London based band The Cellophane Flowers comprises the collaboration between Francesca Corradini (vocals – guitar), Ian Sumner (guitar), Luca Napolitano (bass), Nick Guy (drums). Some have attempted to catalog the band’s unusual sound as “whimsy pop,” “psycho-pop,” and “avant-garde pop personified” – if you put a gun to our heads and forced us to draw comparisons, we might refer to early Sugarcubes, Cardigans, The Cure, Love and Rockets and Ida Maria, but the reason we chose to profile this act is because their sound was not easy to pin down and yet not so outre that we were not immediately infected by its appealing song structures and refreshing instrumentation.

Francesca Corradini’s voice is both charismatic and winsome (and perhaps therein lies the comparisons to that Icelandic breakout band). The guitar play has the serpentine atonality and yet anthemic throughline reminiscent of Pixies’ Joey Santiago, and the rhythm section thumps down iron anchor grooves that help this rock harder than typical Thursday night club fare.

Check out the video for the lead off single “If I Was Girl” below.

Francesca shared some highlights from the recording of the new album: “A highlight was playing with the toys in the studio – for [the song] Freeze  - me feeding a vintage Moog through analogue delay and phaser, writing the parts live as we recorded them, and then realising that as much as we loved the sound, we’d have to include the rest of the track on the recording.  Or charging back and forth at a theramin for Yes I Am, pretending to talk intelligently about when to time the “wooh wooh wah” sound and whether that should come before or after the sustained “weeehehehehe”.  Fra dancing with a robot mask on didn’t really help…”

When asked what motivates them, Francesca replied: “Because we all love music – indeed we look forward to dedicating our lives 100% to what we love the most (which translates in telling our bosses to f… off. Music is the only thing that keeps us alive.”

The band has just released its EP “If I Was A Girl” that can be found at Itunes, Amazon, Spotify and all the other major digital distribution channels.

Vital Links:
Cellophane Flowers at MySpace
The Cellophane Flowers Flickrstream

Listen now to “Yes I Am” by The Cellophane Flowers at MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

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Tags: avant pop, best music blog, Cellophane Flowers, indie artist profiles, indie music reviews, love and rockets, psycho pop, sugarcubes, The Cure, theremin music

Syrupy soundscapes, jazzy progressions and electro-influenced beats co-mingle to produce mellow and beautifully realized night music from Motown. Behind these atmospheric jams is long time composer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Utech.

MusicZeitgeist.com coaxed the following insights about the crafting of these recordings from the artist:

MusicZeitgeist: Who is Greg Utech?
I have been a musician for over 30 years in the Detroit area. Mostly on drums, but I can “mingle” with most any instrument. I have released three disc’s to date with my 4th CD due out in July. I appeared on Rick Matle’s CD “Ears Wide Shut.” Of course like most Musicians I have a “Day” job which just happens to be the best job in the world, a stay at home Dad to our first child Noah.

MZ: Where are you based? Has it influenced your output?

The “D”. Born and raised in Detroit. This part of our world seems to have a Vortex of creativity, From Motown to Madonna, and all the Jazz greats it has been a treat to call Michigan Home. The long winters foster a need to keep busy and I think this has a small part to do with the plethora of talent to come from this area.

MZ: Talk about influences on your sound

Jazz, Fusion. Artist I would call mentors include Stevie Wonder, Donald Fagen, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Joni Mitchell, Robbie Robertson, The Band, Pink Floyd, McCoy Tyner, Pharaoh Sanders, Jeff Beck, Bill Bruford, Tony Williams, Jack Dejonet, Elvin Jones, Fela Kuti, Peter Gabrial, Tereje Ripdal, Frank Zappa, Carlos Santana, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Pass, to name a few.

I worked in professional theater for 18 years at Meadow Brook Theater at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. From set design to writing the score for the 1993 production of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. This along with being around the right crowd inspired my artistic style, From being involved in over 120 professional Theatrical productions, and being a part of all of them, from Shakespeare to Ain’t misbehaving, I was exposed to some real creativity and different thought patterns that translate into my genre of music. Also a self taught abstract painter with over 30 major shows to date help play a major role in my tonal creations.

MZ: Tell us about your recording process.

Mostly from my modest studio at home I am able to create most of the rhythm and “beds” for each song, then it’s off to a more technicaly sound studio for all the final mixing and last minute solos. I produce all the tracks with some help from my friend Rick Matle who also plays most of the guitar on my CD’s. And of course when you are a one man show, it’s then time for laying out art work, song titles and order, copyrighting, duplication, and finally all the marketing involved, especially if you want to make at least $12.78 per year. But it is the love of the craft luckily and not the fame and fortune.

