THE DELI

Jessie Early, a Nashville native and singer-songwriter took a different production route than most of her counterparts on her debut EP, Wild Honey. Two years into the project and unsatisfied with the way the songs were turning out, she began collaborating with producer Jeremy Larson to take the tracks in a different direction. What emerged then, was a unique blend of acoustic and ballad heavy singer-songwriter characteristics and 80s style electronic percussion and synth production. Her tender vocals compliment the expansive sonic environment of the instrumentation. “Living On Your Love” is a perfect example of this unique trait. The structure of the song along with the electronic drum fills and bass-heavy frequency proves reminiscent of Phil Collins or Peter Gabriel. With a debut EP as bold and experimental as this, it’s easy to be excited for what’s to come next from Early.

-Andrew Strader

Composer, multi-instrumentalist, and winner of our most recent Artist of the Month poll David Swick, doesn’t just create music alone in its sonic medium. He paints images with soundscapes. Take a recent track like “Music for Silhouettes” as an example of this. The piece begins with dappling, meandering piano, invoking the beginning of something like a crack in a dam, and slowly but surely builds into an expansive gushing river using the negative, empty spaces to create a sense of openness. His SoundCloud account offers an extensive collection of piano and sting-based compositions that could easily accompany visual stimulation of any kind.

Instrumental composers are few and far between in Nashville’s independent scene, but this doesn’t seem to dissuade Swick from displaying his art in any way he can, whether it be working with The Radial Conservatory, a neoclassical collective that creates immersive environments of light and sound, or playing small house shows. Swick’s outlets for expression prove that he takes his work seriously as art over entertainment, a rare trait for musicians in an environment that often promotes easy crowd pleasing over work that requires authentic participation to receive.

-Andrew Strader

Paul Criscuolo’s heartbreaky indie rock is the kind of music that lends itself well to a sense of millennial angst unique to its generation. There’s a confusion all too familiar in “Pass Your House” that speaks to the sense of emotional amputation often felt after the loss of someone close. The track’s content doesn’t feel played out or tired though. It’s cheesy in just the right amount and in just the right places, making it feel effortless, reminiscent of the songwriting of Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo. The track is simple but compelling in its structure, offering synchronized vocal and guitar melodies that glide over a Pavement-style fuzz tone. He takes the same sense of angst in a different direction on “Psychosis”: a short acoustic track with a bouncy melodic bass line. What’s refreshing about his style is that he knows how to deliver a consistent emotional message while using a variety of sonic techniques. He won’t pigeonhole himself into any certain genre or aesthetic niche and there’s something refreshing about that. If these first tracks are any indication of what’s to come from Criscuolo, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.

-Andrew Strader

Mom and Dad’s brand of art punk has typically resided within the harder, heavier, fuzzier realms of Nashville’s garage rock and punk scene. As a group, they’ve been largely content to hone their skills as a noisy rendition of the quintessential DIY basement rock band. With all this in mind, I am, Therefore I is, is the group’s most accessible work yet. The album consists mostly of simple, pop oriented tunes that glide through the ears with an ease usually reserved for indie pop. The band describes their latest release as a “a very tender record” and indeed it blows over the listener like a sudden refreshing breeze on a humid summer day. There’s a certain sentimentality that makes itself evident on tracks like “Winchester, TN” an acoustic narrative about a rural Tennessee location close to the group’s heart. If the new album represents anything in Mom and Dad’s career arch, it proves just how capable the band is of making intimate music that emotionally resonates with listeners.

-Andrew Strader