exploremusic

“Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” by Pomplamoose

In these days of catastrophic CD sales and bad economic times, bands are looking for new ways—new business models—to make things work.

Pomplamoose is a two-piece group from the San Franscico area whose primary media are YouTube, MySpace and their website. There’s no record label, no star-making machine.

Basically, they record videos in their apartment and then release them online. No lip-syncing, no studio trickery—although they do edit the videos nicely.

Although they do release original material, the big thing is recording twee cover versions of big songs. They buy licenses—get official permission to release them—and then sell the songs for a buck apiece through their website. So far, they’ve managed to sell more than 100,000 tracks this way.

They’re approaching 150,000 subscribers to their YouTube channel, too.

Their version of “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It)” is brilliant. It’s been seen about 4.7 million times. Well done—especially the bit around the 2 minute mark when they take some liberties with the lyrics.

“Crazy” by Mission Hill

Next, it’s Mission Hill. This is an alt-rock/piano-pop group from Boston who work in the same spheres as Keane, Airborne Toxic Event and Civil Twlight. Very optimisitc stuff. The album is called Save Me From Me and the single is “Crazy”.

“I’d Rather Be With You” by Joshua Radin

Joshua Radin is a former inner-city art teacher from Chicago who wrote songs in his spare time and has so far ended up with appearances in TV shows like Scrubs, mainly because Zach Braff is such a fan. So if you’re into the Garden State soundtrack sort of stuff—or maybe Ray Lamontange or Damien Rice—listen to Joshua Radin and “I’d Rather Be With You” from his album, Simple Times.

“Lost Words” by Ganglians

Ganglians are from Sacramento, California and when Alan first heard them he thought “Hmm, they must spend a lot of time on the beach taking drugs listening to albums like Pet Sounds. If you like where groups like Animal Collective have taken things, Ganglians have a song called “Lost Words” from an album entitled Monster Head Room that you should hear.

“911 Is A Joke” by Public Enemy

Finally, a classic track from Public Enemy. It’s hard to believe, but when they released the song “911 Is A Joke” in the spring of 1990, it caused a big crapstorm. “Someone criticizing emergency services? How dare they?” But then again, this was back in an age when condom commercials gave people heart attacks.

The album is Fear of a Black Planet.