MZ: So what motivates you to keep making and releasing music in these changing times?

“Everything has been done before.”

It has to be fun to be somewhat unique in this world of soundalikes. The most memorable musical experience I have had was when Ralph Valdez, a DJ from WDET in Detroit, called and said he loved my 1st disc and would play it on his next show. We had a party that night and it felt as though a dream had come true.This event is realy what pushed me to continue on with endeavors. My music has also been aired on the Jon Moshier program, and “The Listening Room” with host Chris Felcyn. As well as KAOS FM in Olympia WA, Tomorrow Jazz, aTTeNTIoN sPaN raDIO, IPM.com, And reached the feature page on New Orleans Radio.com. With some generous reviews from, Joe Henry, Serge Kozlovsky, and a two-page spread in Acid Jazz Magazine by Sylvia Turin. Everyone has some “Big Break” if you believe in what your doing, and are not doing it for the money.

MZ: When will you know your work is done?

I guess my lofty goal of 10 disc’s is still attainable, but with Cd’s approaching 90 minutes these days it is like producing a double album from the old vinal days, so each disc so far has taken at least 2 years to complete, with the exception of my upcoming disc “Mars is Missing” which will be at about the three-year mark due to the birth of our 1st child Noah Gregory Utech.

VITAL LINKS:

Greg Utech in the press
Get Greg Utech’s music at CDBaby
Download Greg Utech at iTunes

Listen now to “City to City” by Greg Utech at MusicZeitgeist.com’s free Indie Music Jukebox

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

(not all acts are selected)

Tags: Detroit music, electro, Greg Utech, jazz progressions, Motor City, Motown, soundscapes

Austrian band Palindrome comprises musicians who arrive at their union from a wide variety of different influential genres: a rioting Ex-President of the Austrian National Union of Students, a keyboard-smashing Metal-Freak, a Brass trumpeting ‘n Bass slapping but headbanging Jazz old-hand, a sound-smashing drum-banging YEAH!YEAH!YEAH!-MAN and an unusual “dot on the i” guitarist who is unusually modest. It is the only way that their incredible mix of skillfully executed musical adventures could be explained.

The band brings colorful experiences from a variety of side-projects that include vocal training on Resistance Demos, touring all over Europe with Thrash-Band Freund Hein, jamming with Karl Ratzer, rocking with Radio FM4-beloved “Curbs” or checking out harmonies on lonely nights.

All of which is necessary to attempt to put into words what they actually sound like, which some less imaginative types may attempt to file under prog or Coheed & Cambria, but then they would have to talk about the Bristol sound component to the recordings, the Drum’N'Bass elements, or the avant-garde elements that wind their way around the tough as nails chunkiness that bursts through from loftier passages.

We decided to ask the band some questions to see if we could get any closer to a definition of what you, the good listener might be in for should you not have headphones or speakers at your disposal, or perhaps in the event that you are deaf. As might be expected, the answers were often as obtuse as the arrangements, and whether or not that is typically your bag, Palindrome rocked our faces off.

MusicZeitgeist: What is Palindrome?

We tried to combine our different but therefore rich approaches to a melodic offbeat. It is always a challenge to get it tricky, surprising, but still kind of harmonic. As for modern categorization, you could say Palindrome is Progressive Crossover, or Progressive Rock with some World and Pop influences. For now, we try to stress the Prog rock drive. Our current live setlist comprises our most dynamic songs and we strive to achieve a high-energy stage presence. We want our tunes to affect the personal mind in word, melody and precisely performed dynamics.

MZ: What drives the creation of your music?

There are many styles that we love to perform. Call us high-brow, but according to our taste, the music industry has declined in singularity. There are enough good bands making songs that matter, but listening to the average Music Market we wonder where the critical and creative potential of music-making has gone. Having finished our album, we deal with this issue and its connections in several ways. “Profit vs. WoMankind” is an ode to making music in an open-minded way; it is a contribution to a pluralistic music scene; the lyrics pursue this desire for free space in a more abstract way. They try to give a critical view on our civilization, its profit-seeking nature and its separation through individualization.  In the face of drastic humanitarian developments, the question arises: “Where to start with effective opposition?”

At this point you have to blind out the fact that your chances will be slight. Shoot forward into public discourse! We feel obliged to account for that process with our album. Good music does not always have to be good news, you know…

MZ: So when will you know Palindromes’ work is done?

