Daytrotter.com Music Site

We recently received an email from Big Head Todd & the Monsters informing us a couple of their recordings were now available at Daytrotter.com. The concept behind the site is that bands "stop in for a Daytrotter Session at Futureappletree Studio One in downtown Rock Island" and record a few songs. The songs are then posted online for all to download and enjoy for free. What a great idea. And how fortunate that bands take the time out of their rigorous travel schedule to record a few songs in the studio.

The site contains hundreds of sessions so each week we plan on downloading songs from five artists and write if anything excites us. This week we downloaded songs from Big Head Todd & the Monsters, The Everybodyfields, Ingrid Michaelson, Langhorne Slim, and Okkervil River. We were very impressed with the quality of the recordings. Daytrotter.com is obviously taking this venture very seriously. Now, we have been fans of Big Head Todd & the Monsters for quite a while and enjoyed their two songs, but of the five artists we were particularly impressed with were The Everybodyfields and Langhorne Slim. The former is an alt-country band out of Johnson City Tennessee. The band is fronted by Sam Quinn and Jill Andrews, so each song differs based on the male or female vocalist. The band also plays with a large array of instruments to create a unique sound: lap steel, lead guitar, electric bass, piano and acoustic guitar. The four songs we listened to were really good, our favorite being "Suite: Motown" and "Lonely Everywhere". Langhorne Slim is also an Americana artist, currently based out of Brooklyn. The songs from this Pennsylvania native range from soft ballads ("Collette") to the funkier "Nobody But You" and "The Rebel Side of Heaven" to the fun "We Love The Animals". His vocals are sometimes bluesy, sometimes country combined with an acoustic guitar. He has a busy tour schedule and we can't wait to see him live with a larger repertoire of music. Also, you can check him out at this year's Austin City Limits Music Festival in September.