The BLK JKS is a South African avant rock noise band. The band's founding members, childhood friends Linda Buthelezi and Mpumi Mcata, grew up in the same neighborhood in Johannesburg’s East Rand and taught themselves to play guitar after winning a guitar in a church choir contest.

In 2003, the duo officially put together a band. Now, some years later, their transcending, energized music is making the rounds thanks to the freshly-released Mystery EP. Other band members include Molefi Makananise and Tshepang Ramoba.



"Lakeside" - BLK JKS from Mystery EP

Check out BLK JKS cover of "Summertime"
BLK JKS on MySpace

Labels: 2009 Indie Bands

Catching up is hard to do. With so much stellar music coming out all the time, it's not easy to keep up with it all. So, let's do a bit of catch up on some worthwhile 2009 releases all this week.

Let's kick it off with an east coast band that more and more folks are tuning in and turning on to recently. Deleted Scenes is a fairly new discovery for me, and would be cross-referenced into the 'news to me' sub-category. I love 'discoveries' like this; and they happen all the time.

Deleted Scenes' sonic signature has been described as hazy, trippy and glazed. Indied. But as video from the BYT Sessions demonstrate, the band is diverse - here frontman Dan Scheuerman plays a "One Long Country Song" on the famous Washington, DC Metro red line to Shady Grove (ah, memories). Sure it's not the best sound quality, but it's interesting to see an acoustic performance during rush hour on the DC 'subway' (everyone calls it 'The Metro'). What do you think?




Comprised of band members from Washington, DC and Brooklyn, Deleted Scenes have been compared to bands like The Handsome Furs and Here We Go Magic and they attribute their influences to legends like Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground.

"Fake IDs" - Deleted Scenes from Birdseed Shirt (2009)
"Ithaca" - Deleted Scenes from Birdseed Shirt (2009)
Deleted Scenes official website
Deleted Scenes MySpace page

More new songs coming this week. But first, look for tomorrow's new playlist series feature called 'State of Mind', songs related to states of the United States - sort of taking Sufjan Stevens' brilliant, but apparently abandoned, idea of making an album about every state and doing an IRC version of it.

Note: Feed and email subscribers: You may see a duplicate of this posting due to some server issues. I apologize for the inconvenience.

Labels: 2009 Indie Bands, Deleted Scenes

A bit of a bizarre name for a modern pop rock duo, Pinstripes 45's (sounds more like some kind of barber shop quartet, huh?) from Nashville have a catchy melodic sound woven in layers of harmonies, hand clapping, acoustic guitar and accomplished vocal arrangements that lend influences to bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and artists like Bob Dylan.

The duo, comprised of multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter Marshall Hanbury Jr. and stand-up bassist Gina Black had the good fortune to work with producer Jacquire King whose resume includes Kings of Leon, Modest Mouse and Tom Waits. Songs from their forthcoming (date not provided) release include the pop ballad "I Don't Know What Hit Me", and the Neil Finn-sounding track "Living Times Like These."

"I Don't Know What Hit Me" - Pinstripe 45s
"Living Time Like These" - Pinstripe 45s

Pinstripe 45s on MySpace

Labels: 2009 Indie Bands