has to be THE NITS! I have only found the band recently via. music writer Chris Evans. Not only do the NITS have everything I look for in a musical aggregation but by the time I discovered them they had quite an catalog to drew upon. You know how it is when you find a new favorite but they aren't a new artist and you don't have to wait a couple years before their next release to meet your fix. NITS have been together for over 30 Years and have nearly 20 releases. They are a Dutch band who have always sung in English but somehow only two of their great albums have ever been released in the US or UK !
amassed nearly half of their releases over the past few months (thank god for the internet & the nitsshop site). Remember nothing is ever easy and you won't find any of their stuff in any of the US record stores. The best place to start investigating is a 3 CD 2000 NITS-HITS collection which is a very afordable career retrospective {the 3rd Live CD is a freeby}. As previously stated the groups sound is Very Hard to pigeon hole but the are very strong on vocals & musicianship. Primary lead singer/writer Henk has a very durable, appealing voice & stage presents. Another thing that I realise appeals to me & instrumental to their sound is that Kloet is more a percussionist than the standard drummer. Besides the fact that there are so many releases, it is difficult to recomend one album over another because the each have their points of interest and each sounds so different. The earliest albums were more in the post-new wave area, but by
1983's OMSK, the group adopted a more mature completely original aproach. 1987's IN THE DUTCH MT.
was thei biggest seller and 90's GIANT NORMAL DWARF also featured some great tunes. By 92's TING the paired down membership began experimenting even more, this time using primarily only piano & percussion. The group has also experimented with classical music on (discontinued) HJUVI album and Henk also released a very tasty solo album HET DRAAGBARE HUIS {the portable house}, a soundtrack composition for a video installation. It is the first album actually sung in Dutch and it doesn't manner a bit, the songs are so well done. If you like your music a bit softer (somewhat simular to the Alluminum Group) you would love the WOOL 2002 release. 2005 will see a new release which advance reviews has been very good. I am so glad to have been recently introduced to this group, they are a group which has never bowed down to record companies demands for comerciality, and just enjoy making the music they like with a very high quality sound since they & their engineer Paul Telmen control all output from the studio. If you want to read more ,I would greatly suggest checking out their site nits.nl or Chris Evans reviews at allmusic .
MYTH SOCIETY
www.myspace.com/greatlakesmythsociety
I had the pleasure of meeting and hearing
this great band live February 2006 in NYC and look forward to the next show ! The band is something of a Michigan super group. Many of the members had previously assembled as a group called
The Original Brothers & Sisters of Love & released 2 albums in the late 90's. The
nucleus of the band; Tim & James Monger (vocals, guitars), Scott McClintock (bass,
vox), Greg McIntosh (guitar, vox) and Fido
Kennington (drums,vox) reassembled as
GLMS {yes the groups seem to have a tendency for long band names}.
first is the fact that they are very good musicans and vocalists {they all sing & each can play a multitude of instruments}, second- their many musical influence blend, their alternating lead vocals & blend, extremely well crafted & arranged material, and maybe as import-ant - they seem to really enjoy playing together ! Their eponymous debut album was very well received & re-
viewed, but had very poor distribution. Luckly the band
has recently signed to a new enthusiastic label Quack!
Media, who seem to know how to work w/ true tallent!
The band is presently recording their second album due in 2007, and if the first album is any indication -
the next album should be amazing !
[the photo of me w/ GLMS is due to flash & photoshop mishap
my beard is not that Grey & Fido isn't that drunk ]
