Lost in the Trees - Tall Trees

For time's all it takes

For me to heal the break

Not even a minute into this song I was already in love. As I mentioned in a previous post, I am a sucker for violins, and really, all string instruments. So when the string quartet entered "Tall Trees," I was instantly hooked. Lost in the Trees is a folk orchestra. Seriously. Having grown up listening to a lot of classical music and having a love for folk music, I am totally blown away by this group.

Favourite Part: The string quartet of course!!

Lost in the Trees is led by Ari Picker who was a member of the B-Sides and then the Never. His classical training at the Berklee College of Music is apparent in their debut album released last year--All Alone in An Empty House.

Tegan & Sara - Are You Ten Years Ago

The pressure of this life is so

You can't be held accountable

If you go, you go

Tegan & Sara are one of those artists I quickly got into. I received The Con (produced by Christopher Walla of Death Cab for Cutie) while interning at Warner Bros. Records during the summer of 2007. At the time I had no clue who they were other than the twins whose faces I kept seeing all around the building. Along with the LP I received a copy of a compilation of their older material--"A Brief History." It was this that I liked more than the album at first. The Con eventually grew on me thanks to listening to "Are You Ten Years Ago" constantly, followed by other random tracks from the album.

What I like about the twins is that they mix pop with elements of punk and folk. As weird as that may sound--it works! For those who have no clue who they are, the girls were born and raised in Canada where they started playing guitar at the age of 15, entered some "garage band competition" and won. Fast forward some 5+ years and they're touring with Neil Young after signing to his label--Vapor Records. They love Bruce Springsteen.

Spinner recently asked them to blog on their site. They took turns writing about one of three themes: laugh, rage or cry. You can read their entries here. You should also check out their sweet live cover of Rihanna's "Umbrella," which seems to be a popular choice for a cover song.

The Parson Red Heads - Days of My Youth

The days of my youth

I miss so dear

My favourite part of "Days of My Youth" is the elements of psychedelic folk. The Parson Red Heads, originally from Oregon, made their debut in Los Angeles with residencies at the Silver Lake Lounge and the Echo. The band includes family members and, yes, two red heads (represent!). They dress all in white on stage; a bit cult-ish, but I'm sure they're harmless.

With only one album under their belt (King Giraffe), not much is known about them. Or at least, I don't know much about them, except that they sound like they were born in the wrong decade. However, they released an EP earlier this year to be followed by an LP sometime soon! So ch-ch-check them out!