A Round of Sound

I want to throw out a quick recommendation for an album that’s been tearing up my ipod since it’s recent release, and that’s Up From Below by LA’s Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros.  Edward Sharpe is the alter ego of frontman Alex Ebert and his Magnetic Zeros are the rest of the 11 or 12 musicians comprising a band that could easily be mistaken as a 60’s hippy group touring around in their converted school bus (they actually do that).  I first heard of the group when All Songs Considered discovered them at SXSW back in March, but I kind of forgot about them until a recent (rare) opportunity I had to listen to satellite radio and heard one of their songs which reminded me to check them out.  Up From Below, the debut album from the group, was recently released and I got a hold of it off of eMusic and have enjoyed it a great deal.  As you can imagine from their KCRW performance (seriously, go watch this now), their live show is supposedly incredible making their studio recordings a bit of a let down.  So the album may not do them justice but since I haven’t seen them live, it sounds just fine to me.  It’s certainly a throwback to the psych-folk rock of the 60’s and along with The Phenomenal Handclap Band, I’m enjoying this little retro feel the summer of ’09 has going for it to this point.

[“40 Day Dream” – Up From Below]