Let’s see, how long we can finance our music independently?  The way we see it, the ambiance in the Band is enriching. (smiles and winks)

MZ: Tell us more about where you are based and how it informs your output?

We’re from Lower Austria, a region around Vienna.  It’s a fruitful atmosphere close to the vibrant Viennese music scene and its considerable alternative activism that inspires our sessions. That’s where and how we make our songs, but playing there doesn’t mean that we don’t push beyond our origins.  We would like to expand our airplay – thanks must be given right away to alternative stations like Radio Orange, Radio Y and OktoTV for supporting us. Right now, we’re planning to explore Eastern Europe – we’re already looking forward to playing in Vilnius/Lithuania at the Baltic Progfest in July. We hope to add some gigs in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

Vital Links:
Palindrome Official Site
MySpace
ReverbNation
Facebook
Twitter
Last.FM

Buy Palindrome music at CDBaby
Buy Palindrome music at iTunes

Listen now to “‘Your Work” by Palindrome at MusicZeitgeist.com

* To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!
(not all acts are selected)

Tags: Palindrome, prog rock, progfest, progressive, Vienna

Five years ago California band Elogy would be major label and radio darlings, but we live in a new paradigm for music and so they go it independently.

Based in Orange County, California, the members of Elogy came together 4 years ago under the leadership of Derek Cannavo. Transforming an old warehouse space into a fully functional, state of the art studio, Elogy began to develop their sound and their organization from scratch. Using their classical training as a foundation, the band quickly amassed a large catalogue of songs, and as they brought their music to a live setting, their sound began to evolve as well. Now, after almost half a decade, Elogy is pleased to finally be releasing its debut album, an album that is founded on classical training and solid musicianship but that is far from traditional.

The product of a half-decade long process of evolution and development, the band’s upcoming indie release “One” showcases a band that has taken its time to perfect and hone its sound. With sweeping melodies, well thought out synth lines, and driving vocals, Elogy has recorded an album that is distinctly new, but that still evokes contemporaries like Coldplay or Muse.

We wanted to know more about how a band that five years ago would have easily been snatched up by the majors and pushed hard on mainstream radio is navigating the new music distribution paradigm:

MusicZeitgeist: Tell us about recording this record – what were you thinking in terms of the end goal? Did you have a particular audience in mind?

We didn’t really think too much about who we were going to reach with the album during the recording process. We all respect each other a lot musically and have very high musical standards, so if a song was strong enough to pass through the band’s filters we felt it was good enough to be heard by others. On any given day we would find ourselves obsessing over a particular sound we designed from scratch or that we just stumbled upon, and that made us feel confident that we were creating something new with each track. We loved documenting our new discoveries throughout the album, but we also made sure that the vocals tied everything together, making Elogy’s sound ever-changing but at the same time very distinct.

MZ: Recorded music is in a vastly new paradigm – how do you plan on marketing and selling your new record?

We’ve accepted that the average listener is bombarded with tons of new bands and music daily. People own iPods full of singles by bands they hardly know, so we didn’t really focus on keeping our sound in a box. We just focused on making an album that someone can enjoy all the way through while leaving out fillers or “down time” songs, as we call them. All we can do beyond that is play an amazing live show and continue grabbing at people’s hearts, even if they don’t want to hand them over immediately.

Catch Elogy April 30th at The Gypsy Lounge, Lake Forest, CA

Download the free mp3 “London” by Elogy

Tags: best new indie music, California, Coldplay, download music, Elogy, free mp3, indie music, Muse, music blog, The Gypsy Lounge

To hear her “people” describe it, “If Carole King and The Band went to a gospel picnic, Kristen Toedtman would be dishing out the potato salad.  Part Norah Jones, part Bill Withers, she’s been called “The Street Joan Baez.”

Well the music scientists at MusicZeitgeist.com decided to run some critical analysis and after six months of exhaustive testing also found traces of Lyle Lovett, Bonnie Raitt, two runaways from the Boys Choir of Harlem and a quarter bottle of Southern Comfort.  Otherwise, the original conjecture checked out.  But we needed to work on the subject directly in order to ensure that our findings were, in fact, conclusive.  Here is the result:

MusicZeitgeist.com: Tell us how it got to be this way:

Mostly me and my guitar, then me and my Wurlitzer electronic piano. Fast forward 2 years when after seeing my friend Foster Timms play at the Hotel Café we were all at a party in Hollywood. There was this guy Mike Freas sitting on a couch with a beautiful National resonator guitar and a rotation of others on the house guitar. I’d just written a blues song, “Hungry,” which I knew this guy would tear up, so I took my turn.  We stayed up til about 5am playing music, had breakfast at the Astro diner in Echo Park and have been playing together ever since.  After about 2 years of playing the Pig ‘n Whistle, Lavalounge & Genghis Cohen, I slowly got a band together. I’d known Al Sgro & Will Golden of Chalet Studios (Gary Jules, Meiko, Buddy, and also original Hotel Café crew), but it was Mike Freas who presented the idea of recording to them.

