Promote This: Crater, The Furious Seasons & The Vatican Space Program
Promote This is a long-running NadaMucho.com feature wherein we write about songs and videos by emerging and unsigned bands. This installment includes Seattle buzzband Crater (pictured above); LA Folk Rockers The Furious Seasons; and The Vatican Space Program, a soft rock group from Helsinki.
Crater – “Crater Head” / “Brew”
Seattle duo Crater makes curious electro-pop with echoed female vocals and slightly industrial rhythms. This is some catchy and interesting stuff in their song “Crater Head.” Unfortunately, it kind of fades into the background when it fails to evolve into something more. “Brew” creates more interest, thanks to the gritty, fuzzy, slightly metallic beats. A beat-dropped bridge catches the ear, and Ceci Gomez’ vocals are strong, but not catchy enough to get a repeat play. Decent, interesting, dark pop with promise. – Abe Beeson
The Furious Seasons – “Understood” and “Fooled by the Bottle”
The Furious Seasons are a folk-rock band from Los Angeles, which also delves into Americana from time to time. The band is comprised of four magnanimous troubadours.
“Understood” is the single from the band’s latest LP and “Fooled By The Bottle” is a deeper cut. Both put forth strong compositional ideas and, stylistically, are very easy to like. They are the soundtrack to summertime dads in Hawaiian shirts and all their children in college. – Cameron Deuel
https://soundcloud.com/thefuriousseasons/understood
The Vatican Space Program – “I Need Some Rest” and “Houses”
At first, the Vatican Space Program doesn’t sound like it’s from this era. The band is more akin to the 90s bohemian coffeehouse scene, mostly due to the uniquely dated combination of zany singer-songwriter and unnecessarily ornate instrumentation. “I Need Some Rest (Before Too Long)” is the opening track to their latest record and is very basic and sweet. I get the sense the band has an affinity for vibing out to Dave Matthews Band and I mean that without irony whatsoever.
“Houses” is a bit more contemporary in that it could have been a product of the indie-folk boom that yielded The Lumineers’ strain of male-female vocal dynamic and long, sweeping lyrics about feeling forlorn and unfamiliar. It’s fine. – Cameron Deuel