About a year ago, two guys I knew in my fraternity were in an entrepreneurship class and pitched an idea for a website that was part social network, part independent music website, and part record label. They received some investment capital, and over the past year the result has been The Next Big Sound.
Other media sources have outlined the premise of the service better than I can here, but here’s the basic idea: unsigned bands upload demos onto the site, and users become the “owners” of their own record label. You sign a roster of bands, and get points based on every person after you that adds a band you’ve signed to their roster. It’s basically stat tracking for the ability to say you listened to a band first or before they got famous.
The most popular band on the site is Bright Like Japan, a fourtet from the Chicago area led by the main duo of singer Michael SanFilippo and guitarist Trevor James. They posted a few tracks on the site as well as on their MySpace, and signed a deal to record an EP that came out in the beginning of March. I caught a show they did with opening acts and NU students Kelsey Wild and Janelle Kroll, and picked up their EP shortly after that.
I don’t normally listen to this particular kind of music in terms of its sound, and a lot of people I know are a little confused at why I like this band so much. I’m an indie rock kid at heart; I listen to a lot of internet-hyped bands that never get radio airplay, and I’m really out of touch with “popular” music. I don’t want to sound elitist or exclusive with my music, but my taste in current music is the kind that I have dig through websites and reviews, test on my own ears, and enjoy. These guys fit the internet bill just fine, but they’re very poppy, hooky, and jumpy in ways that normally don’t pique my interests; but somehow their few songs are irresistible to me.
The first word that comes to mind about Bright Like Japan is fun. Their EP is five songs and just over fifteen minutes of pure fun. The lyrics aren’t necessarily the happiest (they tend to be about relationships gone wrong – wow, a band of white dudes in their 20’s singing about girls – I’m astounded), but they still sound fresh, happy, and upbeat. I listen to a lot of downer, introspective music, and it’s really good to find a jolt of adrenaline that lets loose once in a while.
Critically do I think the Bright Like Japan EP is important? No, but it’s a ton of fun to listen to, and it shows real promise that some day these guys might put something out that is both acclaimed as well as being an incredibly good time.
Nice. I like it. Just checked out their site. They’re fun. And it seems like they don’t pretend to be “important” as you said, which I appreciate. By that, I mean they don’t take themselves too seriously like so many singer-songwriter “bros” from Chicago with mediocre lyrics, cutaway acoustic guitars and no sense of humor. Thanks for sharing.
Nice. I like it. Just checked out their site. They’re fun. And it seems like they don’t pretend to be “important” as you said, which I appreciate. By that, I mean they don’t take themselves too seriously like so many singer-songwriter “bros” from Chicago with mediocre lyrics, cutaway acoustic guitars and no sense of humor. Thanks for sharing the music.
woops