exploremusic

“Motor Ride” by Columbia

We have to thank the people at Supernova.com, the “battle of the bands” people. The band is Columbia—and there are two meanings behind that name.

First, they’re a five-piece from British Columbia—Vancouver, actually. And secondly, they’re such fans of Oasis that they named themselves after the first-ever Oasis single. They have a debut record called “Join Our Ride” on a label called Thorney Bleeder. And Alan’s favourite from the album is called “Motor Ride”.

If you miss Oasis, then you need to give these guys a close listen. Check out the album here.

“Nightfall” by Robert Francis

Second on today’s list is Robert Francis. He’s from Los Angeles and grew up on a diet of Wilco, Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen. His current record is self-titled. And we’re not going to recommend the single. Instead, let’s go with a song called “Nightfall” because we think it better captures who this guy is.

“Breaking You Down” by Raven

Raven is a metal band from Newcastle in the UK. They’re the old-school type from the “New Wave of British Heavy Metal” that included Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Saxon. They also allowed young bands like Metallica and Anthrax to open for them in the early days. They broke up for a while because the vocalist had his legs crushed when he was caught under a wall that collapsed. But they’re now back with some new material. Go with a track called “Breaking You Down”.

“It Starts” by Alex Metric

Alex Metric is also British, but he’s lives in the same world as Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx. He’s also in tight with the guys from Bloc Party. He has an EP entitled “It Starts”. Check out the title track.



“Headhunter” by Front 242

Finally, let’s hear a type of industrial music that was known as “Electric Body Music”. Front 242 was one of the big bands in that scene. When Trent Reznor was starting out as Nine Inch Nails, he loved these guys. The best place to start with them is with their biggest hit, which was called “Headhunter”. If you like the sound of this, then you’ll want to explore further. Just be careful not to get caught in the endless number of remixes. Here’s the basic version—literally version 1.0.