These three young artists blow my mind every time I listen to them.
Some bands, you never pay attention to what age they are. Some bands, it’s apparent just by the way they look or sound. Others you are pretty much blown away when you find out they are only 20.
In the big picture the age of the artist doesn’t matter…I think the only reason I even pay attention to it is because I’m aging and I’m a hungry musician myself.
With that said, here are three bands/artists that have barely reached the legal drinking age in the U.S. The funny thing is, these kids are what I’ve been listening to most lately. (That’s actually not funny at all.)
James Blake – The Wilhelm Scream
As we all know, there are kids everywhere making music on their laptops – it’s both a curse and a blessing. For some reason this 21-year-old is doing something different from anyone else. I’m sure some music snobs will disagree and bring up some obscure “Post Dub-Step” whiz kid that’s better and that’s OK, because in this case, I’m pretty sure they are wrong. His voice alone is leaps and bounds more original than most singers I’ve come across. Maybe I have a man crush.
Yuck – Get Away
Then there are the 20-somethings in Yuck. They aren’t making anything new at all, but the fact they are just making music they like and it’s a legitimate take on classic american indie rock, gets me super hyped and inspired to make fun music. I think Yuck is a small peek into the fact that I think people are burnt out from the pretentious seriousness that has become “Indie Rock” in the past few years. All I know is I love this album.
Cloud Nothings – Should Have
Similar to Yuck, Cloud Nothings (19 year old Dylan Baldi) isn’t rewriting the book on music, but wears his influences on his sleeve and his music is just fun and easy to listen to. As I mentioned above, I have a feeling that some people are starting to want more light hearted music and the level of popularity that Yuck and Cloud Nothings have reached in 2011 could be a reflection of that. Either that or Pop-Punk is pretty much back.