So, I played Al my brand new song “Wrong Time of Year,” a gospel/soul song that has a whole choir in the bridge. It was me singing all the parts, of course, saying things like: here, this is a choir, get it? He loved it and encouraged me to do a whole record of that material. Well, I had a bunch of older songs I wanted to record, but damnit, he was right. It wouldn’t be the same to slap together the songs I’d written from 2006-2008, call it “Kristen Toedtman” and release it.  I write in many different styles. So I left the studio wondering how to move forward.

Took a trip down to Buenos Aires to visit my grandmother & almost missed the connecting flight. When I finally got in my seat, out of breath and quite emotional, the second song started coming. I wrote it over sleepless nights amped up on maté and on the equally sleepless and eerily quiet flight home. That was “Here to You” and those are the two songs we recorded with Al & Will. They brought in this stellar band: Mike Freas & Brian Wright (Brian Wright & the Waco Tragedies) on guitars, Will Golden played bass, Al engineered, Michael Jerome on drums (Buddy, most recently touring with Better than Ezra), Fil Krohnengold on organ & piano (he’s all over town, toured/played with Joshua Radin, Oren Lavie, Gomez, Duncan Sheik) and my back-up singers, as well as some of my classical music colleagues singing in a choir. We recorded all the band (with me singing, old-school) live, the first time they’d done that in their new studio, which was awesome and gave it the overall organic sound that it has.

I sat on those two tracks for a year before I met Sheldon Gomberg over at the Carriage House Studio right in Silverlake where I live (as a bass player, he’s played with Warren Zevon, Beck, Willie Nelson, Rickie Lee Jones; recording Rickie Lee, She & Him (M. Ward’s project with Zooey Deschanel). Talk about creating a vibe. We recorded live there, with my live show band (Mike Freas again, Chris Lovejoy on drums (AM, Tom Freund, Chris Pierce, Tristan Prettyman), Dylan Cooper on bass (Joe Greene & the Heavy Steppers) and my backup singers Katie Cole & Tuzy Ellis) and just had a great time. Added strings, horns and plenty of organ by Fil Krohnengold again, plus extra guitar by Stevie Gurr (Dr. John, Don Henley).

MZ: So by this point, what do you feel you’ve created?

It’s soul music. Soul, based in pop with funk and country elements. It’s a big sound with a whole lotta heart. I come from a classical music background, believe it or not (I sing regularly at Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl), but growing up when the easy listening stations played Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, the Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Jackie Wilson, Otis Redding and Ann Peebles … well, it all seeped in and came out in my songs.

MZ: Where can we participate with you at church?
You can often find me singing at Room 5, the Hotel Café (if not with my band, then back up for The Brendan Hines (Lie to Me, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) & Holly Conlan), the Mint, my living room. Like I said, I also sing at Disney Hall with the LA Master Chorale & the LA Phil. I even have a solo in March – watch out.

MZ: What motivates you, going forward?

I must sing.  That part’s mostly for me. I even write new songs to have something to sing.  That, and in some cases because something is giving me great need to write.  Often crushes give me great need to write.  Also, injustices.  Crushes and injustices.

And I hope that the more I record and put out there, those songs, like my little children, will grow up and take a life of their own and feed me when I’m old.

For free mp3 downloads, to buy the album, see lyrics & sign up for Kristen’s newsletter:
http://www.kristentoedtman.com

Buy it from cdbaby:
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/kristentoedtman

Myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/kristentoedtman

Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/kristentoedtmanmusic

Listen now to “‘Wrong Time of Year” by Kristen Toedtman at MusicZeitgeist.com

To see your act in MZ’s Artist Profile, submit to our gig listing at Sonicbids today!

(not all acts are selected)

Tags: Bonnie Raitt, Boys Choir of Harlem, Buenos Aires, hotel cafe, Joan Baez, Kristen Tedman, Kristen Toedtman, Lyle Lovett, M. Ward, meiko, Nora Jones, Room 5, She & Him, Sheldon Gromberg, Southern Comfort, Wurlitzer, Zooey Deschanel