Hype Monitor: Maria Taylor, Love Language and Laura GibsonPhoto: Autumn De Wilde Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet to find the ones you need to hear now. The Band: Maria Taylor The Buzz: One half of dream-pop duo Azure Ray takes off for the country, turning in grand, galloping folk songs. Listen If: You wish Taylor Swift were a little less chipper and chirpy. Key Track: “Cartoons & Forever Songs,” a bright, bounding love song that sports simple, moving lyrics and guest vocals by Michael Stipe. The Band: Love Language The Buzz: North Carolina group proffer broke-down folk music, constructing songs from slack acoustic guitars imagine a kind of Romper Room Appalachia. Listen If: You whiled away your childhood strumming away on a tiny plastic, nylon-stringed guitar. Key Track: Ultimate crowd-pleaser (and lone rocker) “Lalita,” whose searing guitar brands itself across the brain instantly. The Band: Laura Gibson The Buzz: Think of her as Maria Taylor’s shyer, quieter sister: pastoral acoustic songs topped with Gibson’s miniature voice. Listen If: You need a new soundtrack for your next long hike through the enchanted forest. Key Track: The lonesome, loping “Spirited,” where Gibson’s breathy coos bounce across twinkling finger-picking.
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Published: 2009-03-05
Provider: Rolling Stone
Keywords: Breaking
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"Set the Woods on Fire" by Art in ManilaIt was a sad day for dream pop when Azure Ray broke up. The Nebraskan duo of Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor released three increasingly excellent albums of country-tinged melancholia, sending music reviewers constantly seeking new synonyms for "ethereal." Thankfully, the pair's post-Ray projects have been just as satisfying, though divergent stylistically. Orenda Fink's solid new band, Art in Manila, lends a harder edge to her previously wispy work with Azure Ray, molding the well-crafted pop songs on their debut, Set the Woods on Fire, into MOR indie fare—which, in this case, isn't necessarily a bad thing. Like the drugged-out Rilo Kiley or less inscrutable Neko Case they so strongly resemble, Art in Manila deliver comfortably predictable indie pop with darker moods hiding in the corners. A punchy backbeat and Rhodes piano give bite and swagger to "Our Addictions," and a Neil Young-y crunch informs the title track's lovely chorus, but Set
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Published: 2007-08-31
Provider: Artist Direct
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Lynn Teeter Flower by Maria TaylorThe Azure Ray singer's second solo set was recorded with Spoon's Jim Eno and Now It's Overhead's Andy LeMaster as well as Memphis producer Doug Easley. Conor Oberst guests. [Indie, Rock]
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Published: 2007-03-13
Provider: Metacritic
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New O+S - "We Do What We Want To"Orenda Fink is assembling quite the bio. First there was Saddle Creekers Azure Ray, who were great, and then they were gone. After a solo release (Invisible Ones) came Art In Manila, a Fink-fronted outfit which employed her pristine vocals on the heartfe
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Published: 2009-02-09
Provider: StereoGum
Keywords: stereogum,indie,rock,mp3,blog
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