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.

Rocky Votolato - Automatic Rifle

Even a smart girl can end up

With a bomb strapped to her chest

Growing up in Texas with a father who was a member of a motorcycle gang rivals with the Hell's Angels, Rocky Votolato picked up the guitar after his mother moved the family to Seattle. It was here where he began to expand his music roots from country to punk and indie. After playing in a few bands with some high school friends, Rocky decided to launch a solo career. By his 3rd LP, Suicide Medicine, Rocky started to gather some acclaim. Thus far, he'd only spent under a month working on his albums. His fourth album took a year and a half but was praised by fans and critics.

Although there are a handful of Rocky Votolato songs I could recommend I decided to go with "Automatic Rifle." On the surface, he may seem like just another stripped-down guitar and vocals act, but something just resonates with him. I really like the guitar in this song and, as always, his vocals are soothing, but he's also not afraid to crank it up a bit and put some emotion into it.

Rocky is married with 2 children and resides in Seattle. He's also appeared in a movie about a gang war between punk rockers and straight-edgers.