines fill the room. The music
shifts from intense and chaotic to fluid and melodic—live drumming and
guitar pound through electronic atmospheres created by vintage analog
synths and rare vocoded vocals.” (Eric Grandy, The Stranger)

Past Lives
“Past
Lives excise the pomp and bombast of late period Blood Brothers to
reveal a lithe, rhythmically slithering postpunk animal.” (Eric Grandy,
The Stranger)

Pleasureboaters
“Though it might be
indefinable, their sound is certainly succinct. The songs feel too well
composed to be experimental and too in the moment to be at all planned.
Some carry a dance-heavy backbeat while others swing more loosely, and
they almost all have a moment of climax that reaches brain-blowing
proportions. Claudon’s bratty vocals bring the familiar bite of
Mclusky, but their rhythms are more chaotic than the defunct Welsh
band—the music is heavier and faster with a celebratory vibe that just
begs to be performed in front of a live audience.” (Megan Seling, The
Stranger)