Exitmusic

Acoustic Performance of "The Hours"

One of the things that kept me from starting a music blog for so long was that I didn't consider myself enough of an expert to really contribute anything to the conversation.  I still feel that way.  One of the great things about this little exercise, though, has been finding things that I otherwise would have missed.

When I first set up the site, I created a Twitter account and started following bands, blogs, and record companies in an effort to keep up with all the new stuff that's going on in the world of mindie.  I quickly ran into a few problems:

1. I'm just one person with a day job and it would be impossible for me to keep up with everything.  Until I get an intern or a staff (Joking.  That will never happen.), there's a significant limit on the amount of stuff I'm able to track. 
2. It would get pretty boring pretty quickly if I just recycled all the links that I see recycled in my own timeline all day.  Like today: do I really need to write a post about the fact that My Bloody Valentine may be recording a new album when every other professionally-staffed music blog on the planet has already picked up on Pitchfork's story?
3. I like what I like.  Trying to be open-minded is great and all, but there are just some things that will never do it for me.  It would feel phony to post some "exciting news" about something that doesn't really interest me.

All that said, the flood of information to which I've been subjecting myself has borne some fruit.  Exitmusic are a duo -- Aleksa Palladano and Devon Church -- on the Secretly Canadian label.  I've seen them going by in my timeline for days now and I finally had to hear them for myself.  Simply put, they're good.

The three singles I've heard so far combine Palladano's voice with throbbing instrumentation that often starts simple and builds to achieve a really satisfying darkness.  "Passage" immediately reminded me of the feeling I get listening The Antlers' Hospice.

"The Hours" gets an acoustic treatment here, showing that the duo can achieve the same overall feeling without any studio effects.